Andrew Anthony

Andrew Anthony is a British and Leftist journalist whose personal journey, by many aspects, reflects the evolution of the Labour Party itself over the past few decades. Flirting with the radical Left when young, and militant for whom 'internationalism' was more than a mere word (he worked for a while in the coffee plantations of Nicaragua, following the Nicaraguan Revolution), he also wrote for 'The Observer' and, at the time of publishing, was working at 'The Guardian'.

Describing himself show more as a middle class White man, middle age and happy father, he exposes here what appears to be some form of 'life crisis', through a sharp criticism of his leftists ideals. Now, let's be clear! This is not about self-centred pretentiousness. The 'life crisis' in question is not only his personally, but, beyond, that of the Western world too. One is the product of the other, in fact, since two events triggered it: first, the publication of the Mohamad's caricatures in a Danish newspaper back in 2005, when the reactions stemming from the Left ('fear disguised as tolerance, censorship disguised as restraint') led him to write this book; then, and above all, 9/11, another event which caused stunning reactions from the Left too:

'what these reactions had in common weren't their complexity but their simplicity. For all, it was a matter of dispossessed striking the powerful, oppressed striking their oppressors, of rebels against imperialists. It was Han Solo and Luke Skywalker against Darth Vader. There was no serious attempt to try and explain what kind of power they wanted to exert, or upon whom they wanted to exert it, and no one even thought about questioning in the name of what authority these suicidal killers had been designated as the voice of the oppressed.'

Such reactions, coupling anti-imperialism with anti-Americanism to the point of victimising the murderous culprits, turning jihadists into freedom fighters at the complete expense of their victims, let alone their true goals and ideology, were for him symptomatic. He saw it as being the sign of 'a kind of typical atrophy of moral faculties, born out of prolonged use of fixed ideas preventing anyone suffering from it to acknowledge a new paradigm when presented with such'. Does it mean that the Left remained stuck into an obsolete view of the world as it was back during the Cold War era?

He starts indeed by noting that those denouncing the USA and who tried to rationalise jihadism (portraying its adherents as 'victims' of imperialism) are also those among the more willing to ignore crimes which were committed by the Left itself. Noam Chomsky is a case in point, he who defended Pol Pot but has now made out of his criticism against American Imperialism his new battle; as are others who defended then 'communists' regimes, but are now excusing away Human Rights abuses in China in the name of cultural relativism, or, clearly, don't have as much time nor energy to spare denouncing socialist dictatorships (e.g. North Korea) as they have when it comes to condemn the USA's foreign policies. Is that a coincidence?

The world has changed for sure. Yet, as his personal experience reflects, Andrew Anthony sees in here a whole mindset which, from communism to Islamism, has just transferred itself from an era to another, subtly, but no less dangerously:

'Anti-Occidentalism is no longer about pro-communism, but about cultural relativism. It now ignores the abuses perpetrated against women and homosexuals, legitimises superstitions, mocks secularism, despises the values embodied by the Philosophes, and defines religious terrorism as being the simple product of Western brutality. Such form of denial might not be as extreme as the negation of the gulags, but it is rooted in the same instinct -the naive preference for a group or ideas opposed to liberal democracy.'

At the national level, he then denounces such cultural relativism which, in the UK, fed a multicultural society with terrible consequences. He deals for example with 'islamophobia', a concept conveniently protecting extremists while undermining freedom of opinions and freedom of speech. He also criticises the victimhood culture, serving an overall de-responsibilisation toxic for society as a whole.

Beyond the UK, he illustrates his arguments by focusing on key personalities -mocking the clown Michael Moore, retelling the emblematic ordeal of Ayaan Hirsi Ali, or, even, defending Christopher Hitchens. He also delves upon the war in Irak and its controversies, in chapters truly worth a read.

The thing is, if he acknowledges that if some arguments put then forward to oppose it were relevant, the fact remains that most of its opponents were motivated first and foremost by anti-Americanism, leading them to defend even a dictator and/ or dabble with dubious people. Georges Galloway is, here, yet another typical figure used to make a point. Beyond such quarrels, though, one has to reckon:

'the Bush administration can be accused of having betrayed democracy in Irak. The same accusations cannot be thrown against the leading anti-war movements, since they didn't support democracy in the first place.'

It's a fascinating book, impossible to put down, through which the author brilliantly balances his own personal journey with that of the West. Sure, the dangerous and counterproductive nonsense he denounces are not the privilege of the Left. But, since his goal was to target only his political family, such a questioning and reassessment is a great insight. Highly recommended! show less