Selfish Whining Monkeys: How we Ended Up Greedy, Narcissistic and Unhappy by Liddle, Rod (2014) Paperback Paperback

Rod Liddle is a funny and often outrageous commentator on Britain today. I enjoy his newspaper columns in the London Times. He believes — as do many people in Britain - that things are bad and getting worse. The book is semi-autobiographical and mostly a list of what's wrong with modern British society. All his arguments are reasoned and most appear reasonable to me. However, this is not subtle satire, Liddle hits you over the head with his opinions. His negativity can become exhausting, despite the humor and his skill with words. His take no prisoners approach works better in his newspaper articles which are shorter. He uses the book to criticize his own generation, the "Cold War Kids." and what he calls the "faux-left metropolitan liberal elite." Rod was born in 1960 and believes that “I, and my generation, seem feckless and irresponsible, endlessly selfish, whining, avaricious, self-deluding, self-obsessed, spoilt and corrupt and ill.”

According to Rod, the faux-left mostly live in London. They are usually privately-educated, they send their kids to private schools and they live in the wealthier parts of the city. They dislike the white working class and try to avoid them. However, they “consider themselves left, or leftish.” They mostly run Britain's institutions and many ambitious people adopt their progressive political and cultural views in order to get on. Many British comedians are strangely reluctant to criticize this new establishment, especially if they want to work for the BBC. Rod is often found on British TV arguing with some faux-left commentator. These are the people he believes are ruining the country. He views them as the enemy within. Rod implies that there are no real sacrifices in the choices they make, they are trying to signal their virtue to other members of the elite. He believes that most are hypocrites. He notes that liberal men adopt progressive views that personally benefit them, such as cheap immigrant labor or female sexual freedom, yet haven’t the slightest sympathy for things that are an inconvenience — for example, workers who strike for better pay.

Rod was a member of the old left. Their main aim was to improve the living standards of ordinary people. Liddle argues that the faux-left is different, it is more concerned about cultural and environmental issues. Rod claims he was an "imbecilic" teenage Marxist and later worked for the Labour Party. He has been a journalist for the Guardian, BBC News, and the Sunday Times. Rod is still hostile to Thatcherism, laissez-faire capitalism, and the free movement of capital and labor. One of his main concerns is the plight of the indigenous white working class. He believes that their life is being ruined by globalization, free trade, and open borders. He believes that "large-scale immigration has made life worse for a sizable proportion of the indigenous population." Rod opposes immigration and seems nostalgic for a Britain that was overwhelmingly white, even though he acknowledges its flaws. He claims the faux-left has never had to deal with the downsides of immigration because they live in the richer parts of the country.

Rod is a Christian but admits that he does not attend church as often as he should. His parents went to church every Sunday, and he believes the decline of organized religion as one of the reasons for our current problems. He argues that "as orthodox religious belief has retreated, so we have become... more inclined to be immune to the needs and requirements of our fellow men." Most Christians tend to believe that a life without God is pointless, and secularism has left a lot of people searching for meaning in their lives. In 2006 Rod made a TV documentary criticizing the views of atheists like Richard Dawkins. Rod believes that the permissiveness of the Sixties and Seventies and the acquisitiveness of the Eighties resulted in the Cold War Kids losing their parents' greatest qualities such as thrift, hard work, humility, deference, and patience. Instead, they became selfish and vain.

Rod is technically a member of the metropolitan elite. He edited the BBC's Today program, which is where many members of the establishment get their news from. However, he seems hostile to the caste he mixes with. He is often politically incorrect and has been called a racist, a bigot, and a misogynist. Some of his harshest critics are the sort of people he blames for many of the ills of modern life. They in return seem to view him disgust for attacking some of their sacred cows. Rod voted for Brexit.

Rod comes from Middlesbrough, a northern industrial town in decline. His father ended up as a tax inspector, his mother was a civil servant. My family lived in Middleborough, in the late 1960s, but my dad left for a better job in south-east England, near London. People were friendly in Middleborough, but its industries were dying. I have some sympathy with Rod's criticism of the London elite.

Rod seems to suffer from a degree of self-loathing and acknowledges many of his own failings. However, Britain needs more people like Rod who are willing to challenge the liberal consensus. The Brexit referendum in 2016 seemed to indicate that the British public has become less trusting of the people who run the country. Rod may be onto something.

I read Liddles column in the Sunday Times but a whole book leaves me exhausted with his opinions !

The author is insightful on many topics but not so much on the sad loss of decorum in the way one expresses oneself. Enough with the "f" word!

Spot on.

Those who have a pre-conceived idea about where Rod Liddle stands politically might be surprised by this book.

Mr. Liddle is apparently a well known journalist in England, although I had never heard of him until this book of his was thrashed by a columnist in the Guardian. All commenters piled on. I suppose he is not Leftist enough for the Guardian readers although his bona fides are excellent. But enough of that. In this book, which tells much of his life story and the life story of his parents, Mr. Liddle does a LOT of whining -- about a large number of subjects, and he does it all in a highly entertaining, witty, and self-deprecating way. It's a book that can be entertaining sentence by sentence. And yet, he is talking about nothing but serious stuff -- big issues. I don't agree with him on many things, and on some things I do, but the book will get you out of your mental rails and give you much to think about. Thank you Rod.