But even with that caveat, there is a small part of me that is disappointed in his latest book The Tyranny of Clichés.  Don’t get me wrong, it is a quick, entertaining and informative book; full of useful arguments, insights and food for thought.  At its most basic it is a challenge to conservatives to fight back and not allow the left in this country to continue to make lazy, ideological loaded statements and arguments in the name of pragmatism and a fake “just the facts, ma’am” attitude.

For more on the book’s message and arguments, and on my rather subtle disappointment, keep reading.

First the sense of disappointment.  Here is the thing.  I am a intellectual history nerd.  I love the battle of ideas and the war of words and a host of other – yes – cliches that we use when we talk about intellectual history and public engagement with worldviews and arguments.  I thought Liberal Fascism was a powerful piece of historical push back.  As I said at the time:

I found Liberal Fascism to be an interesting read and one that forces you to understand and wrestle with many of the fundamental political issues of the twentieth century and their implications for today.

It bugs me that many attempt to dismiss Jonah as a joke teller and try to dismiss his success as a fluke (or worse connect it to his mother).  Jonah is a serious writer who wrestles with important issues that lie at the heart of so many of our political, cultural and societal problems.  He understands the rot at the heart of liberalism and yet the unwillingness of so many to deal with the actual intellectual, philosophical and historical truths at the root of this problem.

Yes, he enjoys and is engaged with and knowledgeable about popular culture.  Yes, he is funny and doesn’t take himself all that seriously.  But he is much more than pull my finger or woman’s prison flick jokes.

But Jonah has admitted the voice he enjoys writing with, and that most reflects his personality, is closer to The Tyranny of Cliches (TOC) than Liberal Fascism.  Which frustrates me somewhat because there so much potential depth and intellectual heft involved in Jonah’s thesis yet this book really just skims the surface.

But you know what? If Jonah took the time and hard work to write a detailed, flushed out more academic style book about the cliches and deceptions that underly contemporary liberalism few would probably read it and its impact would be much smaller.  This is in many ways a problem of popular perception and so perhaps that is where the battle must be fought.  But I would have loved a more fully geeked-out version. Just sayin’ …

So what is TOC about? Basically, it is about how the left seeks to sneak in ideology, and poor thinking, by laying claim to science, pragmatism, rationality and just plain goodness via an assortment of cliches, catch phrases and pithy statements.

As Jonah explains

Pragmatism is the disguise progressives and other ideologues don when they want to demonize competing ideologies.

For Goldberg ideology is not an insult.  Everyone has an ideology.  Whether you call it a worldview or first principles or fundamental assumptions or political philosophy or framework or whatever, we all start somewhere when we seek to make decisions, make policy or judge actions and outcomes. This is ideology.

Perhaps contra Russell Kirk, and other in the traditionalist or Burkean school, modern conservatives embrace ideology (at least of this type).  We argue about conservatism versus libertarianism, about paleocons versus neocons, about Ayn Rand versus William F. Buckley, about Kirk versus Frank Meyer (OK maybe just me on this one), etc.  We pride ourselves on arguing from bedrock principles and ideas.

The left in contrast is supposedly about what works.  Study the facts and find the solution, right?

Hogwash, says Goldberg. Progressives have a deep-and often dark-intellectual history that continues to influence their thought and policy prescriptions to this day.  But those roots don’t sell quite as well today, and they have some larger implications that the public might not accept, so the left chucks it all in the closet and pretends it doesn’t exist.

The point of TOC, in my opinion, is to help conservatives recognize this history and behavior and engage the left, forcing them to own their history and admit their ideology. I also think there are a few lessons for the right in the book.

First, both history and ideas matter.  Conservatives must be ever vigilant in defending their ideas and history from the encroachment of these liberal urban legends.  In chapter after chapter Jonah shows how these concepts and catch phrases are built on faulty history and ideological bias.  The historical background has been so warped as to produce a meaning in public discourse that is the exact opposite of what actually happened and was intended.

Philosophical Pragmatism is ideology not mere practicality or trial and error; Social Darwinism has no connection to conservatism and never did; Social Justice has come to mean the opposite of what it was intended to convey and is now an ideological trojan horse used to indoctrinate students; the Catholic Church in fact has a long history of fighting for the dignity of human beings and the defense of civilization not the destruction of science and freedom; on and on it goes.

