Radical Middle: The Politics We Need Now

Rating:
Summary: A message of hope...
Review: Ostensibly about politics, Radical Middle is more than that. I appreciate that Mark Satin dares to go beyond the labels and finger pointing to offer us a framework from which we might evolve a new way of managing issues in the public arena. He cuts to the chase of those problems that currently daunt us, problems like declining energy supplies, disengaged youth, random terrorism, and more. He helps us by introducing us to the best ideas of the current thinkers and policy makers in these different arenas, synthesizing and reporting on these ideas in clear, easy-to-read prose.
What makes his discourse particularly engaging (and courageous) is the way Satin relates his personal experiences and evolution of thought to the issues. I like the message of hope he weaves into the description of challenges we face as a society, national and global, and the encouragment we can be involved in meeting them.
I recommend this book to any activist, public official, business leader, parent, teacher, student or person who truly desires a safer, kinder, more humane world.


Rating:
Summary: Required reading regardless of your political persuasion
Review: The Publisher's Weekly does a dis-service to this book. Better read the review in the Jan 2005 Futurist (http://www.wfs.org/revsatinjf05.htm)
This book is an outstanding and insightful description of ways in which the left and right can think together about our society's, and the world's, enormous problems, and then begin to work to solve them. Much more useful than shooting at each other. Only by finding the common ground will it be possible to break through the morass we find ourselves in. Remember the advice to both right and left, "Put your hand on your knees--they're jerking!"