This is a sobering, terrifying, and enlightening book...and highly recommended.
Among the first lessons the author drives home is that democracy is NOT a spectator sport. The founders did not envisage a country in which the "professionals -- lawyers, scholars, activists, politicians -- politicians -- [should] worry about understanding the Constitution and protecting our rights." As Wolf says, "... the founders did not mean for powerful men and women faraway from the citizens... to protect freedom. They meant for us to do it."
They also certainly didn't consider democracy to be the natural "God-given" order in which civilization conducted itself by. Rather tyranny and oppression were the status quo and liberty was the exception, something to be fought for and clung to for dear life if obtained.
Mrs. Wolf then lists the calculus that all dictators employ to aggregate power: "Invoke an external and internal threat; develop the paramilitary force; create a secret prison system; surveil ordinary citizens; arbitrarily detain and released them; harass citizens' groups; target writers, entertainers, and other key individuals for dissenting; intimidate the press; recast dissent as "treason" and criticism as "espionage"; and eventually subvert the rule of law."
I give credit to Mrs. Wolf for acknowledging that the United States does not parallel past soon-to-be dictatorships such as Italy in 1922 or Germany in 1933. She correctly acknowledges the dis-similarities. Although critics will likely disagree, she handles the disturbing parallels between the past and present tactfully.
Importantly, the author also acknowledges that the shift to dictatorship does not happened suddenly and starkly. Many times, normal daily life is unaffected for most of the population, we can still watch American idol and go to the mall and order pizza, all while our liberties are crumbling away around us.
A remarkable aspect of this book was the amount of research conducted. Time and time again, the author inserts chilling similarities between past and present i.e. past propaganda mimicking the "Mission Accomplished" aircraft carrier landing.
As a word of warning, those who cannot turn the magnifying lens used to examine those other nations of the past and the present that are so often criticized, upon their own nation, leaders, and actions, this book will come as quite a shock. There's little that can be done about this -- those who subscribe to the, "we" are the forces of good and "they" are never ending evil, Manichaean worldview will not digest this book easily, much to their detriment.
Overall, I think The End of America is a superb and quick read and will recommend it to my friends and family. For further reading, I'd suggest Chalmers Johnson's Nemesis or blogger Arthur Silber.
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The End of America: A Letter of Warning to a Young Patriot by Naomi Wolf
AG, September 10, 2007
This is a sobering, terrifying, and enlightening book...and highly recommended.Among the first lessons the author drives home is that democracy is NOT a spectator sport. The founders did not envisage a country in which the "professionals -- lawyers, scholars, activists, politicians -- politicians -- [should] worry about understanding the Constitution and protecting our rights." As Wolf says, "... the founders did not mean for powerful men and women faraway from the citizens... to protect freedom. They meant for us to do it."
They also certainly didn't consider democracy to be the natural "God-given" order in which civilization conducted itself by. Rather tyranny and oppression were the status quo and liberty was the exception, something to be fought for and clung to for dear life if obtained.
Mrs. Wolf then lists the calculus that all dictators employ to aggregate power: "Invoke an external and internal threat; develop the paramilitary force; create a secret prison system; surveil ordinary citizens; arbitrarily detain and released them; harass citizens' groups; target writers, entertainers, and other key individuals for dissenting; intimidate the press; recast dissent as "treason" and criticism as "espionage"; and eventually subvert the rule of law."
I give credit to Mrs. Wolf for acknowledging that the United States does not parallel past soon-to-be dictatorships such as Italy in 1922 or Germany in 1933. She correctly acknowledges the dis-similarities. Although critics will likely disagree, she handles the disturbing parallels between the past and present tactfully.
Importantly, the author also acknowledges that the shift to dictatorship does not happened suddenly and starkly. Many times, normal daily life is unaffected for most of the population, we can still watch American idol and go to the mall and order pizza, all while our liberties are crumbling away around us.
A remarkable aspect of this book was the amount of research conducted. Time and time again, the author inserts chilling similarities between past and present i.e. past propaganda mimicking the "Mission Accomplished" aircraft carrier landing.
As a word of warning, those who cannot turn the magnifying lens used to examine those other nations of the past and the present that are so often criticized, upon their own nation, leaders, and actions, this book will come as quite a shock. There's little that can be done about this -- those who subscribe to the, "we" are the forces of good and "they" are never ending evil, Manichaean worldview will not digest this book easily, much to their detriment.
Overall, I think The End of America is a superb and quick read and will recommend it to my friends and family. For further reading, I'd suggest Chalmers Johnson's Nemesis or blogger Arthur Silber.
(72 of 94 readers found this comment helpful)