Customer Reviews

Dirty Truths

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Some books inspire, some books cause a national stir, some books create, some books change things and then Dirty Truths comes along and combines all of the above. Michael Parenti takes on the media and gives them a real black eye.

The book should open a few eyes with the author's ability to bring out the way the liberal based media has undermined our society and hidden the real truth from it. Parenti's ability to delve deep into the black hole of the media elite and gives this reviewer a belief that honesty still exists.

Parenti's book covers a wide and varied variety of social and moral issues, from free speech and the first amendment to racism and white supremacy. What this book does is what the press and media failed to do - report the facts and report the truth.

The books ends on a high note with three poems from the author. Michael Parenti provides insight that few, if any, writers have or will do. Congratulations on a job well done. I look forward to Parenti's next work.

This is a wide-ranging book, covering topics as diverse as false consciousness, creating the poor, fascism in pinstripes, the strange death of Walter Reuther, personal reminiscence, with a defense of Oliver Stone's film "JFK" added to the mix. All are provocatively positioned to challenge assumptions of liberal and conservative alike. Unlike that ruling duopoly, Parenti is no friend of America's far-flung empire, disguised to the public as the "free world". His debunking commentary on this central myth constitutes the dirty truths of the title, and uncomfortable truths they are. He even has the guts to trace the current rollback of environmental and social reforms to the collapse of the Soviet Union and the free hand this has given the big money class to maximize profits regardless of human or ecological consequences.

Perhaps the book's most informative chapter is "Hidden Holocaust, USA", a compilation of negative social statistics drawn from the US Census Bureau. There the author makes a strong case against conventional claims that the US is a happy nation. The negative numbers paint a far grimmer picture, giving the lie to those Repubocrat politicians who loudly claim to love the country, at the same time they pursue profits over people.

Despite the author's scholarly background, this is not a scholarly work. There is very little foot-noting. Most of the chapters read like op-ed pieces; ones, however, that are never found in corporate news outlets, which is the real value of an informed work like this. For so long as the powers-that-be tolerate a fringe press, the public will have at least some access to the dirty truths filtered out of the mainstream. It is to Parenti's credit that he delivers the goods.

"Throughout history there has been only one thing that ruling interests have ever wanted-and that is EVERYTHING" Insightful & witty look at a variety of topics; from the corporate media to the state killings of JFK & Walther Reuther.If you liked William Blum's Killing Hope or Noam Chomsky's Profit Over People then get this.

The work is vintage Parenti. I would have liked to see more documentation on sources, but the lack of it doesn't take much away from this book. The chapters on the JFK assassination were extremely chilling. If the U.S. Government can do that to its president, then it can do it to anyone in the world.

Sometimes I wonder why so many people are turned off by conspiracy theories. Do they think that conspiracies don't happen in the U.S.? Sorry, non-believers. Conspiracies are real, and they can happen anywhere.

Dirty Truths

By Michael Parenti

I would call this book a Michael Parenti sampler. It provides one or two chapters on some aspect of Professor Parenti teachings and criticisms. From looking at the long list of books Michael Parenti has to offer one can find the particular topic that is of most concern to them in this volume and then order a more detailed, focused endeavor. Being especially interested in economics and history, my first choices will be along those lines. It is clear that the Professor knows his history, so I am looking forward to my next selection.

This is my second Michael Parenti book and I intend to read a good sampling if not all of his works. I have read reviews comparing Mr. Parenti to other radical writers and proffering the notion that he is simply more of the same. That is hardly accurate. I have read no one, living today, who I would put in Mr. Parenti's category.

His writing style is very clear, understandable and direct. I have not yet asked, "I wonder what he meant by that?" Michael says what he has to say - rather fearlessly. I would say that his fearlessness is to a degree that I find not only refreshing but a little frightening. I am not frightened for myself by what Mr. Parenti has to say, I am frightened for Mr. Parenti. Knowing what I already know, I realize that speaking out as candidly as Mr. Paranti is inclined to do can be dangerous.

In the first chapter the Professor writes of a hidden Holocaust in the U.S.A.

"Conservatives are fond of telling us what a wonderful, happy, prosperous nation this is ... To their ears the anguished cries of the dispossessed sound like the peevish whines of malcontents ... but the Dirty Truth is that there exists a startling amount of hardship, abuse, affliction, illness, violence and pathology in this country."

The Professor then goes on for the next seven pages with a list of statistical information to support his point. It is rather shocking and eye opening.

