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5 of 8 people found the following review helpful
2.0 out of 5 stars The Evil of Banality, December 28, 2012
This review is from: Decision Points (Paperback)
Decision Points by George W. Bush (Oct 18, 2011)

Amazon Review: 2 stars The Evil of Banality

This book is a shocking indictment of the utter bankruptcy of what passes for the American Spirit. To invert Hannah Arendt's famous quip about the Eichmann trial in Jerusalem as revealing the banality of evil, I would say that Bush's autobiography reveals the evil of banality. Let me explain.

I have always despised GW Bush, believing his administration a devious and malicious know-nothing government on steroids. The expression Do No Harm seems not to have been in currency in the Bush White House. They not only knew nothing but took precipitous actions that ended up doing much harm. However after reading this book I have come to see GWB as exemplary of the entire baby boom generation in America: a group of intellectual lazy, morally feeble, and insolently self-indulgent and essentially inhumane people, swimming in arrogance and utterly lacking in humility and compassion.

GWB achieved the pinnacles of success and power without ever aspiring to sincerity virtue or truth. He excelled at playing the game of life without ever asking whether this game is worth playing in the first place. Bush boasts of his ability to make tough decisions, but he does so without evincing the least concern for his ignorance before-hand or the horrible aftermath of these "tough decisions." Bush reminds me of my former classmates from Harvard, spoiled privileged kids without the least sense of moral or social obligation but rather a roaring sense of entitlement to mindless power and perks.

After graduating from Andover and Yale, the young Bush spent ten years finding himself, working in various jobs that he had no problem obtaining. Indulged by his parents as the eldest son, Bush developed a fondness for fast living and booze. Almost inexplicably his cerebral wife to be fell for him and they were married soon after they met. Years later, when the now comfortably elitist Laura Bush remarked at the Presidential Press Dinner that she was a "desperate housewife", one suspects that this was as close to desperation that either of them ever came. We all assumed that, because she had worked as an elementary school librarian, Laura Bush is smart. But perhaps children's books are not just her profession but her level?

Throughout his book Bush projects an almost subconscious disdain for the average person and a preposterous sense of his own "greatness". Bush lacks compassion and acts like a spoiled rich punk desperately seeking relevance and purpose for his banal existence. Bush evinces incredible amounts of self-love in the face of almost breathtaking worthlessness. He seems almost singularly incapable of deep thought. For example, he recounts a class at Andover on the Soviet Empire. Taught by a Jewish refugee from Nazi Germany, this class reviled the brutal autocracy of Stalin and imparted to young GWB an abiding horror of communism and a lifelong commitment to "freedom." Yet Bush never asks how Communism was birthed in the land of Czars in the first place. He seems totally oblivious to the fact that Imperial Germany installed Lenin as dictator in exchange for removing Russian forces from Germany's eastern front in World War I. Thus one could see Communism as the tragic consequence of a savage war waged amongst capitalist powers, one of whom cynically instigated the revolution in order to improve its chances on the battlefield. And one certainly could appreciate the incredible irony that Hitler rode to power denouncing the "Communist menace" that his predecessors in the German military had helped to create in the first place!

Another inconsistency in Bush's moral armor. After graduating from Harvard Business School, Bush comments that he was averse to Wall St. as a place that "cynically uses people". But when he announced his candidacy for President in 1999, he notes that all was idyllic in that Texas summer: the Rangers were in first place and the stock market was above 14,000. And later in his administration he did not hesitate to bail out the predatory vultures on Wall St. with almost a trillion dollars of taxpayer money. Bush comes across as a person whose feeble principles never seem to get in the way of his avarice or to disturb his ignorance.

He makes no mention of the record number of Texas state prison executions when he was governor. He sheds crocodile tears for the American military personnel who died or were maimed fighting the unjustified and illegal wars he cruelly dispatched them to. Like most American elites, Bush only feels pathos when he surveys the wreckage caused by his own avarice, stupidity, and wickedness. Spare us: if we want to wallow in tragedy we can catch a really good one by Shakespeare.

Another shocking inconsistency. Bush claims to have been influenced by teachers and professors who admired FDR. And when he decided to run for President, he claims to have formulated a credible political philosophy: lowering taxes, and reforming Medicare and Social Security. In other words to pursue policies that would further benefit the uber-rich elites who own this society, the very antithesis of FDR! (I would humbly offer GW a better sound bite for what he imagines constitutes a "political philosophy": If you lied cheated and stole your way to the top, you deserve to keep everything you got.)

Bush evinces no curiosity about the big questions or the broader world. (Except for trite sound bites about opposing Communism and upholding freedom.) He seems to relish his own thoughtless exercise of power. Especially when writing about war, he comes across as a spoiled arrogant bully. And he can always count on spiritual leaches like Billy Graham to stroke his hand and encourage him in his futile flexing of ego.

