James Delingpole ended 2010 with an excellent commentary. He writes:
- ...the reason I bang on about AGW is not because I’m obsessed with “Climate Change” but because I recognise it as a strategically vital campaign in a much broader global culture war.
- This is why I believe this year’s most important publication is not any of the superb crop of books on AGW...but the book that goes closest to the heart of this great ideological struggle, Christopher Snowdon’s The Spirit Level Delusion.
In particular, Delingpole appreciates the manner with which Snowden not only eviscerates the stasis pre-occupation with equality but also its prevailing mantra wherein:
- Limiting choice, reducing wealth and lowering aspirations are now openly advocated as desirable ends in themselves.
Using De Tocqueville, Snowden makes the point that liberty is not lost overnight but fades incrementally:
- The will of man is not shattered, but softened, bent, and guided; men are seldom forced by it to act, but they are constantly restrained from acting. Such a power does not destroy, but it prevents existence; it does not tyrannize, but it compresses, enervates, extinguishes, and stupefies a people, till each nation is reduced to nothing better than a flock of timid and industrious animals, of which the government is the shepherd.
Not only do I echo James' sentiments, I offer my thanks for a good way to start the New Year: a renewed commitment to the implementation of dynamism and a well written book to read and share.
