Books>Business, Finance & Law>Economics>Macroeconomics>
Macroeconomics Search Macroeconomics MacroeconomicsLife at the Bottom: The Worldview That Makes the Underclass
Ivan R Dee, Inc Search Ivan R Dee, Inc by Theodore Dalrymple Search Theodore Dalrymple
Customer Reviews:
Course Material
Should be on the reading list for every social work, or quasi-medical currilculum.
I have lived near, or worked with the underclass for 20 years.
Dalrymple is correct to say that the academic and social worker classes have created an uneducable and violent caste of egotistical English Dalits, although unlike their Indian counterparts they have no skills, work ethic or spiritual centre.
Life here in the depths is truly awful, and perhaps the most horrible comparison he makes is the gradual realisation of doctors from the Third World, who realise with increasing horror that slum dwellers in their native countries are better off than those who subsist in the squalor of the English underclass.
A devastating critique of the welfare state and social care
It would be so easy to dismiss this book as a right wing diatribe attacking the underclass and (shock horror) blaming them for the mess they are in. Alternatively, you could take it at face value as a very honest and reasonably objective analysis of the root of the problem. Whatever, many will dismiss this book and it will certainly not be put on the reading lists of university students in social science departments. This is a pity because the book provides a brilliant and persuasive argument for his thesis that the problem is the denial of human agency. What he has come to see so clearly working on the front line is that people are quite capable of making decisions until it gets them into deep trouble and then the agency is denied and they are mere objects or victims of much greater forces such as inequality, racism and poverty. This is compounded by the growing trend to pathologize all sorts of human actions to the extent that it is very difficult to hold anyone to account for anything. The burglar who wants pills to stop his criminal behavior or the woman who wants tablets to make her happy even though she chooses to live with men who abuse her are just two cases in point. People are making bad or wrong decisions but cannot accept that the simple and easiest way to effect change would be for them to make better decisions. Mr Dalrymple offers them back the agency that liberals and university wets want to deny them. Reading this book was like having the light switched on. As uncomfortable as it may be for some, he's right and most people who work in this field know it. Their needs to be a reinstatement of responsibility for one's actions. If we continue to refuse to hold people to account and deny their agency we have no one to blame when society collapses into anarchy around us. It will be our fault because we have denied them equality, wealth and the right tablets. You have been warned. Read the book and you will see that the author does genuinely care for those in need in society but as he points out it is those are are most in need that usually miss out in this culture of non discrimination. A polemic maybe but definitely one that can't and should not be ignored.
The more politically interested people who read this book the better
This is a very powerful book. I would go so far as to say it could be life-changing.
Unlike most experts in the social sciences, Dalrymple does not base his views on arms-length statistical analysis and abstract theories, but on day-to-day direct contact with the people whose lives he describes. He knows far more about his subject than any other commentator on social problems I have ever read.
This book makes you wonder why it is so difficult for our society to admit the blindingly obvious - that many people remain poor because they are trapped in a spiritually and morally impoverished culture which does not equip them to cope with life.
The author does sometimes describe this in a tone which can be harsh - but I think this is born of a world-weariness and frustration that our supposedly compassionate political system can cook up and be in denial of the root causes of such persistent human misery.
Sound judgement? 
Dalrymple draws from his personal experience as a doctor at the front line of the more extreme socially dysfunctional end in British society and is therefore as sound as if he drew them from studying the extreme end of 'high society', i.e. people like Paris Hilton!!! The question is whether his findings should be taken to represent a wider trend in Britain's 'underclass' - a strange term for a man who professes to dislike such categories. In expanding his own experience of an extreme end of society to wider generalisations about the moral decline of a nation, and from so many disparate sources, Dalrymple's argument is too diffuse and lacks overall credibility.
Why British society is in serious trouble
This book presents a clear and coherent description of some of the reasons that have led to the extensive and unnecessary social and criminal justice problems that exist in this country. It is indeed withering and relentless in its criticism of UK policy (or failure to implement it) and the prevailing liberalist dogma that is largely responsible for stifling or restricting serious debate in this area.
'Life at the Bottom' is very well written with an abundance of black humour - it is polemical but most of the logic is faultless. Highly recommended.
Listmania Lists:
Rethinking Socialism
Pathology of Britain
Conservative Reads
Health Inequalities
Books that I have read so far this year 2005.
Defy the Left Elites!
The failure of liberal elites in UK
RELATED:
Life at the Bottom: The Worldview That Makes the Underclass & More...
related blog:
What's the matter with Democrats?
... <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1566635055/qid=1137791840/sr=2-1/ref=pd_bbs_b_2_1/002-2981633-5397652?s=books&v=glance&n=283155">Dalrymple</a> and <a ...
http://whatstherumpus.blogspot.com/2006/01/whats-matter-with-democrats.html
válasz erre: ál-ballib poszt
www.amazon.com/life-bottom-worldview-makes-underclass/dp/1566635055. valós problémára reflektál-e a jobbik? igen. rosszak-e a válaszaik? elég valószínű, hogy igen. de ezt azzal nem lehet ellensúlyozni, hogy "értelmiségi diskurzust" ...
http://konzervatorium.blog.hu/2009/06/18/al_ballib_poszt?fullcommentlist=1#c6245775
small dead animals: Did They Hear What I Said About Labradoodles*?
http://www.amazon.com/Life-Bottom-Worldview-Makes-Underclass/dp/1566635055. "Theodore Dalrymple is a physician and psychiatrist who practices in England. He writes a column for the London Spectator, contributes frequently to the Daily ...
http://www.smalldeadanimals.com/archives/008400.html
Konservativ Reaktion: Kald mig blot konservativ: Overfaldet af ...
"Life at the Bottom: The Worldview That Makes the Underclass": http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/1566635055/026-0291348-2984409?v=glance&n=266239. Hans klummer (jo ældre, jo bedre): http://www.city-journal.org/author_index.php?author= ...
http://konservativreaktion.blogspot.com/2006/07/kald-mig-blot-konservativ-overfaldet.html
mijn 20 favoriete aankopen
libertarianism for and against (19.95 dollar) http://www.amazon.com/life-bottom-worldview-makes-underclass/dp/1566635055/ref=wl_it_dp?ie=utf8&coliid=i24qfredvhf18s&colid=3rcpc96u1j6mx life at the bottom (11.53 dollar) ...
http://systeembouwer.blogspot.com/2008/06/mijn-20-favoriete-aankopen.html
