Perpetual War for Perpetual Peace

Rating:
Summary: Unpolished and Idiotic?
Review: I agree with both reviews from June 3: this book was necessary yet unpolished, with a few good points pushed to the idiotic. Gore spends too much time explaining McVeigh, ostensibly to correct gullible Americans' one-dimensional perception of him as pure evil. Gore says McVeigh had a REASON to kill innocent people, and he is not evil. Dictionary definition of evil: morally wrong or bad; causing injury, ruin, or pain; marked by anger or spite. McVeigh fits the bill nicely, especially considering his complete lack of remorse and the delusional belief that his murderous act aided the cause of peace. Yes, the United States government is guilty of a lot of wrong-doing, ranging from misguided to evil. And power does seem to corrupt. But, after all, human societies are still at a fairly primitive level, and progress is so damn slow! Gore's criticisms are destructive; I am looking for constructive criticism. And to the numerous people who vote that my review is not helpful, I say this: The purpose of the voting button is not to express agreement or disagreement with the review. You do that by writing your own review.

Rating:
Summary: A Contrarian View Worth Reading
Review: Vidal's exploration (and excoriation) of the corporate-controlled federal government finds new purchase in this fascinating, insightful though ultimately depressing collection of essays.

Here we find Vidal at his witty best, wearily reciting the government's list of shadow conspiracies perpetrated by a string of presidential corporate puppets since 1947 in the TV studio White House.

Worth a read, especially in light of today's glib, stupid president and the war without end he demands we fight in the name of peace.

Rating:
Summary: Vidal Redeemed
Review: The most depressing book I have read since "Worldwatch Institute - State of the World 1991" and the most entertaining and amusing book since David Sedaris' "Barrel Fever".

The later Vidal, the essayist, had seemed to me to be spinning out these last few years, recycling his old lines that had made him chuckle so greatly, and attempting to make current events fit his old National Security State conspiracy theories.

But in his introduction to this book and in its first chapter, "September 11, 2001 (a Tuesday)," the earlier cogent, incisive, spot-on Vidal resurrects his former role as the fellow with the unsentimental and conscientious judgments on what has become of our democracy. Vidal traces a sad history, lays out the bare facts, gives the "evil-doers" their due, and separates the true patriots from the true menaces to freedom (gentlemen of the unelected administration, take a bow).

I urge anybody who cares about what's left of what is left of the
republic's foundations to have a look. Come with a very critical eye, but be prepared to be deeply moved and deeply dismayed.

Two things about what previous reviewers have said or asked:

One person mischaracterizes the book as suggesting that the citizens killed on Sept. 11 had it coming. This characterization is due either to poor reading skills on that reviewer's part or to a deliberate fabrication.

Another reviewer asked about the Vanity Fair piece and the confusing inclusion of the "Black Tuesday" reference. Though it appears that the "Black Tuesday" reference was in the quoted Vanity Fair piece, the appearance is merely the result of poor layout - the Vanity Fair piece had actually ended in the prior paragraph and was separated from the continuing text by a small bit of white space.

Rating:
Summary: Our Finest Essayist
Review: Grandson of the founder of the State of Oklahoma, step-brother of Jaqueline Kennedy-Onassis, and in many other wells, a generally well conected man, Vidal gives a keen, often disturbing insight, into the way things really work in the U.S. A rare gift among well connected individuals is Vidal's amazing intellect, with which he pieces things together, identifies truths, and releases them on an unfortunatley disinterested public (as he would lament, our society is full of people who don't know, don't want to know, and love to live in illusion).

In this book, Vidal sets forth many truths that have not been readily printed before (though many have gone through the minds of more thoughtful and knowledgable among us). The presentation is well written, sprinkled with delightful allusions (literary, historical, and other), and garnished with Vidal's immesurable wit. The main topics are September 11 and the Oklahoma City Bombing, but he also tackles the militarization and tendency toward police-statehood, and toward the end there is a wonderful essay entitled "The New Theocrats," which attacks the political role Religion has taken upon itself.

