Essay on Published Literature on the 2012
Presidential Election
July 14, 2012
This is a review of the
current whole-article literature concerning the parties and candidates for
President of the United States and the election in November of 2012.
Using the Amazon.com
database, I reviewed 5 popular authors representing each of the 2 major
political parties. Using a combination of the reviews written by the Amazon
staff, and the extensive commentaries posted by readers of these books, I was
able to get a very good picture of the structure and contents of each of the
books. It is important to note, that many of the reviewers are prominent
scholars, politicians, and well-known media personalities. Their comments were
well written, very detailed, and, in general, had high praise for the book in
question. Admittedly, this is a lazy man's attempt to evaluate this literature,
but the time it would take to read ten volumes is beyond my current capacity
and time limitations. However, let me add that I have been a high-volume
consumer of new nonfiction literature since I was in college. More
specifically, after reading The Medium is the Message by Marshall McLuhan in
1969, in which he warned of the hidden dangers of watching television, I
stopped that habit and have been consistent in not watching television ever
since. I know of no other individual who took Marshall McLuhan's advice; and,
so while my peers have been watching television I have been reading books.
The appearance of
Amazon.com on the Internet changed forever my reading experience. The brilliant
structure of the database included reader reviews, which greatly aided myself
and many, many others in making intelligent decisions concerning our next
purchase and reading experience. Another splash of breakouts included
cross-linking of the purchasers’ buying history, as well as their browsing
history. With these two constants, the purchaser would then be offered books
labeled as " other books you might be interested in." This soft sell,
while at first seeming like a cheap gimmick, actually proved to be affective in
helping me find books that I was interested in. Because the database
permanently maintains your purchasing history and your browsing history, it was
particularly effective for my style of reading. For example, I like to jump
from topic to topic, for instance reading 3 or 4 books on recent breakthroughs
in brain physiology; and, then switch to an interesting new series of subatomic
particles in theoretical physics. In addition, the service was impeccable: fast,
accurate, and reliable. The point in all this is that I have learned from 25
years of experience using Amazon.com how to use their system to the greatest
advantage in finding books that were interesting and expanded my scope of
knowledge. For example, I developed a screening criteria for readers’ comments;
and, after a short while, it was obvious which readers’ commentaries were written
by a knowledgeable person and which were written by a hack just wanting to
spout off.
Given the basis of my
methodology, here are my conclusions about the 10 best-selling books concerning
the candidates and political parties engaged in the presidential election of
2012.
First, the books were all
structured in an almost identical manner. These books began with the
philosophical origins of the party. This was followed by a glorified history of
the tradition of the political party and a lengthy section on their
accomplishments and achievements that benefited the American people.
The majority of these
writers wrote in a very erudite manner and were very convincing. But the
overall tone was consistently more of a cheerleading exercise than a discussion
of important issues of the day. When the current issues of the day were
discussed, whether it be the poor state of the economy, the massive federal
deficit, unemployment, or the decline in " family values", the
emphasis was well focused on blaming the other party for all of these ills.
Facts were always sporadically introduced when convenient; and ,only when
supporting the claims that all of our major problems are the other parties’
fault. There was a complete absence of discussion of the underlying
causes of the problems. When an occasional topic of discussion relative to the
cause of our difficulties, it rapidly deteriorated into a high mannered blame
game.
I was struck by the world
view of all the authors. They wrote as if the world still functions as it did in
the 1950s. It made me wonder if either of the candidates, their party
leadership, or the writers of these books, have read a single book relative to
the astonishing changes in our world view that have occurred in the last 20 to
30 years. In particular, they were totally ignorant of the concept of ecology,
which was heralded in the 1950s by Rachel Carlson's Silent Spring. Her idea is
that our planet is, in effect, a single organism in which everything affects
everything else. The delicate balance
that keeps our environment in balance can easily be disrupted and destroyed by
human folly. The entire scientific community has accepted this theory for over
20 years. The Democrats have made some efforts to support ecological agendas,
but due to the fact that Congress has become completely corrupt, and every
congressman's vote is up for sale to the highest bidding lobbyist, Democratic
stance as the defender of the environment has been pathetic. The Republicans, on
the other hand, have chosen to ignore the issue altogether, their belief being
that anything that benefits the environment is costly to business and therefore
reduces profits. They initially and stubbornly refuse to accept that issues
like global warming are even real, based on the lame excuses of " we don't
have enough information yet" or " scientists are not in agreement on
this issue" which is a bold-faced lie.
The other major worldview-altering discovery,
that human behavior is at least as much driven by biological factors as
psychological factors, was not even hinted at in any of these "
comprehensive" assessments of our current troubles. A prime example was
the failure of any author to mention television as the technological "Marvel"
that was the root cause of the unraveling of every aspect of American life.
While the proof of this statement has only recently been proven down to the
molecular level of neurotransmitters and brain circuitry, the general
principles have been known in the scientific community for at least two
decades. Another glaring omission that fits under the category of the effects
of biology on human behavior is the discovery of the precise biological
mechanisms that cause the overtly antisocial behavior of the sociopath. While
sociopaths makeup slightly less than 1% of the human population, some very
large and very convincing research studies have shown that these individuals, when
they are able to gain positions of power and influence, cause roughly 99% of
the misery in the world for the “other” 99%.
Morris Creedon-McVean
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