The writer is a conservative who is not a fan of Donald Trump. He is writing his views on the state of American Democracy and how both liberals and conservatives are separating into two different camps. This book was written when Donald Trump was still president and goes into his views how he had won the election. He also goes into the history of democracy in America as well as the background of populist views today. This is an interesting book with the view of a conservative who isn't a supporter of Donald Trump. I received a copy of this book in exchange for a review from NetGalley.

This one is not an easy read, but well worth the effort. As usual, Goldberg provides well documented research.

An outstanding book documenting the rise of the Enlightenment and the importance of the individual in Western Society. It tracks the downward trajectory of Western Civilization as it toys with populism and various other brands of centralized control. Best political book of the year. Highly recommended.

<i>I received a copy of this book from the publisher through NetGalley to read and review.</i>

The Suicide of the West is an important work, especially suited to our current social and political moment.

“Capitalism is unnatural. Democracy is unnatural,” writes Goldberg. And what is natural is not necessarily what is good. Civilization, in fact, is the suppression of many basic, natural human behaviours for the benefit of social growth, the general welfare, and humanity’s well-being. Progress is anything but inevitable, and what we call “progress” in our current moment is actually a reversion toward the natural - that is, a movement away from “The Miracle” (Goldberg’s term for the dual, intertwining inventions of civic and economic freedom) and regressing to the natural instincts of tribalism.

We abandon “The Miracle” at our civilization’s peril - literally. No other system has so greatly improved the health, prosperity, and flourishing of the mass of humanity in so short a time, as the author demonstrates throughout the text. But this amazing civilizational accomplishment is not just something that we have achieved and can coast on forever - human culture wants to return to its earlier forms. To prevent that backsliding, we must practice constant vigilance. Goldberg illustrates this with a vivid thought experiment:

Imagine a brand-new car in a field. Left untouched for a decade or two, it will still be the same car. But when you return to it, the paint will be faded. Rust will have taken hold in parts. The tires will be flat. Perhaps the windshield will be cracked from so many winters and summers. No doubt bugs and birds will have established nests among the weeds that have taken root in the nooks and crannies. In a century, a passerby will find a shell and some relics. In a thousand years—or maybe ten thousand; nature doesn’t care—it may be like there was never a car there at all. Nature takes back everything, unless you fight it off with every pitchfork at your disposal, and even then, every victory is temporary, requiring the next steward to take the pitchfork like a baton.

Riffing on the great Deirdre McCloskey’s tri-part magnum opus (Bourgeois Virtue, Bourgeois Dignity, Bourgeois Equality), Goldberg reiterates: “What words and ideas can create, words and ideas can destroy.” Capitalism, liberty, and The Miracle were brought about by thinkers who made arguments and were able, through the ages, to convince those around them of their merit. If those arguments are allowed to atrophy, then those achievements will likewise degrade and disappear. We appear to be moving closer and closer to that reality.

Our natural instincts want, unsurprisingly, to revert to the state of nature - which is not the paradise some fantasists like to conjure, but is instead as Thomas Hobbes set out in <i>Leviathan</i>: “solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short.” We must actively, intellectually struggle against those impulses. That struggle is too frequently, to paraphrase G.K. Chesterton, “found hard and not tried.” But that intellectual fight, and not the easy slide into our tribal instinct, is the true path for “living our best lives.”

Suicide of the West (SOTW) is a study in contrasts. Jonah Goldberg begins his ambitious new book by removing God from his argument, but ends it discussing how the fading belief that God is watching us underlies many of our problems. The book is a passionate plea for classical liberalism, and yet it is also deeply conservative and traditionalist. Goldberg argues that liberal democratic capitalism is unnatural and unique in human history while tribalism is the default characteristic of humans, yet calls for a robust defense of the former and firm limits on the later.

It is a complex, sometimes periphrastic, tour through anthropology, sociology, psychology, history, philosophy and politics. Goldberg marshalls all of these disparate elements to argue for a seemingly simple thesis: human nature is constant, the vast majority of human history is one of suffering and squalor, but thru a series of serendipitous events the West escaped this torturous plateau into a world of increasing wealth, health and human flourishing.

He then offers both a call to action and a warning. The call: understand this history, reflect with gratitude on our blessings, and pass it on to the next generation. The warning is the flip side: this world of freedom, material wealth, and growth was created by the power of words and ideas (the stories we tell ourselves about ourselves) and it must be defended. Nature is always waiting. Corruption sets in without vigilance. The ingredients of the Miracle, as Goldberg terms it, can be lost and we can return to a world of tribalism, conflict and stagnation.

