Full Description
P.J. O'Rourke says we've worked ourselves into a state of anger and perplexity, and it's no surprise because perplexed and angry is what America has always been all about. This uproarious look at the current state of the United States includes essays like 'The New Puritanism - and Welcome to It,' about the upside of being 'woke' (and unable to get back to sleep); 'Sympathy vs. Empathy,' which considers whether it's better to have an idea of how people feel or to bust their skulls to get inside their heads; 'A Brief Digression on the Additional Hell of the Internet of Things' because your juicer is sending fake news to your FitBit about what's in your refrigerator; and many more.
A couple of extra perks include a quiz to determine where you stand on the spectrum of 'Coastals vs. Heartlanders' and a 'An Inauguration Speech I'd Like To Hear:' ask not what your country can do for you. Ask me how I can get the hell out of here. Featuring extensive coverage from the 2020 campaign trail, this is P.J. at his acerbic best.
Contents
1: Introduction 2: Pre-Preface: As We Go to Press . . . 3: Preface: Manifesto for Extreme Moderation 4: Introduction: O Beautiful for . . . Pilgrim Feet? 5: One Nation-Divided as Hell 6: Coastals vs. Heartlanders 7: Goodbye to Classical Liberalism: "It's the End of the World!" 8: Big Fat Politics 9: But Thank You Anyway, Partisan Politicians 10: Robin Hood Arithmetic 11: On the Other Hand . . . Just Give Them the Money 12: It's Time to Make Rich People Uncomfortable Again 13: Negative Rights vs. Positive Rights: It's Positively Confusing 14: Sympathy vs. Empathy: Is It Better to Hold People's Hands or Bust into Their Heads? 15: Patriotism vs. Nationalism 16: Big Brother (and Everybody Else) Is Watching You: Thoughts on Rereading 1984 17: Whose Bright Idea Was It to Make Sure That Every Idiot in the World Was in Touch with Every Other Idiot? 18: A Brief Historical Digression on How Communication Has Devolved 19: And While I'm Ranting Against the Digital Age Let Me Not Forget to Excoriate an Aspect of Social Media that Lacks Even Sociability . . .On the Fresh Hell of The Internet of Things 20: Lessons in Fake News from Two Old Masters of the Form 21: Woke to the Sound of Laughter 22: Why Kids R Commies: And Never Mind How the Free Market Bankrupted that Backwards R Big Box Store that Once Held a Greedy Monopoly on Selling Toys 23: Knowing Write from Left 24: Educating My Kids 25: My Own Lousy Education And How It May Be of Aid to the Nation 26: What We Can Learn from the Sixties Drug Culture 27: Can the Government Be Run Like a Business? 28: Two, Four, Six, Eight, Who Do We Appreciate . . .The Electoral College! 29: Is a Reasonable, Sensible, Moderate Foreign Policy Even Possible? 30: The Inaugural Address I'd Like To Hear the President-Whoever It May Be-Deliver 31: My Own Personal Fantasy League Presidential Election 32: A License to Drive (Me Crazy) 33: The Founding Fathers Have Some Words With Us 34: What I Like About U.(S.A.) 35: Acknowledgments
