books:

	Can America Survive? The Rage of the Left, the Truth, and What to Do About It Ben Stein, Phil DeMuth New Beginnings, 2004 - 207 pages average customer review:based on 43 reviews view larger image
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Why? Where does this anger at America by Americans come from? Certainly not from reality, since all available historical comparisons tell us that America is the most enlightened, open, and forgiving of nations and the one that offers the most opportunity to its citizens.

In Can America Survive? authors Ben Stein and Phil DeMuth examine this anti-American rage, providing plentiful and outrageous examples from campuses to foundations to Democratic candidate debates to liberal "fund-raisers" that openly tout hate as their message. The authors then attempt to plumb the psychological wellsprings that generate this anger: Is it infantile narcissism? Is it a desperately incomplete maturation process? Is it competition with patriarchal figures?

The authors attempt to create a psychological road map that explores what the psychological roots of this national self-loathing might be. This is a unique approach, attempting to explain political beliefs in terms of psychological background, and the authors believe that it?s the only approach that works, since a realistic appraisal of America would not allow as much rage as we see in daily political discourse.

Finally, the authors offer a plan for how to fight back: They recommend educating your children in such a way as to develop pride in their country, suggest specific reading materials, offer ways to raise your voice to talk back to the major newspapers and TV networks, and even discuss how you can work fearlessly in university settings so that the left doesn?t dominate political discourse.

Can America Survive? is a portrait of what is clearly wrong with the national mood, where that malady comes from, and how those who still believe in America can work in their communities and in the nation to preserve the republic.

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Keeping up with the truth facts

I found the topic very interesting and enlightning on the facets of what really happens in the government and the media.


Made me feel better about things

The authors put recent events in perspective with facts and insightful thinking. A great alternative to the mass media "spin".


A Strong Stand for America

Firstly, this not an unabashed attempt by conservatives to bash liberals. Instead, as the authors verify (albeit a bit late into the text), this is a rebuttal of those in the extreme left who truly hate America. The line of argument tries to expose the extreme good being done by America and capitalism in the world. I think that it is necessary to affirm these goods and continually strive to better America further (as the authors proclaim). Envious hatred of America is never an edifying force. The act of dissent must always be one that builds up and never aims to tear down. It is against the crowd of those attempting to tear us down that the authors argue.

My disagreements with the authors are as follows:

They often begin their discussions with a variety of quotes that are taken from a variety of radicals, drawing their argument into an almost ad-hominem fallacy (as noted by another reviewer). However, this can not be fully maintained, for they do not use the character persons quoted to disprove their arguments. The real problem with this is that it could be interpreted as a narrow attempt at researching the views of America haters. Of course, I will argue that it is often difficult to discern a unified front in extreme liberalism because of its (often part and parcel) denial of objective truth and subsequent elevation of subjective understanding as the ultimate goal. (This is, of course, not meant to make humans into purely subjective computing machines. Instead, I mean to emphasize that a grounding of truth is necessitated because anything else would be a contradiction and yet this contradiction is often maintained by the elite for the sake of being "enlightened", but I digress.)

Furthermore, they are a bit too optimistic about capitalism's ability to lift up the world. I do think that the freedom in capitalism can do much good. However, we must never hope, like communism does, that we humans can work out perfection on our own. There is always the chance for humanity to fall. The authors do not directly assert this but lean that way at times. In all fairness, they hint at the advantage of capitalism: freedom is given to all. Next to the possibility for corruption, we must also acknowledge that we are also directed toward the Truth. Therefore, freedom must be maintained for all, a point truly made by the authors, although masked by an almost overzealous fideism in capitalism.

Finally, their review of "Phariseeism" is incomplete and also unreflecting upon the notion of wealth. I do not, however, read with a hermeneutic of suspicion. Based on the other ideas of these writers, I think that they have just chosen not to address this greatly and directly (although a brief mention is made with respect to gross extravagance).

In Conclusion,
All-in-all, however, this book gives a refreshing look at America. It serves as a reminder of what all we have done as Americans. From this we must take our forward thrust. This tradition must always remain a key motivating factor in progress. From the great things done in America, we must go forward in the hope of always helping our brethren in the world.

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reviews: page 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9

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