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Idiot America: How Stupidity Became A Virtue In The Land Of The Free (2009)

by Charles P. Pierce(Favorite Author)

3.63 of 5 Votes: 4

ISBN

0767926145 (ISBN13: 9780767926140)

languge

English

genre

History & Biography

publisher

Doubleday

review 1: It shouldn't matter to a book review, but since I'm not a professional reviewer I think it's important to preface a review of a book such as this by saying the following: I am a dyed in the wool Marxist, atheist, elitist, collectivist liberal. It's important you know this as I don't want you to think that I'm slamming what is ultimately a liberal tome because of my politics.I hated this book and, with my political leanings, it was intended for readers such as me. The most obvious flaw was the writing and structure. They were at times so confusing that the central narrative fell apart. Pierce jumped from evolution to Sean Hannity to Terry Schiavo to global warming to James Madison, oftentimes over the course of four pages. He would then circle back and repeat that cycl... moree over and over again. The central thread for which he was arguing was nearly impossible to find, which made it all the more annoying when he ended a rant with "...so that's Idiot America!"The second flaw is that most of the book came across as a journal where Pierce dubbed everything he disagreed with idiotic. Consider the Iraq War. Pierce treats this conflict as such a simple issue and covers it in several paragraphs. Simply put, it's not a simple issue. Please have a look at the George Galloway and Christopher Hitchens debate on the Iraq conflict. You can find it on YouTube. The last thing you'll be thinking, especially if you approach with an open mind, is "Iraq War BAD/GOOD"! Idiot America, however, was nothing short of dismissive whining, which Pierce simultaneously excoriates when one of his conservative counterparts engages in the same behavior.Finally, the book was not varied enough in its subject matter to hold a reader's interest. Idiot America, in my view at least, is more than the Creation Museum and conservative talk radio. There are plenty of signs that we're headed toward an intellectual meltdown.1) Only 8% of American citizens read a book last year.2) Michael Bay's movies take in millions of dollars. Boy bands have been chart toppers for weeks.3) Network news has been reduced to constant debate as if the opinions of two talking heads are any sort of objective reporting.4) Evangelical Christians are the only "true" Christians in this country.5) The hero worship of John Edwards and Sarah Palin, both of whom were wildly unqualified for any position in the executive branch.6) A too-large portion of our citizenry believes that evolution isn't true and that opinion should be taught in science classes.The abovementioned points cover much more interesting ground than Pierce taking one-sided cheap shots at his perceived enemies. I sometimes get the sense when I'm reading that a different author could have better accomplished the actual author's intended goal. In this case, it's not an author, but rather the late great Bill Hicks. One of Hicks's central hypotheses was that not only are we voluntarily dumbing ourselves down with a lack of interest in intellectual pursuits, but we're also being systematically dumbed down by people or groups who WANT us to dumb down. I don't remember anyone clamoring for a boy band, crappy movie, or superficial debate. These travesties are being forced on us from every angle to the point that they've been accepted as the norm. Hicks asks "are we actually that stupid, or do some entities have an interest in us being stupid"? Pierce had plenty of fertile ground here, but he was seemingly too lazy to investigate.In short, I finished this book and instantly dismissed its content as nothing more than disorganized whining. I highly recommend Hicks's "Arizona Bay" record if you are looking for a rant that will be organized, thought provoking, and funny.
review 2: Nothing that I didn't already know but written in a breezy style. The book begins with the quote, "a saddle on a dinosaur." This refers to the creationist museum in Kentucky that shows that dinosaurs and humans existed at the same time. But Pierce goes on to discuss the reasons that he thinks Americans fall for many lies. Ultimately, he draws the conclusion that if you tell a lie enough times, it will grow into a fact accepted by most Americans. Hardly a new concept. But some interesting information, especially about the people who knew the lies were lies but couldn't stop the consequences, like a war in Iraq. less

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