Reading Journal - Entry #6

That Hideous Strength, The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self, and Do More Better

Welcome back to the Reading Journal. I’m still plugging away at the two lengthier books I’ve been writing about here but I’ve also added a short, practical one, so let’s get into it.

That Hideous Strength

I’m making good progress through this book and am really enjoying it more and more the farther I get into it. Lewis definitely accomplished what he said his goal was in the introduction, which is to have the book read like a fairytale. Both in the good and bad, he accomplishes this.

This book is a little hard to write about at this point without giving anything away, so I won’t say as much about this one this week.

The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self

This book discussed some interesting things this week, several of which I found highly interesting. Trueman has helped me better understand why people with the leftist, secular worldview think the way they do. I think it has helped me understand some of the events of the last several years more clearly and why people can adopt a position that seems to me to be so clearly illogical.

Probably the best example of this is Trueman’s explanation of how the ideas of Wilhelm Reich and Herbert Marcuse are the foundation of the far left’s worldview. The idea that helped me the most is Trueman’s explanation of their work. Their work, according to Trueman, laid the foundation for the view that all of society’s sexual taboos are the means by which the bourgeois class maintains their power. Anyone who adheres to them has been taken in by the explanations of the bourgeoisie and is perpetuating their corrupt system of power. Therefore, the only way to achieve freedom and to wake the proletariat from their consumer-goods-induced sleep is to abolish all sexual mores except for the ones (according to Marcuse) that are necessary for people to tolerate one another.

All of that in the above paragraph is, of course, a generalization of an entire section of Trueman’s book, so please take it with a grain of salt and go read the book for yourself. He discusses other philosophers, in particular some feminist thinkers, but, as I said above, the ideas of those two philosophers, in particular, seem to have shaped modern political discourse.

I believe I understand better why the modern sexual insanity has been adopted and no amount of logical persuasion has been very effective: to the far left, the abolition of “traditional” sexual mores is the key to the progressive utopia they are attempting to build. This belief is why they push it in schools, churches, and any other social institutions. These codes have to be done away with if society is to ever reach its inevitable, Hegelian dialectical end.

It occurred to me while thinking about all of this that their goal may have backfired to a certain degree, at least in America. We’ve seen in the last few years populist stirrings, whether it be shown through demonstrations or candidates elected. These tend to lean conservative in the U.S., largely because and Marxism is most popular among elite institutions and, therefore, those who are members of them or want to be. Add to this that most of the “common man” types in the U.S. are conservatives who work in trades, factories, or other jobs that do not touch the elite institutions and who also live in the Midwest and South; the so-called flyover states. In trying to wake up the proletariat, they have turned people’s attention to the fact that they are taken advantage of by powerful politicians and lobbyists in Washington. This has resulted in pushback from many conservatives in those areas mentioned above. While its also resulted in protests from the left, the protests are about different things. I need to think about this more before writing anymore about it, so we’ll move on for now.

Do More Better

A couple of weeks ago, when reading Ploductivity by Douglas Wilson, I mentioned that his book along with one other were my favorites on productivity; this is that other book. Do More Better., written by Tim Challies, is a short but powerful book on a system that Challies uses for organizing his life so that he can be productive to the glory of God. It’s nice that it’s short and relatively simple. Like anything worth using, it takes some work to get started with his system but it is well worth the investment. I’ve read it twice before, each time establishing a little more of the system in my life and I’m hoping on this third attempt, I’ll get it established for good.

This book starts out similarly to many Christian productivity books: with a theology of productivity. Now, I think this book provides an excellent method for productivity and recommend it to others regularly; however, it’s not perfect. The sections on a theology of productivity seemed particularly weak this time through. That could be because I just finished Wilson’s much meatier discussion of a theology of productivity, or due to the short nature of the book but it did keep things simple. Challies does come back to the conclusions from that chapter frequently, so it is important to read; however, I think it will best serve someone who has read something more substantial, causing this book’s first section to simply act as a refresher reminding you of what you’ve learned previously from other resources.

The system Challies promotes is helpful. He boils it down to three tools: a task manager (something like ToDoist or a basic checklist), a calendar (event and appointment manager), and an information manager (Evernote, Google Drive, etc.). The book details Challies’s way of integrating these three tools into one system that maximizes their effectiveness and his ability to be productive. While the system seems like it would work best for someone who has a bit of freedom at their job to use the tools they would like to manage their schedules, tasks, and information, the beauty of this system is that it’s easily adaptable to different situations. If your job requires you to use a certain information storage system, that’s fine, you just use that system as if it were Evernote or Google Drive. I appreciate the overall adaptability of this system and see how it could be helpful for many.

That’s all I have for this week. I’d have liked to write a little more but came down with what I believe was food poisoning, so I’ve been out of it all day Thursday.

As always, please feel free to continue the discussion in the comments and share what you’re reading!

In Him and for His Glory