The Demon in Democracy

Totalitarian Temptations in Free Societies

By: Ryszard Legutko, John O'Sullivan, Teresa Adelson

Narrated by: Liam Gerrard

Ryszard Legutko lived and suffered under communism for decades - and he fought with the Polish anti-communist movement to abolish it. Having lived for two decades under a liberal democracy, however, he has discovered that these two political systems have a lot more in common than one might think. They both stem from the same historical roots in early modernity, and accept similar presuppositions about history, society, religion, politics, culture, and human nature.

In The Demon in Democracy, Legutko explores the shared objectives between these two political systems, and explains how liberal democracy has, over time, lurched towards the same goals as communism, albeit without Soviet-style brutality.

Both systems, says Legutko, reduce human nature to that of the common man, who is led to believe himself liberated from the obligations of the past. Both the communist man and the liberal democratic man refuse to admit that there exists anything of value outside the political systems to which they pledged their loyalty. And both systems refuse to undertake any critical examination of their ideological prejudices.

©2016 Ryszard Legutko (P)2017 Tantor

Excellent, but bleak, political philosophy

A superb and philosophically sophisticated exposition of the problems of liberal democracy. Perhaps too bleak, not in the sense of it being unrealistically bleak, but in the sense of not sufficiently exploring viable paths of political resistance and cultural regeneration. Maybe the author intends this for another work, or it is the task of another author. As someone engaged in practical Polish and EU politics, the core pessimism of the book seems not entirely in keeping with the author's optimism, or at least spirited resistance, revealed by his vocational actions. Nonetheless, a landmark contribution in political philosophy and a novel, and devastating, critique of the dominant Western political paradigm.

Important book on political philosophy

Polish political philosopher Ryszard Legutko very credibly compares the excesses of communism to those of liberal democracy of the type practiced by the European Union. He finds little to like about either. Legutko's arguments are strong and well documented. THE DEMON IS DEMOCRACY is a must read book for those interested in politics. Unfortunately narration by Liam Gerrard is not a good match for the contents of the book. This book is not a good fit for the audio format due to the very heavy subject matter and the depth of Ryszard Legutko's arguments.

I've written over 2300 reviews of Audible books and have refrained from negative comments about another review. However, the very negative review of this book by Tom S of London literally begs for a response. The review reeks of personal animosity toward the author. My advice to potential listeners of this book is to give the review the credit it deserves and ignore it completely.

Slow to start but riveting by the end

The narration is a bit dry, but hey, it’s an extended essay about political and ideological theory. Legutko‘s thesis and observations on modern liberal-democracy are penetrating, fresh, and insightful to those who have ears to hear.

Fantastic book

The author’s insights are classical and Christian. He sees the threat to European civilization in exacting terms. The convergence of liberalism and totalitarianism is happening. It will intensify.

Strawman

He spends the whole book (at least what I was able to get through) building up liberal democrats as this massive oppressive unstoppable force, while also trying to paint them as weak, pathetic, and something completely dismissable. The structures he claims to see tear apart the fabric of humanity just don't exist. I hope to listen to this book to learn something - and I suppose I learned that those who live their whole lives looking for someone to hate will always find a worthy target. Whether or not that target is real is another question entirely.