What follows is the first part of my review which functions as a summary of sorts. In the second part I will address some of the book’s critics and the tensions noted above.

The book starts with a deep dive into biology, anthropology, sociology, economics and history to understand that, as Goldberg likes to say, human nature has no history. Human beings come preloaded with a great deal when they are born. Preference for the family or tribe, distrust of strangers, adherence to group norms, the importance of status, the desire to create meaning, etc.–these aspects of human nature will always be with us.

The role of civilization is to tame, direct and channel human nature towards productive ends. Civilization is the fundamental building block for the Miracle but it is a necessary, not sufficient cause:

The ingredients for liberty and prosperity have existed on earth for thousands of years, sloshing around, occasionally bumping into each other, and offering a glimpse to a better path. Religious toleration, restraints on monarchy, private property, the sovereignty of the individual, pluralistic institutions, scientific innovation, the rule of law–all of these things can be found piecemeal across the ages.

So why exactly did the Miracle appear where and when it did? It was “an unplanned and glorious accident.” Goldberg is deeply suspicious of simple answers to complex questions, understands that history is messy and, for the sake of his argument, refuses teleology (whether religious or ideological) as an explanation, but the answer comes down largely to ideas and language.

Building on the work of Deirdre McCloskey and Joseph Schumpeter, Goldberg argues that changing attitudes and forms of speech about markets and innovation led to the birth of capitalism. Innovation was no longer viewed as a sin, ideas about trade, labor, and private enterprise changed, and the economic revolution followed.

What Goldberg calls the Lockean Revolution (the individual is sovereign, our rights come from God not governments, the fruits of our labors belong to us, and no man should be less equal before the law because of his faith or class) grew in the unique soil of English liberty and flourished in America due to an equally unique set of circumstances.

The story had been developing organically for millennium but John Locke wrote it down and in important ways universalized it. The American Founders were both influenced by it and distanced from it but put this universalized form into the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. This story (another word for civilization/institutions/society) made liberal democratic capitalism possible.

But a good story requires a villain and Goldberg offers us two (or perhaps one in different forms): corruption and romanticism. By corruption Goldberg does not mean bribery or payoffs, but a process whereby nature takes back what was hers; entropy, in the sense of decline into disorder, breakdown and decay. The power of human nature is such that if we don’t work to keep it at bay, it will retake control.

This is where the tension between the ubiquity of tribalism for most of human history and the uniqueness of the Miracle plays out. We can’t assume that the blessings of our civilization are the new normal; it is not natural or inevitable. We too easily slip into the natural equals good mindset. Goldberg spends a chunk of the text harshly tearing down this fallacy.

This corruption can come from both the top down and the bottom up and in ways that align with human nature. Top down: elites make rules that benefit them and block those seeking upward mobility. Whether in politics, economics, sports, religion or any other area of life, the powerful will naturally seek to protect and expand their interests. History is overflowing with examples.

The benefit of liberal democratic capitalism is the creation of competing spheres of influence, institutional pluralism, in order to restrain and limit this temptation. The American Founders sought a system with checks and balances that would limit and channel these tendencies in the political arena. The free market fosters competition which undercuts monopoly and other forms of economic power.

But corruption can also come from the bottom up. When the people give into tribal instincts and seek unity above all, corruption will result. Cultural, religious, and institutional pluralism is a necessary ingredient of the Miracle. This requires a mental division of labor where loyalties are spread across strata and organizations; from our family and relatives up and outward through neighborhood groups and clubs, religious communities, the economy, and government (local, state and federal).

Romanticism, personified here by Jean Jacques Rousseau, is in many ways the driver of both forms of corruption. Goldberg contrasts Rousseau with Locke, and posits them as two of the main currents in Western thought:

It is a fight between the idea that our escape from the past has been a glorious improvement over mankind’s natural state and the idea that the world we have created is corrupting because it is artificial. One side says that external moral codes and representative government are a liberating blessing. The other says that truth is found not outside of ourselves in the form of universal rules and tolerance for others but in our own feelings and the meaning we get from belonging to a group.

Rousseau sees the modern mental division of labor as artificial and oppressive and holds out the nation-state as the unifying organizing principle to return us to our natural state and remove our feelings of loneliness and alienation. His noble savage is a nostalgic seeking of a mythical past of unity and internal coherence. Instead of pluralism, unity and conformity.

This temptation is at the root of all modern politics :

It is my contention that all rebellions against the liberal order or the Miracle are not only fundamentally romantic but reactionary. They seek not some futuristic modern conception of social organization. Rather they seek to return to some form of tribal solidarity where we are all in it together. Romanticism is the voice through which our inner primitive cries out “There must be a better way!

