Customer Reviews

Our Culture of Pandering

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It was refreshing to me to read the opinion of someone from the inside, at the end of the book one can reflect on what Senator Simon reflects upon, namely, our own responsibility, the book is insightful, we can argue it is not the best book in world or United States Internal policy, but it is a very honest book, Senator Simon acknowledges his own short comings, what needed to be done(and didn't do).

I believe it was the intent of the book, to call us to fulfill our own responsibility as citizens, leading bears a great burden, it was easier for them to lead us by sweet lies, and half truths, but we shouldn't allowed our leaders to tells us what we all know is not true, and we should never accept the pandering that for so long we have accommodate in or thinking, this was too costly, and we have a 13 trillion dollars debt to probe it.

One specially interesting point is the example of his father, that a Pastor was willing to do menial chores every Thursday in an institution for the mentally ill, and how people remember his father deeds helping them out with an array of very diverse financial woes, more than they remember him for the eloquence of his sermons, I like the book, it invites me to reflect on what I can do to make this a better place, and not to give lectures on how to fix the world. "He who can do good and doesn't, it is sin"

The book was an interesting commentary on contemporary American issues but left much to be desired. Instead of building a rock-solid case for the urgent need for responsible leadership, Mr. Simon simply gives his opinions in a somewhat disjointed four chapters.
In the first chapter "Pandering in Politics," the examples he gives of politicians pandering all happen to be domestic priorities of the Republican Party. In my opinion, he missed an opportunity to talk about the need for selfless leadership and just wrote another partisan rant on the shortcomings of the opposite party. It cheapens the rest of his book.
My other main criticism was that the chapters didn't flow or connect very well. The book could have made a much stronger case that the public is being pandered to in many different aspects of our life, but instead deviates more from his original premise in each successive chapter. It almost gave me the impression that he rushed to get the book finished.
The book wasn't a waste, however, you could get more for your buck (and time) from many other sources.

Ironically, tho Mr. Simon preaches against pandering well, his argument backfires by promoting what I call neutralism or tolerantism or what most people call tolerance (for all religions and philosophies). The problem with promoting tolerance of all people who promote any and every religion and philosophy is that not all religions and philosophies lead to true good and in the end, lead to ruin. Examples: Islam and Catholocism have demonstrated themselves to be religions of murder when left unrestrained, and atheism and agnostocism have demonstrated themselves to be just as chaotic when left unrestrained. The philosophy of skepticism has shown itself to be a way that provokes contentious and hateful arguments and guess what that leads to if both parties lack decent self-control... yeah, injury or murder. Or consider serial killers and what they believed, should any corrupt views they spread be tolerated, should they be allowed to go about promoting child abuse or harming others for fun?

I am not advocating going about killing anyone who disagrees with you, but my point is that to marry, hire, or live next to a person BECAUSE OF (think affirmative action or being around those of like mind) or REGARDLESS of their religion or philosophy is clearly not wise. Or, would anyone like to argue that you should tolerate living next to or in the same house with a child-abusing and child-murdering person with your children for the sake of being tolerant?

I didn't think so.

There was some great truths in his book, such as that some (but I say many) churches care more about the church-building then being more obedient to Christ, and that many Christians severely neglect the poor.