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The Assault on Reason
Nov. 14th, 2018 08:59 pmBook Review: The Assault on Reason, by Al Gore
This has been on my to-read pile since before I went to see An Inconvenient Sequel. It's been difficult to get around to, because I expected to be depressed by it. This turned out not to be the case.
Gore's main focus is on the (W)Bush White House, and a lot is written in particular on the war in Iraq. Inevitably, given the book's title, Gore's writing is carefully reasoned, highlighting several instances where the administration produced or encouraged misinformation, suppressed or dismissed evidence, and acted with disregard or contempt for the constitution. None of this writing has lost its power for being ten years old. Curiously, Gore never enquires or speculates on the real reasons for going to war, only that Bush was determined to do so more-or-less from the outset. (My own view is that there was a good case for removing Saddam from power in 1991-2, but having not done so, the case in 2003 was weak; and the absence of post-war planning and the descent into years of chaos was shocking).
Gore's other main thread, on which he is less partisan, is the emergence of politicised television media over the last half-century or so. Some of his writing of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries feels a bit quaint; his assertion that newspapers were a two-way medium doesn't carry much power, though I've never lived in an age of great plurality of newspaper titles. It is fair to say that the high entry cost of television have produced a small number of companies that carry great influence, and that the broadcast media is less interactive. Gore aspires to the potential of the Internet as a platform to rebalance the levels and allow greater participation in political debate, though he doesn't deny the possibility of misuse.
The main text dates from 2007, but this edition has a 2017 update, with a closing chapter discussing Trump, fake news and post-truth. There is not much to be positive about, but Gore still clings to the hope that things will turn around. That requires people to listen, to debate, to challenge, in ways they have presently outsourced to media corporations and others - in other words, to reason.
This has been on my to-read pile since before I went to see An Inconvenient Sequel. It's been difficult to get around to, because I expected to be depressed by it. This turned out not to be the case.
Gore's main focus is on the (W)Bush White House, and a lot is written in particular on the war in Iraq. Inevitably, given the book's title, Gore's writing is carefully reasoned, highlighting several instances where the administration produced or encouraged misinformation, suppressed or dismissed evidence, and acted with disregard or contempt for the constitution. None of this writing has lost its power for being ten years old. Curiously, Gore never enquires or speculates on the real reasons for going to war, only that Bush was determined to do so more-or-less from the outset. (My own view is that there was a good case for removing Saddam from power in 1991-2, but having not done so, the case in 2003 was weak; and the absence of post-war planning and the descent into years of chaos was shocking).
Gore's other main thread, on which he is less partisan, is the emergence of politicised television media over the last half-century or so. Some of his writing of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries feels a bit quaint; his assertion that newspapers were a two-way medium doesn't carry much power, though I've never lived in an age of great plurality of newspaper titles. It is fair to say that the high entry cost of television have produced a small number of companies that carry great influence, and that the broadcast media is less interactive. Gore aspires to the potential of the Internet as a platform to rebalance the levels and allow greater participation in political debate, though he doesn't deny the possibility of misuse.
The main text dates from 2007, but this edition has a 2017 update, with a closing chapter discussing Trump, fake news and post-truth. There is not much to be positive about, but Gore still clings to the hope that things will turn around. That requires people to listen, to debate, to challenge, in ways they have presently outsourced to media corporations and others - in other words, to reason.