New Threats to Freedom

by Adam Bellow (Editor)

New Threats to Freedom In the twentieth century, free people faced a number of mortal threats,ranging from despotism, fascism, and communism to the looming menace of global terrorism. While the struggle against some of these overt dangers continues, some insidious new threats seem to have slipped past our intellectual defenses. These often unchallenged threats are quietly eroding our hard-won freedoms and, in some cases, are widely accepted as beneficial.

In New Threats to Freedom, editor and author Adam Bellow has assembled an all-star lineup of innovative thinkers to challenge these insidious new threats. Some leap into already raging debates on issues such as Sharia law in the West, the rise of transnationalism, and the regulatory state. Others turn their attention to less obvious threats, such as the dogma of fairness, the failed promises of the blogosphere, and the triumph of behavioral psychology.

These threats are very real and very urgent, yet this collection avoids projecting an air of doom and gloom. Rather, it provides a blueprint for intellectual resistance so that modern defenders of liberty may better understand their enemies, more effectively fight to preserve the meaning of freedom, and more surely carry its light to a new generation.

"Since when has authority not claimed, when imposing trammels and curbs on liberty, that it does so for a wider good and a greater happiness?” —Christopher Hitchens

“The regulatory state amounts to a regressive tax that penalizes small independent producers and protects the status quo.” —Max Borders

“Europe tends to favor stability over democracy, America democracy over stability.” —Daniel Hannan

“The value of free expression is perceived to be at odds with goals that were considered ‘more important,’ like inclusiveness, diversity, nondiscrimination, and tolerance.” —Greg Lukianoff

“The masses cannot ultimately be free: only the individual can be.” —Robert D. Kaplan

“That old bugbear of postwar sociology—the mob-self—is now a reality. In a participatory/popularity culture, the freedom to think and act for ourselves becomes harder and harder to achieve.” —Lee Siegel

“As traditional marriage declines, the ranks of single women are growing, and increasingly these women are substituting the security of a husband with the security of the state.” —Jessica Gavora

“Ending the freedom to fail is a mean-spirited attack on the freedom to succeed.” —Michael Goodwin

“The only solution to the new threats to American press freedom lies in organized resistance.” —Katherine Mangu-Ward

“The new behaviorism isn’t interested in protecting people’s freedom to choose; on the contrary, its core principle is the idea that only by allowing an expert elite to limit choice can individuals learn to break their bad habits.” —Christine Rosen

“There’s a world of Travis Bickles out there, and they’re not driving cabs. They’re reading blogs.” —Ron Rosenbaum

“The first amendment ensures not that speech will be fair, but that it will be free. It cannot be both.” —David Mamet

Genres: Essays

304 pages, Hardcover

First published May 18, 2010

Reviews

[Lynn · Rating 2 out of 5]

While there were some points made in this book. This book is mainly a treatise of conservative and libertarian views. There are some good points here on lack of freedom of the press and the use of behaviorists by the Obama campaign and administration, but so much of any injustice is lost by hatred of others who don't have the same political orientations of the writers. Liberals must be very powerful people to scare these writers in this way. Words used emphasize that they are numerous and marching forth to destroy freedom. Gays are somewhat more tolerated by some writers, after all there are conservative gay writers and many writers are gay so the authors have contact with them. Forget Muslims or African-Americans or Hispanics. Asians are mentioned at all except when discussing Chinese citizens. Everything that seems to favor them apparently is a plot to deprive the white man of his due. Women are at the bottom of the heap. They are supposed to be the subjects of men and efforts to raise their status is a plot to truly lower the white man's right of power. An interesting article written by Christopher Hitchens who died recently complains of the tyranny of Islam. He is right that Islam should not dictate the ability to publish material but in another way he is completely divorced from exposure to the people who follow the religion. He mentions a fellow writer who in preparing to write about a family in an impoverished area of London decides to make their neighbors Muslims. His friend's decision is to prepare to write about this family by reading the Koran. Then gets in trouble when he tells the press it's not as good a book as the Bible. Silly statement I think since literary quality isn't always what people are looking for in a religious book but he also read both the Bible and Koran in English, so who's to say what the book is like except in translations? Why not have spent time with a Muslim family or two? Many Muslims never read the Koran and many only learn to recite it in Arabic without understanding. Many Christians have never read the Bible and don't necessarily put it as the main focus of their lives. What I am trying to say is that these writers have a limited scope in their writing and fears and care not to interact with others whom they criticize. The best essays are ones in which the writers have some scope and experience in what they are saying and spend no time or little time fearing and hating people who don't believe as they do.
Something I didn't know until I chose the book is that the lead editor was an author of a book called in part "In Praise of Nepotism" a history of the Bush family. So many writers in this book are in love with Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush. This is an exclusive club.

