We Are Doomed: Reclaiming Conservative Pessimism [Hardcover]

John Derbyshire (Author)

Book Description

Release date: September 29, 2009

To his fellow conservatives, John Derbyshire makes a plea: Don't be seduced by this nonsense about "the politics of hope." Skepticism, pessimism, and suspicion of happy talk are the true characteristics of an authentically conservative temperament. And from Hobbes and Burke through Lord Salisbury and Calvin Coolidge, up to Pat Buchanan and Mark Steyn in our own time, these beliefs have kept the human race from blindly chasing its utopian dreams right off a cliff.

Recently, though, various comforting yet fundamentally idiotic notions of political correctness and wishful thinking have taken root beyond the "Kumbaya"-singing, we're-all-one crowd. These ideas have now infected conservatives, the very people who really should know better. The Republican Party has been derailed by legions of fools and poseurs wearing smiley-face masks.

Think rescuing the economy by condemning our descendents to lives of spirit-crushing debt. Think nation-building abroad while we slowly disintegrate at home. Think education and No Child Left Behind. . . . But don't think about it too much, because if you do, you'll quickly come to the logical conclusion: We are doomed.

Need more convincing? Dwell on the cheerful promises of the diversity cult and the undeniable reality of the oncoming demographic disaster. Contemplate the feminization of everything, or take a good look at what passes for art these days. Witness the rise of culturism and the death of religion. Bow down before your new master, the federal apparatchik. Finally, ask yourself: How certain am I that the United States of America will survive, in any recognizable form, until, say, 2022?

A scathing, mordantly funny romp through today's dismal and dismaler political and cultural scene, We Are Doomed provides a long-overdue dose of reality, revealing just how the GOP has been led astray in recent years–and showing that had conservatives held on to their fittingly pessimistic outlook, America's future would be far brighter.

Ladies and gentlemen, it's time to embrace the Audacity of Hopelessness.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Derbyshire, a columnist and contributing editor for The National Review, confronts the "mendacity of hope" in this irreverent-sometimes-inflammatory screed. Appealing exclusively to American conservatives, Derbyshire impresses upon his audience the necessity of maintaining a pessimistic view of human nature; happy talk, he says, is for children, fools and leftists. Derbyshire, a Brit by birth, identifies himself as a "metrocon," a conservative city dweller, and his views embrace traditional American right wing beliefs (big government is bad; immigration is a threat) with a few notable aberrations (he's not religious) and a few universally off-putting stances (he's against female suffrage and approvingly quotes Hermann Goring on culture). Those who enjoy Derbyshire's work in The National Review will enjoy this harvest of provocations delivered with a witty, light touch, however heavy their implications.
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Review

"Where will a more intelligent, hence pessimistic, yet sprightly conservatism come from? You are holding in your hands part of the answer."
—George F. Will, Pulitzer Prize—winning columnist and author of One Man's America

"John Derbyshire contends that a comprehensive pessimism is the natural home for realistic conservatives, a breed that understands human nature better than utopian liberals and 'happy talk conservatives.' His argument is wide-ranging, erudite, and invigorating, but, paradoxically, delivered with cheerful panache."
—Judge Robert H. Bork, author of the New York Times bestsellers The Tempting of America and Slouching Towards Gomorrah

"Just when you thought there was nothing to American conservatism but a bunch of blue-blazered fuddy-duddies who talk about global democracy, here comes John Derbyshire, who reminds us all of the place of pessimism and skepticism in the Western tradition. Not a moment too soon."
—Taki Theodoracopulos, cofounder of The American Conservative and editor and publisher of Taki's Magazine, takimag.com

"A funny and brilliant call to pessimism, Man's last, best hope for a tolerable life. Pessimists are not only the only realists; they have all the best jokes."
—Theodore Dalrymple, author of Not With a Bang But a Whimper and Our Culture, What's Left of It

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 272 pages
• Publisher: Crown Forum; First Hardcover Edition edition (September 29, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0307409589
• ISBN-13: 978-0307409584
• Product Dimensions: 6.4 x 1 x 9.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (28 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #467,760 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

79 of 87 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A Decent Sense of Despair October 10, 2009

By Randy Stafford VINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover

Most American conservatives, especially since Sept. 11th, exhibit signs of brain damage. And John Derbyshire diagnoses the problem: too much happy talk, too much optimism and not enough pessimism. There are limits about what man can do with himself and the natural world. Humans are not blank slates that can be remade to fit whatever utopian scheme can be dreamed up. Conservatives are supposed to know this and see things as they are. Liberals are there to take care of the happy talk and wishful thinking.

