Cruel and Unusual: Bush/Cheney's New World Order (Hardcover)

by Mark Crispin Miller (Author) "The U.S. Constitution is today unknown in the United States, although we still claim to regard it with a certain reverence..." (more)
Key Phrases: propaganda drive, preemptive war, aluminum pipes, United States, White House, Saddam Hussein (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review
While numerous books have been written criticizing the policies and practices of the George W. Bush administration, few have been as foreboding about the meaning of those policies and practices as Mark Crispin Miller's Cruel and Unusual. In Bush and company, Miller sees a regime comparable to the most ruthless authoritarian dictatorships of the modern era and warns that Americans, skillfully duped by a corrupt government and a complicit mass media, are blithely accepting the curtailing of their liberties and the eradication of their democracy. The attacks of September 11, 2001 and the tremendous fear and insecurity they generated among the American people provided, in Miller's estimation, ample opportunity for Bush and company to move the country to a place where dissent is crushed by force, wars are started on lies, and democratic elections will soon be a thing of the past. Cruel and Unusual makes a compelling case by providing massive amounts of evidence, some concrete and some speculative, although at times the sprawling range of his subject matter harms Miller's attempts to form a cohesive argument. And for someone writing a book about George W. Bush, Miller is awfully preoccupied with the treatment President Bill Clinton received from the press and right-wing activists. Particularly strong, however, are passages related to the build-up to war in Iraq and the discrediting of weapons inspector Scott Ritter, who insisted that Iraq had no weapons of mass destruction. Miller provides transcripts from cable news talk shows where administration spokesman attack Ritter with the apparent assistance of like-minded hosts while Ritter himself doggedly defends himself and persistently rejects the main reason given for war. Cruel and Unusual is one of the most energetic and dire criticisms of the Bush administration but its urgency is matched by the crimes it sees being committed. --John Moe

From Publishers Weekly
In delivering this blunt jeremiad—Bush is "fascistic," "theocratic," a "crook," etc.—Miller (The Bush Dyslexicon) argues that the Bush-era press isn't simply biased, it has been lulled into an Orwellian false consciousness. One of the major examples Miller, a professor of media studies at NYU, offers is the case of Scott Ritter, the former U.N. weapons inspector who insisted before the war that Iraq probably had no unconventional weapons and was treated by TV interviewers like Paula Zahn as a near-stooge for Saddam. For Miller, further elements of the current order include electronic voting machines that he says were used to tilt the 2002 congressional elections and a cabal of Christian Reconstructionists that wants to impose theocracy on America. Miller, sometimes overheatedly, links the "extremist propaganda" of the Christian right to Bush assertions and policies, traces it to groups like the highly secretive Council for National Policy, and presents what he sees as a final agenda: "To such apocalyptic types, the prospect of a ruined earth is no big deal, as long as God can be alleged to go for it." While such arguments are familiar, as is the indignant tone, Miller's thoroughness and clarity in tracking down the sources of the policies he decries, and the ways in which they are disseminated, set the book apart.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 344 pages
• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company; First Edition/First Printing edition (August 16, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0393059170
• ISBN-13: 978-0393059175
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.4 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (47 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #314,309 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

40 of 43 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Interesting twist on the battle of "hate" vs. "dissent", September 17, 2004

By	Mike Hill "Mike" (Tuscaloosa, AL USA) - See all my reviews

First of all, let me lay my cards on the table. I am a social liberal and a registered democrat, thus any conservative heart to heart on this book is lost in my analysis. Although, I did, amazingly, embark upon this book with an, how do I say, open mind to George W. Bush's leadership. To the meat of the review; I found Professor Miller's book on Bush/Cheney's New World Order fascinating and enlightening. I particulary enjoyed the comparison of President Clinton with current President Bush. The outlash against President Clinton, according to Miller, was a bit excess in comparison to the virtual silence of the press concerning G.W.'s unstatesmanlike antics. If Professor Miller is correct in his observations and factual analysis, then I fear for the direction of our great country. I only hope his use of this book is to offer a stump speech to his coalition of liberal backers, more so than it is an accurate account of our time at hand. Unfortunately, I would have to go with the latter. To offer dissent is patriotic; which, according to Professor Miller, G.W. does not tolerate well. Seemingly, Professor Miller is highly accurate in his studies and highly correct in his regurgitations of prominent news articles, albeit the small amount of press that G.W. has generated in his 4 years in office. I would recommend this book to anyone concerned about the direction of our great democracy and the future under George W. Bush or to anyone who would enjoy an excellent structured political argument against Mr. Bush.

39 of 42 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Heart of The Matter, October 13, 2005

By	Sunshine Greeny - See all my reviews

This review is from: Cruel and Unusual: Bush/Cheney's New World Order (Paperback)

As an author and professor of media communications and culture at NYU, Mark has an impressive track record of examining the media power-of-suggestion stranglehold on individuated and collective reality. Or, "unreality." The work he did in one of his earlier books, "Boxed In," regarding television-induced culture, is brilliant, and in some ways reminds me of author Harlan Ellison's scathing critiques of TV-lunatic reality which were essembled in two volumes as "The Glass Teat," the title devilishly makes the perverse comparison of the nutritional intake of suckling infants and an uncritical, desensitized populace feeding off of the lies and razzle-dazzle of television. Ellison quickly found his way to Reagan/Bush's list of "subversives."

That aside, however, Mark's book, "Cruel and Unusual: Bush and Cheney's NWO" gets to the true heart of the matter and does so in with a clarity that apparently isn't easily accepted by many, including those who see themselves camped in the 'left'.