[Dale · Rating 4 out of 5]

A mostly interesting set of essays

The theme of this book is, clearly, threats to our freedom. This can be interpreted as America's freedom, Western freedom in general of the freedom of all people throughout the world. Depending on the reader's sensitivities, some of these freedoms may seem trivial (the freedom of ice cream vendors in New York City to sell their wares near city parks, for example) or may seem monumental (back to those same vendors - can you really ban a licensed business from selling his wares just because you don't want to hear your kids whine all day about ice cream?)

The writing is generally high quality but there are a wide variety of styles, themes and issues that make this an uneven read. For example, Stephen Schwartz's essay "Shariah in the West" is mostly an essay about how Shariah is not a threat, but just a media-hyped bogeyman, followed by a few paragraphs about how it might still be a threat. The "Illusion of Innocence" by Shelby Steele had a similar feel and the last essay by Dennis Whittle, "Orthodoxy and Freedom in International Aid" was more about bureaucratic intertia than any outright threat.

On the other hand essays such as Greg Lukianoff's "Students Against Liberty?" was very thought-provoking (IUPUI, the University where I earned my Master's gets a mention on page 139, much to my embarrassment). The placement of a very strong essay by Mark Helprin entitiled "The Rise of Antireligious Orthodoxy" right before a strong essay on multi-culturalism by Christopher Hitchens (well known for his anti-religious books) makes me smile every time. Hitchins makes a strong point that we should never fail to confuse individual civil rights with "group" rights in our efforts to be a free society.

http://dwdsreviews.blogspot.com/

[Jeffrey · Rating 4 out of 5]

Have you ever noticed that the children today have no concept of freedom nor do they see that it may one day not exist? In my youth we lived under the spell of the cold war. We could see daily the victims of oppression. Our parents and grandparents fought for the freedom of others and ourselves in World War II, Korea and Vietnam. We saw the crack downs on dissidents in the Soviet Union or by the Soviet Union. We all know Solidarity and the struggles against the commies. Do our rising generations understand that freedom can be gone at any minute without a vigilant eye towards preserving the freedoms we know enjoy?

This is the basic concept in the 30 essays collected in New Threats to Freedom by Adam Bellow. Communism may not be the threat that it once was, but there are still many serious threats to our freedom. Articles deal with Press freedoms, the fairness doctrine and the co-dependence of welfare providers and the recipients of the welfare. All are covered by some of the best minds in todays society.

I must say that I found this book truly intriguing. I myself have taken a vacation from protecting freedom. I have ignored the travesty of many parts of the Patriot act. I was silent when it became clear that the press were all colluding to limit our freedom while gaining more for themselves. This book reminds me that we must continue the eternal fight against oppression, no matter what form it may take.

[Hubert · Rating 3 out of 5]

A mixed collection of libertarian and conservative essays ranging from the illusion of women's rights agendae, the heavy-handedness of bureaucracy, and in general, as the title implies, the loss of freedom in American society. Published on the earlier side of Obama's first term, the essays often invoke the prevailing issues of those times.

Some of the viewpoints are shared with the progressive Left; for example, many can agree that bureaucracy hurts the independent ice cream truck seller. Some essays are entirely absurd, like "Single Women as a Threat to Freedom," which questions the utility of things like universal health care and mildly suggests that women should remain mediocre marriages to benefit from the resources provided by a husband.

It's not clear though whether the recommendations (stated or implied) would throw the mores of the country back to a time when freedom really meant freedom only for those with the means and privilege to access it. But the essays are worth reading, especially today when political axes have been turned on their heads. The writers may be critics of the New Democrats, but they certainly aren't asking for what we have now.

[Peter · Rating 4 out of 5]

A collection of essay about new threats to freedoms from internal sources. Most of the authors are from the center-right spectrum, often libertarian in nature. The essays, often written from a political / philosophical perspective - deals with issues of the "Dogma of Fairness", excessive regulations, loss of the freedom to fail, the rise of the anti-religious orthodoxy, etc. The book was criticized in one review as their were no essays on the loss of liberties during the war on terror or the question of the war on drugs and its effects on society. The editor does note in the introduction that the book does not cover all concerns over threats to freedom, but covers most. It is an interesting read, especially if you you are interested in current political trends that may on the outside seem to be making the world "fairer", concerned with equity, but do mean that our larger understanding of freedom is being slowly eaten away by such progressive philosophical concerns of the group, over the individual. The book would be a great jumping off point for discussions that need to go on in our country over the nature of the type of country we want. I think that discussion is not happening, as the means of discussion and education is not as open and forth coming as it should be!