Democracy Matters: Winning the Fight Against Imperialism

Rating:
Summary: Why?
Review: 0 stars would have been better. Dr. West is obviously a very angry man who lacks a proper dictionary, a working knowledge of free market economics, and a comprehensive understanding of any political system. In short, this book is a laugh riot not to be taken seriously! West does not even mention the ties between capitalism and political freedom which are so well documented by Friedman, Hayek, and others, nor does he mention that his ideal system bears strange resemblence to many dictatorships around the world(Venezuela, Cuba). The simple fact that this book lacks a definition of capitalism before Dr. West attacks it is evidence enough that Dr. West should resign himself to intellectual obscurity. We had to read this book for a diversity class, funny thing was all of the books were written by liberals! How diverse is that?

Rating:
Summary: An off target polemic
Review: After enjoying Cornwell West on Bill Maher I was encouraged to buy this book. Unfortunately, I found it to be poorly researched -- essentially West has invented many labels to categorize the current state of affairs -- there is little in the way of empirical data to back up his assertions or recommendations.

Secondly, everything comes back to race with West. Race may be his shtick but it isn't the most important lens for evaluating the current state of democracy.


Rating:
Summary: This book isn't going to fix West's career problem...
Review: Cornel West has discovered that democracy is in the midst of a terrible crisis.

How interesting!

Did you know that democracy was in a crisis? I didn't!

Could this be anything like Chicken Little running around in great alarm, proclaiming that the sky was falling?

There is no sort of intellectual rigor in this book, no sort of respect for logic. As far as I can figure this rant out, the big "crisis in democracy" just amounts to the fact that the Republicans have elected (and re-elected) a President whom Cornel West happens to despise.

I advise Prof. West to get used to it. This sort of stuff happens all the time in a flourishing democracy -- I mean, your guy loses.

This book is basically just childish chatter, and is going to do nothing to help Prof. West's problem at the university where he is employed, where there are now public concerns that this "intellectual" has never written anything remotely intelligent.

Not recommended at all!

Rating:
Summary: How did this get published?
Review: Cornell West is the Shakespeare of our time. His book is unreadable; you need cliff notes and a dictionary to get through it. I can sum up this work in three words "Plutocratic Imperial Nihilism" translation "Rich White Guys are taking over the world and they don't care."

Rating:
Summary: Moving truth
Review: Democracy matters is the first West's book I read, but I was moved by West, in his way of show the red flag to the american citizens. USA citizens should understand that the American Democracy is not granted. They must work to preserve it from some crazy thinkers, whom will not hesitate a second to take advantage of the wonderfull toll of American Democracy.
West, Tell us how the base of American Democracy can be twist for imperial purpuses. There is the RED FLAG.

Rating:
Summary: A book that mirrors how "Democracy Matters!
Review: I found Cornell West's previous book Race Matters to be a page-turner and an "in your face look" at race and cultural differences in "America the Beautiful." However, his current book Democracy Matters: Winning the Fight against Imperialism takes race, cultural and societal matters to an even higher level, and throughout the heartland of America, as well as in the hearts of all who believes or once believed that there was justice for all in America. West, once again, is onto something by writing this book that puts the justice, political, and economic systems under a scrutinized microscope and on notice that America is in dire need of a wake up call.

West's book demonstrates how inalienable rights have diminished and the need for America to face the facts that all is not well in the land of milk and honey. The book points to how democracy is standing on shaky grounds, because of its disparate social-economic and political systems. It puts a new light on an old problem that has been in existence for many decades. Ultimately, the underlying premise is what effects one small group of people will eventually effect all who sincerely care about the status of democracy in the United States of America.



Rating:
Summary: Review This...
Review: If you're as amused by the negative comments and overfed, compensatory patriotism that very obviously clogs neural pathways, then, like me, you will probably enjoy this book. You know you're doing something right when you make the conservatives froth at the mouth (or keyboard). Their vein-popping rants would be enjoyable if it weren't for their limited vocabularies and tired clichés. Read their reviews: It's a great book!

