Customer Reviews

Fixed Ideas: America Since 9.11

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What has happened to freedom of speech in America? Why are we not publicly and openly debating the self-serving and undeomocratic policies of the Bush administration? Didion, in another fine essay on American life, asks these questions and tries to answer them. This is a fine book for anyone who worries about our nation proceeding out of control in its war for oil and corporate interests. Didion is clear in her concerns about why we have lost our powers of free speech and citizenship. A must read for anyone who cares about this nation.

I'm confused by the tone of the reviews. Perhaps it has to do with my not being the type of person who self-describes as "patrician" or the type who'd give a Joan Rivers' "book" on Jewelry five stars?
Or maybe it's because I don't bulk buy at Sam's Club?
I certainly don't purchase a book based on page numbers.
Didion's concise essay has all the hallmarks that have made her one of our finer written voices. Yes, the text is "only" forty-four pages. (And the price is "only" $7.95.) If you're attempting to fill the trunk of your car, this isn't your cup of "patrician" tea.
But if you're wanting to read what one of our foremost writers makes of a situation that shook the country and the official response that followed then this is a read you won't want to miss.
For those who might carp of the "length," it's worth noting that Didion can do more with one carefully crafted sentence than most authors can do with a lengthy chapter.
Quality isn't measured by page count and those who can grasp that and those who enjoy strong writing will enjoy this book.

As anyone looks back on the quagmire in Iraq, and increasingly so in Afghanistan, this book becomes ever more valuable as an example of the pre-war intelligence that challenged the rush to war.

Everyone knows of the "intelligence" failures about the "weapons of mass destruction" and the like. This slim book, well worth the new or used price, offers the other "intelligence". It is concisely the good intelligence of a prescient writer who cautioned against a headlong plunge into war based on foolish assumptions and the fatuous dreams of President George Bush and the neocons ("neocons" is short for "neo conservatives" and not for "new con artists" as rational readers might assume).

It's foolish to assert what President Al Gore would have done in the aftermath of a 9-11 attack; however, one element is certain: he would have paid heed to the voices of intellectual ability, as typified by Didion in this book. Vigorous and free-ranging debate was the policy during the Clinton administration, rather than ignoring the advice of senior military leaders and recklessly plunging into war to satisfy an ideological whim.

That's what makes this book so disturbing. War wasn't the only option in 2003; it isn't the only option now. In retrospect, any other choice than war would have been preferable. In retrospect, only a madman would send more than 3,000 Americans to their deaths, mostly at the hands of Iraqis who want all foreigners out of their country, but with some help from al Qaeda.

'Fixed Ideas' is really a misnomer; the reality, as Didion makes clear, is that "ideas" in America changed very dramatically after 9-11 to the detriment of democracy, free speech and rational debate. A few people retained the courage to speak out, or "write out" as in this book; for most, minds slammed shut and were locked with the hatred of revenge. She is absolutely right the new 'fixed ideas' were for war and against all dissent or rational questioning.

Didion presents a reminder that freedom is a value, one that should not be lost even when people face unknowable threats and fears. The neocon crushing of dissent is as dangerous to America as the Taliban crushing of free thought. New or used, borrowed or bought, 'Fixed Ideas' is as valuable today as in 2003; perhaps more so, because it is a cogent reminder of what we must rebuild.

"Fixed Ideas: America Since 9.11," by Joan Didion, features a preface by Frank Rich. The title page notes that the text is "as published in The New York Review of Books of January 16, 2003." The copyright page notes further that the book is based on a lecture given by the author at the New York Public Library on Nov. 13, 2002. It's a short book (44 plus xiv pages).

The book is an attempt to look critically at the "national pieties," or fixed opinions that seem to have gripped the U.S. national psyche since the terrorist attacks of 2001. Didion discusses the "death of irony," conflicting ideas and attitudes since 9/11, the "New American Unilateralism," etc. She also tries to put "the inevitability of going to war with Iraq" in historical context.

Didion's intentions strike me as admirable, but in the end I found the book to be lacking in profound new insight. Although she raises some intriguing issues, the text is oddly inert and ends abruptly. Still, it's worth reading if you're interested in the cultural debates spawned in the aftermath of 9/11.

I'm not sure why this essay from The New York Review of Books of January 16, 2003 was made into a book. It's more like a pamphlet, and a short one at that. Of course Joan Didion is an icon of the American left and a prose stylist deluxe as well as a trenchant social and political critic. Perhaps what Didion has to say is of great importance and perhaps she says it very well. Clearly the unstated assumption of the essay--that we would in fact bring about a regime change in Iraq (that is, we would invade Iraq) has proven prescient.

Didion's essay is in three parts. The first part is mostly an observation on how the Bush administration is attempting to preempt criticism of its policies by labeling critics as somehow unpatriotic or worse. One of the nice points she makes is that the "war on terror" is a misnomer since terror is not a state but a technique. (p. 8)

In the second part she identifies the first "fixed idea." She is talking about the government of Israel. She writes, "Whether the actions taken by that government constitute self-defense or a particularly inclusive form of self-immolation remains an open question." She goes on to say that almost no one in the US dare challenge the fixed idea that we must support the actions of the Israeli government. She says that the question is seldom discussed rationally or at all (in her circle, it would seem) because "few of us are willing to see our evenings turn toxic." ( p. 23) That she herself has to bury this assertion into the very middle of her essay and to express it so obliquely reinforces her point perhaps more strongly than she might have imagined.

In the third part she reveals the second fixed idea, which she identifies as the "theory" behind the "regime change in Iraq" pronouncements made in 2002 by President Bush. "I made up my mind [the President had said in April] that Saddam needs to go." (p. 36) The "theory" that Didion is talking about is sometimes called "The Bush Doctrine" or "The New American Unilateralism" or more bluntly, "The American Empire." The second fixed idea then is that "with the collapse of the Soviet Union" we have an opportunity and an obligation to move unilaterally and preemptively against our enemies as an imperial power might.

I'm not going to evaluate Didion's argument here--that is something you will want to do yourself--except to say that:

1) In reference to the rather high-handed attempt at managing the press and public opinion by the Bush administration, had the Democrats been in the White House post 9/11 they would have done something similar.

2) The actions of Hamas and the other Palestinian suicide/murder organizations make it difficult to take any side other than Israel's. If the Palestinian people had better leadership that would pursue their goals in the spirit and manner of, say, Gandhi or Martin Luther King Jr., they would find widespread (although not majority) support in the US; indeed, I believe, given world opinion, they would be successful.

3) Yes, we are indeed seeing the emergence of an American Empire. Whether we will have the wisdom to use our power so that we do not go the way of Rome in a relatively quick manner will depend on our ability to work with other nations for the betterment of the entire planet. This is something the Bush administration is not doing very well, but there is hope that the next administration will be wiser.