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Life Under Compulsion: Ten Ways to Destroy the Humanity of Your Child
by Anthony Esolen
ISI Books, 2015
(224 pages, $27.95, hardcover)

reviewed by David E. Prince

The modern notion of freedom is so corrupted that it constitutes a form of slavery, argues Anthony Esolen, Professor of English at Providence College and a senior editor of Touchstone. In his new book, Life Under Compulsion, he contends that contemporary culture mistakes expansion of choice for freedom itself, and he reveals the nightmarish implications of this error for child rearing. In Ten Ways to Destroy the Imagination of Your Child (ISI, 2013),Esolen showed how contemporary parenting trends stifle the imagination of children, tamp down courage, and produce a shallow generation of automatons desensitized to the sublimity of truth, beauty, and goodness. In Life Under Compulsion, he asserts that contemporary compulsions, rooted in an aimless, wrongly defined notion of freedom, make us less than heroes and even less than human.

Too often, he says, passive parents allow their children to become indoctrinated technocratic utilitarians who merely serve compulsions, from without and within. Our culture understands freedom in exclusively negative terms—"Nobody tells me what to do"—and so fails to understand freedom positively, as freedom for, not from. Esolen explains, "This freedom is not for oneself but for others. Our bonds and responsibilities do not constrict our freedom but rather define our very humanity" (20).

But the contemporary educational system and an array of cultural expectations reduce everything in life to the service of utilitarian ends. Thus our children are socialized into the prevailing societal system, which does not have time for truth or the life of the mind. Learning and working in this environment, under compulsion, is a constraining experience rather than a liberating one, and inevitably leads to a loss of humanity.

In ten chapters, Esolen evocatively helps readers identify the cultural compulsions that are rooted in a corrupt definition of freedom. He skillfully assesses the subtle—and not so subtle—strategies that seek to destroy the humanity of our children (and ourselves), all in the name of progress. He alleges that many modern homes function as a type of semi-orphanage: they are large, with just a handful of residents; everyone has his own bedroom, and every room has its own video screen and bathroom, ensuring privacy, or, perhaps more accurately, isolation (174–175).

Any parent who longs to raise children emancipated from all this—children who can sit and read a good book, be moved by beauty, think deeply, and possess wisdom rooted in truth—has an invaluable resource in this book. In fact, anyone could profitably read it for a greater understanding of how contemporary culture is waging war against our fundamental humanity. It is a provocative and insightful call for what has sadly become uncommon, namely, Christian common sense in child rearing. Life Under Compulsion deserves a place on your bookshelf alongside The Abolition of Man. 

 

From A to Z to Narnia with C. S. Lewis
by Louis Markos
Lampion Press, 2015
(129 pages, $12.95, paperback)

reviewed by James Menzies

Occasionally someone will pass along a message from a third party. After being regaled with way too many preliminaries, unnecessary details, and rabbit trails, you may ask, "Just tell me what he meant." A moment or two later you have all you need to know. In From A to Z to Narnia with C. S. Lewis, Louis Markos takes 26 significant subjects and tells us in an expert manner what Lewis means when he writes about them.

Following an introduction, Markos provides a helpful biographical sketch and timeline of Lewis's life. The heart of the book (pp. 21–72) consists of brief, two-page summaries of everything from Aslan to Zeitgeist. In the third part of the book, Film Reviews, he gives critiques of the screen versions of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (2005), Prince Caspian (2008), and The Voyage of the Dawn Treader (2010).

The final sections are about books. Markos first provides a recommended reading list of books by Lewis, and then offers some titles about him. After this comes a list of his own books on Lewis, followed by additional resources, including films, made-for-TV movies, and DVD collections. He closes with a list of titles (for children and adults) that Lewis himself enjoyed.

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