Litter The Remains of Our Culture edition by Theodore Dalrymple Politics Social Sciences eBooks
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'What a book.' Clive Aslet, Country Life 'Characteristically brilliant.' Dominic Lawson, Sunday Times 'A little oasis of sanity.' Daily Mail. Driving the four hundred miles from Glasgow to London, Theodore Dalrymple found practically every yard of roadside to be littered with rubbish flapping in the wind like Buddhist prayer flags. What does it say about a culture when a country tips its rubbish anywhere it likes? Ranging from the poorer areas where he used to work to chewing gum and the behaviour of students and the educated, Dalrymple casts a witty and unsparing eye on modern life shared with others.
Litter The Remains of Our Culture edition by Theodore Dalrymple Politics Social Sciences eBooks
This latest book by Dr Dalrymple follows the major themes developed in several earlier books, most of which examine “what remains of the culture” in England, and what has been lost. As a doctor and psychiatrist who has worked in the environs of Liverpool, as well as in foreign lands, he has witnessed the changing economic and cultural attitudes of the great mass of patients that he has tended. And the worldview of today’s youth appalls this serious doctor who still respects the traditional British virtues of proper behavior, self-reliance, and respect for their nation’s past.On a recent 400-mile drive between London and Glasgow, he was fascinated by the unsightly roadside, “strewn practically every yard with litter,” and the mess made him wonder: “What does it say about a culture when a country tips its rubbish anywhere it likes?” This book provides his answer, and directly connects the many cultural changes of the last 50 years to the growth of litter. His concluding lines indicate the scope of the connections he writes about: “Trace litter to its origins, and you soon encounter the knotty questions of political philosophy, political economics, and even the meaning of life.” It’s amazing what his fertile mind can do, all developed from one simple observation of trash! A great, informed, and witty read!
The author laments how the new generations in England, instead of having been taught history, and how their countrymen got to attain a high level of freedom and affluence, have instead been taught that their country, and their grandparents, were evil. A result is that students learn to revile the past without knowing much about it. Without some solid learning, they can make no comparisons of past and present, leading to a non-judgmental population. The author writes, “Never before has an entire generation floated so freely in the present moment.” Their uninformed worldview “makes them putty in the hands of politicians.”
He blames current school methods for creating an abstract minded generation that no longer thinks in pragmatic ways. Instead, they have been taught to hope and dream, with little grasp of reality. “The expansion of tertiary education did not occur mostly in technical subjects but rather in those that dealt with social and political issues.” With disdain for the past, these newly empowered theorists imagine a perfect world, and not finding one, they believe their teachers, and “everything that exists is found to be severely wanting and therefore of very little use.”
Dalrymple also faults the new intelligentsias. Because they rely on idealized concepts of what could be, they only see the social problems which serve to justify their existence as critics. As a result, “they feel called upon to emphasize, not the achievements, but the follies and crimes of history.” His problem with intellectuals is thus comparable to those issues raised by Thomas Sowell and Paul Johnson.
With little grasp of history, and contempt for the world they live in, today’s activists advocate solutions that are often bereft of logic or common sense. They can “express a tender concern for the environment. . .critique the chemical poisoning of the earth. . . worship the biosphere. . . yet ignore the litter they created. And they will blame the litter on greedy corporations and the horrid plastic containers created by capitalism. Never mind that it was the individual students, not the corporations, that threw the debris out the windows of their cars. Dalrymple concludes, “The disconnect between the rhetoric and actual behavior of the students could not be greater and is a sign of a change in national character.”
The author also blames a shift from religious beliefs to self-worship and victimhood: The people of Britain 100 years ago believed in self-sacrifice and were dedicated to moral behavior; today’s people look to government to solve the world’s problems. They believe that people are innocent and “if men do bad things it is because something has perverted them from their original goodness. . .it is the social and economic structures that are bad, not they themselves.” And, they conclude that they can do what they want until such time as the structure of the world brings about perfection.”
Dalrymple believes this abstract thinking of the new generations contributes to today’s strict political correctness: It has become necessary for such people to believe, while waiting for a perfect world, that they should express “the right opinions,” and even occasionally protest the existing order. “To be good, one does not need to act well, just think and express the right opinions.” Indeed, acting badly, even littering, can become a valid protest against the inadequacies of the existing culture. Such confused minds can totally dismiss personal responsibility and yet blame everyone else for the world’s shortcomings.
Dalrymple, like Edmund Burke long before him, stresses the need for personal restraint and moral behavior by all those wishing to live in freedom. Liberty is suitable only for those who will police themselves, restrain their worst impulses, and contribute to the community. Those who cannot do that, and litter the roads, among other nasty things, will always weaken the community and require a morass of laws and regulations to control their bad behavior. “It is their bad behavior that forges their fetters.”
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Litter The Remains of Our Culture edition by Theodore Dalrymple Politics Social Sciences eBooks Reviews
As a huge fan of Dr. Dalrymple, I finally was disappointed with a book of his. His usual humor was not on full display as is the norm. I still will continue to read any and all things he writes about, but this was the first one that did not keep me riveted.
Another witty book by TD.