I finished this book with less disdain for GW Bush. Or more precisely I was able to globalize my disdain to an indictment of America culture in general: a nation led by intellectually lazy midgets, self-indulgent bullies who border on the sadistic, and followed by equally thoughtless swine who are carefully managed by the presstitutes of the American Whoreporate Mess Media. Bush truly is a product of his baby boomer generation: a vapid insensate society hell bent on pointless self-assertion and blindly grandiose exercises of power. In the end, one feels this book is not an indictment of a very flawed individual so much as a flawed and desperately sick nation that is the sad legacy of the first GW way back in 1776.

Bush knows how to offer the sexy sound bite and don the garments of valor, but in the end we are almost embarrassed to see how shockingly unclothed the would-be emperor truly is: naked self-interest, greed, cynicism, and disdain for the masses of humanity.

And of course, zero mention of 9-11 Truth. This man is simply an executor of the elitist agenda, an unapologetic brute who now comes whining in this book for approval and acclaim from the same American public he deceived and defrauded for eight interminable years. But we are hardly comforted to think of how many more elitist self-interested know-nothings are waiting in the wings lusting for even more mindless power, perks, and privilege.

As I learned about the cover-up of 9-11 Truth by the Bush Administration, I circulated a flyer called "9-11 Attacks: Murder of America". Reading this book is like reading the obituary for that sadly prescient title. If Willy Loman signifies the death of the American salesman, GW Bush is the death of America's intellect, spirit, and virtue. And we can eulogize him with: RIP = Rot in Perpetuity.

And though the contemptible nature of Bush's Presidency deserves far less than 1 star, I gave it 2 stars in recognition of the high quality of writing this propaganda piece apologetic for the evil banality of American elites represents. No doubt a veritable army of ghost writers, editors, and researchers were very well paid for their efforts to portray Banal Bush as St. George. Anyone interested in the death and demise of America should read it. It is the perfect obituary for the social experiment once called the United States of America, but now seemingly just an Unconscious State of Awareness.

PS Anyone whose brain has not undergone a literary lobotomy from reading this book might want to look into the following links, that present a very concise and cogent case for the coverup of 9-11 truth. Even Banal Bush himself could fathom this information, if only he could stop gazing at himself in the mirror and repeating, I am not a toady for the power elite!
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Showing 1-3 of 3 posts in this discussion
Initial post: Dec 29, 2012 10:37:56 AM PST
Last edited by the author on Dec 29, 2012 10:39:29 AM PST
Mevashir says:
Links from above review:

Laura Bush as desperate housewife:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EQv0v3Xme0I

LINKS ABOUT THE 9-11 U$RAELI-TERRORIST CHARADE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QU961SGps8g&feature=plcp&list=PL5A0ED933BBD3BF49
http://www.bollyn.com/solving-9-11-the-book
http://www.veteranstoday.com/2012/09/21/911-dust-by-jeff-prager-final-version/
http://rense.com/general24/t500.htm
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mm1vv7OVtto
http://www.realzionistnews.com/?p=647
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2010/11/14/geraldo-much-open-minded-911-campaign/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TrZ14NRbT-s
http://www.infowars.com/articles/sept11/chasing_down_gomel_chesed_cemetery.htm
http://rense.com/general68/911jh.htm
http://video.cpt12.org/video/2270078138
http://www.ae911truth.org/en/news-section/57-news-releases-by-others/660-new-911-truth-documentary-among-most-watched-on-pbs-this-week.html
http://rense.com/general74/heard.htm
http://www.intifada-palestine.com/2012/01/candid-interview-about-911-by-dr-alan-sabrosky/
http://tvnewslies.org/html/david_ray_griffin__almost_perf.html
http://www.veteranstoday.com/2011/07/17/911-and-israel-alan-sabroskys-shocking-press-tv-interview/

Posted on Feb 27, 2014 10:41:07 AM PST
Great review, but I can't believe you actually read that tosh. Bush was the absolute worst administration, hate consumed and extremely divisive. Dick Cheney is the true personification of the Bush presidency, talk about hate consumed and delusional, Cheney takes the cake. What a tragedy that a right wing packed SCOTUS anointed Bush president in 2000. The Bush monarchy proves that America never really threw off the shackles of divine right. We may yet have another Bush in the white house-parish the thought.

In reply to an earlier post on Mar 1, 2014 9:47:08 AM PST
Last edited by the author on Mar 1, 2014 9:47:32 AM PST
Mevashir says:
I read the book but fortunately didn't have to buy it since it was a library copy. I don't think Bush was the worst. He is par for the course for the criminals who ascend to the White House and serve as cheerleaders for the death economy of Wall St.

I had a vision of Wall St. today. A circular treadmill labeled Wall St. with the American consumer as rats frantically running nowhere on it!
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