Exploring the Culture of Death's Family Tree

Architects of the Culture of Death
by Donald DeMarco, PhD & Benjamin Wiker
Ignatius Press 2004

I 1st heard about this book a couple of years ago. At the time the title caught my eye & I added this to my must read list because it definitely looked like it would be interesting as well as educational in helping people understand why the "culture of death" is so much at the heart of where our society is. But until recently I didn't have a chance to check it out. & I am happy to say it lived up to my expectations. (With a small exception I will get to in a bit.)

This book is a look at the lives & mindsets of 23 people from the last 2 centuries who did much to shape our culture we find ourselves in. Given the limitations of space & time this book obviously couldn't look at all the architects. Yes, it would have beem nice to find out about some of the other architects. But for the most part I understand why putting them in would have been somewhat redundant. A prime example is that Marie Stopes was not included. But that is understandable as she is basicly the British doppelgänger of Margaret Sanger. So, understanding Sanger's mindset helps you to grasp Stopes'. They were both into promoting eugenics, family planning & birth control for example. Marie Stopes International is the British equivalent of Planned Parenthood.

On the other hand, there was what I thought was 1 glaring ommission, Hugh Hefner, the founder of Playboy. I say this because he paved the way for Bob Bob Guccione, Larry Flint & others. But I also see his playboy philosophy as creating a mindset that we see being exhibited in such things as the "Girls Gone Wild" videos & the widespread acceptance & accessablility of hard core porn.. We have women reduced to objects & these days, men as well. His Playboy philosophy has done much to help make the "culture of death" acceptable. While some of the other architects may have paved the way for him, it is what he did that makes his being absent so glaring.* & why he is probably the 1 other person I would have definitely included.

OK, so much for the exception I mentioned.

The origins of this book were a series of articles done for the National Catholic Register (the good NCR). The authors took those articles & expanded it to the 23 people in this book. they divided them into 7 specific groups or categories "according to their most decisive contributions to the Culture of Death". But as they point out, even across these groups 5 general themes recur. Those themes are millitant atheism, the isolation of the will from the consequences of its choices, an absolutization of freedom, an obsession with sex & a loss of the sense of human dignity.

Those 7 categories they divide the architects into are: 1. "Will Worshippers" (Arthur Shopenhauer, Friedrich Nietzche, Ayn Rand), 2. "Eugenic Evolutionists" (Charles Darwin, Francis Galton, Ernst Haeckel), 3. "Secular Utopianists" (Karl Marx, August Comte, Judith Jarvis Thompson), 4. "Atheistic Existentialists" (Jean-Paul Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir, Elisabeth Badinter), 5. "Pleasure Seekers" (Sigmund Freud, Wilhelm Reich, Helen Gurley Brown), 6. "Sex Planners" (Margaret Mead, Alfred Kinsey, Margaret Sanger, Clarence Gamble, Alan Guttmacher), & 7 "Death Peddlers" (Derek Humphrey, Jack Kevorkian, Peter Singer). (Note: It is under "Pleasure Seekers" where I would have included Hefner.)

I won't go into details about each section. I think the titles are pretty self-explanitory. & in light of how they approach the subject, very logical. Each of the articles not only gives a bit of biographical background, it also looks at what the person stood for & tried to accomplish. But it also does 1 other thing. It gives an evaluation of what that person stood for & the long term effect of those actions. In the introduction they said that their evaluation was done in the context of St. Thomas Aquinas's metaphysics & natural law reasoning & Pope John Paul II's Personalism. they did so because they approach the "distinct and dignified nature of human beings" from slightly different but complimentary angles.

The authors do not merely look at what is wrong, they also give the right way of looking at things. In the end, as we learn a bit about these people & the damage they did, we are also better able to battle their ideas & repair the damage done to our society by these architects.

For me, I would divide the people in the books into 3 groups, a) people I am already very familiar with (like Sanger), b) those I know a little about (Rand) & c) those I knew nothing at all about (Badinter, Reich). l learned some new things about even those people like Margaret Sanger that I am very familiar with. By the time I was done with the book I had a much clearer view of the big picture & the roles they played in getting our culture to the point it is today.

But I also learned something about myself & how much I used to buy into what many of them had to sell. Much of that was due to the fact that I just blindly accepted what we were told was "conventional wisdom". That was the result of pure ignorance to some extent, but also because of faulty catechism. & then there was the part that was pure buying it because I wanted to for some things. Thankfully, as I have grown older, wiser & even more importantly, in my faith, I have learned how wrong I was to blindly accept certain things. & for other things, how rebelious I was being against God's will & ways. I also think the same would be true for many others as well. (I have to add that I truly thank God for leading me out of the path I could have so easily gone down.)

I share this in part to point out the importance of good catechisis. Some people are so sold out to the "culture of death" because they have willingly rejected God, Jesus & Christianity. But I honestly think that a large number of people just accept that groups like PP are OK out of ignorance rather than willfull rebellion.

For those who honestly want the truth this book will be an eye opener. for those seeking a better understanding of the "culture of death" this will provide it. for those who don't want the truth, then they will definitely reject what is in this book rather than give it the honest hearing they should.

For someone looking for a deeper understanding of what these people stood for & why it is wrong, this book is a great starting point. Obviously this book was not meant to give us an in depth look, rather it is meant to be an introduction as well as giving us an overview to understanding the "culture of death". Looking fully at the role each of these architects & the many more omitted played in building that culture would go beyond the scope of this book. The full story & effect of each architect would require a book, or more, about that individual to fully show all the damage they did. But within the scope of this book, I honestly think it accomplishes what it set out to do. & thus I think it would be a valuable addition to every Pro-lifer's library.

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* In the reviews on Amazon some complaints were made about other people being excluded. I agree with the fact it would have been nice to have more of them included, like Canada's Henry Morgentaler, Bertrand Russell, or Carl Jung. But as I said, I realize that there are limits. 1 other person was not happy about what he saw as the overly American focus. That would have been a valid crticism had this book been aimed at Europeans, but it was primarily aimed at us Americans & helping us understand the "culture of death" in our society. That is why I wasn't upset about the ommision of Marie Stopes. In fact, after reading the entire review, I honestly think that person's dislike was based on his dismissive attitude he shows towards what he describes as the "right" rather than facing the fact that the "culture of life" is neither a right or left issue. Nor is it an issue that is open for discussion in the way he thinks it is. There are certain absolutes & these people do attack those absolutes by how they lived & what they stood for.