Customer Reviews

Shut Up & Sing: How Elites from Hollywood, Politics, and the UN are Subverting America

5 star:		(130)
4 star:		(24)
3 star:		(16)
2 star:		(25)
1 star:		(100)

 

 

Please don't miss the point of this book, as all the reactionary reviews posted so far seem to have done. Some people sing, or they act, or they throw a ball. That's all. No one is saying that celebrities shouldn't have a voice, just like everyone else. What is being asked is a very basic question. Why, in America, are celebrities given such attention in public matters? You sing? That's nice, but why should I then particularly care what your political views are? No one wants to censor celebrities, but isn't it just a little silly to think that because someone sings or acts that they have some special understanding of the environment or politics?

Conservative talk show host Laura Ingraham decided to write a book called "Shut Up and Sing: How Elites from Hollywood, Politics, and the UN Are Subverting America" in an effort to throw a spotlight on the folly of our so called "leaders." Dismissed as a hateful screed by hysterical shills for the Left, the author's book is in reality an intriguing, funny, and forceful call to action for American citizens weary of the idiocy that passes as "liberalism" today. Far from being the friendly, inclusive ideology of the common man, many of today's leftists are narrow minded, intolerant bigots full of self-loathing guilt about the success of America. By the way, I don't pay attention to any particular radio programs endorsing either side of the political spectrum, largely due to my increasing annoyance with both right and left, but I would definitely give Ingraham a listen based solely on this book. Would I condone everything she said lock, stock, and barrel? Definitely not, but it's always fun to see one of these self-righteous leftist zealots take a shot on the chin.

Who are the elites who spend every waking minute making the rest of us miserable? According to Ingraham, they occupy prominent positions in the entertainment industry, politics, academia, the judiciary, and the United Nations. You know a lot of them by sight: Tim Robbins, Susan Sarandon, Madonna, Rosie O'Donnell, Barbra Streisand (grrr), Jane Fonda (double grrr), Ted Kennedy, Michael Moore, Noam Chomsky, Susan Sontag, Cornel West, and a million other dupes espousing blatant "Hate America" ideologies. Ingraham even includes a pictorial "rogue's gallery" in the middle of the book in case you don't know the faces of our anti-American enemy. Many of the individuals listed above work in Hollywood, a place that has had such a corrosive effect on this country that anyone who says and believes otherwise ought to reserve themselves a padded room at the local mental motel. Through certain movies, public appearances, and other media driven avenues, these elites attempt to instill their unhealthy ideas on the rest of American society. According to Ingraham's elites, America is an intolerant society dominated by ignorant bumpkins suffering from a mental disability called religion who want to impose their backward, parochial views on every other part of the globe. The elites urge us to take the United Nations and socialist Europe as the model for what America should become: a powerless cog in a world government presided over by leftist overlords. It seems communism never went away. What a surprise.

The author heaps scorn upon Hollywood, but reserves most of her venom for other areas of elite control, specifically academia, politics, and religion bashers. Loads of books outline in greater detail the horrific conditions of America's left wing indoctrination centers (read: colleges and universities), so Ingraham's summary doesn't add much to the historiography. What it does do in relatively few pages is introduce the novice reader to some of the wackos in higher education. Unfortunately, the insanity found at the university level has now filtered down to the earliest grades in public schools. Subversion of the education system wouldn't be possible if the political organs didn't provide a comfortable home for cranks, and the author writes in detail about the lunacy taking place in the federal government. The judicial branch carries most of the responsibility for the problems we face. Instead of interpreting the law, these guys and gals use the bench to launch convoluted social programs impervious to the will of the electorate. One field of contention with the courts concerns the status of religion in the public sphere. The author outlines elite efforts to make secularism the state religion. While I am definitely not a Christian (or a member of any other faith), I cannot wait for the day when some lawyer steps up in front of a court and successfully argues secularism has become a religion endorsed by the government in direct violation of the Constitution. You know it will happen.

