It is with reluctance that I present the next book on my list because it really should not be on any reputable list at all. Its a book that conspires not inspires, a book that itself was years too late when published, and as its even more invidious and influential now over a decade later I'm going to acknowledge it, and that I have already read it...17 years ago.
Patrick J. Buchanan, now 80, wrote the "Death of the West" in 2002, subtitled "How Dying Populations and Immigrant Invasions Imperil Our Country and Civilization" but its certainly reads like it has fully come home to roost in our present time.
I suppose it wasn't that long ago in the grand scheme of things, it was written after 9/11 after all, but 17 years is enough time though to gather dust, not adherents.
Look it, I read it because I thought the man had something to say about the direction of this country, and you will find a lot of, now dated facts, trends, policies and villains. However in the intervening 17 years I came to realize that its not so bad, as my earlier submission of readings prove.
But this is the book behind much of the anxieties and angst fueling the Trump Train. When I reflect on it all I challenge and rebuke the whole sentiment on grounds that a strong culture, a culture that is worth saving would persevere by its own strength and does not need to fear outsiders.
If the West is strong, we the people will expect them, the new people, to be strong like us. Its a little self defeating to expect that government you don't want to interfere to interfere where it may be least effective -- changing hearts and minds, or at least that's a thought I have.
I think that sometimes people have warnings that aren't necessarily as portent as they make them out to be, and that still being motivated, in the face of dissuasive arguments to the contrary, that the message of the book is a rallying cry still today is a disappointing use of one's life.
Its the false sense of insecurities of an 80 year old man, who is still rallying crowds, that underlies the false sense of insecurities of far too many young people.
Trump, himself, saw through it way back then. Think about that for a moment, Trump saw through it, He didn't buy it. Are you following me?
But if the sentiments of Trump today, and Buchanan today, and this 17 year old book today is what animates, what sells, what pays the bill for them, they will continue to push the old ways, while the world moves on without them.
Except Trump is President, and its why this book has grown in relevance, but ultimately the movement that Buchanan was pushing back against 20 years ago, even 30 years ago, won over in a real sense, and the only thing killing the west substantively is Trump.
Be careful of not only what you wish for, but who you trust.
Dean Acheson's "Present at the Creation" recounts the beginning of the West's dominance, but Pat Buchanan, despite the title, is inspiring the forces against the West with "Death of the West."
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