I was very interested in getting and reading this book. I do want to know Why Bother? I realize that the country seems to be getting out of hand while we fiddle looking at internet porn. The news has to do more bells and whistles just to get our attention. Reading is declining and our country faces a serious problem. So I went into this book hoping to find some thread of hope or some kind of plan.

I read through the introduction and went on to the chapter entitled Losses. In the very first part of this chapter the author who purports to be a journalist starts going on and on about how times used to be different.

How we could trust the politicans.

How we knew the police officers by name and we were not instant adversaries.

How we could trust the journalists.

I'll be honest. I stopped there. I don't know what history this guy is reading but it isn't the one I know. Politicans and honest are words that don't even belong in the same sentence. Since time immemorial we have had example after example of how absolute power and hell even partial power corrupts and fast. This is not new to our age.
Police officers being our friends. I don't know where he got this idea from. Maybe if the police officer was your friend. I'm not saying cops are all corrupt. Don't get me wrong. I live with a police officer who serves the law the best they know how. But ask any black person in the south pre-1960s how they got along with the police. Ask any group that's not in power how they get along.
And the journalists. Don't even get me started! For heaven's sake.
So I stopped reading this book. Because if you are going to start out with this tripe that we should all hark back to the good old days then you should start writing fiction.

Because if there is one thing that is true: The good old days, they weren't!

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