Book Review: Why the Rest Hates the West by Meic Pearse

Steve peacefully and boldly utters truth in such a way that I experience what feels like an intellectual collapsing at the knees. As I emerge from a heap of confusion and shock at my own ignorance, it isn’t little birdies that circle my head, but rather the broken pieces of a failed paradigm that no longer have a place at the table in my thinking. Such was my experience when he asked that we compare the works of Wendell Berry to Meic Pearse’s book, Why the Rest Hates the West. Berry chronicles the lives of characters living in a rural American community. In every way, his tales reflect the values that exist at the heart of what it means to be a Christian. And yet, if Berry paints a picture of American life the way it ought to be, Pearce’s picture is a much more gruesome image of the way it is. If you’re looking for something to read for pleasure, let this one pass. This story is not for the faint-of-heart or for the American who refuses to believe that ideals upon which our country was founded have not been entirely honored by the culture that has inherited them. I found myself reluctantly and remorsefully nodding my head as I read through his account of our feeble-mindedness and our often-blind claims of cultural superiority.

However, don’t be fooled. This is also no manifesto of an anti-institutional liberal. In fact, neither traditional conservatives nor card-carrying liberals will find a home in Pearse’s survey of the contemporary international politics. In more ways than one, his critique transcends the common distinctions we rely on for understanding our political world. Like Berry, he seeks to explain reality with an uncompromisingly faithful worldview.

Pearce argues against the tendency to reduce world conflict to the level of economic equalities or religious fanaticism saying that these diagnoses are not only short sighted but also dangerously misplaced. Instead, he asserts that it is the West’s export of a culture that has made us the enemy of our non-Western brothers and sisters. This culture, in the name of freedom, dishonors the traditional values which once defined us.

I highly recommend Berry’s book to any Christian who desires a more comprehensive look at contemporary events. Check it out here.