Which brings us into the realm of current politics, which Goldberg introduces by detailing how the Progressive Era drank deep from Rousseau and thus sought to undermine the Miracle. He then highlights how the corrupting influence of the romantic/reactionary impulse from both the left and the right is undermining liberal democratic capitalism in America.

On the left, progressives fundamentally reject limited government and institutional pluralism seeking instead a government run by unelected elites; supposedly for the good of the masses. Seeking flexibility to re-interpret the Constitution in light of their ideology, masquerading as science, they give government more and more power with fewer and fewer checks and balances.

The result is the modern administrative state; vast swaths of government virtually unaccountable and yet controlling practically every area of our lives. At the same time, the modern left is obsessed with identity politics; tribal groups and power rather than individualism and equality. In the name of freedom and equality they undermine the very system that has brought increased wealth and opportunity to so many.

The troubling part is that instead of defending and strengthening the values and principles that created the Miracle, those on the right seem intent on joining the left. Tired of being attacked as racist bigots, having their faith squeezed out of the public square, and often out of anxiety with the centrifugal forces of the globalized culture and economy, many on the right are increasingly engaging in tribalism, populism and their own form of identity politics.

Valid concerns about the power of the administrative state and the damage another four or eight years of progressive ideology could do, conservatives seem willing to embrace a figure, Donald Trump, whose character and philosophy reflects the weakness in our culture not its restoration.

Trump represents the romantic/reactionary impulse toward tribal unity, an emphasis on feelings and power rather than ideas and principle, and the hope of a return to a mythical past. Instead of character and ideas, the true meaning of conservatism, they seek power and winning at all cost.

Under attack from the left and the right are the very values and ideals that sustain our civilization. Democracy, free speech, free market capitalism are all increasingly treated with hostility. If the stories we tell ourselves about ourselves shape our society, then these dramatic changes in rhetoric should be deeply concerning.

So what is the answer? Be grateful for our inheritance and fight to pass it on to the next generation. Goldberg knows this is a never-ending battle:

There are not permanent victories. The only victory worth fighting for–because it is the only victory that is achievable–is to hand off this civilization to the next generation and equip that generation to carry on the fight and so on, and forever. We cannot get rid of human nature and humanity’s natural tribal tendencies. But we know that, under the right circumstances, our tribal nature can be grafted to a commitment to liberty, individualism, property rights, innovation, etc. It happened in England, accidentaly, but organically

[…]
And we cannot be forced to stay committed to our principles. We can only be persuaded to. Reason alone won’t carry the load, but the task is impossible without it. Parents must cultivate their barbarian children into citizens, and the rest of us must endeavor to keep the principles of our civilization alive by showing our gratitude for it.

In essence, Goldberg argues that defending and passing on the underlying principles of our civilization must take precedence over both our tribal instincts and our day-to-day partisan battles. If left and right join together in reactionary populism they will destroy the very thing they both claim to want to preserve and defend.

That is the Suicide of the West.

I don’t know what it will ultimately take for Jonah Goldberg to be taken seriously as a historian of political movements. <i>Liberal Fascism</i> remains an important and instrumental text, and <i>Suicide of the West</i>, with its equally-bombastic title and premise, provides a detailed and solid outlook into how our past is dictating our present and, more importantly, how we’re losing it.

The overall messaging may be the only stumble here, as Goldberg spends more time explaining this from his point of view rather than a sober analysis leading him there, but this is a tome with a lot to chew on. It’s difficult to read this and not feel a little bit like a lot of what is detailed here gets lost in modern times, especially in the Trump era, but it also has an inspiration and aspirational feel to it where the overall premise shows a way out in spite of how we got in.

Much like <i>Liberal Fascism</i>, this should be required political reading right now. Little of what I’ve read in the last few years really encapsulates the moment (or, unfortunately, how we got to this moment) the way this book does, and I would hope that it gets a wide play on a whole.

The title of this book might be off-putting to some, which is a shame, because I think it could be of interest to readers who wouldn't think they have much in common with Goldberg. Those who do read Goldberg on a weekly basis won't find anything drastically new, but it's a pretty good recapitulation of his thought over the past two years.

The book works on the assumption that nothing's foreordained. There is no "right side of history." Democracy, capitalism, and human rights are things we stumbled into as a society. Historically speaking, all this has emerged in the blink of an eye. The challenge today is coping with that abundance. Maintaining a civilization takes constant work, and if we're not grateful for what we've received, we're on a fast track to corruption. I found this theme of ingratitude to be slightly uneven throughout, and the mix of history, pop culture, and analysis felt almost too ambitious at times; however, I agree with Goldberg's overall thesis, that without an understanding of where we've come from, we'll cease to defend the ideals of the founders, seizing on shortcuts more and more (see tribalism and Trump).

