The Bush Dyslexicon: Observations on a National Disorder (Paperback)

~ (Author) "On picking up The Bush Dyslexicon, you may think you've seen this sort of thing a hundred times before-and not only in bookstores but on..." (more)
Key Phrases: propaganda drive, fuzzy math, stem cell lines, Governor Bush, White House, United States (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Amazon.com

From Publishers Weekly

Miller, a New York University professor of media studies, has fashioned a devastating compendium of President George W. Bush's grammatical gaffes, syntactical shipwrecks, mind-boggling malapropisms and simply dumb comments. Page after page (after page) of quotations, suggests Miller, reveal that Bush is a man who, while not stupid, is prodigiously illiterate and woefully uneducated. Further, and compounding the problem, Bush could not care less about these shortcomings. How then, Miller asks, and this is his larger concern, did someone in Miller's opinion so obviously unqualified to be president convince so many voters that he was? Miller's answer is, in a word, television: Bush succeeded on TV not despite his "utter superficiality," but because his superficiality blended seamlessly with the vacuous culture of the tube. It was not simply that Bush's handlers were able to manipulate his image, attempting to construct out of his ignorance an anti-intellectual "good ole boy" persona, but that news professionals in the medium were all too willing to go along with this ploy. They went along because the pundits of TV have become, according to Miller, increasingly right-wing, thus natural Bush allies, but also because they no longer care to talk about substance, preferring instead discussion of "likability" and other attributes of pure image. While Miller is sometimes vague in his arguments, he has produced a sharp-edged polemic questioning the wisdom of how we elect our leaders. As President Bush has said, "It's not the way America is all about."

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 370 pages
• Publisher: W.W. Norton & Co. (June 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0393322963
• ISBN-13: 978-0393322965
• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 6 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (168 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #723,271 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

171 of 181 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars This book is NOT another "Bushisms", December 29, 2002

By	Josh Dougherty (Philadelphia) - See all my reviews

As my title says, this book is really NOT about GWB's quirky verbal stammers. It is about George W. Bush the man. It is an analysis of his political positions, his background and his personal politics.

Beware: after reading this book you will have good reason for thoroughly disliking this man, but not because he makes a bunch of funny verbal mistakes. If you're afraid of being thoroughly skeptical and possibly oppositional to the policies of our "commander in chief", then don't buy this book.

There are many many things in the book that I already knew, but the author defintely does lay out a very damaging portrayal of our current President's personal politics and ideology.

Please, get the newest paperback version, released AFTER 9-11. Do NOT get the old hardcover version printed before the September events. You'll miss out on a lot of extra materials if you don't.

This book is very parochial and does not go very deep into foreign policy, class analysis, or deeper and longer standing issues of US society (issues that are often laughingly painted as "class warfare" in the commercial media whenever they are hinted at, and thereby sidestepped in favor of fluff), but it does paint a very convincing picture of a president who is fully devoted to the most reactionary and privileged elements of the ruling class in the United States.

This is NOT about some supposedly "stupid" president who is "incompetent" or "dumb". These kind of appeals to Goerge Jr's supposed "stupidity" only show how stupid and gullible Democrats and "Liberals" really are, and how they really fall all over themselves to play into the hands of the Bush administration who want nothing more than to portray George W. Bush as a "regular joe" who cares about the "working man" and is trying his best to protect "America" from any number of mysterious and devious enemies waiting to pounce on us.

"Make no mistake", GWB is none of these things, but instead is as much a blue-blood, silver-spoon ivy-leaguer as is Al Gore and actually quite more so. And, is as thoroughly calculated and schooled in propaganda, public relations and polls as was Bill Clinton or his father George Bush the First, or the Reagan administration before them.

It's about a president who is very much aware of what he is doing to America and who seeks to, and IS using the deaths of 3000 people to advance a reactionary and regressive agenda, all wrapped in the flag.

I actually suggest that readers that already realize this NOT read this book, don't bother, but rather read some more in-depth analysis of foreign policy of the kind of class warfare and nationalism that is now and always has used "patriotism" (since the dawn of recorded history and beyond) as a tool to convince the general population into accepting policies that thoroughly harm them and to draw them into subservience under protection of the fearless leader.

If what I've said above seems odd or outlandish to you, then just read this very good book on the personality of our president (the best currently available), get from it what you can, and then move on to more broad analysis later.

Josh

132 of 142 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Don't misunderestimate this book!, August 7, 2001

By	TheEmailActivist.org (Silver Spring, MD) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Bush Dyslexicon: Observations on a National Disorder (Hardcover)

"What's not fine is, rarely is the question asked, are, is our children learning." - George W. Bush, Jan. 2000

Media critic Mark Crispin Miller has written a new book titled The Bush Dyslexicon: Observations on a National Disorder. Although it brims with outrageous examples of Bush's inability to speak meaningful sentences (e.g., "Laura and I don't realize how bright our children is sometimes until we get an objective analysis."), this book is not so much about Bush's illiteracy as it is about how the corporate media cherishes him and his utter lack of ideas.

Miller believes that Bush's problem is deeper than mere dyslexia, or what he calls Bush's "West Texas ebonics." It's deeper, too, than simple ignorance. Bush's problem is that he's an ANTI-intellectual, and thus he plays very well on television. Although an excellent advertising medium, television detests reasoned discourse and instead focuses attention on the visual and the trivial, such as Ross Perot's big ears, Al Gore's robotic gestures, or any woman's hair style. Writes Miller: "The networks' journalistic stars go on and on and on about the politicians' failure or success at pleasing--or at not displeasing--viewers. ...such interminable yakking tells us nothing, dwelling on details of bearing, posture, voice, and makeup, instead of dealing with what anybody did, said, or failed to say." Put another way, our TV culture reduces "all discussion to the level of the taste-test, wherein 'likeability' is all that counts."