Highly recommended.

Rating:
Summary: Necessary yet unpolished
Review: While Gore Vidal asks essential questions and makes some key points that are welcome in these days of reductionist thinking, this book left me with the feeling that it was unpolished, rapidly thrown together with bits and pieces lying around (including an incomplete list of war statistics filling page after page, almost unformatted).
Gore Vidal is not writing from a basement on a typewriter by the light of a candel. Yet, this collection of essays gives this impression. And this does the general argument he makes a disfavor.

Rating:
Summary: A few good points carried past the point of idiocy...
Review: The message of this book, delivered in a smug, contented sneer, is that the chickens have come home to roost.

Thousands of American civilians apparently deserved to die at the hands of the likes of Timothy McVeigh and Osama Bin Laden because the U.S. brings nothing but grief and pain to its own citizens and to all foreigners, everywhere, all the time. September 11th is an example of the applications of Newton's Laws of Physics applied to human history--the "inevitable reaction" of "extraordinary idealists" whose "excessive sense of justice" was provoked by the latest edition in the succession of "criminal juntas" that have, apparently, ruled the U.S. since Thomas Jefferson left the stage.

In other words, the U. S. is a criminal state that can do nothing more than terrorize it's own people and those of the "Global Empire" (whatever the heck that is) and we are getting what we deserve. And, clearly, Vidal is joyfully amused by every minute of it.

Vidal makes some legitimate points about the errors and arrogance of American domestic policy and foreign policy-totally unbalanced by any suggestion there's also a positive side to our nation and its government. But to suggest that people such as mcVeigh and Bin Laden are saints, acting from purely noble and pure motives, and a "Justified" in their actions because we are such bad guys is total garbage.

I don't buy into the "America-love it or leave it!" mentality, but neither do I buy into the "The U.S. is evil incarnate and deserves everything it gets" mentality either. Apparently, however, Gore Vidal does. In the end, he merely demonstrates that intellectualism can on occasion merely lead idiocy of a very high order.

Rating:
Summary: I have a question
Review: All in all, a very revealing and easy to read book. I'm confused a little about something and would appreciate if someone helps me clear that confusion up.

In the first chapter (September 11, 2002 A Tuesday), Vidal refers to 9/11 as Dark Tuesday. The next Chaapter in his book contains the reproduction of his article published in Vanity Fair in November 1998. In that reproduction, he refers to Dark Tuesday (on page 53, second paragraph). Off course, if he is reffering to 9/11, this particular line wouldn't have been printed in 1998 because it was printed 22 months before 9/11. But he also doesn't clearly mark which parts of the article were printed in Vantiy Fair and which ones were added for this book. Am I missing something?

Rating:
Summary: Perpetual Silent War Dog
Review: Gore Vidal presents the first plausible to me argument that there is an armed conspiracy to control us. He calls it "The dog that does not bark". When he said that in his book something all of a sudden connected in me. In the mid-1980's someone who could very well be a member of this pack offered me contract murder to settle a labor dispute. He is someone connected to a setting US Supreme Court Justice ... a dog that does not bark a dog that bites, this man is.

Gore Vidal's description "The dog that does not bark" hit this nail, i.e., this man, right on the head. I would recommend to you a good read of this book of Gore Vidal's.

Rating:
Summary: You Get the Government You Deserve....
Review:

This book should be read in conjunction with Greg Palast's "The Best Democracy Money Can Buy." Vidal's book should be subtitled "you get the government you deserve."

I cannot think of a book that has depressed me more. There are three underlying issues that make this book vitally important to anyone who cares to claim the title of "citizen:"

1) Citizens need to understand what their government is doing in the name of America, to the rest of the world. "Ignorance is not an excuse." All of the other books I have reviewed ("see more about me" should really say "see my other reviews") are designed to help citizens evaluate and then vote wisely in relation to how our elected representatives are handling national security affairs--really, really badly.

