9781566635059

Book Description: Ivan R. Dee, Publisher May 2003, 2003. Paper Back. Book Condition: New. British doctor Theodore Dalrymple, who's worked in some of the poorest countries in Africa, the Pacific and Latin America, declares ''I have little hesitation in saying that the mental, cultural, emotional, and spiritual impoverishment of the Western underclass is the greatest of any large group of people I have ever encountered anywhere.'' Does he point a finger? You bet-straight at Western intelligentsia. But there's a telling discrepancy here. Though twentieth century intellectuals advocated setting sexuality free from any social, contractual, or moral obligation, they weren't able to abandon these obligations themselves. No doubt their own mores relaxed, but the family unit remains at least partially intact. This kind of relativism also infiltrates linguistic, educational, and cultural values, transforming the underclass into a caste not unlike the Untouchables. Dalrymple wishes to describe the resulting misery of this class ''in an unvarnished fashion,'' laying bare the dysfunctional values behind its steady decline in the hope of combating further misery. He is a storyteller and essayist of high literary quality, and his book draws upon his own experiences as a doctor in a British slum. Beware: the pictures Dalrymple presents here are sometimes horrific, sometimes hilarious. But he maintains that 'if blame is to be apportioned, it is the intellectuals who deserve most of it. They considered the purity of their ideas to be more important than the actual consequences. I know of no egotism more profound.'. Bookseller Inventory # 93319

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Book Description: 2003. Paperback. Book Condition: New. 152mm x 18mm x 231mm. Paperback. A searing account of life in the underclass and why it persists as it does, written by a British psychiatrist. This is a searing account of life in the underclass and why it persists as it.Shipping may be from multiple locations in the US or from the UK, depending on stock availability. 288 pages. 0.422. Bookseller Inventory # 9781566635059

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Book Description: Book Condition: Brand New. Book Condition: Brand New * All orders are processed and shipped from Las Vegas, NV USA *. Bookseller Inventory # 97815666350591.0

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