Conservatives must know this history and be able to communicate it to the public so as to change their perceptions.  We must be able to tell stories that emotionally connect so as to tear down the default liberal assumptions of so much of popular culture and political debate.  You can’t assume that your ideas and the actual history of issues are known and understood.  We must not just attack the left but build on own story and tell our own history.

And a related point, and a cautionary one, is that self-deception is dangerous and damaging.  Seems like common sense but it is important.  Jonah argues that the underlying root of the tyranny of cliches is that these are the lies the left tells itself.  This has not led to an intellectually robust and dynamic movement but instead to a flabby, and in many aways viciously reactionary and often vulgar, movement that seeks a soft despotism of state involvement in every aspect of people’s lives all in the name of “solving problems” and “helping people” (hello Liberal Fascism).

What the right must do is reach the public with the message that things are not so simple and pretending they are leads to bad policy and bad outcomes.  A massive welfare state leads to dependence and dysfunctional families not a utopian community; sometime violence is needed and avoiding it quite often leads to even more violent and widespread suffering; an ideological and rigid belief in diversity as a good in and of itself leads to discrimination, closed minds and mediocrity not social uplift; there is such a thing as too much democracy and unity at the expense of freedom and individuality is dangerous a common tool of tyranny.

The simple message underneath is lazy thought leads to bad things.  This is a deeply conservative viewpoint – life isn’t as simple as you think it is and can’t be controlled and planned through willpower and good intentions.  In a humorous and engaging way, TOC forces you to unpack and re-think some of the fundamental cliches of our time.  And to see the base stealing the left is engaged in every day.  Conservatives must challenge and seek to overthrow this default position.  But they must also guard against engaging in equally damaging simplification and self-deception.

Perhaps, that could be Jonah’s next book …

Related articles

• Jonah Goldberg on The Tyranny of Cliches (collectedmiscellany.com)

Pejman Yousefzadeh and I talked with Dr. Rosen about his timely and interesting book, how to recognize tech addictions, and how to lessen any unhealthy dependency that we may have on technology.

Listen to the podcast.

Related articles

• Is the Obsession with Devices a Sickness? (bits.blogs.nytimes.com)
• Off the Shelf: In ‘iDisorder,’ a Look at Mobile-Device Addiction – Review (nytimes.com)

Listen here.

Despite its seemingly philosophical and analytical nature, this is a subject of some importance in my mind.  The Right simply must find better ways to address concerns about justice and fairness – mere reactionary impulses won’t work.

Listen to the podcast here.

Listen to the podcast.

Listen here.

So when I stumbled upon Kicking at the Darkness: Bruce Cockburn and the Christian Imagination by Brian J. Walsh I was immediately intrigued.  It turned out to be a thoughtful, insightful and engaging work.  It is not light reading by any means and have a post-modern bent, but longtime fans of Cockburn will want to dive into this book.

More after the jump.

Here is the publishers blurb:

For forty years, singer and songwriter Bruce Cockburn has been writing beautifully evocative music. Bestselling author and respected theologian Brian Walsh has followed Cockburn’s work for years and has written and spoken often on his art. In this creative theological and cultural engagement, Walsh reveals the imaginative depth and uncompromising honesty of the artist’s Christian spirituality. Cockburn offers hope in the midst of doubt, struggle, failure, and anger; indeed, the sentiment of “kicking at the darkness” is at the heart of his spirituality. This book engages the rich imagery of Cockburn’s lyrics as a catalyst for shaping and igniting a renewed Christian imagination.

As noted above, if you are a fan of Bruce Cockburn this is a must read book. Walsh explores Cockburn’s lyrics with depth and insight. Despite the fact that I have some rather serious disagreements with Walsh’s politics (he fails to wrestle with the contributions and failings of free markets and accepts some caricatures of President Bush, etc.), I really enjoyed the way he provocatively explored Cockburn’s work through the eyes of scripture and faith. He examines Cockburn as a prophetic voice and psalmist offering laments and praise in equal measure.

