Rating: 
Summary: Normal assumption of democratic government
Review: Bork's endorsement of censorship is especially troubling. In 1917, Learned Hand wrote that "it would contradict the normal assumption of democratic government that the suppression of hostile criticism does not turn upon the justice of its substance or the decency and propriety of its temper." Hand's finding confirms that free speech is an essential safeguard to democratic government, and therefore that limits upon the exercise of free speech, beyond advocacy that it is one's duty or interest to violate the law, impact the viability of democratic rule. This is not a critique from "liberalism", but an observation on the nature of democratic government. I suppose that, as Bork suggests, government (maybe even an enlightened form of government) could survive if dissenting speech were suppressed. But that is not the constitution we have. Following Mr. Justice Holmes, I believe that our constitution is based upon implicit recognition that "time has upset many fighting faiths ... and that the ultimate good desired is better reached by free trade in ideas." To that end, I think Bork's advocacy of censorship bears paplpable risks to democratic government.
Rating: 
Summary: Thoughtful and concise
Review: This excellent treatment of modern culture by the best legal mind in existance is salient and prophetic.
Rating:
Summary: The Title Says It All
Review: Mr. Bork's book is a collection of conservative platitudes based in idiology rather than logic. One need look no further than the title which is a twisted paraphrase of the line from William Butler Yeat's poen "The Second Coming." In his poem first published in 1922, Yeats is referring to the anarchial conditions of society at the time of the first world war when "The blood-dimmed tide is loosed." Faced wtih the world appearing to have gone mad, Yeats sees a vision wherein the "rough beast, its hour come round at last, Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born." This "beast" is the dreaded agent of God's wrath to be loosed upon the world where "The best lack all conviction, while the worst Are full of passionate intensity." Whether it's Christ or Anti-christ, the beast is God's work. Bork however, also apparently lacking all conviction and full of passionate intensity, turns the imagery of the poem topsy turvey and sees the beast, not as the handiwork of God whose hour has come at last, but as "a monster of decadence, a plague several generations in gestation, and we, as a nation, are now slouching, not towards Bethlehem, but towards Gomorrah." In other words, by casting the poem's problem, "Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold; Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world," into the role of the "rough beast" he has lost the entire meaning of the poem and its sence of dred at the second coming. This is just one example of Mr. Bork's mixed metaphors of biblical origin which illustrate his confused analysis. ...
Rating:
Summary: Required Reading 101
Review: Don't listen to the avalanche of liberalist criticism; buy the book, read it, and heed Bork's warnings. In spite of what his critics will certainly identify as vituperative right-wing ideology, Bork is right on almost every count. Bork's "harsh attack" on liberalism is every bit as justified as the unprecedented and unwarranted assault made by radical students on the American "establishment" of the '60s & '70s.
Rating:
Summary: God smiled while Judge Bork was writing this book
Review: Spanking the liberals and putting to bed.
Rating:
Summary: Searching For a Remnant to Repulse the Barbarians
Review: I once almost had a physical encounter with the author of "Slouching Toward Gomorrah". One night while walking through Lambert Airport in St. Louis, I turned to find myself face to face with Robert Bork, burdened with two suitcases. At least I knew where I was going. From the look on his face I am not sure that he was as well oriented. In "Slouching Toward Gomorrah" I had an encounter with the mind of Robert Bork. This is one of those books which gradually builds and then pulls it altogether at the end. When I began the book I was wondering if its thrust would be legal or political. I could not make up my mind until the last section, at which time I determined what type of a book it is. It is a book about culture. It is the voice of an intellectual conservative who knows what is worth saving in American culture and understands the liberal assault being made against it. In the beginning, Bork relates some of his experiences as a conservative in academia. He describes in detail some of the assaults by the left led by those who substitute feelings for thought and who try to rewrite history to conform it to their preconceived conclusions. Bork then goes on to describe the forces assaulting American culture. He dates the start of the assault from the Port Huron Statement of 1962 which became the Charter of the radical leftist movement. He explains that, whereas there was once a common core of beliefs which held American culture together, that core of beliefs has fallen under incessant liberal attack Step by step, Bork goes analyzes the evils arising from the assault on American culture. He makes a case for censorship of vulgarity in order to prevent a descent into a brutalized and chaotic culture. He goes on to explain how the rise of crime and illegitimacy resulted from the decline in American culture. Abortion, euthanasia and assisted suicide are shown for what they really are, "Killing for Convenience". The assault from radical feminists and on racial questions is deftly exposed. Bork then proceeds to delve into the effect the leftist assault has had on the churches before examining the wistful leftist hope to remake human nature. Throughout the analysis of the problems of the modern era, Bork examines how the dominance of the left has come, not from converting the masses, but from converting the traditional conservators of the cultural heritage. He points out that a relatively small proportion of the population, which controls academia, the media and the courts, have used their power to promote the implementation of the leftist agenda. At the end, Bork confronts the crucial questions, of whether democratic government can survive this assault and whether America can avert Gommorah. While recognizing that there is strong justification for pessimism, Bork also sees some reasons for optimism. On the political front, he sees the attack on democratic government in the form of a Supreme Court which has taken adopted the practice of imposing its wishes as constitutional law. In so doing, it effectively removes ever larger segments of public policy from the realm of the democratic process. Shifts in political control have not reversed, or even arrested this trend. The remedy proposed by Judge Bork is a constitutional amendment which would subject the decisions of the Supreme Court to democratic review. On the wider question of whether or not America can avoid Gommorah, Bork seems to feel that the jury is still out. Throughout much of the book, he has been telling us how the Left has succeeded in gaining control of the cultural elite. This power grab has left us with a society in which the shared virtues which made America a unified and successful society have been in headlong retreat for 30 years. Much like the era of the Barbarian invasions, bastions culture and civilization has been swept away by the waves of assault. In an earlier era, the destruction of the Roman culture seemed complete to the contemporary observer. What only became apparent later was that a remnant of that culture was preserved in the most isolated outposts of monastic life in the west of Ireland. From islands of culture, such as Skellig Michael, seven miles off the Irish coast, arose a renaissance which restored Western Culture at the end of the Dark Ages. Despite the apparent victory of the Left in America, Bork sees a similar preservation of traditional values and culture in American society. He thinks that there are signs of a cultural renaissance occurring in America today. Whether it will be strong enough to reclaim the battlefield of the recent culture wars remains to be seen. It is a struggle in which all must play our parts.
