This is an exceptional book which examines the rise of identity politics and the most controversial issues of our time: gender, race and identity. The author, whose earlier book, The Strange Death of Europe was reviewed in July 2017, is not a Christian, but his commentary on our modern society and the predicaments we now face is perceptive and razor-sharp. Above all, he dares to challenge the prevailing views and question the direction of travel of what has become known as ‘woke’ culture.

Collapse of religious worldview

In his introduction, Murray claims that we are experiencing “a great crowd derangement. In public and in private, both online and off, people are behaving in ways that are increasingly feverish, herd-like and simply unpleasant” (p1). Moreover, he is not satisfied with the various explanations on offer, and so presents his own understanding and conclusions, which will make sense to Christians.

He starts by explaining that the collapse of a religious worldview and the grand narrative it provided has left a vacuum into which others have rushed. He asserts: “The interpretation of the world through the lens of ‘social justice’, ‘identity group politics’ and ‘intersectionalism’ is probably the most audacious and comprehensive effort since the end of the Cold War at creating a new ideology” (p2).

Above all, he dares to challenge the prevailing views and question the direction of travel of what has become known as ‘woke’ culture.

Gay, Women, Race & Trans ideologies

Such terms and the ideology behind them are quickly and easily explained, so this is a book for the lay person, rather than for a specialist in sociology. Moreover, the book is full of clear, real-life examples, including those of the author himself, which leaves us in no doubt about the validity of his case and the sinister nature of the issues he is outlining.

The book has four main sections, entitled ‘Gay’, ‘Women’, ‘Race’ and ‘Trans’. The author has chosen these as they are “the most consistently raised issues in our societies: issues which have become not just a staple of every day’s news, but the basis of a whole new societal morality” (p231).

Misfortunes of social media

But there are also three shorter interludes which contain fascinating insights into other topics which relate to the main ones. The first explains the Marxist foundations of these movements, the second examines the dynamic impact of technology which is driving us ever more quickly down these paths, and the third is intriguingly entitled ‘On Forgiveness’.

Judgement and retribution has replaced any thought of forgiving and forgetting.

In this third interlude, Murray asserts that the “arrival of the age of social media has done things we have still barely begun to understand, and presented problems with which we have hardly started to grapple” (p174). By this he means it has created and encouraged the phenomenon of public shaming with its desire to dig out the worst about people, especially those who suddenly come to public prominence in their own specific field. Judgement and retribution have replaced any thought of forgiving and forgetting.

Joining the dots

The final ‘Afterword’, which is an addition found within the expanded and updated edition, gives Murray the opportunity to highlight some further examples of how things have developed in the year since the book was first published.

Here is an author who expresses what others may be thinking but who either can’t quite manage to join the dots or who are afraid to speak out on the picture that emerges from these dots.

The book concludes with plenty of endnotes and a very helpful index. Highly recommended.

‘The Madness of Crowds’ (291 pages) is published by Bloomsbury Continuum, is priced at £9.99 (paperback), and is available (at discounted price) from The Book Depository