Ideas Have Consequences

Rating:
Summary: Weaver is right about many things but wrong too.
Review: I admire the conviction of Mr. Weaver for attempting to diagnose what he considers to be the social ills affecting the west in the 20th century. It is often stated that history is simply progressive and that we should welcome reform for its inevitability. But principled conservatives have been arguing for generations that the reformist impulse is exactly that, an impulse. Perhaps we should be content to allow society to function without so many legal prescriptions and enable man to function as best he can, without the coercive influence of governmental fiat. Edmund Burke argued that the best things cannot be told, that constitutions may attempt to distill natural law and reflect the will of the divine; yet words and jurisprudence limit the universality of what is divine. Weaver follows this line of thinking and injects many of his own insights that help one understand so abstract a concept.

But Weaver is also, in my purview, mistaken. He criticizes jazz as an artform apparently lacking "a harmonious equilibrium between reason and sentiment." He draws this from an admonishment by one of jazz's defenders who argues that "jazz has no need of intelligence; it needs only feeling." This seems to me to be a poor justification for his critique. I also believe he overlooks the reason for jazz. Sentiment, oppression, the desire for hope and optimism under the most trying of circumstances brought about the "spiritual," so common in churches both black and white throughout the south. Man's desire to be closer to God was expressed in song and relied heavily upon feeling, but to call it simply feeling is to deny the very divine impulse many are so loath to define. Weaver is offering us a contradiction. He condemns an artform that relies on sentiment but does not bother to ask what the roots of the sentiment are. Because jazz was nurtured in the "dives of New Orleans" does not an artform unmake. Protest literature, artistic inspiration, and the trials of the saints all emerged from adverse circumstances.

Weaver also must not have been very acquainted with the sophistication of jazz, how musicians examined how the rules of music could be extended to render new sounds and new tonal, modal, and chordal ideas. Had he lived beyond the early 1950's he could have become acquainted with men like John Coltrane who choose to fuse many different musical traditions, both western and non, to use jazz as a means of pursuing a very personal spiritual quest. Coltrane himself linked jazz to atomic theory and theology, searching for a universal principle linking all things in nature. Thus, I would argue, Mr. Weaver never really understood jazz: his descriptions of it fall flat.

Rating:
Summary: Compelling, Intriguing, Stimulating, and Forceful
Review: I heard quite a lot about this book so I took my time reading it lest I miss even one pearl of wisdom. The book definitely lives up to its reputation. In a nutshell, Weaver takes on the role of doctor - identifying and prescribing a cure for the ailment that had plagued (and still does) the United States, culminating in the barbaric conclusion of World War II.

Weaver meticulously describes the ailment, including the chief causes of the crisis: (1) Replacement of transcendent sentiments with utilitarianism & pragmatism; (2) Undermining senses of order and hierarchy (from liberalism/collectivism); (3) Loss of focus and an embrace of fragmentary obsessions; (4) Exercise of raw ego and self-indulgence; (5) Dereliction of media responsibility; (6) Emergence of the spoiled-child phenomena.

Despite the rather gloomy prognosis, Weaver does not leave the reader without hope. In the final three chapters, he proposes corrective actions that he believes will get America back on track away from the path of self-destruction: (1) Preserve the sanctity of private property; (2) Use of meaningful language and rhetoric; (3) Embrace notions of piety and true justice.

After the elapse of fifty years, Weaver's estimation of the crisis as well as his proposed corrective actions are as relevant and useful today as when they were first written.

I highly recommend this book to historians of American conservative thought as well as those who wish to be inspired by one of the best authors that conservatism has been blessed to have.

Rating:
Summary: Incredibly prescient and influential
Review: I read this book as a college freshman, and it was incredibly influential. Numerous times I paused, absorbing his words, shocked at how right he was.

Prof. Weaver's critique of modern culture was as relevant then as it is now. His attack on jazz music might startle the modern reader, but just consider that this music influenced early rock and roll, and while I enjoy a lot of popular music, this has ultimately given us some pretty vile music that can and does influence the way kids think. Think "gangta rap" and the sexually explicit stuff on the radio. Prof. Weaver could hear the appeal to basic urges in the rhythms of jazz music.

This type of conservatism is unfamiliar to modern political junkies. This is not capitalist, semi-libertarian Reagan conservatism. His attacks on finance capitalism, industry, technology, and comfort as the basic goal of life might almost sound like the mantra of IMF protestors and people with socialist leanings. But make no mistake: Weaver extends an olive branch (probably unintentionally) to the other side of conservatism with his focus on private property as the last surviving link to a metaphysical foundation of ethics. He didn't mean this in a materialist sense, but in the sense of being tied to a home, a family, a community.

After reading this, I highly recommend "Steps Toward Restoration: The Consequences of Richard Weaver's Ideas" to get some more perspective on the man, and how some of his ideas changed towards the end of his life. (During the height of the Cold War, his stance on individualism and capitalism softened a bit.)