Lucky for the reader though, the author does have a sense of humor. I don't like the term "dark humor." I would describe him as more Jonathan Swift-like.

In this volume we also get a peek at the person and not just his ideas. In "Struggles in Academe" the reader gets a real insight into where Mr. Parenti is coming from. We learn about his involvement at the University of Illinois in the anti-Vietnam War struggles, and the consequent loss of his right to "practice education." A very interesting tale.

I very much enjoyed his "La Famiglia" and "The Blessings of Private Enterprise."

In La Famiglia he talks of his ethnic heritage. He gets very personal.

Being raised in an ethnic neighborhood and having many Italian friends, I had the inclination to copy the chapter and send it to some of my buddies. But once again, the Professor's frankness might be too much Dirty Truth for my old buddies who are all of the Frank Sinatra "Maggio" inclination. For example: "The ordinary recruits in the Italian army had no desire to fight Il Duce's battles. Rather they manifested a decided inclination to flee or surrender the moment they realized the other side was using live ammunition." Oh my god, I can hear my buddies screaming now.

The Blessings of Private Enterprise is about his dad's homemade Italian bread delivery business. Being a small businessman and small business manager, for most of my career, I could see and feel it all very clearly.

I've also watched some of the Professor's videos available free on the Internet. I don't see why the Professor doesn't have his own national radio or TV show. He explains his disappointing experiences with the press and the media. But, nevertheless, he would certainly provide the counterpoint to folks like Rush Limbaugh and Bill O'Reilly. His command for factually supported liberal opinions would be challenging to any conservative opponents.

I remember when Bill Buckley had his TV show. Buckley, in those days, was also considered an extremist. He often challenged the most radical leftwing opponents. Some of the exchanges were classic. I think Mr. Parenti could provide the same honest dialogue but, of course, he would be coming from the other direction.

This was a great book Mr. Parenti. Keep up the fight and the best of luck to you.

Richard Edward Noble - The Hobo Philosopher - author of:

"America on Strike" American Labor - History

Michael Parenti ranks up their with the likes of Chomsky and Marx......all I have to say is that we need more books in the world like dirty truths. But due to the liberal media the great mind of Parenti will continually be suppressed. The chapters on JFK were awesome and the statistics were first rate. Issues in this book are exactly what the government does not want you to know that everyone should know!!!!!

Parenti is a lesser known figure on the American Left (as opposed to Howard Zinn, Noam Chomsky or Ralph Nader). Yet his work has gained enough popularity to be cited by progressives almost as much as those three.

That's unfortunate since none of Parenti's books are very convincing. Like "Democracy for the Few" (which I have also reviewed), "Dirty Truths" makes a great deal of bold assertions with scanty and questionable evidence to back them up.

However, there are some interesting and valuable chapters in this book. Parenti's discussion of the JFK's assassination is informative and I was pleased to see him take on Chomsky and Alexander Cockburn (the one leftist writer who I consider even worse than Parenti). His concluding narrative about the collapse of his father's bakery is a moving piece that reminds one of the unpleasant byproducts of American capitalism. In fact, that story probably does more to motivate progressives than the rest of the book.

One thing that worries me is that leftists/progressives seem too eager to accept uncritically anything that supports their ideology. I am very much on the left politically (member of YPSL, vote Green). I am not "chronically indoctrinated" (ref. to "Curtis_K's" angry rebuttal to my other Parenti review) by either the mainstream or the progressive press. And I am not willing to look the other way when an author makes questionable and unsupported claims, even if I'm sympathetic to them. Parenti does this an awful lot.

As with "Democracy for the Few", I don't think this book is worth buying. But it is worth reading in its entirety (since its short and not masquerading as a scholarly work like "Democracy...") for a radical critique of the often mediocre mainstream media.

Parenti offers some interesting ideas in this book. He disproves common myths, like the supposed liberal bias of the media, and raises some legitimate questions about how things are run. After a while though, his Marxist rants wear on you, his JFK conspiracy theories take up way too much space in the book, he seems to believe Russia was a perfect society under Communism - in other words, while it's interesting to hear from a Communist, it's easy to see why people shunned them so. The book ALMOST ends on a good note with some personal family tales...but then Parenti, for some reason, decides to end with three gosh-awful poems. Worth reading for a different take on things, but hardly convincing throughout.

I was waiting for the book to blame conservatives for human mortality and to suggest that Liberals could solve it. This type of junior high school diatribe from the Left or the Right should offend us all.