Binding: Hardcover
Dewey Decimal Number: 973.93
EAN: 9780385520348
ISBN: 0385520344
Label: Spiegel & Grau
Manufacturer: Spiegel & Grau
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 288
Publication Date: 2008-05-06
Publisher: Spiegel & Grau
Release Date: 2008-05-06
Studio: Spiegel & Grau

A REVELATORY AND DARKLY COMIC ADVENTURE THROUGH A NATION ON THE VERGE OF A NERVOUS BREAKDOWN—FROM THE HALLS OF CONGRESS TO THE BASES OF BAGHDAD TO THE APOCALYPTIC CHURCHES OF THE HEARTLAND


Rolling Stone’s Matt Taibbi set out to describe the nature of George Bush’s America in the post-9/11 era and ended up vomiting demons in an evangelical church in Texas, riding the streets of Baghdad in an American convoy to nowhere, searching for phantom fighter jets in Congress, and falling into the rabbit hole of the 9/11 Truth Movement.
Matt discovered in his travels across the country that the resilient blue state/red state narrative of American politics had become irrelevant. A large and growing chunk of the American population was so turned off—or radicalized—by electoral chicanery, a spineless news media, and the increasingly blatant lies from our leaders (“they hate us for our freedom”) that they abandoned the political mainstream altogether. They joined what he calls The Great Derangement.
Taibbi tells the story of this new American madness by inserting himself into four defining American subcultures: The Military, where he finds himself mired in the grotesque black comedy of the American occupation of Iraq; The System, where he follows the money-slicked path of legislation in Congress; The Resistance, where he doubles as chief public antagonist and undercover member of the passionately bonkers 9/11 Truth Movement; and The Church, where he infiltrates a politically influential apocalyptic mega-ministry in Texas and enters the lives of its desperate congregants. Together these four interwoven adventures paint a portrait of a nation dangerously out of touch with reality and desperately searching for answers in all the wrong places.
Funny, smart, and a little bit heartbreaking, The Great Derangement is an audaciously reported, sobering, and illuminating portrait of America at the end of the Bush era.

Customer Rating:
Summary: Useful & Informative, but...
Comment: 'The Great Derangement' is something of a mongrel. As a writer for Rolling Stone, Matt Taibbi covers a wide variety of subjects. At times 'Derangement' felt as if Mr. Taibbi had stacks of notes on three different subjects, each set too large for an article but too short for a book on its own, and his solution was to combine them all in one book and claim that the combination was in an effort to compare and contrast. At that he is only marginally successful.

Where 'Derangement' is more successful is in actually reporting from inside of each of the three 'worlds' he covers.

The infiltration of Pastor Hagee's megachurch in Texas is where Mr. Taibbi shines most. Although my personal religious leanings are very similar to the author's, I grew up in the church (if a much more 'main line' denomination) and I recognize the individuals that populate Cornerstone Church in San Antonio. He manages to differentiate between the zealots running the show, the crackpot 'yes-men' that form the middle management, and the actual believers in the pews who, while overly credulous, are really just looking for some answers, stability, and a sense of belonging in their life.

While Mr. Taibbi puts forward a more sympathetic portrait of megachurch parishioners, he has no problem allowing Hagee and his ilk to damn themselves. 'Derangement' is a record of Hagee's willingness to lie to his congregation to further his political ends and ingratiate himself with his Washington benefactors.

'The Great Derangement' attempts to provide 'balance' to his critique of Evangelicalism by comparing it to the '9/11 Truth' movement, something that Mr. Taibbi characterizes as 'left-wing' though I find that claim a bit dubious.

I accept that each one is based on a similar sort of fact-free, take it on faith, 'I-want-to-believe' sort of movement. That said, the Truthers don't have a major political party beholden to them or hundreds if not thousands of adherents positioned within elected and non-elected government. People who think that the World Trade Center was dynamited may try to convince us to adopt their point of view but they're not trying to pass laws and/or change laws so that conform with their ideology. Also, Tiabbi fails to make any real connection between the 'Truthers' and any tenet of Liberalism. Conspiracy theories, and this one in particular, have very little to do with political ideologies.

The final set of notes that Mr. Taibbi used to fill out 'The Great Derangement' was on the combination of corruption and gridlock in Congress. While the Truthers come off as goofy and the Hageeites come off as unsettling, Mr. Taibbi's inside look at how ear marks work is just crushingly disheartening. The amount of disfunction is staggering. One is left wondering how anything ever gets done.

In the end, Mr. Taibbi's strongest point, one that I don't remember him stating directly, is that in today's America, a person can choose from a buffet of ideas and ideologies and there will always be somebody willing to spout reality optional 'facts' that support that position.

---

Customer Rating:
Summary: Not his best, but Taibbi is always enjoyable
Comment: Matt Taibbi is in my opinion the most interesting political writer working today. He is a writer's writer, clearly in love with the language (in a very approachable way, don't worry) and quite gifted at turning a phrase. I regularly find myself stopping and rereading paragraphs in his books that seem to perfectly capture the essence of what makes American politics so annoying, yet fascinating. I frankly expected him to be more left-leaning, but he is refreshingly equal-opportunity in his skewering.

All that said, I found the central premise of "The Great Derangement" to be a little flimsy. Basically, religious nut-jobs (as supposed examples of the extreme Right) and 9/11 conspiracy nut-jobs (as supposed examples of the extreme Left) are...wait for it...both equally nutty. Taibbi's strong writing and total immersion in his subject matter still manage to make this somewhat underwhelming thesis interesting, but in the end it felt like he was trying too hard to wrap it all up in a neat theme rather than just letting the writing do its work.

Worth a read, but I'd suggest his "Spanking the Donkey" as much more satisfying and spot-on in its observations (if you skip some of the silly fantasy sequences).

---

Customer Rating:
Summary: TYPICAL LIBERAL RANTING!!
Comment: Tabbi simply rehashes the liberal line of the past fifty years that consists of presenting middle America as idiots who do not understand the real world and therefore needs liberal thinking individuals, like him, to lead the way to salvation.

Perhaps, twenty-five years from now, he will have something interesting to say but it is doubtful since most liberals become mean spirited as their view of the world never gains the support of the majority.

---

Customer Rating:
Summary: Rolling Stone reporter spies on America's disaffected idiots
Comment: Taibbi commendably takes his journalist spotlight off the corrupt actors on Washington's center stage, and instead investigates the most disaffected ordinary Americans. But to do so he goes undercover, posing as a believer in far right-wing Christian-Zionism, or far-left 9/11 conspiracy theories. He basically plays Borat, inventing oddball past experiences to play his part, and letting the unsuspecting locals make fools of themselves for the camera. Later Taibbi gives his real opinions of what idiots they are, and asks what America is coming to.

Only slowly does Taibbi's basic compassion for these people rise to the fore. These are people, he reasons, both conservatives and liberals, who feel so conned by the political rip-off system that they can't tell who to trust. And maybe, Taibbi suspects, part of the con has been to get them to blame and hate each other.

---

Customer Rating:
Summary: Interesting
Comment: I really enjoyed this book. The author has a good sense of humor and his adventures are quite interesting. Probably not for you if you are sensitive about religion.

---