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58 of 63 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Are THEY really as extreme as you think?, February 25, 2002
Jon Ronson spent a couple years looking for, interviewing and hanging out with people who are viewed by the mainstream as "wackos" or extremists. This book is the result of those years and it is one of the most entertaining and informative books I've read in years. The subject of the first chapter is Omar Bakri Mohammed, the so-called leader or Islamic Fundamentalists in Britain. After reading the chapter though, you get the feeling that Omar is all talk. He uses Jon for rides and makes him pay for things because he is broke and does not own a car. Conversations between Jon and Omar also prove that Omar isn't nearly as bad as he wants to be. Later chapters cover Ruby Ridge, the David Koresh incident in Waco, David Icke vs. the ADL and people who believe that a small group of men rule the world (Bilderberg Group.) Through every chapter, Jon manages to fit in and is able to interview his subjects in a very relaxed manner, thereby allowing them to speak freely with him. -- The Klu Klux Klan leader who won't allow his Klansmen to use the "N" word. -- David Icke, who believes that we are descendents of 12 foot tall aliens who now control us through select leaders. -- A writer for a conspiracy magazine who thinks everyone is following them or hiding something from them. -- Rachel Weaver, daughter of Randy Weaver (Ruby Ridge), who in great detail tells Jon the story from her point of view. (A sad story, no matter what side you may take) There are so chapters that don't quite fit in with the rest, but they are interesting anyway. In between laughs, you'll be discover that most extremists are not that different from me or you, they just took it further.
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37 of 40 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Insightful look at political and religious extremes, December 31, 2001
It's rare to come across a book that's original, genuinely important - and very funny too. But Them, a series of interconnected essays by one of the UK's most important alternative journalists, is all these things, and it succeeds not merely because of its unexpected timeliness (Ronson's profile of Omar Bakhri Mohammed, Britain's very own Bin Laden, was actually written four years ago) but because the author, unlike other humorous journalists, gets out and does some first-hand investigation. In Bakhri's case, this extended to engaging in a (beautifully-observed) year long association with the extremist that saw Ronson - a self-proclaimed liberal Jew of no strong religious or political convictions - become the would-be revolutionary's unpaid chauffeur and make frequent visits to his home. The strikingly off-key relationship that developed between the two is tellingly portrayed in deftly-paced vignettes:
'Next morning I sat in Omar's living room while Omar played with his baby daughter.
'"What's your daughter's name?" I asked him.
'"It is a difficult name for you to understand," said Omar.
'"Does it have an English translation?" I asked.
'"Yes," said Omar, "it translates into English as 'The Black Flag of Islam'."
'"Really?" I said. "Your daughter's name is The Black Flag of Islam?"
'"Yes," said Omar.
'"Really?" I said.
'There was a small pause.
'"You see," said Omar, "why our cultures can never integrate?"''
Ronson, indeed, succeeds remarkably well in humanising the men (and they are, with only one exception, men) he writes about, and his book, though undoubtedly hilarious, is never played principally for laughs. Instead, its humour emerges from character and situation, and it is all the more effective for it.
Ronson casts his net wide, visiting not only the US (setting for half the chapters in the book), but West Africa, Eastern Europe, Canada and Portugal too. His subjects include KKK leader Thom Robb, notorious new-age extremist David Icke (who believes that Queen Elizabeth is really a creature not dissimilar to one of the villains in 80s teleseries 'V' ), Gail Gans of New York's Anti Defamation League, and right-wing talk show host Alex Jones. Nor was his quest without danger - he finds himself tailed by sinister secret service men in the Algarve and - most spectacularly - unmasked as a Jew in the middle of a Jihad training camp. All in all, therefore, Them turns out to be an eye opening and admirable introduction to the wilder shores of contemporary belief.
There are flaws - some of the chapters fit better into the developing narrative than others (Ronson's portraits of Ian Paisley and Mr Ru Ru, an enigmatic Saudi Arabian encountered bidding at auction for Nicolai Ceaucescu's shoes, both seem out of place), and there are few laughs to be had in 'Running Through Cornfields', a compassionate profile of Rachel Weaver, one of the survivors of the siege of Ruby Ridge (an event that remains all but unknown in the UK, but which turns out to be pivotal to the development of the principal themes of this book). Most significantly, perhaps, Ronson's decision to place the strange story of the Bilderburg group front and centre in his narrative jars somewhat; by insisting that all the people he enountered share a common belief in the idea that this cabal of Western politicians secretly controls the world, the author surely suggests that the world's extremists share more, in terms of common ideology, than they really do. (The emphasis placed on Bilderburg, in fact, has more to do with the fundamental requirements of the book's narrative than it does with many extremists true ideologies.)