"Shut Up and Sing" isn't a perfect book by any standard. Ingraham, for instance, fails to recognize the true nature of the elites in America. What she describes in this book transcends the political labels of "Republican" and "Democrat." And while the author takes President Bush to task over the mess that is immigration policy in the United States, and criticizes corporate greed and the increasing monopolization of American business, she simply cannot bring herself to elevate the debate above right versus left. Both parties are taking us down the road to ruin because both parties pay homage to the idea of "democracy." Democracy, like communism, sounds great on paper but has been a disaster in practice. A slothful, indifferent public too busy enjoying bread and circuses cannot make democracy work. Turning over your civic duties to others leads in large part to the types of problems described in this book. A return to the republican virtues our founding fathers endorsed in the Constitution is the best hope for the country.

"Shut Up and Sing" is an intriguing book well worth your time. I fear for the future every time I read books like this one, regardless of their political orientation, because the country has degraded so far in such a short time that revolution is probably the only possible remedy now. Since revolutions tend to be rather messy affairs involving the deaths of thousands if not millions of people, and usually take divergent courses never imagined at their inception, I would rather see a more rational solution to our problems.

I just finished this book; I'm a little amazed at the reactions. After reading the reviews listed here, it is obvious some of these reviewers haven't read beyond the dust jacket and some haven't read that much. What Ms. Ingraham deftly does is expose the hypocrisy of the elite in their own words. She also demonstrated the contempt with which these elitists treat the great-unwashed masses.
The director Otto Preminger referred to actors as being little more than trained animals, jumping through hoops as the director's command. Truman Capote said that the best actors were the "stupidest" (his word.) When Ronald Reagan was asked about comments made by Ed Asner he replied, "What does an actor know about politics?" Why should it be a surprise when we read the words of our celluloid heroes and find out that they are insipid, two dimensional characters with nothing of substance to add to the discourse. When did we begin to look to the likes of Barbara and Sarandon for answers to complex world problems? Ms. Ingraham only points out the obvious; our entertainers are here to entertain us.
The revelation to me was the genesis of the elitist doctrine and Ms. Ingraham does a fine job of recalling this. I can see where this would be an annoying inconvenience to the elitists today; the pretense that these people speak, and "feel" for the very people they treat with such contempt. To read just how disdainful Jane Fonda is of the average American is unsettling. In fact, I see this condescension in some of the reviews written here; mocking Southern accents, and advising us we don't have to read this book. Am I not entitled to read and decide for myself?
Regardless of your political opinions, read this book, it is well written and it is worth the few hours you'll spend, if only to remind you that the world's problems require reasoned thought, not a few bumper sticker slogans tossed out by people that make their living playing "make believe."

An awesome book. No, Laura is not an investigative reporter, but she articulates well the views of many of us in middle america rather nicely. Ie, that Hollywood and many universities in the US are no longer moderate on the issues and willing to openly debate substance but have instead become bastions of speech codes where 98% or more of the faculty are far-left liberal and won't tolerate free speech of those with contrary opinions. Thankfully she has finally taken them on.

As a Libertarian, I rather agree with Dennis Miller. The conservatives have some good points and so do some liberals. Saying that this book is awful however, is nonsense. It's well written; Laura is very funny; I saw no lies that I could identify, unlike the 'this book is awful' reviewers did (although I have a cynical suspicion that they are not objective reviewers). This is an excellent, easy and fun read. Want more in debth work??? "Losing Bin Laden" or "What Color is a Conservative" are also excellent.

At the very beginning the author provides the reader with her definition of the elites. Essentially, these people believe they are better than everyone else, everyone else being churchgoers, patriots, law-abiding citizens, etc. According to Ingraham elites also think everyone else is stupid. They also believe Bush is stupid. (If that makes this middle-class, civil servant an elite, well, she's got me there.)

No matter what page I was on, I got the impression of a writer on a soap box, waving a stick, and screaming her tonsils off. I almost expected the words on each page to suddenly capitalize. For a person educated at Dartmouth and the Virginia School of Law, Ingraham's writing style disappoints. She recites several opinions per page with fewer selective examples and then, generalizes that they are attributes of all liberals or elites. The more I read, the more I got the impression she was describing behaviors of a specific phylum in the animal kingdom. For a lawyer, she made many hypotheses but provided little factual information to back it up.