Rating:
Summary: Rants from the right, rants from the wrong
Review: This is a piece of garbage from a whining right-winger that repeats the same old Republican platitudes about how America is falling into decay because of liberal values taking over and destroying the traditional structures and institutions on which our country was founded and has pride, etc. etc. etc. I don't understand what the great deal over this one book is when there's so little that's novel in here. Bork not only condemns things like homosexuality that there's nothing wrong with, but goes so far as to twist the meanings of words by saying that *liberalism* leads to -- are you ready for this -- "oppression". That's right, condemning two men because they love each other or condemning a woman because she wants to have equal authority to a man and do anything a man can do isn't oppression, but according to this guy, liberalism *is* oppression! And the author needs to get his facts right. He says that the world is in a terrible shape when the president's [alleged] relationship with Paula Jones is condoned, but he would have been creamed in any other era! Clinton was acquited because there wasn't sufficient proof that he HAD been sexually harrassing Paula Jones; it was even Paula Jones herself who pulled out of the sexual harrassment lawsuit she had started. And other eras? Gee, I sure don't think JFK got into any trouble for what he *did* do with all his little...female acquaintances. As usual with most pieces of pseudointellectual conservative tripe like this, Robert Bork devotes a heck of a lot of the book to trashing America's youth. He keeps saying that kids today are all so rotten, that all we do is live in a world full of guns and gangs and violent entertainment. This guy thinks that just because kids are exposed to movies with guns and rape, they're all being turned into heartless bloodthirsty animals. He bashes pop culture and those evil liberals who create it about 2,400,000 times across the book. He pouts that there's no artistic merit in Madonna and that all her music does is promote immorality. Think, people, when you watch Madonna videos on MTV, does it make YOU think, "Oh, I've got to do what the messages say. This song has told me it's AOK to turn this planet into an evil Abaddon, and I'll do so."? Here is another oh-no-it's-the-end-of-civilization! excuse for insulting my generation that goes over the usual laundry list and rhetoric like everything else of its ilk. Don't even bother picking it up off the bookstore stand to read its blurb.
Rating:
Summary: A Legal Brief Against Liberalism
Review: Bork will certainly be remembered in history with his publicized Supreme Court confirmation hearing. Many of us as other reviewers of this book have stated were brought through this media covered confirmation to the realization that our justice system was shifting from interpreting the law to creating the law by interpretation. We've now seen this come to the fruitful realization by the Florida Supreme Court's day in the media spotlight recently. Bork presents argument after argument for liberalism spilling its way into cultural segments by presenting substantial data to back up his hypotheses. Cross examine the witness? It's a great read! Major surprise to this reader was how much he stuck on the illigetimate children for the country's ills. Makes one think! Will be a classic!
Rating:
Summary: A Sober Analysis and a Prophetic Warning
Review: I had always known that America was on a moral down slide, but I didn't understand the root causes in much detail until I read this book. Keeping in mind the maxim that heresies survive by the truths they retain, it is disheartening to realize how the lofty ideals of liberty and equality, the twin gems of the American Revolution, have been so perversely distorted and misapplied in this century. Robert Bork has hit the nail right on the head. Liberty and equality are wonderful ideals in certain contexts and to a certain degree, but if taken too far and misapplied in a distorted, illogical way, they can have the ironic effect of producing their opposites: oppression and preferences, both doled out by government. I suppose it all depends on how you look at it. Robert Bork is controversial. You don't have to agree with everything he writes, but you have to admit that he makes you think.
Rating:
Summary: an example of borkian reasoning
Review: a supreme court / robert bork? / my oh my / gouge out my eyes / with a spork
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