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The Devil’s Pleasure Palace

The Cult of Critical Theory and the Subversion of the West

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The Devil’s Pleasure Palace

By: Michael Walsh
Narrated by: Michael Walsh
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About this listen

In the aftermath of World War II, America stood alone as the world's premier military power. Yet its martial confidence contrasted vividly with its sense of cultural inferiority. Still looking to a defeated and dispirited Europe for intellectual and artistic guidance, burgeoning transnational elite in New York and Washington embraced not only the war's refugees but many of their ideas as well, and nothing has proven more pernicious than those of the Frankfurt School and its reactionary philosophy of "critical theory". At once overly intellectualized and emotionally juvenile, critical theory - like Pandora's box - released a horde of demons into the American psyche. When everything could be questioned, nothing could be real, and the muscular, confident empiricism that had just won the war gave way, in less than a generation, to a Central European nihilism celebrated on college campuses across the United States. In The Devil's Pleasure Palace, Michael Walsh looks at how critical theory took root in America and came to affect nearly every aspect of American life and society - and what can be done to stop it.

©2015 Michael Walsh (P)2015 Tantor
Education History Movements Social Sciences United States War Military Critical Theory

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Frightening and relevant

Valuable information about the Frankfurt school, the powerful and dangerous thought leaders that no-one outside of academia seems to know about. Bit too heavy on the Christianity for me, but still a fascinating read

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This book changed my life

This book challenged a great deal of my thinking. It made me understand my liberal leanings and misunderstandings. It clarified much that was confusing to me, without realising. I immediately read it reread it and will do so again.

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Painful

I have very little tolerance for what many people would call 'left wing insanity'. There is a great deal to be concerned about within the minds and groups of those who call themselves 'progressive' in these modern and divisive times.
The problem with this book is that Michael Walsh is asking us to take a tremendous step backward coupled with an equally large leap of faith and embrace the very ideology that drove the left to insanity in the first place. The literal hatred, the intolerance and the absolute refusal to even consider the possibility that Christian right wing ideology could possibly be wrong is what led to the of interest in pursuing constructive conversation and compromise from their ideological opponents. You can only argue with a wall for so long before you decide to just knock it down instead.
There are no answers here, except for those who, like Michael wish to return to an earlier time. Albeit one that never existed. There is no doubt that Christianity has come a long way since the 'bad old days' but that has very little to do with the inherent goodness of the bible, and its teachings, and a LOT more to do with people realizing that it must be reinterpreted, reimagined and hammered into a new shape to fit modern sensibilities, and modern understandings of reality. Never forget the bad old days of Christianity, and the true reason why it is no longer as it was. Michael most certainly has. His 'Christianity' is a pseudoscientific fantasy.

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