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4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
He's got it right!, March 21, 2008
This review is from: Sissy Nation: How America Became a Culture of Wimps & Stoopits (Hardcover)
The author has it right and lays it out in a no-holds-barred fashion. There will definitely be something in this book that will offend, but that's entirely the point. Sometimes one has to be shocked into awareness, something we're resistant to these days. We have become a weak and flabby nation, and are becoming a weak and flabby world; physically, emotionally, intellectually, and spiritually. It's subtle and it has occurred over a long period of time, but it is very real. People are easily slighted and chronically dissatisfied. Kids (and adults) have come to expect rewards and praise for simply doing the right thing (or for doing nothing), as a result there is nothing to really strive for. Everybody demands their 15 minutes of fame and they demand it now, even if they really have nothing to offer. Essentially, that is what this book is about. Sure, it's a bit of a rant and not every idea is examined in the detail I would have liked, but once I started I read it right through -- I couldn't put it down. We, as a nation, need to hear more of this sort of thing, particularly our kids. I'm grateful the author had the courage to write this book.
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8 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Over the top politically, July 17, 2008
This review is from: Sissy Nation: How America Became a Culture of Wimps & Stoopits (Hardcover)
Apparently, Americans have become a nation of sissys because we refuse to adopt all basic tenents of the democratic party, to include gun control, open borders, communism, and we don't have cool tattoos. If you are a hip manhattanite convinced of your self-worth, you will find the book an amusing criticism of the fly-over states. If you think that the steady erosion of individual resposibility may have a role, then this book is not for you.
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7 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Fish in the Aquarium, February 10, 2008
This review is from: Sissy Nation: How America Became a Culture of Wimps & Stoopits (Hardcover)
I heard John Strausbaugh talk about his book on BookTV, which has become a new and valid medium in its own right. An author talking about his or her book is not the same as an audio book or a "reading". The written word is meant to be read, not listened to. It has its own kind of rhythm and texture. But an author giving a more or less spontaneous talk explaining what his or her book is about--as well as answering questions from the audience-- is very easy to listen to and follow, and you can actually get quite a good feeling for the book itself in as little as 30 minutes to an hour. [But even though I'm excited about this new medium, I'm certainly not praising the programming at BookTV, which in my opinion features too much material that is politically conservative or Republican-slanted.]
I thought the title "Sissy Nation" was a little silly, but I was surprised by how much I enjoyed the author's talk and agreed with everything he said. He's saying the same kinds of things as the social/cultural criticism in my self-published book (that no one has read), "Entropy and Alchemy", but in my opinion he doesn't go nearly far enough. It's not so much that we've become a nation of "sissies", but that we live in a huge technological society that not only coddles us but smothers us. Fitting into this huge society usually requires we play some minute role in it and relinquish our individuality. Instead of being autonomous, whole, and truly free individuals, we become part-time or weekend individuals. As a substitute for true individuality, we become obsessed with superficial self-expression. This is our attempt to escape the anonymity and uniformity that pervades the mega society we live in, one that has been created through a combination of population growth and technology. Mankind has grown huge, while men (and women) have grown small. But it's also a part of the Age we live in, an electronic age where everyone and everything is equal, and we have no higher image of what it means to be human that we can strive to live up to. We live in an insatiable culture that sucks the meaning out of everything. Whatever briefly appears as authentic or original is seized upon and devoured. Whoever rises above the crowd is quickly over publicized and scrutinized until we see how they themselves are only too human after all. So there are no heroes anymore and in fact the word "hero" itself becomes trivialized until it's meaningless. Our culture consumes itself; it consumes meaning. Quantity divides quality into countless little pieces. The technological medium drowns out the message. Everything becomes noise. Individuals crave symbolic meaning. They need validation. They want to be recognized as unique human beings, but when millions of people want the same thing, how is it possible to do it in a positive way? And so we have increasing numbers of disturbed people who one day take their guns into the mall, classroom, or the workplace, and finally they have their say and get some brief attention. This kind of thing might be a warning sign, just like 9-11 was. There are a lot of warning signs all around us, but instead of doing something about it, we try to remain safe, protected, and isolated, and thus make our world even more boring and watered down, while the temperature in this huge fish aquarium steadily keeps rising.
Entropy and Alchemy: The Problem of Individuality in an Age of Society
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