I see all sorts of political things get passed around thanks to the wonders of social media. Some of them make you stop and think, some of them make you scratch your head, and some of them just rile you up for whatever reason.
There is a new one that I’ve seen being passed around lately with captions such as “Proof,” “I Knew it!” and “Scary!” It has me wanting to bang my head against the wall. Here you go…
Scary book! Everybody HIDE!!!
I mean, look at that title! It is clearly anti-American! I’ll bet that it’s all about how this fine nation will fall in a Jihad of Glory. You can tell by the author’s name. It’s totally a terrorist name. Obama reading this book can only mean one thing, he really IS an American Hating Muslim!
I wonder how many people that have passed this along have actually looked into what this book is about. Let’s take a look at one of the reviews listed here on the Amazon.com page for the book…
From Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. When a book proclaims that it is not about the decline of America but the rise of everyone else, readers might expect another diatribe about our dismal post-9/11 world. They are in for a pleasant surprise as Newsweek editor and popular pundit Zakaria (The Future of Freedom) delivers a stimulating, largely optimistic forecast of where the 21st century is heading. We are living in a peaceful era, he maintains; world violence peaked around 1990 and has plummeted to a record low. Burgeoning prosperity has spread to the developing world, raising standards of living in Brazil, India, China and Indonesia. Twenty years ago China discarded Soviet economics but not its politics, leading to a wildly effective, top-down, scorched-earth boom. Its political antithesis, India, also prospers while remaining a chaotic, inefficient democracy, as Indian elected officials are (generally) loathe to use the brutally efficient tactics that are the staple of Chinese governance. Paradoxically, India’s greatest asset is its relative stability in the region; its officials take an unruly population for granted, while dissent produces paranoia in Chinese leaders. Zakaria predicts that despite its record of recent blunders at home and abroad, America will stay strong, buoyed by a stellar educational system and the influx of young immigrants, who give the U.S. a more youthful demographic than Europe and much of Asia whose workers support an increasing population of unproductive elderly. A lucid, thought-provoking appraisal of world affairs, this book will engage readers on both sides of the political spectrum.
Scary stuff, huh? Oh, wait? It’s not a book about the fall of the United States? It’s actually positive and pro-America? This Fareed Zakaria guy is actually a well known Indian-American journalist, the editor of Newsweek International, a Newsweek and Washington Post columnist, weekly host for CNN, and a New York Times bestselling author, not somebody looking to kill Americans? Oh…
Perhaps this one in particular just rubbed me the wrong way as it was about a book. This book is being portrayed as something dark and sinister, and it is totally not true. There is nothing wrong with reading this book (or any book). Would there be these kind of posts going around if he were reading the latest by James Carville?
I can respect those with views dissimilar to mine, I really can. Don’t agree with his politics? That’s cool! The country needs both Yin and Yang to succeed. Some of my best friends and beloved family members are way on the other side of the political spectrum as me, and I love them anyway. I love getting into intelligent and jesting political debates. But really, if you are going to pass around shocking photos of reading material choices of your chosen hated politician, you might want to verify that it really is something shocking.