2) Citizens need to probe more deeply for how often the federal government (and many state and local governments) abuse their powers. In the absence of citizen engagement at every level on a 24/7 (i.e. some of the people all of the time), the government falls prey to "The Pathology of Power" as Norman Cousins describes it. We get the government we deserve--if we do not care enough to monitor our investments (both taxes and elected representatives) then we allow ourselves to fall prey to a combination of special interests with lots to gain from looting the public treasury by privatizing the commonwealth, and inept bureaucracies that respond to the loudest or most attractive offer. The author recommends, among other things, cancelling tax exemptions for religions that have become fronts for lucrative real-estate holdings, and one surmises that he would favor equitable taxation of corporations as well, rather than leaving the burden on the people.

3)More subtly, the author explores some "information" issues,using the McVeigh case (the Oklohoma bombing) as a case in point. He starkly questions whether the government has honestly and fully investigated the larger group that helped McVeigh, at the same time that he suggests that the government has withheld information from the people in order to give greater credence to the government's proposition that McVeigh was a lone madman rather than a valiant soldier representing a broader group of grass-rooted Americans. I will only comment that in the aftermath of both Oklahoma and 9-11, I have constantly been surprised and made thoughtful by the number of middle-class Americans across America who tell me they do not trust the federal government or its agencies, and would no more think of giving them leads than of harming a loved one.

Vidal is focused on two great evils--the ongoing "police state" and the increased loss of liberties that have been occasioned by 9-11 (I for one strongly oppose the federalization of state & local security--a prescription for internal war); and the increased waste of the taxpayer dollar on a military-industrial system that is looting the commonwealth. Whatever your point of view, his thoughts cannot be ignored for they are elegant and informed.

He ends the book with a letter to the President that strikes me as terribly naive with all that we now know about Florida removing over 50,000 predominantly black and democratic voters from its voter roles (see Greg Palast's book recommended above), and the documented relations between the President's family, the President's closest advisors, and the barons of the economic fiefdoms that Vidal seeks to liberate.

Suffice to say, this book forces one to consider that there may not be a safe zone, and one may be required to take sides on what could become an internal war in America. I am deeply saddened and frightened by this prospect, but my first graduate thesis was on revolution, and I remember the Davies J-Curve very well--the people revolt, not under oppression, but when they have lived well and the barons remove one too many of their benefits. Among the most important precipitants of revolution (as opposed to preconditions) that my study documented was a proven failure on the part of the state to provide security for the people--if there is another 911, particularly in the aftermath of the blatantly consistent statements to the effect that it is "inevitable," then I would not be surprised to see an internal rebellion capable of dramatically altering the composition of the federal government. The people are on edge, and Vidal appears to articulate their concerns in a very effective manner.

Rating:
Summary: What American's Don't Want to Hear
Review: A series of essays chronologically showing us why Osama bin Laden and Timothy McVeigh caused the destruction they did. Simply put, American's do not want to hear the why's behind these actions, yet Gore Vidal tells us what the government and the media won't. I must note that his essay on 9/11 was refused publication in the United States until now.

While the term "perpetual war for perpetual peace" sounds Orwellian, it is a phrase Vidal picked up and uses liberally, and appropriately I might add, from Charles Beard. Vidal cites the laws, and amendments to the Bill of Rights various governmental agencies have bypassed in the attempt to "protect the people" since the 1960's , but particularly in the 1980's to present, which were a catalyst to the destruction these two men have caused.

Included are several essays on the Oklahoma bombing that were previously published in Vanity Fair and The Nation. The destruction Timothy McVeigh caused resulted in the "Anti-Terrorism Act" of 1996, which has been expanded upon since the 9/11 attack.

In his forward, Vidal notes, in basic common sense, "It is the law of physics (still on the books last I looked) that in nature there is no action without reaction. The same appears to be true in human nature - that is, history." Why has the media and our government not informed us, the public, of their, McVeigh and bin Laden's, true actions?

What is clear from Mr. Vidal's essay's is that the liberties Americans thought they enjoyed have diminished significantly over the years, far more than they have realized.