The crux of fully understanding the dilemma of the right wing strains which now menace not only our country but the entire planet, rests in avoiding or denying the magnitude of the threat. Mark correctly points out how those who comprise the mainline media are complicit to what has happened in as much as it is through those very institutions which has come an intentional and strategically foisted Orwellian false consciousness which enshrouds the collective perceptions of what the true right wing agenda is.

The right wing movement is, in psychological terms, projective, meaning, if you took away the movement's need and desire of imputation, attack ad homonym, shout down and hate others, nothing would remain. Naturally such a radically venomous movement needs to cloak itself within seemingly morally upright guises of patriotism and "God is on OUR side!" [Although, I should add, Mark's book is NOT an attack on religion, religious beiefs, or liberal Christians]

It's helpful to bear in mind that, often times, spiritually and mentally ill people[who just as often may appear 'normal' and healthy to those likewise afflicted with similar defiencies]can not and will not be capable of empathy, sympathy, humility, or contrition. Sound familiar of the Christ-o-fascist Bushies?
In simplistic terms, crazy people don't know they're crazy. They'll often never question their sanity, and are, by nature of their illness, unable to even fathom the idea.

This is why the right wing has spent vast sums of money for ideological, cultural/institutional warfare since the early 1970s; to ensure that nothing like what happened in the counter-culture era ever happens again. Power, be as ill and spiritually deficient as it is, given how unconscionablity, hostility and aggression become exalted properties to and for power/belief structures which define success and the intrinsic worth of existence in cold, materialistic terms, only seeks to exert itself; to make everything and everyone think, appear, value and behave as it does.

That way, even in sickness, power 'wins'[which has greater value than does harmony and compassion for sick people] as it has fewer and fewer opponents i.e. "enemies." This is why this right wing projective movement has long refered to itself as "compassionate." As they've secured more of the "reality" sold via media[through corporate consolidation]the framework has shifted further to the right, enabling for fewer people to discern propagandistic "compassion" and true, actual deeds, actions and acts of compassion. It's so grotesquely perverse now that there are people who can see the murder and rape of others as being "compassionate," of paving the way for even further acts of liberation, altruism and "democracy."

Another example, notice how the word "liberal" and the basic tenets of human liberation have been so effectivly maligned, how this perversion has been fostered within and taken root within the collective psyche. Amazing.

Mark's book offers an excellent starting point in defining the process, of being familiar with the modes of thinking outside of the media-induced unreality, of finding the common language to acknowledge and properly address. Afterall, much of the problem, or, the lack of concern to address the problem in all due emphasis, isn't that people are generally stupid or in favor of deceptive rhetoric that disguises evil deeds, but that they exist within a social climate that has been poisoned by media, which is basically man-made atmosphere/weather.

It's an oversimplistic hypothesis, but think of the collective conscious/unconscious as a computer program, okay, ..now, concede that someone IS quite capable of introducing a virus into that program. Who stands to benefit?

Check out Mark's blog: http://markcrispinmiller.blogspot.com/

I'm also looking foward to reading his latest book, "Fooled Again: How the right stole the 2004 election..."
Also watch for his off Broadway play[now on DVD]"A Patriot Act."
Here's an interview with Mark at Buzzflash:
http://www.buzzflash.com/interviews/04/07/int04037.html

49 of 54 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Now more than ever..., November 28, 2004

By	David A. Bede (Singapore) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

So, do you really need another anti-Bush book in your collection? Even if Kerry had won the election, the answer would be yes. Miller's bleak thesis reaches well beyond George And Dick's Excellent Adventure, into a future of across the board right-wing dominance that we can expect to continue until progressives begin fighting back effectively. The first step is to appreciate just how one-sided the debate is in America today, and although Miller's book can be downright infurating in that respect, it gets the job done.

Miller does a great job of illustrating the distinction between Republican rhetoric about honor, decency and "values" and the reality of 30 years of win-at-all-costs politicking, rife with character assassinations and demagoguery. He also makes a more than convincing case that the media, with its increasingly clear conservative bias, has been complicit in allowing their hypocrisy to succeed for so long. In the most unique part of Miller's assessment, he drives it all home with an analysis of Bill Clinton's record in office and that of his right-wing detractors.

He argues along the way that the right's vilification of Clinton amounted to their projection of their own dark sides onto a politically expedient target. Appropriately, Miller refers to Clinton, the mushy-middle president of reality, and "Clinton," the viciously unethical left-wing radical so often depicted in the media, as two all but completely different entities. Indeed, it is remarkable how many of the false accusations against Clinton have proven to be true of Bush, with no apparent political fallout resulting for the latter; Miller's list is probably incomplete, but it more than makes his point. Conservatives could (and surely will) accuse Miller of cherrypicking and argue that "both sides do it." But he also makes the point that legitimate examples of liberals being as vicious and untruthful against conservatives as we see every day in reverse are genuinely rare; and he provides several examples of arguments made to that effect and why they're wrong.

The one serious flaw I can find in the book is Miller's obvious rage. I dislike Bush and what he's doing to America just as much as Miller does, and yes, we should be angry about it all. But there is a limit to how angry one can sound and still be able to present a coherent argument, and Miller crosses that line on occasion. Also, I'm not convinced that he is truly qualified to make some of the more technical psychological arguments he does regarding right-wingers' rage at differences of opinion or their "projections" onto Clinton.

Still, for those of us who thirst for a more elaborate explanation for the motivations of the right than "because they're mean," Miller does make a strong case. He also provides dozens of examples of that meanness, some of which will probably be new to you no matter how many other anti-Bush books you've read. When battling 30+ years of experience in gutter-politics, you can never have too much evidence on your side!

Read it, be angry, and do something about it.