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Sound Bites

I am listening to Suicide of the West audio-book these days, while taking my walk. Jonah Goldberg's reference to the Hamlet quote about worms and kings made me look up the text to read. The book is full of interesting asides like this one but I think the main thesis as stated in the sub-title was laid out early on. Humans are meant to be tribal and have a natural tendency to see those outside the tribe as rivals and enemies who need to be overcome. 

In the west we are returning to a primitive state by indulging in various forms of tribalism on both sides of the political aisle. The forays into history where such examples of tribalism run rife are interesting but there was not much more I learned that I already did in the first chapter. I will get through this book in hopes there may be little detours it will prompt like reading Hamlet. The author aims to be both provocative and cover a tremendous amount of ground. With that combination, the only way to get the action moving is to over-stuff the book with sound-bites and wry observations about human nature, history, economics, religion and politics. It is as if Goldberg were aiming to edify his readers in one fell swoop on every topic they could possibly care to know about. 

If I was twenty five years younger and as gauche as I was back then, I am sure I would have devoured the book and used the crumbs of wisdom from it to act like I actually knew things and had "informed" opinions on them. It would serve as the cram-sheet for someone who wanted to look cool without having put time and effort to understanding what makes the world the place that it is. So there is a demographic for this book most certainly - I am just too old and jaded to be a fit. 

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