Author Peter J. Sandys sits down with Defiance Press to discuss his provocative new book “The Western Crisis: Democracy, Identity, and the Ideological Woke War” and his unflinching critique of modern Western civilization.

Defiance Press: Peter, what originally inspired you to start writing?

Peter J. Sandys: After retiring from industrial management, I took up writing to provide my daughter, who was studying international relations and public policy at the time, with a “college textbook” analyzing and critiquing different political systems from the viewpoint of political philosophy, theory, and comparative politics. I simply wanted to help her see and understand the world from a somewhat different perspective than what today’s politically correct, socially overcharged, and academically receding university environment can offer.

DP: How many books have you written, and which is your favorite?

Sandys: I have written and published three books so far, and I’m close to finishing the fourth. My favorite is the book published first: “The Waning of the West: An Inconvenient Truism.”

DP: Tell us about that first published book. What was the journey like?

Sandys: My first book offers a “politically incorrect” examination of global politics following the Cold War and the socialist transformation of the West. It’s critical of the present Western ideological, political, and cultural arrangement and, after analyzing different alternatives, offers recommendations for solving the readily apparent impasse. “The Waning of the West” rejects currently endorsed liberal democracy and denounces the Western elite aggressively promoting it. The book outlines a new political system I term “Essential Option,” characterized by the manners, values, and qualities associated with meritorious aristocracy based on a representative hierarchy with limited control that serves the people and is answerable to natural law.

The journey from conception to publishing was challenging but rewarding. Although not intended to be an autobiography, the book inevitably reflects my background, education, life, professional experience, political worldview, and philosophy.

DP: What’s the key theme or message in your current book, “The Western Crisis”?

Sandys: There are several interconnected themes. First, the rejection of liberal democracy, wokeism, and its modern Western elite. Second, the acknowledgment that left-liberal, socialist ideology has taken over the Western world. Third, the understanding that the European Union, under German domination, is the driving force behind leftist progress in the West. Finally, the adoption of sovereign nation-states, limited government, and “bottom-up” national conservatism based on subsidiarity instead of globalist federalism.

I consciously wanted to analyze Western decline in a non-overintellectualized way that would be equally convincing to experts and the general public. The contemporary Western culture has been so infected and poisoned that even the best ones lack all faith, while the worst are full of passionate intensity.

DP: What do you hope readers take away from this book?

Sandys: Despite the carefree, nonchalant indifference, tolerant mediocrity, and material gratification, there will be a severe and heavy price to pay—and the good people of the Western world still need to understand that fully. This book offers compelling explanations people need on this topic.

“The Western Crisis” rejects liberal democracy and its institutions, calling on readers to refuse despair, open the gates, and lead the charge against the forces of darkness. Readers will understand that the traditional American constitutional political system and the concept of citizenship are dead, whereas the intersectional constitution lives. A “Disunited States of America” is the Soviet Union’s successor today.

DP: Are you working on anything new you’d like to share?

Sandys: I’m crafting a manuscript about liberal democracy and its various effects—the sick empire of the Western world, the rise of a near-Western, “illiberal” Europe, the unsettling reinterpretation of history, the brutalized public discourse, the rise of political religion as dominant ideology, and the backlash from the non-Western world like China, Russia, and Afghanistan.

DP: Who is the author you most admire in your genre?

Sandys: Erik von Kuehnelt-Leddihn, an Austrian writer who opposed the ideas of the French Revolution and all types of socialism. He argued that majority rule in democracies threatens individual liberties and that all democracies are totalitarian and eventually degenerate into dictatorships. He asserted that National Socialism was actually a strongly leftist, democratic movement, and that Nazism, fascism, radical liberalism, anarchism, communism, and socialism were all pseudo-democratic movements designed to destroy traditional forms of society.

DP: What famous author do you wish would be your mentor?

Sandys: Joseph Conrad, the Polish-British author, with whom I feel a personal closeness based on apparent similarities of background, character, interests, and convictions. Conrad was concerned with politics, distrusted democracy, deplored socialism, saw Europe torn by commercial selfishness and moral decay, and considered it vain for Eastern Europe to expect help from a self-centered and materialistic Western world.

DP: Can you share a brief excerpt that captures the essence of your argument?

Sandys: Here’s a passage that I think encapsulates the crisis we face: “I can say only this—one day, America will no longer exist as we know it. Whether the U.S. ends up as a country broken up into pieces, perhaps one or more of them as a Third World or an authoritarian state, it will not be the country it was when the Cold War ended… A multiracial, multiethnic, and multicultural society is possible but neither necessary nor desirable—one can no longer speak of a ‘nation’ when nothing holds the people together.”

DP: If you had to describe yourself in three words, what would they be?

Sandys: As a “morale officer for skeptics,” I am an “existentialist paleoconservative dissenter.”

DP: Given your harsh critique of Western civilization, do you see any path forward?

Sandys: The path forward requires abandoning the illusions of liberal democracy and embracing what I call national conservatism based on traditional values, limited government, and genuine subsidiarity. We must reject the globalist project and return to the concept of sovereign nation-states that serve their people rather than abstract ideological constructs. The hour is late, but it’s not too late to choose a different course.

Peter J. Sandys brings decades of industrial management experience and deep political philosophy study to his critique of Western civilization. “The Western Crisis: Democracy, Identity, and the Ideological Woke War” challenges readers to confront uncomfortable truths about the direction of modern democracy and offers a controversial alternative vision for the future.