Mick Hartley

Politics and Culture

Decline and Dalrymple

February 3, 2009

Most days I'll check out Arts and Letters Daily. This morning, under New Books (middle column) there's this:

Since the welfare state in Britain takes care of so much in personal life, there’s not much choice left to people outside of sex and shopping… more»

There's no need for me to click the link to know who's being reviewed. Any combination of Britain and decline and you know immediately it's Theodore Dalrymple. I don't keep tabs on these things, but I imagine that the majority of Dalrymple's articles, and articles about him, end up being linked to at A&L Daily. Which is quite some achievement when you consider all the possible range of articles and reviews and opinion pieces that appear every day across the English-speaking media.

I can understand the appeal. He writes well. I've linked to him myself on occasion – probably unwisely. I'm just curious as to why his dyspeptic tales of Britain in decline, delivered in impeccable patrician tones, are lapped up so enthusiastically across the Atlantic. Why do Americans love to hear all this once-proud-nation-going-to-the-dogs stuff? Is it related to the Eurabia nonsense? Whatever, I can't help feeling that Dalrymple has judged his market perfectly, and continues to give them just what they want.

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7 responses to “Decline and Dalrymple”

Dom

February 3, 2009

Are you sure it’s lapped up? His articles always appear in National Review, and his messsage of Welfare = decline plays well to that (very small) audience. But not many others pay attention to him.
John Derbyshire, also at NR, is a much more interesting writer but he pushes (sometimes) pretty much the same message.

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Mick H

February 3, 2009

Well OK, I’m going mainly by Arts and Letters Daily. In general it’s a fairly wide-ranging site linking to all kinds of viewpoints, but they really seem to have a thing about Dalrymple. Sometimes it seems like every other article about the UK is by, or about, him.

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Retard

February 3, 2009

He misses pretty widely at times. There was one where he misunderstood the American expression “I’m good” to mean “I’m morally admirable”.
It’s actually a polite form of “no”, as in:
“Would y’all like some more venison hash, padre?”
“I’m good, thanks.”

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Richard

February 3, 2009

The only thing that TD gets dead right is his analysis of the junkie/criminal mentality with which he is obviously familiar.

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Guy

February 3, 2009

I always thought Dalrymple’s collected work (Please, oh please, let them call it ‘Decline and Fall of the British Empire’ if it gets published) did so well with that select audience for two reasons. First it buttressed their own beliefs about welfare/liberalism/etc. but came from a believable state (the UK) rather than one of those alien nations like France.
Second it plays into that whole American Right attachment to the American Revolution. The whole myth around the Revolution, of proud Protestant rebels standing up for freedom and liberty against an oppressive, (mostly) atheist and decadent power, is just repackaged. Once again (supposedly) only America has the moral will to stand firm for Church, liberty etc. and in return be rewarded by God with power and prosperity whilst Europe, an aged whore of Babylon, sinks into a moral and political morass. Thus the same message, of Americans divine manifestation, and of her upstanding morality as key to her place in the world is reinvented for a new generation.
Reading it back that all sounds a little weird but hopefully it makes sense.

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Mick H

February 3, 2009

Certainly it makes sense. I think you’re on the right lines there.

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maguro

February 3, 2009

Well, as you said, he’s a good writer and his background as a prison doctor gives him some credibility to opine on social issues. You certainly don’t need to subscribe to apocalyptic notions of Europe as the whore of Babylon to appreciate his insights. Does he overstate his case at times? Certainly. Overall, though, his work has value.
The real question is why anyone wants to read Polly Toynbee.

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