Rating: 
Summary: A scary book by a scary man
Review: I give this book two stars instead of one because it was fun to read in a grotesque sort of way. I don't recall another book since Allan Bloom's "Closing of the American Mind" that was so very disagreeable. When Bork was nominated for the Supreme Court, his critics were accused of exaggerating his views. If this book had been out back then, there would have been no need to exaggerate. I suppose I can't blame Bork. His name has become a verb - "to overwhelm and devastate." The St. Louis Rams Borked the NFC last year. He's probably also jealous that Clarence Thomas was confirmed and he wasn't. So to work out his frustrations, to good judge has created a right-wing fantasy. Did I read it wrong or is the essence of this book that the Constitution has outlived its usefulness and the Supreme Court (sans Bork) no longer has a place in our democracy? Conservatives worried that their views have become too extreme should read this book to feel like moderates. Liberals who have begun to question their political orientation should read it and question no more. Moderates should read it and leap quickly leftward off the fence. I almost forgot horror fans - they should read it too. "Slouching Towards Gomorrah" is more horrifying than anything Stephen King can possibly imagine.
Rating: 
Summary: Right on!
Review: Robert Bork is one of the few real conservatives left who knows what he is talking about and knows how to support it with facts! I found the book a bit hard to read sometimes but I have fully understood the implications and thoughts that he tried to get across. Not only does this book make sense to the logical thinker, but Bork presents his case so strongly that I cannot find a reason how anyone can think differently. Those who have had a dissenting opinion about this book are obviously liberal (whether left-wing liberals or libertarian liberals). I recommend anyone, who has the time and a dictionary next to them, to read this book. I shutter to think of where our country will go when men like Ronald Reagan, Robert Bork and James Dobson pass from this world.
Rating:
Summary: A big difference in Liberalism and Modern Liberalism
Review: This book shows the differences in morality-based liberalism and modern liberalism which is based in nothing less than radical individualism. "If it feels good, do it." I urge people thinking about buying this book to go ahead with your purchase and read it. I was amazed at how some of the negative reviews here call Bork's case for censorship "shocking" and "scary". I can't think of a better example of how people on that side of the argument would rather scream and scare people away from rational debate. Bork bends over backwards before presenting his argument to give his true belief that censorship is a scary thought but then gives examples of cases where it might be the only solution to saving our society. Anyone who would dismiss as "shocking" or "scary" a call for censorship in the case of child rape and mutilation has some serious problems.
Rating: 
Summary: A must read for every concerned American
Review: I read through the reviews before I bought the book and was a little concerned that maybe the negative reviews indicated a certain ambiguity of the message, but after completing the book I couldn't reccomend it more highly! The message is clear and the messenger is right on. This great country is teetering on the brink of total chaos and only with the utmost understanding and promt action can it be saved. Judge Bork is right- whether liberalism is benign or malignant it is destroying the body and must be excised. Please read it and pass it on- preferably to a liberal.
