‘Another fine mess you’ve got us into’

THE LIBERAL DELUSION
The roots of our current moral crisis
By John Marsh. Arena Books. 176 pages. £12.99
ISBN 978 1 906 791 995

I think the title of this book was chosen in the wake of Dawkins’s The God Delusion, perhaps indicating something of an answer. But actually it is a better book than that and it deserves to stand on its own.

The thesis is that Britain is in the grip of a liberal outlook which is encapsulated in the bald statement of Jean-Jacques Rousseau: ‘Mankind is naturally good’. The book, both with common sense and grace, exposes this position as a complete delusion, and explains how the consequences of this idea is leading our country into increasing difficulties and despair. Of course, liberalism has some good in it, it is not wholly bad. But the benefits are a Trojan horse for a whole army of evils.

This is not a Christian book in the accepted sense. The author is not a conservative evangelical; he distances himself from those who oppose the gay agenda and regards Genesis as only an allegory, but he is enormously sympathetic towards Christians and other people of faith.

False assumptions

The book is divided into two sections. First, it deals with ‘liberal delusions’, ideas which are accepted as unquestioned facts by those of a culturally liberal outlook but which in reality are total fallacies. Some of the chapter headings in this part of the book are: ‘Human nature is good and rational’; ‘The individual is of overriding importance’; ‘Greater equality is always beneficial’; ‘Science is certain and benign’; ‘Religion is untrue and harmful’; ‘Universalism and multiculturalism are beneficial’.

The author’s Oxford education and his background in teaching history before moving into law and commerce bring a wealth of experience to these pages. Much of his thinking is helpfully guided by the thought of the late great philosopher Sir Isaiah Berlin and his famous essay, The Two Concepts of Liberty. The book is extremely well researched, so that all his rebuttals of liberal delusions are well argued and documented. Statistics concerning such things as the growth in crime rates and the decline of educational standards in the last 60 years abound. The total misrepresentation of Einstein’s position on the existence of God by Richard Dawkins is unmasked. He accuses liberal intellectuals of rewriting history to suit their own agenda, rather like the totalitarian regimes of Communism. In doing so, they have produced a ‘cultural bereavement’ among British people and pursue an ‘inverted racism’. Interestingly, we find that the phrase ‘political correctness’ was invented by none other than Lenin, the founding father of the Soviet Union with its secret police and gulags.

True damage

The second part of the book focuses on the positive damage which follows from liberal ideas. Here the author mentions the liberal suppression of truth, the atrocities brought about by secularists and atheists, the dictatorship of the liberal intelligentsia and the sustained attack from liberals on family life which is the bedrock of any nation’s stability.

It is worth mentioning the harm done to the poor by liberal ideas. In particular, the author interviews Shaun Bailey, a black youth worker and pamphleteer, who was brought up by a single mum on a council estate in West London, and co-founded and runs a community project called MyGeneration which helps disaffected, drug addicted and unemployed young people. ‘Bailey maintains that liberals have created a dysfunctional society — they promote a casual attitude to sex, undermine the family, erode discipline in schools … they devalue religion, marriage, notions of self-restraint and patriotism and, while working-class communities suffer from these policies, middle-class liberals live far away … It is ironic that the kids he works with are damaged by the very people who think they are helping.’

The author has given us a penetrating insight into contemporary society, and the book makes a sobering but rewarding read for thinking Christians. It is both stimulating and very sad as it documents the downward spiral of once-great Britain. The author does not make the connection but it was rejection of the gospel and a biblical worldview of God and human sinfulness which opened the door to the liberal delusion and the increasing mess it is getting us into.