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THREATS OF PAIN AND RUIN by THEODORE DALRYMPLE | BOOKS
Perhaps not the most inviting ititle to pick up at the bookstore, but I have read books by T. Dalrymple before and again was not disappointed: more of interest than shockingly depressing! But is indicative for his (wry) sense of humor. I like it.
The man himself has this to say of this book:
'What is written without pain, said Doctor Johnson, is rarely read with pleasure. Rarely perhaps, but not, I hope, never: for the little essays in this book were written, I must confess, without much angst.
In part this was because, in writing them, I had no thesis to prove, no axe to grind, except that the world is both infinitely interesting and amusing, and provides us with an inexhaustible source of material for philosophical reflection.
Many of the subjects treated of in this book were found by serendipity or came to me in flashes - it would be immodest to call them of inspiration - of previously unsuspected connection and interest.
I can only hope that they entertain the reader as they have entertained me. At least they will do no harm, in compliance with the first principle of medical ethics..'
Some background from Wikipedia-
Anthony Malcolm Daniels (b.11Oct1949- ), who generally uses the pen name Theodore Dalrymple, is an English writer and retired prison doctor and psychiatrist. He worked in a number of Sub-Saharan African countries as well as in the east end of London.
Before his retirement in 2005, he worked in City Hospital, Birmingham and Winson Green Prison in inner-city Birmingham, England.
Daniels has been described as a pessimist. In 2010, Daniel Hannan wrote that Dalrymple's work "takes pessimism about human nature to a new level. Yet its tone is never patronising, shrill or hectoring. Once you get past the initial shock of reading about battered wives, petty crooks and junkies from a non-Left perspective,
...
you find humanity and pathos".
In 2005 he retired early as a consultant psychiatrist.
Regarding his pseudonym 'Theodore Dalrymple', he wrote that he "... chose a name that sounded suitably dyspeptic, that of a gouty old man looking out of the window of his London club, port in hand, lamenting the degenerating state of the world".
From his travels (see further below) one will not ethat he did not stay at home with his books to form his opnions on (to use a familiar quote from another book) "Life, the Universe and Everything"!
His writing has some recurring themes, e.g.....
The cause of much contemporary misery in Western countries – criminality, domestic violence, aggressive youths, hooliganism, broken families...
Poverty does not explain aggressive, criminal and self-destructive behaviour.An attitude characterised by gratefulness and having obligations towards others has been replaced – with awful consequences – by an awareness of "rights" and a sense of entitlement, without responsibilities.
Technocratic or bureaucratic solutions to the problems of mankind produce disasters in cases where the nature of man is the root cause of those problems
&c &c...
Meanwhile he followed some adventurous paths in his life!
From the backcover: 'He has been arrested as a spy in Gabon, been sought by the South African
police for violating apartheid, visited the site of a civilian massacre by the government of Liberia, concealed his status as a write for fear of execution in Equatorial Guinea, infiltrated an English communist group in order to attend the World Youth Festival in North Korea, performed Shakespeare in Afghanistan, smuggled banned books to dissidents in Romania, been arrested and struck with truncheons for photographing an anti-government in Albania and crossed both Africa and South America using only public transportation.'
www.goodreads.com/book/show/22239152-threats-of-pain-and-ruin
www.skepticaldoctor.com/2014/09/18/threats-of-pain-and-ruin/
en.wikipedia.org/:_Theodore_Dalrymple
Life, The Universe and Everything on Wikipedia
[20JUL2017]
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