Degenerate Moderns: Modernity As Rationalized Sexual Misbehavior - Softcover

E. Michael Jones

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0898704472 ISBN 13: 9780898704471

Publisher: Ignatius Pr, 1993

Synopsis

In this groundbreaking book, Jones shows how some of the major determining leaders in modern thought and culture have rationalized their own immoral behavior and projected it onto a universal canvas. The main thesis of this book is that, in the intellectual life, there are only two ultimate alternatives: either the thinker conforms desire to truth or he conforms truth to desire.
In the last one hundred years, the western cultural elite embarked upon a project which entailed the reversal of the values of the intellectual life so that truth would be subjected to desire as the final criterion of intellectual value. In looking at recent biographies of such major moderns as Freud, Kinsey, Keynes, Margaret Mead, Picasso, and others, there is a remarkable similarity between their lives and thought. After becoming involved in sexual license early on, they invariably chose an ideology or art form which subordinated reality to the exigencies of their sexual misbehavior.

About this title

Review:

"a spicy but serious book ... contoversial but never dull ... written with a style that is both forceful and elegant ..." Esther Littmann, Detroit Free Press.

"... brilliant ... Jones's book breaks new ground in probing the subtle regions of the human heart where desire confronts truth and rearranges it for its own ends. ... Some might disagree with Jones's use of biography to undermine the central tenets of modernity. Shouldn't theories be considered on their own merits, rather than on the basis of the messy lives of their progenitors? Well, yes - if the theory is truly scientific and therefore subject to what scientists call falsification. ... But modern ideologies are not scientific ... And since many of them began as deliberate distortions of reality, the biographies of their founders are very much to the point." George Sim Johnston, American Spectator. 

" ... provocative ... merits reading by those interested in the history of modern thought ..." Rod Bassett, Journal of Psychology and Christianity. 

"With great insight and incisiveness Jones invesitgates and analyzes some modern paragons of 'thinking' and comes up with the trenchant conclusion that "Modernity is rationalized lust.' Jones is not known for pulling punches, and in this book he lets fly with sharply accurate aim his intellectual fists so that they land right on the chin. ... This is far from doing justice to this great book. 'Take and read.' It will change you." John H. Miller, C.S.C., Social Justice Review. 

"In his study of the lives and legacies of some of the best-known sexual libertarians of our time, author E. Michael Jones examines the philosophy that puts passion above reason and desire above truth." Pat Robertson, The Turning Tide.

About this edition

• Publisher: Ignatius Pr
• Publication date: 1993
• ISBN 10: 0898704472
• ISBN 13: 9780898704471
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 259