This was amusing… at first. But it eventually palled, and when I become distracted by something (it really didn’t take much) it wasn’t worth returDNF.
This was amusing… at first. But it eventually palled, and when I become distracted by something (it really didn’t take much) it wasn’t worth returning to.
The most annoying part were the poems various characters provided. They were pretty much all the same, going on far too long. It apparently didn’t occur to the author that different people would probably compose in quite different styles. I mean, this was more than a century after Shakespeare; I think he should have been a bit more innovative.
I may have never got to the naughty parts, so I’m afraid I’ll never know how naughty they became....more
I’m not planning on reading this, but I’ll pass on why I’d recommend it.
I’m increasingly disengaging from ‘doom scrolling’: • the collapse of democracyI’m not planning on reading this, but I’ll pass on why I’d recommend it.
I’m increasingly disengaging from ‘doom scrolling’: • the collapse of democracy throughout the the world; • as well as the concomitant and interrelated inability of global society to cooperate to prevent the implosion of cooperation; • which will result in economic collapse; • soon dooming the human race to a at least few centuries of immiseration.
(The good news is that the respite might heal much of the ecosystem, and that whatever society rises from our ashes won’t have access to fossil fuel, the accelerant of toxic capitalism.)
Anyway, the analysis of The Right is germane for those still struggling with that first bullet point. The Economist reviewed this book and two others, concluding persuasively that it is the best at explaining how Donald Trump is “the latest manifestation of a recurring anti-establishment spirit in America.”
❝Of the three books, Matthew Continetti, a conservative journalist, comes closest to achieving that clarity and thoughtfulness. For him, understanding Mr Trump’s grip on the modern Republican Party requires assessing the past century of right-wing thought. His thoroughly researched intellectual history, “The Right”, reveals many antecedents to Mr Trump in the margins of conservatism: Father Charles Coughlin, whose populist diatribes against Franklin Roosevelt were spread by radio (then a newfangled medium); Charles Lindbergh and his “America First” isolationism; the strongman Huey Long and his embrace of the welfare state; the paranoid conspiracism of anti-communists like Joseph McCarthy and the John Birch Society; George Wallace and his politics of white racial grievance; and Pat Buchanan and his angry politics of cultural revanchism.
❝What held the party together throughout this period of warring ideological factions was a common enemy, sometimes internal and sometimes external: the New Deal, communist saboteurs, the “evil empire” of the Soviet Union, and Islamic terrorism and the “axis of evil”. The brilliance of Mr Trump was to recognise the demise of the last common enemy after the failed “forever wars” in the Middle East. He reforged a winning, lasting coalition to counter a new enemy: the modern left and its allies in the media.
❝However crisp, Mr Continetti’s writing is not casual. There is a fondness for categorising and subcategorising various ideological cliques (as well as cataloguing the spats among them). But the careful historical preparation makes the eventual turn towards explaining the modern malaise of the Republican Party all the more convincing. “Heralded as a transformational president who would enact a second New Deal, Barack Obama ended up the midwife of an anti-elitist, isolationist politics of national populism,” he writes. “Donald Trump was the latest manifestation of a recurring anti-establishment spirit in America.”
❝Though Mr Continetti is no Democrat, his faction—the bookish writers who once staffed the now-defunct Weekly Standard—has been largely ostracised from the modern Republican Party. Partisan allegiances are not as strong in the wilderness, and his analysis is intellectually honest as a result. That lucidity, already in short supply, may grow even scarcer. The temperature of American politics is rising as Mr Trump’s return to the party’s helm beckons.❞
No book I’ve seen captures my conclusion about why the inherent flaw in human psychology that makes all of this inevitable. I have a truly marvelous demonstration of this proposition which this review is too narrow to contain....more
After watching the movie I was inspired to re-read the novel (and its sequels) some three dozen years after my first read-Abandoned without prejudice.
After watching the movie I was inspired to re-read the novel (and its sequels) some three dozen years after my first read-through. I enjoyed that a great deal, discovering I’d forgotten quite a bit (collapsing the two prophets into one, for example).
I continued onto the second trilogy, believing I'd previously read those, too. Nope: there were definitely aspects I'm certain I would have remembered.
