A SCHOLARLY BOOK REPOSITORY
“Why Do We See Lysenko-Type Mass Delusions in Western Democracies?”
We’ve learned enough to know that Global Warming Catastrophism and the mass homicide of the Covid “vaccines” are totalitarian insanities. But can Mattias Desmet’s theory fully account for these recurring outbreaks of mass psychosis?
“Here’s Why There Can Never Be a Marxist Revolution”
There are two irrefutable reasons why genuine Marxism can never succeed. But failed fake Marxism is a real threat to all of us, especially the working class.
“The Five Times George Orwell Changed His Mind”
We can best understand George Orwell’s thinking by looking at the five occasions when he underwent a major change in his political outlook.
“The Most Evil Man in History”
Ayn Rand and her slavish worshipers depict Immanuel Kant as the Fountainhead of Evil. But in point of fact, Kant was a far greater friend of liberty and objective truth than the muddleheaded Miss Rand could ever be.
“Sam Harris and How to Spot Dangerous Ideas”
Sam Harris made his fame and his fortune by claiming that suicide bombings occur because of what the Quran tells Muslims. But the truth is that suicide bombings—by Muslims, atheists, and, yes, Christians—occur because they are the most cost-effective means for militarily weak populations to hit back against oppressive foreign occupation.
“Dexter the Busy Bee”
The serial killer Dexter Morgan confers a huge social benefit by deleting bad guys, illustrating the point made by Dr. Bernard Mandeville, that viciously-motivated behavior may give us a valuable public outcome.
“The Conquistador with His Pants Down”
Dr. Sigmund Freud, who likened himself to a conquistador, marketed a deceptive story about what his patients had told him. This false tale has been thoroughly exposed, and the slippery doctor doesn’t come out smelling like a rose.
“Dr. Peterson! Clean Up Your Theory!”
Jordan Peterson is a teller of stories and of stories about stories. But his stories about stories are provably false, and his interpretations of the stories are no more than Rorschach patterns for his own subjective fantasies.
“Is It a Fact that Facts Don’t Matter?”
Scott Adams denigrates truth, yet he continually appeals to facts. And the fact is that truth is a powerful influence in human affairs.
“An Inconceivably Humble Defense of the Inconceivably Holy Book”
In the year 112,075, humankind has recovered from the latest Ice Age and founded a new religion based on an ancient book. You’ll be surprised what our future descendants make of this charming tale recovered from our time.
“Some Second Thoughts on Atheism”
The author of Atheism Explained comes back to look again at this messy topic and mop up some of the mess.
David Ramsay Steele is the author of The Mystery of Fascism: David Ramsay Steele’s Greatest Hits (2019), Orwell Your Orwell: A Worldview on the Slab (2017), Therapy Breakthrough: Why Some Psychotherapies Work Better than Others (with Michael R. Edelstein and Richard K. Kujoth, 2013), Atheism Explained: From Folly to Philosophy (2008), Three Minute Therapy: Change Your Thinking, Change Your Life (with Michael R. Edelstein, 1997), and From Marx to Mises: Post-Capitalist Society and the Challenge of Economic Calculation (1992).
Rave Reviews of Dr. Steele’s earlier books:
The Mystery of Fascism
“From Mussolini to The Matrix, from vegetarianism to mental illness, Steele’s relentless logic jolts us awake.”
—Thomas E. Woods, author of The Politically Incorrect Guide to American History
Orwell Your Orwell
“an absolutely dazzling book on Orwell, casting a brilliant new light, not just on Orwell himself, but on the entire intellectual history of our time.”
—Yuri Maltsev, editor of Requiem for Marx
Therapy Breakthrough
“Prepare to embark upon a rollicking yet highly informative journey through the intense world of psychotherapy!”
—Debbie Joffe Ellis, author of How to Hug a Porcupine
Atheism Explained
“Covers essentially all the arguments for and against God, in science, philosophy, and theology, with sympathy for the believer’s views even as they are shown to be untenable,”
—Victor J. Stenger, author of God and the Atom
Three Minute Therapy
“Of all the books that explain REBT in simple, clear, and highly usable form, Three Minute Therapy is one of the very best.”
—Albert Ellis, founder of REBT
From Marx to Mises
“a well written and tightly argued defense of Mises’s position that does much to dispel the ‘mystery’ of the socialist calculation debate.”
—Mark Blaug, Economic Journal
David Ramsay Steele, PhD, is a libertarian writer with a powerful underground reputation for producing caustic, entertaining, knowledgeable, and surprising arguments, often violently at odds with conventional thinking. For the first time, some of Dr. Steele’s “greatest hits” have been brought together in an anthology of provocative essays on a wide range of topics. The essays are divided into two parts, “More Popular than Scholarly” and “More Scholarly than Popular.”
“Scott Adams and the Pinocchio Fallacy,” Steele’s 2018 refutation of the popular claim that we might be living in a “simulated reality,” has been hailed as a totally irresistible debunking of that fallacy as promoted by The Matrix movie and by Scott Adams (among many pundits).
“What Follows from the Non-Existence of Mental Illness?” (2017) preserves the crucial insights of “psychiatric abolitionist” Thomas Szasz, while exposing Szasz’s major misconceptions.
In “The Bigotry of the New Atheism” (2014), Steele, himself an atheist, brings out the intolerant quality of the “New Atheists.” Steele powerfully argues that while “enthusiastic belief systems” may give rise to enormous atrocities, the historical evidence goes against the theory (promoted by Harris, Dawkins, and Hitchens) that these appalling outcomes are more likely when those belief systems include belief in God.
“Taking the JFK Assassination Conspiracy Seriously” (2003) has been reprinted many times, continues to be viewed online many thousands of times, and like many of Steele’s writings, keeps making converts. It is acknowledged to be the most persuasive brief popular statement of the Lone Nut theory.
“The Mystery of Fascism” (2001), which gives this collection its title, is still continually viewed and cited, for its demonstration that fascism arose directly out of far-left revolutionary Marxism and revolutionary syndicalism. Conventional ideologues of both right and left have been provoked by this highly readable piece to start thinking outside the box.
The earliest piece in this collection, “Alice in Wonderland” (1987) is a devastating critique of the Ayn Rand belief system and the Ayn Rand cult.
“Gambling Is Productive and Rational” (1997), mercilessly strips away the loose thinking which favors intolerance and prohibition of gambling. Steele argues that gambling adds to human well-being and ought to be completely legalized everywhere.
Other topics include the recovered memory witch hunt of the 1990s, the benefits of replacing democratic voting with selection of political positions by lottery, the unexpected results of research into the causes of human happiness, the reasons why Dexter (a TV show sympathetic to a psychotic serial killer) was politically “safe,” why economic growth can go on for ever, why the most popular moral argument against eating meat just doesn’t work, how Hillary Clinton could have won the presidency in 2016, why Friedrich Hayek is wrong about social evolution, the inevitable disappearance of market socialism, Robert Nozick’s muddled thinking about economics, and the proper way to view anti-consensus theories such as the Atkins Diet.
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