Worth reading: Benjamin Wiker “Ten books that broke the world. In addition, 5 others have helped this”

Benjamin Wiker doesn't beat around the bush. In his book “Ten books that ruined the world. In addition, 5 others who helped this” hit the foundations of modern liberal-secular thinking. He chooses 15 titles that he believes had a devastating effect on Western civilization. Without illusions and without political correctness, he analyses authors specified as Machiavelli, Hobbes, Rousseau, Marx, Nietzsche, Hitler, Freud or Margaret Sanger.

Wiker makes his theories clear: ideas have consequences. Very real. Each of the authors, in his opinion, contributed to the erosion of the moral foundations of Western society. This is not just about intellectual errors, but about how these ideas have been put into practice, frequently with tragic effect. “The lesson that flows — or at least should be drawn — from specified an epic demolition is this: erstwhile we let ourselves to do evil in the name of an imagined good, in time we let ourselves to become more and more evil in the name of increasingly questionable purposes, until we yet agree to the top evil for the very trivial things.”

This is not a world-view neutral position. Wiker writes from the position of a conservative Catholic and does not hide it for a moment. For any readers, this will be a disadvantage, for others, a virtue. But it is crucial that his criticism is not just emotional. The author operates with facts, historical analysis and logical reasoning.

In particular, his critic Alfred Kinsey and the sexual revolution sound strongly. “Because everything looked so technological and people wanted to hear it, Kinsey’s pseudoscience became the foundation of the sexual revolution, utilized in both courts and schools to push the limitless sexual revolution that began in the 1960s and continues to this day. This revolution will not end until it has overturned all sexual boundaries, which means it will not be complete until it extinguishes all opposition from which Christianity is greatest."

The reading of this book is not only an intellectual polemic with ideas, but besides an incentive to reflect on the foundations of social order. Even if we do not agree with all Wiker thesis, it is worth confronting his gaze and asking the question: were all the ideas that shaped modernity truly good?

“Ten books...” is an unpopular voice, but needed. In a planet where we are increasingly afraid to ask extremist questions, Wiker proposes a brave look back and a reflection on where we have come from.