Now this is not an all purpose gloomfest. Derbyshire acknowledges all sorts of apocalyptic possibilities of the natural sort - resource depletion, climate change, and asteroid strike, but he doesn't talk about them. Rather he restricts himself to the social and political disasters that await America in the future. And he talks directly to conservatives. Wipe that smile off your face, he tells them. Get your mind around the fact that America does not and cannot exist outside the currents of history, that America has not been given a pass by God to do whatever it wants without horrible consequences.

And the particular delusions of optimism Derbyshire attacks? Diversity is not our strength, quite the opposite. It corrodes national identity. That presidents and legislators are not deserving of the respect, power, and money we give them. Harry Truman had to borrow money to write his memoirs. High culture has produced nothing of value after the 1950s. Pop culture has produced little of worth. A world of female empowerment is a world nudged closer to totalitarianism. Women are generally fanatical and unthoughtful about their politics. Education has become a cultish object of worship which assumes any child can become anything - if enough money is spent. Evolution is, of course, real, but it miraculously came to an end 60,000 years ago and humans never, never exhibit signs of inherited racial differences in mental aptitudes. Inside every foreigner is an American trying to get out - said transformation only needing billions of taxpayer dollars and the occasional occupation by American troops. Particular scorn is saved for conservatives who oppose immigration restrictions out of nostalgia, faulty notions of human nature, and bad historical analogies. Finally, the dismal science gets smacked around for claiming that the chaos of globalization and free trade will build a better world - a faith based assertion merely based on historical analogy.

All this is delivered in chapters of concise prose full of quantative and historical arguments. If, like me, you are already a fan of John Derbyshire's writing, you will recognize several sections. (And Derbyshire freely acknowledges the work of Steve Sailer in shaping this book too.) The only material that was new to me was from cognitive science in Chapter 7. It's some of the bleakest material here. After all, virtually every flavor of conservatism is based on the idea of humans having free will. But then, we probably have no choice but to believe that.

It's all stitched together with wit and conversational style. This is bracing despair. Congenitally optimistic conservatives will likely find something that darkens their world a bit. At least I hope so.

And if you find the whole package convincing and are tempted to use this book to convert liberals, just remember, as explained in the chapter on human nature, humans habitually deceive themselves. Indeed, it seems evolution rewards self-deceit. You probably won't get anywhere.

And the same chapter also notes that the depressed, the melancholy are the ones that most know the true lay of the land. It seems Socrates might have been wrong. It's the unexamined life that's worth living.

I recommend reading this book. After its bitter cup of truth, retire to listen to some depressing music of your choice. Personally, I recommend Warren Zevon's The Wind. And then a chaser of one of the 20th century's great pessimists, H. P. Lovecraft.

55 of 63 people found the following review helpful

2.0 out of 5 stars Disappointed February 13, 2010

By Hayyamini

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

I am a fan of John Derbyshire; I regularly listen to his "Radio Derb," and I generally appreciate his perspective. I was, however, disappointed with this work, for the following reasons (I read it in a Kindle edition on my iPhone, so I won't give page numbers).

1. First, oddly enough, he is too optimistic! He attacks Mark Steyn on a few statistical issues for Mark's views on overpopulation, but Derbyshire's own views are hopelessly rose-tinted. Steyn argues that the population collapse of the western and industrialized world guarantees social chaos and cultural catastrophe in the years ahead. I think he is right. Derbyshire has the notion that some technical advance in Japan or China will solve the problem before we get there. This is nonsense. There is no technical advance that can solve the problem of having a tiny base of young adults supporting a massive population of aging, non-productive, and increasingly needy seniors. No technical advance can solve the problem of there being too few consumers to buy the next generation of iPads and other consumer products (this will create enormous economic problems). Derbyshire seemed to enjoy picking a few little holes in Steyn's work, but in the big picture, Steyn is right and Darbyshire is dead wrong.

