This was an excellent read and not quite what I expected at all. Shorris details what he calls "The National Political Movement" and ominous sounding title for a rather mainstream group of people. He mixes political, social, and philosophical theories to explain how he believes the movement formed. His definition is rather broad and includes people who use and are motivated by fear to create policy. The fear is fear of massive death from nuclear war, and fear of Hell. These people can be Republicans, or Democrats and Right, Left or Center, though there are more Republicans and Conservatives.

Shorris goes off into many tangents, footnotes, and detailed arguments and the book gave me a very dreamy sort of feeling. I was deeply engrossed in this book, and it felt similar to the feeling of having a deep discussion with close friend and the satisfaction you can get from exploring new ideas and possibilities. It took a long time to digest everything and I will probably be thinking it over for a while. I learned a lot about philosophy that I didn't know - from Plato, Aristotle and Socrates to Heideigger, Ardent and Strauss.

I am very curious to know what Shorris thinks of Barack Obama. He is mentioned briefly in the book - in the context that Obama is arguing for a new and different type of politics. Shorris is not sure what to make of this and continues on to describe our current political climate as one similar to a computer because there is little room for nuance. A circuit is either on or off. The book was written after the 2006 mid term elections but before it was clear that Obama and Clinton were the front runners in the Democratic primary

I found it to be a great read, and the organization of the book is more intuitive and "meta" than other political books I have read. I highly recommend it because I love books that make me think, that leave me with more questions than answers.

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