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65 of 69 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A 21st Century 'Common Sense', 13 Oct 2007
September 11th was a defining moment for many people, reinforcing or shattering their long held beliefs and this is the premise for Anthony's important book. Autobiographical in nature, the author brilliantly exposes the hypocrisy and morally questionable ideas professed by those who see themselves as 'liberal' and tolerant in nature. Liberals have lost their way. Reason and freedom of speech are in danger and the biggest threat is not from the religious fundamentalists but us, who seem to have painted ourselves into a corner with a self contempt for our own secular and democratic values.
Anthony never preaches and every page makes you wish you had a photographic memory so you could argue this clearly at that next dinner party debate. If after reading a chapter, you don't sit and think about what you believe in, best check your pulse.
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41 of 44 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Important and honest but doesn't confront an important issue., 3 April 2009
Anthony's book is brutally honest about the liberal-left's tendency to ignore inconvenient truths in order to preserve their own emotionally-satisfying worldview. Many of today's big issues are tackled, including crime and terrorism, but the book never gets down to the core issue of what makes a liberal think as he does - what is his prime motivation and what is behind the strange, self-deluding rationale that sees them in constant opposition to the established order.
Anthony's alludes to middle-class guilt and the kind of overgrown adolescent rebellion common to many liberals, and even describes his own upbringing and experiences in the hope that they will shed light on the question of what shapes a particular outlook on life. Unfortunately, none of his stories, or those of the characters he meets along the way, really get to the nub of he matter.
Nor does Anthony seem to fully realise the damage the liberal consensus has wrought. While he recognises the influence that liberal views have had, he still seems to regard our lack of social cohesion as a natural phenomenon. He is appalled by the liberal reaction to crime and anti-social behaviour but doesn't acknowledge the part played by the systematic undermining of traditional authority, the relativist rejection of right and wrong, the demonisation of ambition and comeptition, and the promotion of the victim culture. Without this admission, none of the problems Anthony identifies stand any hope of being addressed.
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51 of 55 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Standard reading, 18 Feb 2008
I have read numerous critiques of today's left (Marxist liberals) mainly by authors - with the exception of e.g. David Horowitz and Christopher Hitchens - organically detached from their subject. Be this as it may, I agreed with one writer who described today's left not so much as a political viewpoint but rather a pathology, a distorted frame of mind fuelled and characterised by hatred, absurdity and anger. Andrew Anthony's constructive and thoughtful critique re-affirms this viewpoint. His politics stem from an internalised, experiential liberal conviction that has its roots in pre - 1989 international solidarity, a standard tenet that is lost on much of today's left. In the light of the left's - particularly the SWP and its ilk - descent into blind hatred of anything Western since 9/11, Mr Anthony has held up his liberal views for personal scrutiny. Set starkly against the present dominant strand of liberalism's mystifying solidarity with terrorists, dictatorships and total disregard for the socially obvious, he has exposed and disossiated from the politically disfigured beast it has become. I have just completed a BSc in Social Science that was tiresomely infested with elements of this disfigurement at a sociological level. Mr Anthony's excellent book would have been a refreshing antedote to the know-nothing postmodernist drivel I was obliged to read. In other words, The Fallout should be standard reading in any social science department worth its salt. Sadly, the hatred and disfigurement referred to above also blinds judgement. Therefore the likelihood of an even minded course author ever placing this book on a university library bookshelf is nil. This said, it's a book that should not sit idle on a bookshelf anyway nor should it be at the mercy of a univerisity lecturer's prejudice. Once read it should be passed on to other open minded, reflective liberals as a means to spreading much needed enlightenment in these days of postmodernist darkness.
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