But these are minor quibbles when set against the reach, ambition and insight on offer in this book. Four stars for the content, and an extra one for the sheer vivacity of the writing on display.
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22 of 24 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Meeting the Masters of the World, October 23, 2003
This review is from: Them: Adventures with Extremists (Paperback)
With an open mind and some charming naivete, Ronson went on an expedition to find not only those who obsess about the secret masters of the world but, just maybe, the masters themselves.
Like others who have actually done honest fieldwork amongst these political exotica, Ronson meets a lot of kind, polite, and charming people -- as long as you happen to be the right race or creed. Many are reasonable and tolerant too -- at least when they don't have any power to realize their visions.
From the vast zoo of modern conspiracy theory, Ronson mostly concentrates on the ZOG/Bilderberg/Trilateralist/Satanist clade which is usually associated with the right wing. But his years of research turn up some surprises.
In pre-September 11th London, Ronson hangs out with Omar Bakri, self-described as Osama bin Laden's man in London. In America, we meet Thom Robb, Grand Wizard of some Klan sect in a world rife with internecine sniping, egomaniacs, and FBI informers. His claim to fame? He wants his disciples to follow his self-help program -- oh, and stop using the "N-word". With Jim Tucker, reporter for the notorious and defunct _Spotlight_ newspaper, he attempts to infiltrate the annual meeting of the legendary Bilderberg Group. Then there's ex-British sportscaster David Icke who insists that, when he talks about a conspiracy of world ruling reptilian space alien Illuminati, he really means space aliens and not Jews.
And Ronson doesn't find extremism just among the conspiracy mongerers. The infamous actions of the U.S. government at Ruby Ridge are recounted as well as the press' general inability to see a distinction important to the Weavers and their supporters -- racial separatism as opposed to racial supremacy. The Anti-Defamation League comes across as far too ready to see anti-Semitism and pass its faulty judgements to a gullible media. Canadian activists try to stop Icke from public speaking -- all in the name of racial tolerance. And when Ronson actually interviews a founding member, Denis Healey, of the Bilderbergs on their history and activities, suspicions are not entirely allayed.
Ronson makes few outright comments and judgements on his subjects, provides no grand summing up of his findings and that may be the book's biggest flaw. The closest he gets is the concluding statement that nobody really controls anything. The book is more reportage than analysis. But that reporting is done with a sharp eye for the humorous and sinister. Bakri tells of what a future Islamic London will be like -- and is chided at a meeting of fellow jihadists about his inept fishing. Who is the man following Tucker and Ronson in Portugal during the Bilderberg meeting? Hollywood, a claimed nexus of the Grand Jewish Conspiracy, comes off as petty, apolitical, and a place of insincere boutique faith as Ronson follows Tony Kaye, director of American History X, around. Klansmen argue the merits of silk or cotton robes. Ronson infiltrates the Bohemian Grove -- attended by U. S. presidents and vice-presidents -- and finds a rather silly, decades old frat boy ritual that just doesn't have the same drawing power it used to among the up-and-coming junior world ruler set. And more than once, Ronson, a Jew, finds himself guiltily associating with anti-Semites.
To be sure, some of the books chapters seem extraneous. An auction of Nicolae Ceausescu's relics adds nothing. Neither does a chapter on Ian Paisley taken from an early newspaper article.
Ronson's book reminded me of Phillip Finch's God Guts And Guns which went among the American radical right and the works of Laird Wilcox about American political extremists. Its humor and willingness to consider outre theories like David Icke's reminded me of Alex Heard's Apocalypse Pretty Soon: Travels In End-Time America, the work of Ronson's fellow Englishman Louis Theroux, and the pages of _The Fortean Times_.
Anybody interested in strange beliefs, conspiracy theories, or political extremism should read this book.
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