Thus, a smirking ignoramus who couldn't name any world leaders during his presidential campaign actually became a darling of the media, whose reporters and pundits continue to coddle him like a slow child, virtually never throwing him any curves nor attempting to pin him down with pointed or complex questions. In a typically wry passage, Miller observes: "Thus, Bush himself is a big-time beneficiary of what he likes to call 'the soft bigotry of low expectations.'"

Particularly galling to Miller is the Right's attempt to spin Bush's ignorance as an indication that he's a man of the people, like an Andrew Jackson or an Abraham Lincoln. (Republican Representative J.C. Watts actually introduced Bush at a campaign rally in South Carolina by shouting proudly, "You don't have to be smart to be president!") Miller reminds us that Bush hardly dragged himself up from common conditions. Rather, he partied his way through school, squandering rich educational opportunities at Andover and Yale, two highly competitive institutions which never would have accepted him--much less graduated him--without his family's intercession. Accordingly, Miller dubs Bush the anti-Lincoln, "one who, instead of learning eagerly in humble circumstances, learned almost nothing at the finest institutions in the land."

"And I see Bill Buckley is here tonight, fellow Yale man. We go way back, and we have a lot in common. Bill wrote a book at Yale--I read one." - George W Bush, Oct. 2000

Miller's book is nothing short of alarming, cataloguing as it does the anti-democratic collusion between the corporate media and the conservative politicians who support them. But Miller's wit is as keen as his powers of observation, so this book is as pleasurable as it is disturbingly informative.

75 of 80 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A revealing expose by a razor-sharp writer, February 17, 2002

By	Tom Museth (Melbourne, Australia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Bush Dyslexicon: Observations on a National Disorder (Hardcover)

Where Miller could have opted for the easy laughs and compiled a list of Bush's oratory gaffes, appending them with a few pompous put-downs, he has infact used Bush's verbal foul-ups merely as tools with which to support a much deeper and more unsettling observation.
Miller paints a lucid and disturbing picture of 21st century America, where a ubiquitous media culture promotes the dumbing-down of society and scorns intellectualism, instructive debate, creative vision and radical argument. Television, he says, exists solely to entertain, not educate, within safe, predictable parameters. Its agenda reserves no place for florid speech, mental provocation or inspirational ideals; instead, news and advertising are delivered in easily digestable chunks that deem obsolete any input on behalf of the viewer. The viewing masses are assailed with the familiar and the comfortable; advertisers reassure us they have our every whim catered for as long as we keep the cash flowing, and Hollywood celebrity scandals take the edge off any serious issues that might threaten to force us to form opinions or reassess our lives.
Moreover, Miller claims it is this brain-dead media culture that has cushioned Bush's rise to power - a culture that dispensed with intelligent debate and adroit character exposition during the presidential campaign and instead focussed on trivialities such as the candidates' likeability, photogenic profile and ability to keep the viewers from switching channels. It was no wonder, says Miller, that Gore was labelled "elitist" and lambasted for his dry, lengthy dissection of the Dingell/Norwood Bill, while Bush was hoisted onto a pedestal for feigning scorn over the more complex issues and feebly mumbling empty rhetoric like, "I think the administration needs to do what they think is right".
According to the author, it was not necessary, and still isn't, for George Bush to expound on any of his policies in anything approaching legible syntax. Television needs simple soundbites; and incoherent peculiarities such as "I believe what I believe is true" are founded on exactly the same anti-intellectual level that the American media culture has championed. Furthermore, Miller explains, there has been a drastic shift by the big media honchos to the far right of the political spectrum for purposes of self-preservation, ensuring the safety and approval of an administration that protects and defends their massive salaries so proficiently. It is for these reasons that not only does the idiot box manage to blatantly forgive Dubya's indiscretions, lies and deceptions, it actually forgets them.
Miller's final chapter is quite daring in its assertions and yet extremely hard to discredit. In it he puts forward the concept of the GOP's survival requiring the existence of an enemy, real or imagined. During the Cold War this was easily maintained; once the USSR fell so spectacularly, and the Gulf War was wrapped up, the party had to search closer to home, and found an ideal bad guy in the Clinton administration and a smooth-talking president who championed negroes, endorsed the murder of unborn babies and, worst of all, couldn't keep his presidential priapus in check. Having swept into office via a poorly disguised vote-rigging conspiracy and a galling breach of civil rights, the GOP continues to concentrate its energy in painting the Democrats as the true saboteur of US security, unity and moral values. It would be interesting to hear Miller's view on just how much this propaganda has mutated since September 11 threw us a new boogie man to fear in the form of "rogue states" and "terrorist networks".
I urge you to pick up this book and read it right away. Don't be fooled into thinking of it as a snide, cheap swipe at Bush's verbal stumblings, nor a left-wing, elitist rant based on a bad case of sour grapes. It is neither. It is a comprehensive, well-researched and no-holds-barred synopsis of Bush's past and the events that guided him into the Whitehouse, as well as a rich and comprehensive character study. All of Miller's claims and quotes are supported by an extensive reference section, and he has provided a diverse list of publications for further reading as well. On top of this, "The Bush Dyslexicon" is a scathing analysis of the media culture that steers contemporary America, and how its agenda works so symbiotically with George Bush's mindset. Authors and researchers like Miller are vital catalysts to the complacency of the status quo; even moreso in an age where the general media has relinquished its role as a social and political scrutineer in favour of tagging obediently behind the financial doers and makers.