Some significant points I noted throughout:

Goldberg gives an abbreviated history of the emergence of states and capitalism. The American project was a result of English cultural oddities that got written down, a "glorious accident."

Tribalism is our natural state. Romanticism is "a brilliant intellectual updating of the tribal instinct" that sees the modern world as alienating and wants to revert to finding meaning primarily in and through the tribe.

Governments are based on natural rights that the state has no right, under ordinary circumstances, to violate; states provisionally grant rights, and, according to the French Enlightenment view of the state, take an active role in the guidance of society. Under 20th century progressivism, the administrative state emerged--experts shaping society--"the state taking its own counsel on what society needed." It is revolutionary in this respect and operates outside of the constitutional framework and of democratic transparency. It is basically a new form of aristocracy.

The more complex government makes society, the more it rewards those (i.e., the upper class) with the resources to deal with that complexity, and the more it punishes those who do not. The children of the affluent are educated in how to maneuver in this system—and in the process, they’re learning “a profound and sophisticated ingratitude towards the country they grew up in.” The administrative state is deeply invested in the above. As it succeeds, elitism becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. “If you start from the assumption that the people are too stupid to understand what’s in their interest and then proceed to make society a byzantine maze of hurdles, the more likely it is you’ll be able to claim you’re right.”

Trump has profoundly changed our civilizational conversation by reverting to tribalism in many ways.

Increasingly, American life has been reduced to either the individual or the state, flattening civil society (mediating institutions--see The Fractured Republic: Renewing America's Social Contract in the Age of Individualism). When the state begins to occupy the place of civil society, it becomes toxic. The erosion of civil society has caused many Americans to flock to partisanship (and virtual communities) to find meaning. Adherence to political parties didn't always look like this.

When the president or the party in power is invested with so much meaning and significance, the “outs” feel like strangers in their own land. Then it’s payback when the other side gets power. “The only solution is to break the cycle by making the state less important and letting the dying reefs of civil society grow back to health.”

The author lays out a compelling argument. We in the prosperous western democracies are facing a frightening prospect of losing our liberal democracies to increasingly loud and rabid "populism" and nationalism. The emergence of Trump, Brexit and the election of far-right governments in Europe combined with the increase of power wielded by Putin and China signal a time of crisis in our world. The only way to combat this is through awareness and dialogue. We must work to combat the "silo" mentality where we only expose ourselves to ideas that support our own beliefs and prejudices. We must not only talk to each other - we must hear each other. This book is an excellent start. Recommended.

My thanks to NetGalley for providing me with an eARC in exchange for my honest review.

Goldberg does an effective detailing where we came from and the path we are following today. His conclusion chapter really spoke to me and I believe he nails it in this chapter. We are becoming more divisive and less willing to discuss our differences and look for common ground.
This book is a good warning message to all Americans.
I highly recommend it.

Read my review at Journalingonpaper.com https://journalingonpaper.com/2018/03/02/book-review-suicide-of-the-west-by-jonah-goldberg/

Jonah Goldberg justifies inequality and a myriad of global problems as the price for Freedom, as if it existed as an absolute, almost like an object with physical dimensions and qualities. The object of freedom is to make a commitment in one way or the other. The massive inequality that Goldberg justifies minuses out any aspect of change. Capital and its accumulation above every other consideration is not about stuff or maintaining the ability to maintain "freedom", its about power commoditized and numerical which only has meaning in relation to the interests of the other holders of capital. And what is that interest, the control of price and the market. That society creates the space for this struggle to take place is of course something Neo-liberals barely understand, its not merely the existence of night-watchmen, monetary policy and prisons that make "capitalism" possible. The advantages Goldberg accrues to Capitalism were derived from a mixed economy where control of the business enterprise was as essential to ensuring those in positions of power would remain in power as it did secure the needs of society as a whole.

Goldberg would do well to remember the maxim of Machiavelli when he pointed out that men are always ready to overthrow their masters. Its transplanting it with something that works that is the rarity. The Neo-liberal Revolution is over and it was never the sweet words and complex ideology of policy wonks such as Goldberg that made that revolution possible. The world gave it a try and found it wanting, the age is over, the magic incantation of Neo-liberal mantras about freedom have come to an end. Goldberg seems intelligent so I'm sure he can come up with something new that might find a receptive audience, this however is not it.