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Liked It “In this book Rick Shenkman hits it right on the money how television, polls, uneducated voters, inter alia (among other factors), dummied down the political conversation... in fact there is no conversation because average people cannot listen to an explanation or solution, which requires more...” see full review » see other reviews » |
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“In this book Rick Shenkman hits it right on the money how television, polls, uneducated voters, inter alia (among other factors), dummied down the political conversation... in fact there is no conversation because average people cannot listen to an explanation or solution, which requires more than a fleeting passive thought. For years, our politics have been guided by simplistic slogans and manipulative advertising campaigns.
pete l wrote this review Tuesday, October 13 2009. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
The effect... is that there is no one driving the bus... or more accurately, Rick Shenkman analogizes (verb?) that the president is like the bus driver and the passengers are the people, who through the effect of polling, can force the driver right off the road.
He bases this on a historical look at polls, and how politicians who were elected to make tough decisions cannot do so because they are now concerned about being re-elected, and polls, (which are a reflection of a mob's lowest understanding of any subject) force the leader to do what's popular instead of doing what's right.
I thought this book is important because it accuarately describes many many occassions where this phenomenon brings about the worst of the worst decisions by american politicians... and explains the glaring contradictions that are apparant in media and politics.
the ideas expressed in Shenkmans book, about the dummying down of the conversation... and that most of the debate is directed at a seventh grader who has little to no interest in politics... make it easier for me to understand why educated people feel out of the loop.
I studied statistics and economics at the University of RI... I was (and still am) over qualified to speak to 99% of people about politics because few if any seem to be able to start with the premise that we know little to nothing about the complexities behind the superficial slogans... and I have no criticism of people who don't know, I'm just always curious as to anyone can get so heated about anything they read or hear about anything political, without first qualifying the information.
For example, I still have no idea why Obama does anything he does... and I have not jumped to any conclusions... and I try with an open mind to get beyond the right wing nonsense... or simple tea party media hype... or any anti-Obama slogans... I am listening very carefully, for certain economic principles... based on productivity and "economics" (which itself is a pseudo-science in its infancy deigning to study human behavior with regards to the appearance of limited resources - akin to my favorite subject, astrology)... and I know most media outlets will not, (cannot) even attempt to offer any analysis beyond what they can present in a 30 second clip or a 10 second sound bite... this dummying down is guaranteed because they need to sell commercials on their tv.
Anyway, I invite and encourage all of us to read books to educate ourselves.
Anyone interested in politics, I would like you to read this book... run don't walk... ha ha.
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“ I liked this book and agreed with the thesis to a point but Shenkman doesn't really do a good job showing what inforamation should be important. A lot of the stupidity he points out are general cognitive biases that even the smartest people will fall victim to at time so even civics education won't help. He also doesn't do a good job outlining how to fix this problem. I have a few ideas myself. ”
Robephiles wrote this review Monday, August 24 2009. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
“Overall, this was a great book. It made a lot of interesting points and really highlighted something that we don't like to talk about: our own stupidity.
Mimzy wrote this review Tuesday, April 7 2009. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
However, Rick Shenkman's constant bashing of George W. Bush left me annoyed. I'm not a Bush supporter, but I would have rather partisanship and the standard Republican-bashing "OMG THEY LIED TO US" rhetoric be left out of something for once. If Mr. Shenkman simply believed that Bush is an idiot and didn't want to introduce party politics into this, he should've discussed the equally atrocious lies told by liberals, as well. But he didn't.
I still enjoyed this book, though, and if you're one of those dedicated Bush-bashers, you'll enjoy it even more.”
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