Unfortunately, I just ran out of steam. I remain curious about where Herbert took his dueling matriarchal ruling classes, but not enough to plow through quickly, and my other reading has suffered. Back to death in Yosemite, and then on to new texts....more
I like the idea behind this immediately… and then very quickly realized I would not enjoy the execution. Episteletory novels are tough (personal excepI like the idea behind this immediately… and then very quickly realized I would not enjoy the execution. Episteletory novels are tough (personal exception) to do well, and it was apparent very early on how this one would go, even if not where it might go. I’m not rating this, because I think those who have explored further are better guides to the book’s quality....more
I decided to not continue with this series; it isn't that I disliked the first two, just that I didn't like them enough to pay the opportunity cost toI decided to not continue with this series; it isn't that I disliked the first two, just that I didn't like them enough to pay the opportunity cost to wrap up the series. Part of that decision was noticing that the last of the three books has a lower overall rating than the others, and usually in a series the opposite happens. But mostly just because I have far too many other books to read....more
This joint effort by two of my favorites was, sadly, not interesting at all. It focuses far too much (for my taste) on the possibility of a post-apocaThis joint effort by two of my favorites was, sadly, not interesting at all. It focuses far too much (for my taste) on the possibility of a post-apocalyptic spiritual obsession with the causes and effects of the war. That might have been interesting in the hands of a straightforward author, but it gave these two a chance to indulge in their least palatable obsessions....more
I couldn't be bother to make it past the first few pages of the introduction.
The author quickly claims that this isn't going to be a "get off my lawn"I couldn't be bother to make it past the first few pages of the introduction.
The author quickly claims that this isn't going to be a "get off my lawn" rant, but the nature of his first examples provided too much evidence that he doesn't have a very sophisticated vision of "the problem".
Specifically, he says:
But first, we need to agree on the problem. I believe our entire nation is in the midst of a collective coming-of-age crisis without parallel in our history. We are living in an America of perpetual adolescence. Our kids simply don’t know what an adult is anymore—or how to become one. Many don’t see a reason even to try.
First, by limiting the diagnosis to "our entire nation" shows that he hasn't seen the parallels in other nations, some of which have substantially different cultures. Second, by focusing his attention on youth, he's blind to the much more worrisome trends that pervade the rest society.
I suspect his analysis and conclusions will be congruent with Charles Murray's Coming Apart: The State of White America, 1960-2010 (which he cites), although less disciplined in its academic analysis. That Sasse choose not to include footnotes is a cheat: he blames his editor, ignoring the simple solution of putting footnotes on a website instead of inside the book.
I don't doubt that he has thought long and carefully about our country's problems, but that doesn't mean he sees beyond his own tribal blinders. (I avoid reading rants from the blinkered left, too, for what that's worth.)
For someone who doesn't have already have a conclusion they are (consciously or unconsciously) seeking to defend, it is pretty easy to find evidence that his critique of young adults is just plain wrong. For example, the rate at which teens have given birth has halved in the past decade, and it has dropped by 67% since 1991.
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Source: CDC: About Teen Pregnancy
The number of teens who have tried smoking has decreased from 70% to under 30% since 1991. The number who rarely or never wear a seatbelt has gone from 25% to 6% in that period. The number that have driven when they've been drinking has fallen from 10% to 5.5%. The number who have carried a weapon to school property has gone from 12% to 4%. (Figures from CDC MMWR Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance 2017.)
But perhaps, you may be asking, the decline is in the somewhat older cohort, those horrible Millennials. Well, no. Clearly Sasse didn't do the research. You can find plenty of links here: Millennials: less lame than you thought.
Does that sound like "perpetual adolescence"? What it sounded like to me was an elaborate condemnation based on a bunch of unexamined stereotypes. I wasn't surprised, even though I was saddened: both the right and the left rely on ideological worldviews, but the right has a larger number that are hostile to secular social progress, so denying evidence — or refusing to examine the data — is going to be crucial.
Because Sasse has read widely (whilst clearly indulging in his god-given evolution-given cognitive biases), I do find his inclusion of sources and a bibliography tempting: I might skim it for titles to read instead of his. (Update: I've got plenty of other sources for my reading list, so… nope.)
I may be wrong about the whole thing, but I'm not willing to spend my time on reading what he acknowledges (in his "Note on sources and methods") is "obviously" not an academic book....more
I picked this up because it contains the short story “Bubba-Ho-Tep”, in which Elvis and JFK (kind of) battle an Egyptian mummy in an old folk’s home, I picked this up because it contains the short story “Bubba-Ho-Tep”, in which Elvis and JFK (kind of) battle an Egyptian mummy in an old folk’s home, which was apparently made into a highly-appreciated cult movie.
The story was amusing. But as I read the other stories, the tone and style grew tiresome....more
I read some of this a long, long time ago. I don't remember much, but I'm pretty sure there were aspects that were distasteful. And I didn't like it mI read some of this a long, long time ago. I don't remember much, but I'm pretty sure there were aspects that were distasteful. And I didn't like it much (and considering my standards weren't too high at the time...)...more
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