Want to hear something worthwhile? Find a way to hear Dr. West speak. He's amazing. He's engaging and courteous, but don't expect him to dumb it down for you. Sorry Charlie. Next best thing-read his books. But don't take my word for it!


Rating:
Summary: One of the best books I've ever read.
Review: It never ceases to amaze me how the right is so quick to point out anyone (currently) pointing out mistakes this country is making is somehow unpatriotic or unchristian. I'm both a born-again Christian and an American soldier and I hate what conservatives are doing to this country. Dissent is patriotic. There would be no America if our forefathers didn't rebel against English rule. Jesus dissented against the leadership of Israel. Even Paul rebuked Peter when he started teaching that circumcision was needed to be saved. It's both an American and Christian idea to question leadership when it is wrong, regardless of where it is, whether it be your church or your country.

Having said that, this is one of the best books I've ever had the priveledge to pick up. If only for the chapter on Christian identity, in which many Christians (including myself) will be glad to know that they aren't the only believers who are both disappointed and angry at what is happening to the Christian church in America.

This book is more than your typical anti-Bush book. It's an outcry against imperialism itself, a call to arms to take back the government that was created to serve the people and have it do just that. It is an outcry against politicians who care more about money and special-interests groups than they do about the American people. Conservatives will bash this book because they are scared that true patriots will stand up and put on their Democratic armor, and expose the right-wingers for what they are-selfish, repressive individuals who exploit religion for their own ends.

A lot of the people who criticized this book did so because the words were too big for them to understand. To that I say "OOOHHHH......BIG WORDS.....SCARY!!!!" Go back to preschool, you half-wits.

Rating:
Summary: A Fantastic and Timely Read
Review: There are many who have claimed to dismiss this book. What they really don't like is Dr. West. And do you know why they don't like him? Because they are racists. They're afraid of an intelligent, erudite black man who speaks uncomfortable truths about how America has departed from its democratic mission during these four years of Bush. The people who dismiss this book cloud themselves in the language of patriotism and nationalism. Ignore it. In reality, they hate America and the democratic values it stands for- plularism, compassion, and freedom. These are the values Cornel West promotes in this fine book. He implores us to get active in the fight to return the political, economic, and social system in this country back to those who SHOULD control it: not the corporations and ideologues, but the PEOPLE. To dismiss Cornel West as an 'intellectual sharlatan' is to claim utter ignorance about his views and his real work. I have actually been a student of Dr. West, and I can attest that he is one of the most brilliant, thoughtful, and compassionate public intellectuals in America today. Eschew your preconceptions about Dr. West and approach this book with an open mind. Even if you don't agree with what he has to say, at least take the time to read this, and not some trash by Ann Coulter. To dismiss the views of Cornel West is to adopt true naivete and ignorance. He is one of the most influential public intellectuals of our time. And it's not true that he isn't respected by the academy: just look at how many honorary degrees he has received.

You don't have to agree with him: but don't be rude and condescending when discussing his work. Nobody deserves that kind of treatment.

Rating:
Summary: Outstanding Book
Review: This book is outstanding. It outlines our anti-democratic conditions permeating American democracy, both domestically and in foreign policy and draws on the deep foundations of democratic traditions needed to draw on to combat what have lost. We have reached a rare fork in the road and it is crucial to draw on such democratic energies.

West outlines three antidemocratic dogmas that dominate our current political climate:

1. Free-market fundamentalism, which trivializes the concern of public interest. The overwhelming power and influence of plutocrats and oligarchs in the economy put fear and insecurity in the hearts of anxiety-ridden workers and render money-driven, poll obsessed elected officials deferential to corporate goals of profit often at the cost of the common good.

