The War on the West: How to Prevail in the Age of Unreason

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The Bible burned in Murray’s example was burned on US soil, disrespected by someone who, most likely, was brought up in a Christian culture and carried out his act in a country that’s majority Christian. The burning of the Qur’an, however unknowingly, was carried out by an occupying military force from a foreign culture in a Muslim majority country. The situations were totally different, and as the responses were different. The depth of absurdity that has and is occurring on a daily basis to diminish our democracy, values, historical accuracy and position as the greatest nation on earth is frightening. It’s permeated our education system, churches, journalism; it’s everywhere. Murray’s account exposes the UN as a powerful hub of anti West rhetoric, and the UN human rights council’s twisted system of values – there, “Israel, America, and the European powers are constantly berated for historic crimes by such luminaries of human right as Iran, Syria and Venezuela.” It leads readers to the inevitable conclusion that Israel is a target because it is a thoroughly Western state – the obsessive assault against it is part and parcel of the ongoing demonizing of the West.

It's not just dishonest scholars who benefit from this intellectual fraud but hostile nations and human rights abusers hoping to distract from their own ongoing villainy. Dictators who slaughter their own people are happy to jump on the "America is a racist country" bandwagon and mimic the language of antiracism and "pro-justice" movements as PR while making authoritarian conquests. The author of The Strange Death of Europe has never been afraid of controversy, and Murray’s latest is no exception. The War on the West is a panoramic survey of a new prejudice that has commandeered western institutions in the name of social justice. It is, Murray argues, out to “demonise the people who still make up the racial majority in the West”. The war on our civilisation turns out, for Murray, to mean a war against whiteness. Murray thinks this cultural revolution that gets generalised as “Woke", although he thinks it goes deeper than that, “accuses everyone who stands in their way of racism, which is the cardinal sin of our time.” So, what is Murray’s charge against Critical Race Theory? His answer is that it has led to a resurgence of racialised thinking that sees everything through the lens of race and racial identity. According to Murray, CRT and the culture wars have led to a renewed obsession with ethnic identity and perceived threats to minorities. I am a newcomer to Douglas Murray, and have not read any of his previous works (although, after this book, that may well change), so this review is based on this single exposure to his works.

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Murray begins the book with a great intro. He is an excellent author and orator. Douglas is one of the sharper authors/pundits of our modern day, IMHO. The intro here is worth the price of the book alone. The audiobook version I have is also read by the author; which is a nice touch I always appreciate.

There are many attitudes that we take in our lives, some of which dominate at one point in our lives and recede in another. But a life lived without gratitude is not a life properly lived. It is a life that is lived off-kilter: one in which, incapable of realizing what you have to be thankful for, you are left with nothing but your resentments and can be contented by nothing but revenge. We see how social activism has become the new religion and how racism is the only lens by which all things are measured. Murray shows how major cultural institutions distanced themselves from their own past, how they volunteered to search their archives for traces of colonialism, slavery or racism, and how countless well meaning individuals were swept in the diversity, inclusion and equity tide. Race grifters and assorted racial grievance collectors, such as Ta-Nehisi Coates, Robin DiAngelo, and Ibram X. Kendi are also covered here. Douglas Murray has established himself as one of our generation’s most influential voices. Photo by Rob DeMartin. Courtesy of Harper Collins.For the rest of the chapter, I’m rather confused as to what point Murray is trying to make. What I got was that China uses the colonialist and slaveholding past of the West as ammunition in the international hegemony, that China is also racist and that we should also criticism China for their exclusionary policies. For some reason, when I started reading this book I was under the impression that Douglas Murray was a provocateur a la Alex Jones or Milo however-you-spell-his-last-name. As white woman married to a brown man, living in South Africa, and who has a bi-racial child… I have been fiercely on the side of the “anti-racism” movement from the beginning. However, over the last 2 years as race discussions online began to turn more and more malevolent, I began to question the wisdom of fighting racism by hyper focusing on racial identity, policing these discussions and who may participate, and what qualifies them to do so. Also I couldn’t reconcile the fact that I would wear the label of being inherently racist no matter what I did simply by virtue of being white.