Beyond 5 Stars–Can Frustrate, But Righteously Broad, June 9, 2011
I am sympathetic to those who are critical of the author, as I myself was frustrated at many points and also I confess feeling very ignorant about many of the literary works that were mentioned. However, and despite a rotten index and the lack of a syntopicon or annex with literature and politics and economics at least, side by side, this is for me beyond 5 stars, a category where no more than 10% of my reviewed works can be found (at Phi Beta Iota, the Public Intelligence Blog).
Read to the bitter end this magnificent book is both an indictment of the nation-state system, and an ode to the role of literature as a foundation for understanding and enhancing civilization and relations among peoples rather than nations.
I was expecting so much more from this book, it is almost a three in relation to disappointment, but assuredly a solid four as far as it goes. This is a very good review of politics at the top personality level, but devoid of any discussion at all of corruption, government ineptitude, and so on. The index stinks, mostly a name index, but that sums the book up–names, not root cause and effect.
Part I is about Deng, Thatcher, Reagan, Gorbechev, Eastern Europe coming free, Latin America moving to the center, and India awakening.
Part II is about Fukuyama, Greenspan (before he was striped naked), Bill Gates, Bill Clinton, Asia rises, and in a most interesting but all too short section: the role played by the anti-globalization advocates and the neo-conservatives.
Part III offers three scenarios, the world as Europe, the world as China and Russia, and the world as Pakistan.
In relation to my broader reading habits the book is disappointing. It is a journalism story not at all illuminating. Particularly annoying to me, and especially so noting the financial reporting capabilities of the author, is the absolute refusal to call a spade for what it is: a spade. The destruction, de-construction, corruption, and flat out fraud that permeated all of the governments under the varied leaderships discussed by the author do not exist within the jacket of this book.
At a simplistic level there is certainly value to the book, but it ignores so much I was constantly resisting the urge to simply put the book down and move on.
The author concludes that there are three sources of zero sum thinking:
1. Slower economic growth
2. Rivalry between the USA and China (no mention of Brazil, India, Indonesia, Iran, Russia, and Wild Cards like South Africa and Turkey that I noticed)
3. Clash of national interests in face of global challenges–the author's range of understanding of global challenges is very limited and traditional: climate change (which is 10% of environmental degradation), global economic imbalances (but no focus on massive fraud and corruption), nuclear proliferation (ho hum compared to poverty and infectious disease), resource shortages (duh, especially when farm land is the next bubble and food prices suffer from unethical politicians pushing ethanol), and failed states (no mention of the role of the US in increasing that number from 25 to 175 in the last 12 years).
When the author states that China is “stealing” jobs from the US I almost drop this book to a three. That is idiotic. Jobs are being exported from the USA by unethical CEOs with no grounding in moral capitalism, and allowed to do so by unethical politicians who are absolutely not making policy in the public interest.
The author anticipates that polarization and protectionism are the most likely near-term national reactions, and this is the point at which I realize he has absolutely no idea about what is going on among the young and those that have labored in the evolutionary activism, emergence, and open everything circles these past twenty years.
QUOTE I liked (275): “On every one of the big global issues, a mixture of national interests and ideological disagreements blocks the chances of an international deal.”
Although I like the quote it reflects a complete lack of appreciation for panarchy, end-user democracy, open information-sharing, hybrid coalitions across the eight tribes (academia, civil society, commerce, government, law enforcement, media, military, non-governmental/non-profit).
My view of the author as totally status quo and convention is confirmed when he states that the existing international economic system must be preserved at all costs.
There is nothing in this book that actually helps understand complexity or foster resilience.
As a trained neurologist working at a school of medicine, I thought I had a fairly good understanding of BSE and its human counterpart, nvCJD. But clinical knowledge is only one piece of the puzzle.
Drawing upon epidemiologic, forensic, political, medical, scientific, and historical sources, the author has provided a truly chilling account of the importation of prion disease samples from the small cannabalistic Fore tribe in New Guinea for U.S. animal experimentation in the 1950's and '60's, with credible links to the current epidemic of animal prion disease in North America (CWD or chronic wasting disease, TME or transmissible mink encephalopathy, and BSE), as well as the current epidemic of Alzheimer's disease in developed countries (i.e., those eating mass-produced livestock). The author also speculates that the cattle mutiliations in North America in the past few decades may have been programs designed for the surveillance of prions within the nation's food supply.
