[rating:4.0]
(New York: Harper Perennial, 1988)
385 pgs
This review is somewhat unusual, as it is for a book that was first published in 1988. You may have already read it. But if not, then you ought to. My son Mike introduced me to this book after he was required to read it for one of his Ph.D. seminars. He said he thought I’d like it, even if it disturbed me. He was right.
Paul Johnson is an English historian and a prolific writer. I thoroughly enjoyed his British wit and sarcastic comments throughout! His breadth of knowledge is impressive and his writing style makes reading history pleasurable. While the book is getting older, his point as well as his warnings, continue to be well worth the read.
Johnson claims that ever since the advent of Jean Jacques Rousseau, there has been a host of intellectuals who felt it was their calling to ridicule the teachings of the Church, while simultaneously offering their own advice on how humanity ought to live. What Johnson charges these would-be reformers with has only been magnified in recent days. Every talk show and magazine provides ample space for self-described “experts” to pontificate on society’s ills. What is puzzling to those who take time to consider it, is that though these seemingly brilliant men and women may indeed be unparalleled in their knowledge of physics or brain cell research, or philosophy, it does not necessarily mean they equally insightful into issues related to the breakdown of the home, drug use, or the national economy. Yet interviewers delight in broadcasting their opinions. Perhaps they do so because these intellectuals are so confident they have the answers desperately needed by society, or perhaps it is because their opinions always generate fresh headlines and additional viewers. It is the modern influence of such intellectuals that Johnson aims his considerable literary weapons.
Johnson maintains that society has always been imbued with intellectuals, but in the past, men such as Newton or Erasmus accepted the basic teachings of Christianity and applied their vast intellects to understanding their world from Christian foundations. But, with the emerging of Rousseau, a new breed of thinkers emerged who rejected Christian beliefs and teachings and placed their own thinking as the source of society’s moral authority.
Johnson claims that it is only fitting that, as these intellectuals have leveled their fiercest critiques against Christianity and its proponents, that they be likewise subjected to the same intense scrutiny. Johnson introduces his book by saying; “This book is an examination of the moral and judgmental credentials of certain leading intellectuals to give advice to humanity on how to conduct its affairs” (ix). Johnson devotes chapters to various thinkers such as Rousseau, Shelley, Karl Marx, Tolstoy, Bertrand Russell, Jean-Paul Sartre, and Ernest Hemmingway.
Some of the highlights of Johnson’s survey are sufficient for this review. Most of those he surveyed were enormously vain and egocentric. They also tended to use (or abuse) people to accomplish their purposes. Yet, because they believed they had a higher calling than most mere mortals, the moral standards they prescribed for others generally did not apply to them. So, many of these people were serially unfaithful to their wives, yet they flew into a jealous rage if their spouse cheated on them.
There is also a pathological lack of concern for truth. Most of their autobiographies and memoirs are jammed with self-seeking falsehoods. Johnson rightly asks how people with so little regard for truth can be trusted with the well being of society. There is also blatant hypocrisy. For example, Rousseau wrote much on rearing children and the educational system. Yet he himself had all of his children carted off at birth to an abysmal orphanage so they would not disturb him as he engaged in great thoughts. Karl Marx wrote for the workers in factories, yet he himself never stepped foot in a factory and the only working person Marx every associated with was a house servant in his home whom he regularly exploited.
Many, if not all of those Johnson examines had disreputable personal lives. Most had multiple mistresses and spouses. Several were raging alcoholics and drug addicts. Many exploited people and could not maintain friendships with any except sycophants. Interestingly, Johnson points out that many of the intellectuals promoted violence to attain their goals, and, though they themselves shunned physical conflict, their writings and speeches often incited others to murder and even genocide. By the time you finish reading Johnson’s depiction, you don’t like these people. Yet tragically these are the people whose thoughts have dramatically impacted modern society. Johnson will open your eyes to how our society is being shaped by people whose own moral and spiritual lives are in ruins.
While Johnson does his best to remain objective, it becomes clear at times that he thoroughly despises his subjects. Perhaps the evidence he uncovered left him no choice. You are also left wondering if you can trust one intellectual who condemns others. Later in Johnson’s life it came out that he himself had been involved in an eleven year-long affair of his own. His former mistress eventually blew the whistle when she became offended at Johnson’s moralizing about others.
Nevertheless, Johnson raises a significant, and extremely relevant point. It has long been known that wars had been fought, and people assassinated because of what was being taught in seemingly ivory towered university classrooms. People who thought that innocuous college professors had no influence on society were merely deluding themselves. However, this is one of the most compelling studies to expose the spiritual and ethical wasteland from which so many of these writers espouse their views. Reading this book will certainly affect the way you listen to the next talking head you watch on a television news channel.
by Richard Blackaby