The writer talks about litter, as the title says. Who litters and why? He expands on the subject in a big philosophical way, his language is efficient and he takes a very scientific approach to the subject, but he does so without getting boring or monotonous.
I love Theodore Dalrymple's diatribes. A lot of what he says makes sense and it is an interesting concept to trace something that is awry in culture back to the forces that created the problem.
As usual Theodore Dalrymple nails it. Too bad more people don't read his writings. They should be required of all politicians. England may have a litter problem, but Dalrymple goes into the whys and how it got that way. We here in the USA should really take note.
As always, Anthony Daniel, writing under his odd pseudonym of Theodore Dalrymple, delivers insightful and clever commentary on British, and by extension, modern Western society. This time he does it by analyzing the breathtaking amount of litter and detritus left on British streets and parks and beaches. His books will make you laugh and will make you think about what has gone wrong with modern society.
Dalrymple has a way with words. His command of the English language is very rarely found in contemporary writers. What a pleasure to read. His insights into man's behavior is spot on. He uses satire, humor, and irony wrapped around truth to comment on a subject thought mundane but one that reaches to the depth of the soul.
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This latest book by Dr Dalrymple follows the major themes developed in several earlier books, most of which examine “what remains of the culture” in England, and what has been lost. As a doctor and psychiatrist who has worked in the environs of Liverpool, as well as in foreign lands, he has witnessed the changing economic and cultural attitudes of the great mass of patients that he has tended. And the worldview of today’s youth appalls this serious doctor who still respects the traditional British virtues of proper behavior, self-reliance, and respect for their nation’s past.
On a recent 400-mile drive between London and Glasgow, he was fascinated by the unsightly roadside, “strewn practically every yard with litter,” and the mess made him wonder “What does it say about a culture when a country tips its rubbish anywhere it likes?” This book provides his answer, and directly connects the many cultural changes of the last 50 years to the growth of litter. His concluding lines indicate the scope of the connections he writes about “Trace litter to its origins, and you soon encounter the knotty questions of political philosophy, political economics, and even the meaning of life.” It’s amazing what his fertile mind can do, all developed from one simple observation of trash! A great, informed, and witty read!
The author laments how the new generations in England, instead of having been taught history, and how their countrymen got to attain a high level of freedom and affluence, have instead been taught that their country, and their grandparents, were evil. A result is that students learn to revile the past without knowing much about it. Without some solid learning, they can make no comparisons of past and present, leading to a non-judgmental population. The author writes, “Never before has an entire generation floated so freely in the present moment.” Their uninformed worldview “makes them putty in the hands of politicians.”
He blames current school methods for creating an abstract minded generation that no longer thinks in pragmatic ways. Instead, they have been taught to hope and dream, with little grasp of reality. “The expansion of tertiary education did not occur mostly in technical subjects but rather in those that dealt with social and political issues.” With disdain for the past, these newly empowered theorists imagine a perfect world, and not finding one, they believe their teachers, and “everything that exists is found to be severely wanting and therefore of very little use.”
Dalrymple also faults the new intelligentsias. Because they rely on idealized concepts of what could be, they only see the social problems which serve to justify their existence as critics. As a result, “they feel called upon to emphasize, not the achievements, but the follies and crimes of history.” His problem with intellectuals is thus comparable to those issues raised by Thomas Sowell and Paul Johnson.
With little grasp of history, and contempt for the world they live in, today’s activists advocate solutions that are often bereft of logic or common sense. They can “express a tender concern for the environment. . .critique the chemical poisoning of the earth. . . worship the biosphere. . . yet ignore the litter they created. And they will blame the litter on greedy corporations and the horrid plastic containers created by capitalism. Never mind that it was the individual students, not the corporations, that threw the debris out the windows of their cars. Dalrymple concludes, “The disconnect between the rhetoric and actual behavior of the students could not be greater and is a sign of a change in national character.”
The author also blames a shift from religious beliefs to self-worship and victimhood The people of Britain 100 years ago believed in self-sacrifice and were dedicated to moral behavior; today’s people look to government to solve the world’s problems. They believe that people are innocent and “if men do bad things it is because something has perverted them from their original goodness. . .it is the social and economic structures that are bad, not they themselves.” And, they conclude that they can do what they want until such time as the structure of the world brings about perfection.”
Dalrymple believes this abstract thinking of the new generations contributes to today’s strict political correctness It has become necessary for such people to believe, while waiting for a perfect world, that they should express “the right opinions,” and even occasionally protest the existing order. “To be good, one does not need to act well, just think and express the right opinions.” Indeed, acting badly, even littering, can become a valid protest against the inadequacies of the existing culture. Such confused minds can totally dismiss personal responsibility and yet blame everyone else for the world’s shortcomings.
Dalrymple, like Edmund Burke long before him, stresses the need for personal restraint and moral behavior by all those wishing to live in freedom. Liberty is suitable only for those who will police themselves, restrain their worst impulses, and contribute to the community. Those who cannot do that, and litter the roads, among other nasty things, will always weaken the community and require a morass of laws and regulations to control their bad behavior. “It is their bad behavior that forges their fetters.”
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