2. Derbyshire goes on a rant against "Islamophobia." His main point is that he considers any belief in heaven, be it Christian or Muslim, equally absurd. So, he says, he has no reason to prefer one superstition to another. This completely misses the point of our current crisis. Whether he believes in any supernatural reality does not matter where the issue is public policy and the survival of our culture and civilization. I don't know whether he has noticed it or not, but Christians won't pronounce a fatwa against him for denying that Jesus was the son of God. Christians won't throw acid on his daughters for wearing clothes they consider too revealing. Christians aren't in the business of enacting laws, wherever they are in the majority, that force everyone to observe lent with fasting, or impose the death penalty for apostasy from the faith. Christians don't feel that God wants them to bring down airliners over major cities. Muslims do. As long as he is in a country that is Christian/Jewish/secular, he can go on proclaiming he is an atheist or agnostic, and more power to him. Let him move to an Islamic country and try the same thing, and see what happens. That is why he should fear, as in phobia, Islam, and that is why his personal religious views are irrelevant in this matter of public policy.

3. Sometimes he just comes across as a curmudgeon. He mentions certain "art" works that are truly disgusting, but gives them too much attention. For some reason, he rails against Camille Paglia's Break, Blow, Burn. I, too, don't like the modern "poetry" that she analyzes, but she also analyzes a great deal of classic English poetry, and she does so in a manner that I found very sympathetic and not at all "deconstructive." So I could not see why he was so upset about her, or how she was contributing to our "doom."

So, are we "doomed"? Yes, I think so, but I think that one gets a much better analysis of it in the writings of Thomas Sowell, Mark Steyn, and Charles Krauthammer.

50 of 59 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Healthy Pessimism--the Antidote to Liberal Wishful Thinking September 29, 2009

By Eric Mayforth

Format:Hardcover

In "We Are Doomed", John Derbyshire asserts that the American conservative movement is in peril because it abandoned its healthy pessimism about the world, the same pessimism that undergirded the nation's founding, and embraced some of the wishful thinking about human nature, life, and the world normally found on the Left. This led, he believes, to critical errors in fiscal, foreign, and social policy that he believes will likely lead to a diminished future for our country over the next few decades.

Derbyshire discusses many of the problems extant in the country today that are symptoms of a lack of healthy pessimism, such as the desire for diversity merely for diversity's sake, the decline of our culture, the seemingly intractable problems in our educational system, and the scourge of illegal immigration. The author opposes the notion that the immigration of today is similar to the immigration of the early part of the last century and lists the reasons why today's immigration is destructive.

The author includes absorbing chapters on religion and the nature-nurture conflict in regards to human nature. The author makes a good case for taking the nature side of this conflict, although one can think of some individuals, such as Theodore Roosevelt, who took on the fierce challenge of essentially transforming their personalities by relentlessly attacking their weaknesses.

Derbyshire examines the debt time bomb our country faces, and if you have seen the figures concerning government debt, corporate debt, and family and individual debt, they are sobering indeed. However, some futurologists such as Ray Kurzweil (whom Derbyshire mentions in the book) think that the pace of technological change in the twenty-first century will be exponential, not linear. If this is the case, advances in areas such as nanotechnology could raise living standards to such a now-unthinkable degree that the debt bubble might be nullified for the most part. I can remember a time near the end of my college years, in 1992, when we were not emerging from the early Nineties recession very vigorously and many thought we were in for a long period of slow or no growth...and then along came the Internet. Healthy pessimism is wise, but while life does not turn out as well as it does in your fondest hopes, life does not turn out anywhere nearly as bad as it does in your worst fears, either.

As an added bonus, the author hammed it up for the picture on the book jacket, striking a pose as the archetype of a pessimistic curmudgeon, replete with bow tie and extremely forbidding frown. This thought-provoking book would be a very worthy addition to the fall reading list of any conservative in America.