WILLIAM GAIRDNER has published a dozen books, a half-dozen journal articles, and hundreds of insightful essays online. As a consequence, many eager to read his work, are not sure where to begin. Disruptive Essays was created to help them. It is what some call a 'Reader, ’ offering a fascinating and varied selection from his bestselling books, articles, and blogs. The disruptive title was chosen because, as Gairdner warns: ’There Are No Safe Spaces In This Book!’ It’s only for those who enjoy deeply-deployed, tough arguments on a wide range of politically-incorrect topics, from the failures of socialism, to the falsities of feminism, to the folly of gay marriage, to the many popular illusions about, well, almost everything. Yes, everything. Readers will come face to face with the perhaps fatal weaknesses of democracy, with Karl Marx, with Lance Armstrong, Rousseau, Hitler, Mill, and Nabokov, and with the broader case for why Liberals and Conservatives will never, ever agree. And more: with the attack on traditional marriage, with sexing society, with objections to global warming, with the war between Christianity and Islam, with moral relativism, and with how there are six kinds of freedom, not just one. This is a book for those keen to challenge themselves with the clarity and controversy of no-holds-barred debate.
Spis treści
PART 1 – On Politics, Society, and Government
• How Popular Illusions Produce Public Ignorance
• Democracy, and The “Anti-Polis”
• Hell No, Quebec Can’t Go! (Repeat … Repeat … Repeat)
• Conservatism In A Nutshell
• The Senate, and The Tyranny of The Majority
• A Shock Sheet on Canada
Part 2 – On Sex, Feminism, and All That
• Religion, Sex, and The City
• Rethinking Lolita: Why Beautiful Writing Cannot Make the Ugly Beautiful
• If You Want Pure Egalitarian Democracy, You Have to Kill Babies
• The Daycare Temptation: Sacrificing the Wellbeing of Children For $$$.
PART 3 – On The Family, Gender, and Innate Sex Differences
• Sexing Society
• Sex, Brain Sex, and Evolution Theory
• The Family Is A Democracy? (Get Ready to Lose the Election)
• Killing Marriage Trigger Warning: For All LBGTQers, etc., etc, . etc.,
• Restoring the Pro-Family State (A Rescue Kit)
PART 4 – On Culture, and More
• Deep Culture, Skin-Deep Culture, and Sushi
• Why Liberals and Conservatives Will Never, Ever Agree
• Tom Wolfe, and “The Kingdom of Speech”
• Lance Armstrong and the Sport of Lying
• Global Warming (& Cooling) In A Nutshell
• The Constants of Nature
PART 5 – On Democracy, Libertarian-Socialism, & Micro-Fascism (Really)
• How Rousseau Might As Well Have Started WW II
• What Happened When John Stuart Mill Fell in Love With Poetry & Another Man’s Wife
• The Triumph of Will Over Nature
PART 6 – On Islam and Islamism
• Charlie Hebdo & The War of the Gods
• What Kind of Islam Is It? The Sooner We Figure This Out, The Better
• Why The Gods of Islam and Christianity Aren’t The Same
PART 7 – On Freedom
• On Libertarian-Socialism: How Liberal-Democracy Overcame Its Own Contradiction
• Six Kinds of Freedom
• Some Paradoxes of Freedom: The Will to Control, to Obey, and To Be Free
PART 8 – On Relativism & Universalism
• Anthropology & The New Universalism
• Universal Moral Beliefs
PART 9 – On Christianity, Democracy, & The Roots of “Political Religions”
• Democracy, and the Politics of Perfection
• Marx’s “True Democracy”
• Hitler’s “True Democracy”
O autorze
As a young athlete, Bill competed in the decathlon at the Pan-Am Games in Brazil and at the Olympic Games in Tokyo in 1964, and then in two Commonwealth Games (Jamaica, 1966, and Edinburgh, 1970), in the 400 metre hurdles event. After earning a Ph D from Stanford University, he taught English Literature at York University, then pursued a career in business, from which he retired in 1988 to devote his time to writing. In quick succession he produced a string of bestselling books, including The Trouble With Canada, The War Against The Family, The Book of Absolutes, and Canada’s Founding Debates – an historical landmark. His most recent is The Great Divide: Why Liberals and Conservatives Will Never, Ever Agree.
Blog: www.williamgairdner.ca Twitter: @williamgairdner