Hyperbole Squared, Disingenious, Mostly Theater, June 2, 2011
I happen to like Newt Gingrich, but no one has held him accountable on matters of truth for decades. When I was elected Virtual President at the Huffington Post (search for Robert David Steele), Newt was my choice for Vice President for Global Engagement. He is easily the most educated and thoughtful/philosophical leaders we have, apart from Dennis Kucinich (better on facts) and Ron Paul (better on the Constitution and common sense). I suppose you could add Mike Bloomberg (my choice for Vice President for Education Intelligence, & Research). In short, no Coalition Cabinet can be complete without Newt Gingrich. He might even make a good president if he would stop talking and learn to integrate the thoughts of others from across all 64 parties, not just the right wing of the same bird that has been pooping on America since Newt destroyed Speaker Wright (see The Ambition and the Power: The Fall of Jim Wright : A True Story of Washington). That was also the end of bi-partisanship and the beginning of the end of the Republic, now a neo-fascist corporate state.
Beyond 5 Stars–A Classic that Makes Justice Brandeis a Founding Father, June 1, 2011
I am shocked to not see any reviews of this book, and also shocked to see how reasonably priced the book is–this is a CLASSIC, a collector's item, and for anyone who wishes to restore the Republic in the USA, and help other countries avoid the terrible mistakes we have made in allowing bankers free rein.
The book is available free online “by the chapter” courtesy of the University of Louisville Louis D. Brandeis School of Law, but I strongly support the publishers who have provided this incredibly valuable non-fiction at such a good price. Use Inside the Book to look more closely.
Eric Hughes, whom I met at the Hackers Conference in Silicon Valley in the 1990's, created the concept of anonymous banking, and now we can move even further beyond that: we do not need banks. We certainly do not need banks outside of local communities. Resources can now be aggregated without banks, and as one of those who strongly supports Ron Paul's “End the Fed” initiative, and who has pioneered using open sources of intelligence to restore transparency and eradicate corruption, I think that both political parties should be impeached for their continuing cozy relationship with the banks at the expense of We the People.
Below are nine books and one DVD that build on the case made by Justice Brandeis. Our government–and the banks and financial institutions on Wall Street–are an axis of evil vastly more harmful to the public interest in the USA and all over the world, than any band of terrorists or dictators ever could be. The enemy is within our walls, and only an educated citizenry rooted in the philosophy of liberty and self-governance can root that enemy out. This book is a “primer” of lasting value and would also make a superb gift.
I wish I had the time and money to buy and read this book, but I don't. However, in posting a forward by Chuck Spinney (1980's whistle-blower on Pentagon fraud, waste, and abuse) at Phi Beta Iota the Public Intelligence Blog, I linked to the Amazon Page and saw the gap here. Below are just two paragraphs from a great review by Chuck Leddy at the Boston Globe search for it, it is worth it:
EXTRACT 1: But what these Western reports never quite explained, Fergusson notes, is how the Taliban brought law (however harsh) and order to a nation that had rarely seen either. Today, Fergusson reports, the Taliban are riding a growing wave of anti-Americanism and anti-corruption sentiment triggered by both US military operations and strong support for Karzai, who is considered unusually corrupt by the standards of a country where governmental corruption is the norm.
EXTRACT 2: One disillusioned local official tells Fergusson, “Warlordism and insecurity have returned, and the people are fed up. They are ready to welcome the Taliban back again.” Indeed, the Taliban are coming back just when the Obama administration has reduced US forces in Afghanistan. Fergusson makes clear the differences between the Taliban and Al Qaeda. Many of those inside the Taliban told Fergusson that they would welcome an agreement with Washington that would swap the exclusion of Al Qaeda from Afghanistan for an American pullout and foreign aid.
To complement this “third hand” appreciation, here is one book that I consider a six star and beyond on Afghanistan, and that I have read and reviewed–it cuts to the heart of all that the USA does NOT do:
TImely, Deep Historical Insights, Some Gaps & Biases, May 29, 2011
I would normally wait but in the absence of any reviews want to just praise this book as timely, with deep historical insights, and a few gaps and biases as well as no index, the latter almost always causes me to remove a star. The book has been rushed into print and suffers from that rush, but I fully anticipate that a second edition will be fleshed out, add an index, and be a full five star contribution. This is a print on demand book (Amazon's superb CreateSpace offering) and only 78 pages, it is properly priced and that I find especially commendable.
The author is nothing less than a superior analyst with very high integrity, and his historical knowledge, as well as his historical contributions to non-fiction literature, cannot be denied.
Among the core findings that I appreciate are the author's early focus on the complete ignorance of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) [and of course also the Departments of State and Defense] with respect to both the opposition leaders (all of them, not just the normal suspects] and the underlying preconditions of revolution across all dimensions.
Beyond 5 Stars–Can Frustrate, But Righteously Broad, June 9, 2011
Hyperbole Squared, Disingenious, Mostly Theater, June 2, 2011
