The Madness of Crowds

What are our modern taboos? And how do we set about shattering them?

Douglas Murray is the internationally bestselling author of The Strange Death of Europe and the foremost commentator on identity and culture in the United Kingdom. In his explosive new book The Madness of Crowds Murray examines the twenty-first century's most contentious issues: sexuality, race, mental health, and gender. He reveals the astonishing new culture wars playing out in our media, universities, schools, homes and in perhaps the most violent place of all: online.

He asks whether the concept of “intersectionality”--the popular theory that all minority rights overlap--has in fact driven us wildly off course. Rather than providing the route to justice and enlightenment, it has ignored the fact that increasingly narrow sets of interests often work in opposition to one another. This applies across a huge spectrum of areas including trans and gay issues, race, and women's rights.

Policing each of these causes are the loud and frequently anonymous voices on social media and in the press. Murray argues that social media and online networks, originally designed as forums for open speech, have emboldened the mob and exacerbated groupthink--self-censorship and public shaming have become rife. As a result, and out of terror, we have unlearned the ability to speak frankly about some of the most important issues affecting society, due entirely to the fear of being criticized.

Drawing on examples from those directly affected by the crowd mentality, including Tim Hunt in Britain and Brett Weinstein in America, Murray walks against the tide of censorship. He asks us to think more openly about what we're afraid to say; to think outside of the mob and the psychology of the crowd. With his characteristic perceptiveness and eminently readable prose, Murray argues vociferously for a return to free speech in an age of mass hysteria.