Among her assertions are: liberals hate the "Pledge of Allegiance," were against going into Afghanistan, don't believe in God, don't attend church, and wanted to find out what we [Americans] did wrong to make the terrorists attack us. That's not the only place she's off the mark. Ingraham quotes Ted Kennedy saying that going into Iraq will only encourage al-Qaeda. She derisively poo-poos this quote. Unfortunately, it's turned out to be true.

If you're conservative, you'll like her prose. If you're conservative and angry, you'll really like her prose. Laura's opinions will match your beliefs. Then, everyone can play "Scream Along with Laura."

The one thing I did like about this book is the title. After reading this, I can only hope that the author will do one or the other, anything except write.

The book was well thought out. The writing wasn't too bad. I also had trouble disagreeing with her.
The problem arises when some people take what Laura wrote the wrong way. Many revierws on this site have accused Laura of being a close-minded bigot. What they fail to realize is that Laura does not disagree with the right of "elites" to have and voice opinions. What she disagrees with is the use of those elites to use their popularity and celebrity status to cram those opinions down our throats. Of course, she does the same thing. But then, Laura has at least some experience and expertise in the area of which she speaks. Being a famous singer or actor does not give a person any special insight into complex political situations, yet they (the celebrities) feel free to share their often poorly-informed opinion with their adoring audience.
Of course, most people don't think about the source of the drivel they get these days. The news media prints off anything a celebrity says, and the majority of the people feel that there is a good reason for the media printing it. People need to think for themselves.

I live in the most liberal bastion in the U.S. I need books like this to keep my wits about me. The negative reviews dwell on freedom of speech, truth, love of country, etc...something the writers are trying to control and eliminate, but use it as a weapon to beat the less informed into submission. Oh, the poor children, racist, tolerance are the words they usually use in the street. A very odd turn of events for these situational ethics cretins. The liberalism here and the liberalism in Europe is much different, however, it does seem to be lumped in the same kettle of fish. Talking to most liberals here is like talking to a braindead zombie, while talking to liberals in Europe, one can talk about the many sides of an issue and even convince them of a more conservative viewpoint. I.E. their thinking is not rigid as thinking has become on both sides here. Unfortunately, the pendulum has swung too far to the left at the moment and it must be thoughtfully and convincingly be centered with more compromise from both sides on issues that are important to our future. Anyway, Laura is 95% on from my viewpoint and her detracters need to inhale.

I'm sick of seeing people bash books when they haven't even read one page of them. They clearly go out of their way to do this. This book came out yesterday. I got it and couldn't put it down. I finished it this morning. And guess what? I'm a liberal. This book is excellently written and her points about elitists ring quite true. To my fellow liberals, stop being jerks...you're only vindicating the conservative movement.

I would be interested in reading a book by Laura Ingraham on almost any of the subjects she covers in her book. By putting them all in one book, however, I think she ends up only scratching the surface on a wide range of subjects.

Moreover, she tries to tie the subjects all together under the theme of elitism. In some cases, it works, like when she discusses how liberals try to push everything through judiciary because they can't win in the democratically (small "d") driven legislature.

At other times, she is less convincing, like when she labels libertarians who favor relaxing immigration laws as elitists, when most libertarians would argue for this precisely because they do not favor heavy government intervention as elitists do. It seems equally elitist to favor anti-immigration laws for the purposes of protecting American jobs and pay, as if by virtue of being born here we should be entitled to specific jobs that others are willing to do for less money. (Still, I would concede that immigration control is necessary for national-security purposes.)

Thomas Sowell covered the subject of liberal elitism in his book "The Vision of the Anointed," but he made a much stronger case. I suspect it's because he began with that theme in mind. I almost get the feeling that Ingraham had a list of topics she wanted to cover, and then she tried to find a way to tie them all together. Sowell, on the other hand, seemed to look for examples that supported his theme especially well.

I thought Ingraham's chapter on the U.N. was especially well written, and especially disturbing. I would love to see her write a single book on that subject.

As a fan of Laura Ingraham's radio show, I considered her book to be a decent read, but not especially compelling.