Book #24 for 2022: The Madness of Crowds by Douglas Murray
The Madness of Crowds: Gender, Race and Identity by Douglas Murray
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Columnist Douglas Murry opens his book by stating that:
"We are going through a great crowd derangement. In public and in private, both online and off, people are behaving in ways that are increasingly irrational, feverish, herd-like and simply unpleasant. The daily news cycle is filled with the consequences. Yet while we see the symptoms everywhere, we do not see the causes".
The book itself is an analysis of whether society has become too woke, too easily offended, and makes a lot of comments about cancel culture, and about the trouble various celebrities have got into over a single gaffe. He even mentions a celebrity who got cancelled over the actions of his father. Murray is himself a gay man, yet he appears to be bemused at some issues related in LBTQ+ rights in modern times.
You only have to go to social media to see how obsessed a lot of people are with some of these issues; I myself have read several articles about the number of superheroes that large numbers of people "think should be gay". Yet, if you argue against these claims, you'll probably get labelled as a "troll".
On the surface of it, some of the claims that he makes might seem shocking, including his suggestions that Renni Eddo-Lodge's "Why I'm No Longer Talking to White People About Race" may have glossed a few things over. I however found it quite a fascinating read at times, particularly with its disspelling of a few myths that appear to have become prevalent (he states that the gender pay gap doesn't exist because it's been illegal in Britain and America to pay men and women different salaries for performing the job for many years).
I can also imagine that if this book had been written a few years later, I imagine he would have also mentioned the many incidents of statues being toppled, which seemed to get out of hand very quickly.
The aim of the book seems to be to argue about how society needs to be equal, regardless of sexuality, gender or skin colour. He concludes by stating that:
"If somebody has the competency to do something, and the desire to do something, then nothing about their race, sex or sexual orientation should hold them back. But minimizing (sic) difference is not the same as pretending difference does not exist. To assume that sex, sexuality and skin colour mean nothing would be ridiculous. But to assume that they mean everything will be fatal".
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