2. Aggressive militarism. This new U.S. doctrine goes beyond preventive war but puts the green lights on the elites to sacrifice soldiers, mostly of the working and poor classes, fueling a foreign campaign which does away with multilateral decisions to that of unilateral, lone ranger imperialistic colonial invasions, all for the sole benefit of the government regardless of all others and societies.

3. Escalating authoritarianism, which is tightening security in replace of liberty and freedom. The Patriot Act is only the beginning, as we will see escalated censorship and rights removed.

In this West brings out three common forms of anti-democratic nihilism:

1. Evangelical nihilism. This is the idea that might makes right, as in Thrasymachus argument in Plato's Republic. The stronger U.S. must use its military power to quiet dissenters. All must obey and submit to our correct interpretations of culture. The evangelical spirit sharply gravitates towards militancy and censorship against all views that differ, especially dissenting views and those that employ Socratic inquiry.

2. Parental nihilism. This is found in both Democrats and Republicans, that is, the ideas that the leaders will not resort to the proletariat decisions, but rather remain in charge to work within the corrupt system to make the necessary changes, the idea that it is useless to do otherwise.

3. Sentimental nihilism. This is found in the cowardly lack of willingness to engage in truth telling, even at the cost of social ills, to forfeit the comfortable life for the sake of exposing truth to help others, as in many former slave owners and today in the media where they are drawn to their corporate owned sponsors and what sells a story. Monetary interests clearly outweigh the truth, dialogue is limited, questions are reduced and thus the answers are reduced to the range limits of the questions in the vulgar partisanship corrupting our public life.

While we see such antidemocratic views permeating America and the middle east, both with the Palestinians and with Israel, with oppressive policies and imperialism, West brings out there are those that are aware and that our future depends on those who embrace our deep democratic traditions that fuel true democratic energies. However, we must recognize the schizophrenic nature of the American democratic experiment in peoples who rebelled from British imperialism in favor of American imperialism over the Native American Indians, doing so with African American slaves. So there was always this dual nature in the American democratic experiement. To acknowledge the past is needed and then to reject the imperialistic tendencies and to draw on the democratic energies of Ralph Waldo Emerson, Walt Whitman, Melville, Gertrude Stein, James Baldwin, Frederick Douglass, Martin Luther King, Jr., Toni Morrison and others. In this, West lists three democratic energies, which are:

1. The Socratic inquiry to fully examine government domestically and foreign. To question and fight censorship and corporate profit driven media from slanting the truths. This is the polar opposite from the fundamentalist and absolutist that defines all actions according to their predetermined meanings and then attacks with full vengence.

2. The Judeo-Christian prophetic view. This is the great tradition of mercy and justice of the prophets and of Christ, that enable social programs and genuine concern for the poor, the needy and the working class, to put individuals above corporate profits, monetary interests and imperialistic conquests. Just as you find the prophetic discarded by the Christian fundamentalists control in the Bush administration, you can find this same parallel situation in Israel, where the Jewish fundamentalists, attacks the prophetic Jewish voices of equality and social justice. West believes that those voices of democratic moderation are found in Rabbi Michael Lerner and Abraham Joshua Heschel.

3. Tragicomic hope. This is the crucial ability to cease from revenge, hatred and despair, to retain strength and integrity towards democratic equality with inner strength, despite the attacking hatred and vengeance directed towards one. And this West points out, can be found in the African American's treatment as outcasts, hated as inferior, and yet ceasing to return revengeful hate and not falling into despair, expressing themselves in the music of the Blues, Jazz and original Hip Hop and some Rap. This is the way to deal with slanderous, attacks from the fundamentalists and their hate.

West goes into the concept of Muslim democracy apart from Western domination, the abuses of the Judeo-Christian religious fundamentalism and its sharp contrast with the Judeo-Christian prophetic views. West calls these two types, Constantinian Christianity, from the government of Constantine backed imperialistic injustice, and prophetic Christianity, that of social democratic justice and democratic values.