Rating:
Summary: Describes Impact of Traditional Liberalism Turned Radical
Review: Judge Bork does a superb job of describing the various elements of destruction that have arisen from the application of modern liberalism to American society. He also offers best and worst case scenarios for the future of the Republic if the current trends continue. Bork makes it clear that he speaks not of the traditional liberalism exercised by the Founding Fathers but rather an ideological departure from that tradition that has hijacked and bastardized the name. The modern form of liberalism consists of radical egalitarianism, which inherently requires a coercive State. It also consists of a radical individualism that corrodes institutions of restraint (i.e. family, religion, etc.) eventually leading to a free-for-all that will require the strong hand of government to contain. The centrality and powerfulness of the State in modern liberalism is its most radical departure from traditional liberalism. Bork does not deride the successes and accomplishment of liberalism when it still possessed the goals and intentions compatible with its tradition - e.g. civil rights for minorities, suffrage for women, etc. However, it quickly evolved into an entirely different beast in the mid-to-late 1960s and has never looked back. The fact that there are currently fifty-five professed Socialists in the U.S. House of Representatives (all Democrat) is testimony to the extreme left-turn taken by those calling themselves liberal today. Bork does deride the goals, intentions, and actions of this new breed of liberal. It is virulently anti-American and anti-Western Civilization. As it has with the term "liberalism," the modern liberal has hijacked worthy causes (e.g. civil rights) and has politicized them in order to advance their radical agenda. Modern liberalism wishes to rob America of its unique heritage and to replace it with a revolutionary concept of human nature and human governance. Bork goes through the various components of society where modern liberalism has left the mark of its poison - crime, illegitimacy, welfare, abortion, assisted suicide, sex (feminism), race (racial-preferences), ethnicity (multi-culturalism), education (anti-intellectualism, post-modernism), religion, etc. While Bork is careful not to place the blame entirely on the 1960s radicals, he does point out that they were the climax of an ideological swing. The 1960s radicals are now tenured professors and hold other positions of leadership and influence. They may no longer be assaulting police officers and burning buildings, but they continue to spread their poison in institutions of higher learning, government bureaucracies, think-tanks, and on the judicial bench. The impact of their influence permeates throughout society and is manifest especially on college campuses where the students of radical professors carry the torch of anti-Americanism, anti-Europeans, anti-capitalism, anti-Western Culture, anti-white, anti-male, etc. Bork makes it clear that continuing down the current path can only spell disaster for America's future - where inter-racial, inter-gender, inter-ethnic antagonism reaches a peak of resentment and hostility leading to the breakdown of civil order. Perhaps this is what modern liberals want - a revolution to remake America in their own image and dispense with its entire heritage. But this is clearly not what most Americans want, which leads to Bork's point that the liberal radicals are a small minority of élites that have an impact totally out of proportion to their numbers. Bork offers several options for reversing the trend towards social implosion. However, he quickly reduces the choices to one that focuses on the re-assertion of institutions of order and virtue - family and religion. It is only by reviving these institutions that there may be any hope of taking the momentum out of the modern liberal onslaught. While Bork does sense a glimmer of hope in this approach, he wonders whether such an approach may merely slow the onslaught that will eventually end in the disintegration of our society and culture. This book is an absolute eye-opener to what damage has already been wrought by modern liberalism. If there is any chance at all of taming and turning back the beast, the first step is to "know thy enemy." This book serves that purpose. Hence, I recommend it to every freedom-loving American. Obviously, most liberals won't like what Bork has to say, but I think most people calling themselves liberals today have no idea what some are doing under that label. Therefore, I recommend this book to liberals as well so that they can read for themselves what liberal radicals have done and are doing to undermine American culture and society.
Rating: 
Summary: Right-wing "moralizing" at its worst.
Review: Bork's book is (inadvertently) a perfect illustration of the contradictions inherent in contemporary "conservatism". He rails against excessive libertarianism in society, but staunchly defends the laissez-faire market, with its attendant "every man for himself" call to selfishness; he feigns horror and revulsion against the vices of sex, drugs, and rock-'n'-roll, but sees nothing wrong with the affluent accumulating personal luxuries for themselves while millions starve; he indicts the federal government for overstepping its boundaries, but mounts a defense of censorship that can only be called chilling in its implications. The problem for today's conservatives is that they're really libertarians at heart; they want minimal government that will stay out of boardroom and bedroom alike. But the political utility of pandering to the prejudices and cultural obsessions of religious fundamentalists and other "social conservatives" is so great, that upper-class, corporate conservatives supress their own libertine impulses to present themselves as God-fearing, "family values" populists. It's the most disingenuous kind of bunk, and the Borks of the world know it; the breakdown of "traditional" Norman Rockwell/Frank Capra domestic culture was facilitated by the corporate imperatives of Madison Avenue than by any Berkley professor. (For further illumination of this relationship between the corporate Right and the countercultural Left, check out "Up From Conservatism" by Michael Lind. Or any book by the late Christopher Lasch, particularly "The Revolt Of The Elites".) If it's Biblical morality that you're hankering for, you have to accept scriptural injunctions against greed and materialism as well as those against sexual self-indulgence. Conversely, if you really want government out of your life, you'll have to accept that others will enjoy the same freedom to live as they please, too. But what conservative elites like Bork really want is uninhibited freedom for themselves and draconion repression for the rest of us. They need to be seen for the utter frauds that they are.
