Al Gore and The West Wing and so on
Hello, livejournal land! I just realized I haven't posted in wonks! Well, actually, I've been "realizing" that a lot over the past eight weeks or so. HOWEVER I just realized that I was going to post my posts from my "50 book challenge" thread over at LibraryThing. And the one I posted today seemed like a particularly apt place to get back to it. (Those of you who are interested in the 21 books preciously read: Follow that link!)
23: The Assault on Reason by Al Gore
Another part of the reason I haven't been reading [note to LJ readers: in addition to school and not being able to finish books, just start them, and also extensive reading of periodicals) is because I've been watching The West Wing on DVD. I love it to bits. It makes me want to be . . . maybe not a politician, but one of those people. Maybe a paper-pusher or a cogwheel in the bureaucracy or something, but it's actually changed my ambitions. And this is a prelude to saying: Al Gore, why are you not my president? I mean, seriously. Those of you who have been tracking my age will have noticed that I was 10 when he ran against Bush; I was too young to vote at the time (my state went blue; it's one of the ones that threatens to swing but hasn't in a while), but I distinctly remember being really unexcited about him. I liked Ralph Nader. Probably because I live in hippieville USA, but whatever. But the POINT is, maybe when I grow up I will be a politico, like a Josh Lyman equivalent or something (actually I just love Josh Lyman to bits because he is a genius BUT also a total fuckup AND YET he is rich and smart and successful and powerful and hilarious and AS SUCH I totally want to be him when I grow up. Also I wouldn't mind sleeping with him) and if I become one of those political operative guys when I grow up, if I have a candidate like Al Gore I will MAKE him exciting!
. . . And somewhere in there this stopped being about the book. ANYHOW. It's a pretty good one. I recommend it highly and so on. No, seriously. He says a lot of those things you always wished politicians said, about how debate is a good thing, and science is a good thing, and the first amendment is a good thing.
Also he does some silly Al Gore things, like talk about how the Chinese word for "crisis" = "danger" + "opportunity" and how Americans can do anything they set their minds to. Also he mentions the vice-president's name any time he talks about a presidential administration, which I find halfway between arrogant and endearing. (He does the same things, incidentally, in An Inconvenient Truth, which will be book #26.)
But these are not traits that make someone unworthy of the presidency! I mean, he wrote a book. And obviously he has staff and editors and a wife and things, but I've always thought that the sort of person who always meant to write a book, and who has written a book or two, would be a more interesting president than the sort of person who cynically hires a ghost writer. (Yes, I am channeling The West Wing again. Shut up.)
But I think I will talk about the book now, and not Al Gore! Really! (Maybe.) The book is, essentially, advocating the increased use of reason in our government (and yes, this book is indeed America-centric). The opening scene is one of Robert Byrd speaking into the congressional record to an empty Senate chamber; this could be indicative of something the matter with American democracy, or perhaps indicative of the fact that Robert Byrd is a barmy coot. But NO MATTER!
Throughout the book, Gore takes American government, media, and society to task for basically being utter failures, and advocates a great discussion with experts and ideas and diction and energy and honesty and I think I am going to go watch some West Wing now instead of letting it leak into my posts about books by Al Gore.
23: The Assault on Reason by Al Gore
Another part of the reason I haven't been reading [note to LJ readers: in addition to school and not being able to finish books, just start them, and also extensive reading of periodicals) is because I've been watching The West Wing on DVD. I love it to bits. It makes me want to be . . . maybe not a politician, but one of those people. Maybe a paper-pusher or a cogwheel in the bureaucracy or something, but it's actually changed my ambitions. And this is a prelude to saying: Al Gore, why are you not my president? I mean, seriously. Those of you who have been tracking my age will have noticed that I was 10 when he ran against Bush; I was too young to vote at the time (my state went blue; it's one of the ones that threatens to swing but hasn't in a while), but I distinctly remember being really unexcited about him. I liked Ralph Nader. Probably because I live in hippieville USA, but whatever. But the POINT is, maybe when I grow up I will be a politico, like a Josh Lyman equivalent or something (actually I just love Josh Lyman to bits because he is a genius BUT also a total fuckup AND YET he is rich and smart and successful and powerful and hilarious and AS SUCH I totally want to be him when I grow up. Also I wouldn't mind sleeping with him) and if I become one of those political operative guys when I grow up, if I have a candidate like Al Gore I will MAKE him exciting!
. . . And somewhere in there this stopped being about the book. ANYHOW. It's a pretty good one. I recommend it highly and so on. No, seriously. He says a lot of those things you always wished politicians said, about how debate is a good thing, and science is a good thing, and the first amendment is a good thing.
Also he does some silly Al Gore things, like talk about how the Chinese word for "crisis" = "danger" + "opportunity" and how Americans can do anything they set their minds to. Also he mentions the vice-president's name any time he talks about a presidential administration, which I find halfway between arrogant and endearing. (He does the same things, incidentally, in An Inconvenient Truth, which will be book #26.)
But these are not traits that make someone unworthy of the presidency! I mean, he wrote a book. And obviously he has staff and editors and a wife and things, but I've always thought that the sort of person who always meant to write a book, and who has written a book or two, would be a more interesting president than the sort of person who cynically hires a ghost writer. (Yes, I am channeling The West Wing again. Shut up.)
But I think I will talk about the book now, and not Al Gore! Really! (Maybe.) The book is, essentially, advocating the increased use of reason in our government (and yes, this book is indeed America-centric). The opening scene is one of Robert Byrd speaking into the congressional record to an empty Senate chamber; this could be indicative of something the matter with American democracy, or perhaps indicative of the fact that Robert Byrd is a barmy coot. But NO MATTER!
Throughout the book, Gore takes American government, media, and society to task for basically being utter failures, and advocates a great discussion with experts and ideas and diction and energy and honesty and I think I am going to go watch some West Wing now instead of letting it leak into my posts about books by Al Gore.