If you are not a fan of Cockburn, or familiar with his work, I am not sure you would enjoy the book quite as much or be able to make the connections. But if you are interested in the intersection music, faith and art Walsh still offers some interesting conceptions of how we view the world and how music and art engage and inform that worldview.

My only complaint is that the book can get rather dense and seems maybe a tad too long. Some familiarity with philosophy, particularly with a post-modern perspective, is probably needed to appreciate Walsh’s style and arguments.

It is not necessarily a quick or easy read but there is a lot to appreciate and think about in this volume of critical engagement and imagination.

One such example is The Gospel According to Tim by Joseph Bottum – a Kindle Single that I read a week or so back.

Here is blurb:

What’s there left to say about Tim Tebow? He’s brilliant and appalling, inspiring and annoying–a straightforward young man who somehow played and prayed his way into being the most enigmatic figure in American sports.

In the essay-length Kindle Single “The Gospel According to Tim,” Joseph Bottum argues that Tebow strikes a nerve because he has slipped beyond all the usual categories of our wink-and-nudge culture of irony. And he’s done that mostly by being simply who he is: not a football-playing theologian but, in essence, a mystic:

“Isn’t that what everyone who has met Tebow does? Believe in him, I mean: believe that he’s for real. The young man is drunk on charity, in the same way he’s drunk on the endorphins that race through his body during his strenuous daily workouts. In the same way he’s drunk on the excitement of winning and losing football games before roaring crowds. In the same way he’s drunk on what the medieval mystics used to call “the gift of tears,” weeping easily and often. In the same way he’s drunk on his constant conversation with the Lord, referring all his victories and all his losses up to heaven.

“Tim Tebow isn’t a Christian theologian. He’s a Christian mystic — intoxicated, as all mystics are, with God. He’s King David, dancing in the joy of his youth before the Ark of the Covenant.”

This is one of those blurbs that really captures the entire book in a few paragraphs. Bottum basically argues that Tebow did not force his faith on the country but rather the country created its own obsession.  And Tebow is a polarizing figure because he is a true believer who is sincere and lacking in guile and hipster irony you expect from a celebrity not matter their faith.

Bottum is a great writer and it is a fascinating subject.  Plus, for a dollar the risk is so low as to be non-existent.  If you have an interest in the intersection of popular culture and faith this is an essay worth reading; a balanced and useful corrective to much of the hyperventilating about Tim Tebow.

Related articles

• Dakota Christmas (Kindle Single) by Joseph Bottum (collectedmiscellany.com)

I have been taking advantage of this development to read some interesting e-books from a variety of genres and authors.  And over the next few days I want to take a moment to offer my quick impressions of these shorter works.

First up is a e-book that was actually free: The Flinch by Julien Smith.

A book so important we refuse to charge for it.

Julien Smith has delivered a surprise, a confrontation, a book that will push you, scare you and possibly stick with you for years to come.

The idea is simple: your flinch mechanism can save your life. It short circuits the conscious mind and allows you to pull back and avoid danger faster than you can even imagine it’s there.

But what if danger is exactly what you need?

What if facing the flinch is the one best way to get what you want?

Here’s a chance to read the book everyone will be talking about, before they do.

What are you afraid of? Here’s how to find out.

I saw this on Twitter and decided to check it out. After all, it was free.  It turned out to be a sort of digital pep talk.  It has an interesting hook and some useful challenges even if it is somewhat repetitive.

I think your reaction depends on a lot on your worldview, perspective, place in life, etc. Reading the reviews you can see that some people thought it was BS while others found it very helpful. I think it is a bit of both. If you need a pep talk to get you out of your rut and start thinking about achieving the things you have always claimed you would, this can be a helpful book.

I think it can be a useful way to realize that success isn’t going to be easy for most people and if you are constantly hesitating and avoiding risk you are unlikely to achieve all that much.

On the other hand there is a lot of repetition and pop psychology that will turn a lot of folks off.

It is not the greatest thing I have ever read but I think it was a helpful wake up call of sorts for me heading into 2012.

But again, it doesn’t cost a thing so what it the risk?

Related articles

• Flinch Harder (chrisbrogan.com)
• The Flinch – A Dangerous Read (cc-chapman.com)