Rating:
Summary: Suitable Tonic for The Loonie Left
Review: Many of the reviewers of this book who condemn it, do so on the basis of Mr. Bork's opposition to abortion. Some take issue with his assertion that this heinous practice is contributing to the ruination of Amercia. I would challenge any one of these pragmatists, pinkos and other idiots to sit down and watch a partial-birth abortion in which a baby, half-born has a drill or knive inserted into its head, still alive. No matter what you say in defence of abortion at any stage whatsoever of pregnancy, you never be able to mount a convincing argument that it is any but the destruction of human life. Killing children two minutes before birth is no different to doing this dastardly deed after the child leaves its mother. The old arguments, from the 60's, which view abortion as nothing more than the extrication of lifeless, unwanted tissue from its mother were debunked years ago. They aren't even used anymore by people from the pro-abortion side. Their position is simple: We know it is life but we don't care, we'll kill it if we please. Triumph of the will! The mere fact that there are actually people, purporting to be of sound mind, who would not only stand for this abomination but indeed support it, is proof positive the Mr. Bork is absolutely correct in stating, in effect, that America (and Canada) is going to hell in a hand basket. Abortion is the ultimate greed: "I have no room in my life for you and I don't want to share it with you, therefore I will kill you
Rating:
Summary: Good Analysis but...
Review: I found this a very intelligent analysis of the rather disgraceful state of affairs in American culture today. Judge Bork quite accurately depicts the harm caused by half a century of leftist activism in the courts, the media and academic circles, and other such sources. Bork does believe that eliminating such activism on the part of these institution, especially the government, will help to rectify the decline of this nation. Unfortunately, Bork goes past merely critizing private propounders of leftist, immoral dogma and eliminating such radicalism from the government and the courts; in addition to these reforms, Bork also wants to impose certain forms of censorship and discouragement of certain activities by the federal government. What happened to states' rights, local rights, the tenth amendment, the free market? I can see privately promoting local ordinances, restraint on behalf of the private sector, and even state statutes to discourage immorality and defend the rights of citizens to be free from such repugnency. However, I certainly cannot see much justification for the federal government becoming involved. I, of course, do not extend this to abortion, for the right to life must be extended to all citizens and is one of the few purposes of the central government. Regardless, Bork makes some excellent points, though I wish he weren't so hostile to the free market at times (elucidated by his opposition to the Microsoft "monopoly"). A very interesting read.
Rating:
Summary: An All-Important Work
Review: Despite some stylistic awkwardness, Robert Bork has done an outstanding job detailing the disasters wrought by some 30 years of the most fatuous and pernicious social experimentation -- the deliberate and systematic dismantling of external and internal controls; the vulgarization, brutalization and dumbing down of American culture. One doesn't have to be in lock-step agreement with all of Judge Bork's views (though I do agree with him on virtually all of his analyses and conclusions) to recognize that we are indeed slouching towards Gomorrah. The good judge has sounded a clarion call -- loud and clear. Do we have the courage and wisdom to heed it? Highly recommended.
Rating: 
Summary: Anti-science comments ruin the book
Review: While America needs to be reminded that it is "Slouching Towards Gomorrah," Bork's comments on evolution undermine his credibility as the messenger. His intent to promote religion at the expense of science does a disservice to both. Most major religions have come to accept evolution as the method by which their creator creates life. Pope John Paul II, in particular, has commented on the "convergence, neither sought nor fabricated" of evidence from many fields of study, for which evolution is the only reasonable explanation. America may be "Slouching Towards Gomorrah," but creationists who would rather spread ignorance than understand science are not the solution, but part of the problem.
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