Ian Farley reviews 'The World Turned Upside Down: The Global Battle over God, Truth and Power' by Melanie Phillips (2010, Encounter Books, 408 pages)

This book presents a systematic analysis of Britain's decline of national consciousness. Phillips, an incisive journalist who describes herself as a liberal who "has been mugged by reality",¹ explains that the book arose from a personal sense of "perplexity and cultural disorientation" (p.ix).

This emerged as she recognised that public discourse on certain matters has departed sharply from reality, with fantasy recalibrated as facts and evident truths dismissed. Her book is wide-ranging and full of fascinating analysis with illustrations from recent history and insights drawn from more distant events.

Phillips' argument is that a widespread rejection of the only basis of reason - which she concludes to be Judeo-Christianity (more specifically the Hebrew scriptures) - has led British society on a descent into a kind of mass derangement in which truth and lies, right and wrong, victim and aggressor, are all turned upside-down: "Concepts such as truth and justice have been stood on their heads, with the result that irrationality and perversity are now conspicuous in public life" (p288).

Wholesale Departure from Logic

Phillips, who is of Jewish descent but is non-practising, does not try to persuade people to agree with her. Rather, she aims to explain to herself how we have arrived at this situation, making the case that the departure from logic and reason is because "objectivity has been replaced in large measure by ideology" (p.xi).

Phillips argues that in British public life, "objectivity has been replaced in large measure by ideology".

The reader is forced to make some decisions of principle in reading this book: is Islam in its very nature violent? Is science (contemporary science that is) actually uprooted from reason? Has the British educational system degenerated so much that it can only turn out young adults incapable of objective thought? Is the press simply utterly biased? Has the whole church establishment in England sold out completely to defending Palestinian aggression, violence and implacable hostility to Israel?

These are tricky questions but they are of fundamental importance. Phillips wants to make you think about them and not swallow what may be the predominant narrative in the public domain. She has a host of fascinating quotations from public figures in all areas of life which are then analysed critically and exposed. Animal rights, climate change, environmental concerns and feminism are each put under the spotlight and found wanting. Much of the book is about the loss of objective truth and the emergence of a world that is now simply focussed on 'me'.

The heart of this stimulating and challenging text lies in these two sentences: "The Middle East impasse is the defining issue of our time. It is not an exaggeration to say that the position an individual takes on the conflict between Israel and the Arabs is a near infallible guide to their general view of the world" (p265). Phillips' chapter on the misrepresentation of Israel is especially good – in fact, it is worth purchasing the book for this chapter alone.

Much Food for Thought 

If you are looking for a book on how to vote in the Referendum on Europe, this is probably not it, though there are some trenchant observations on the EU's systematic dismantling of its Christian heritage - as well as the complete failure of the UN to be an impartial force in diplomacy.

Phillips comments: "Moral and cultural relativism and an explicit rejection of Christian ethics...are embedded in the European Union and its transnational institutions such as the European Court of Human Rights" (p340). More broadly, however, the general substance of the book may well prove a relevant contribution to your vote thinking.

Phillips also explores why Britain is at the forefront in the West's irrationality and dislocation of reason from religion. This specific focus is very illuminating, exposing our loss of national identity and the crumbling of the religious beliefs which previously underpinned our moral codes.

Phillips explores why Britain is at the forefront in the West's irrationality and dislocation of reason from religion.

If you have a concern about the state of the nation and the British Church, there is much in this hard-hitting book to give you food for thought. Answers, however, are left to the reader to find.

'The World Turned Upside-Down' is available to purchase from a variety of online retailers, including Amazon for £6.74.

References

1 Beckett, A. The changing face of Melanie Phillips. The Guardian, 7 March 2003.