Rating:
Summary: Slow Going But Worthwhile
Review: In 'Ideas Have Consequences' Professor Richard M. Weaver exposes the many pitfalls of modern liberalism and moral relativism. The book was originally written in 1948, and clearly shows the influence of then recent World War 2. All of the chapters have powerful arguments, especially "The Great Stereopticon," which exposes the propagandistic humanistic left-wing bent of the media (print, film, radio, and television) and the destruction laden on contemporary society by the different media outlets. Other important chapters are "The Spoiled-Child Psychology" (a discourse on materialism and sloth), and "The Power of the Word," a chapter on changing word usage through time and foreshadowing the destructive effects of modern 'politically correct' terminology.

This is an extremely weighty, dense book. I generally liked the contentions found within it, but found the stilted language somewhat annoying. As an example, consider this passage from the opening of the chapter titled "Piety and Justice", which is all too typical: "I would maintain that modern man is a parricide. He has taken up arms against, and has effectually slain, what former men have regarded as filial veneration." Until going to the dictionary I was unaware that a parricide was "one that murders his or her father, mother, or a close relative." Perhaps I should have known that, but my complaint is clear, reading this otherwise wonderful and informative book can be extremely tedious.

Having said that, I do recommend this book with the reservation that passages will need to be read and reread several times, and you will need to be prepared to consult a dictionary for words in English, French, German, Latin and Greek that you may not know. There are several amusing portions of the book, my favorite being the chapter in which he assaults Jazz as the music that will oversee the downfall of civilization. I only wish he could have lived to see Rap. The book as a whole is an amazingly accurate predictor of societal ills, amazing in their scope considering that it was written nearly 55 years ago.

Rating:
Summary: Prepared for philosophical shock?
Review: It's a mad, mad, world, or at least we know it is today, but in 1947, when Richard Weaver wrote this book, he knew the world was already mad and had been since the 14th century. You will be shocked to learn that the "sickly metaphysical dream" in which we live was forseen not just by this homely professor-farmer in 1947, but by the prophets and "mad men from the deserts" of our rich past. His criticisms of radio, press and motion picture hit like a hammer and shatter what was already shattered. One wonders what this brilliant man would have said about the "information superhighway"

Rating:
Summary: Incredibly prescient and influential
Review: Professor Weaver, writing in the late 1940's, clearly analyzes the cultural trends of his day. Furthermore, he translates the form of those trends into the logical consequences they would embody if left unchecked. Read this book;you will find yourself pausing ever so often to ponder the current state of our culture, as it mirrors these words written over 50 years ago. His writing and style are clear and profound. I often would find myself trying to strectch my reading times because the ideas expressed were so compelling.

Rating:
Summary: Fulfilled Prophecies
Review: Professor Weaver, writing in the late 1940's, clearly analyzes the cultural trends of his day. Furthermore, he translates the form of those trends into the logical consequences they would embody if left unchecked. Read this book;you will find yourself pausing ever so often to ponder the current state of our culture, as it mirrors these words written over 50 years ago. His writing and style are clear and profound. I often would find myself trying to strectch my reading times because the ideas expressed were so compelling.

Rating:
Summary: A most profound and concise criticism of contemporary man.
Review: Richard Weaver takes the examination of societal ills to new heights with this work. From the initial statement that modern man is a "moral idiot," to the insightful recommendations for social revision found within the closing chapter, one can only read agape before the subtle power of this stirring piece.

Mr. Burgess

Rating:
Summary: Merciless rebuttal of the modern, liberal, welfare state
Review: The conservative Russell Kirk recommends this book to all who seek answers as to why western civilization is suffering a 'cultural breakdown'in our present day. This is an excellent read for those who seek answers to those questions. Weaver's comments on the decline of western culture are as insightful as they are interesting.

Rating:
Summary: As pertinent now as it was 54 years ago
Review: The Great Stereopticon is not the latest in digital CD player technology, but the latter is a medium of the former. Prof. Weaver's book, written in the late 1940s, with a Muse of fire, is still current, because the crisis in our civilization continues, and of that he wrote. The 'Great Stereopticon' is the term that Richard Weaver uses to describe the prevading noise generated by our culture, which nearly drowns out the still, small voice of truth, goodness, and virtue. The main point of the book is that ideas, in this case bad ones, can start in motion a train of events, which as they emerge from the world of thought, produce nasty and often unintended consequences. The author traces the decline of the core vision of Western civilization to the progressive divorce of Man and Nature that began with Bacon, and which has continued, as Scientism replaced Science. The momentum of the centuries has given this set of ideas great power and unthought acceptance that is prevasive in our society. The result is the rising tide of barbarism that is engulfing us. Technological progress has done great good, but has not made us better. Without wanting to summarize the author's arguments further, this is one of the seminal works in the Conservative canon, in the Southern Agrarian tradition. The book is not long, and is arranged in stand-alone chapters, which advance Prof. Weaver's argument and form a coherent whole. It is also a quick read, and is done in a superb, flowing style that does the treasurehouse of ideas contained in it justice.