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A look back at a bad book

The Doyle’s meant well, they just didn’t think well




 

 

(This is a book review. It is the personal opinion of the reviewer, and not the opinion of Native Sun News Today.)

It was called Political Prostitution: political perversity, political correctness. The authors were Tim and Charity Doyle, and the cover states, “Written by and for the working and middle class.” It was published by the authors in 2008, and I was able to read it in one sitting, and must state up front, I agreed with most of what the authors wrote.

However, a chimp and a human share 96% of their DNA, and we can see what a difference other factors make, in addition to the 4% difference. Meaning, my agreeing with 96% of what they wrote does not make me a chimp.

Approached by former Rapid City Mayor Sam Kookier, while he was still mayor, to review the book, I fully intended to do such, but for no good reason I can offer, just never got around to it. Perhaps I was depressed because Kookier had lost his reelection bid to Steve Allender, although it was not at the forefront of my mind at the time.

Both Doyle’s hold engineering degrees, which does not surprise, as almost all of the 9/11 hijackers held such degrees, as did Osama Bin Laden and his chief operatives. Apparently, an engineer degree can compel extraordinary action and concern on political and societal issues, not always to the world’s liking.

Charity was a former Rapid City Alderwoman, who took the reins in July of a project to build a campus where people in crisis can get help, proposed by the Rapid City Collective Impact Group. No doubt she has the concern and compassion to make a difference in this capacity, and I wish her much luck and support. Tim was shot in 2011 while on duty as a Rapid City police officer. Fortunately, the angle of the bullet allowed what can only be deemed a miraculous recovery. I have nothing against either of these people, and were they my next door neighbor, I would probably have struck up a friendship.

But then there’s this thing called politics. And when I write about politics, I often dispense with the kid gloves, and this is no exception.

Oh, they do hint in the intro that there are some funny parts to the book, but I could not find any.

While they claim no bias or agenda intended, and admit that one will doubtless surface anyway, they fully intended bias and agenda, and once they get past the introduction to the book, with which most educated people would agree, this becomes glaringly apparent.

Like lots of well intentioned, reasonably intelligent people, who have given much thought to the problems that plague our society, the Doyle’s assume they have a sound understanding of the factors creating these problems. They don’t.

It takes more than reasonable intelligence to investigate with intent to understand, not reaffirm what we already wish to be true. It takes an uncommon but indispensable intellectual honesty, and this, bless their hearts, the Doyle’s do not possess.

Although not great writers, the paragraphs fly by smooth and easy and I commend them on the user friendly construction of their chapters and topics. What emerges from their writing is a nation in trouble, which can be rescued by an awakened, enlightened Silent Majority, they tout as savior, and once you read between the lines, they mean white folks and minorities who engage in agendas and utterances unthreatening to these savior white folks.

Time and again, they talk about people who are not them, who have a victim mentality, and pursue policies that weaken the fabric of our vibrant economy, and compromise the freedom promised by our democratically elected government. The love focusing on illegals and foreigners. The irony of relentlessly beating this dead scape goat escapes them. Because throughout their book—they are the wronged, they are the victim— and they have a bellyache going that would shame the insufferable bellyaching likes of Al Sharpton.

It is amazing how the man in the mirror remains invisible to the True Believer.

Let’s take credit card debt. They get after this on page 32, and they chastise others for living beyond their means, never understanding that debt is a deliberate stratagem. If you are going to cut the expense for corporations, you must reduce the expense of wages, decrease the taxes corporations pay, and increase the tax burden on the working class, the class the Doyle’s claim to champion.

Problem is, if you cut wages, and raise taxes on the working stiff, that double whammy impoverishes the consumer aspect of the taxpaying sap, and the only way to keep him consuming is to extend credit. This is the only reason credit exists, it is a deliberate mechanism to allow the wage slave to keep being a good worker bee. Even after he is being undercompensated and overtaxed.

The Doyle’s get after home ownership in the next chapter, again, never realizing that escalating housing costs are another expression of the credit stratagem. At least they recognize that this system cannot sustain itself, that eventually the economy will critically tank, perhaps even collapse, and then the peasant will storm the Bastille.

Oh, that last part they don’t realize, because they are naïve enough to think voting actually changes things in Washington. They think this because they have a blind spot as to why Washington doesn’t work, and why Congress is corrupt and unresponsive to the will of the electorate.

They mistakenly believe that government is an entity unto itself, with an agenda unto itself, and they think the Congress is a collection of opportunists selling off pieces of the government for personal gain. Truth is, there is no independent federal government.

The government is an expression of entrenched power, an oligarchy hiding in plain sight. It is corrupted by a cabal of crass, undemocratic privilege, and Congress are lackeys serving this master, not operators serving themselves.

The Doyle’s decry the two party system, but ignorantly suggest that voting differently will change it. If the last paragraph is true, then the two party system is a ruse to dupe the voter into thinking he has choice, when both candidates represent competing factions vying for the trust and support of their oligarchic masters. The oligarchy wins either way, and would not allow an election where one candidate was not under their control.

The Doyle’s uncharitably obsess over minorities and illegals and miss the irony when they write at the bottom of page 26: “There are more important things to worry about than the pathetic things these people dream up to waste our time.”

At the bottom of page 27 they write: “Educate your children about compassion, acceptance of differing viewpoints, and the jobs of our elected officials…” Their writing lacks compassion, lacks acceptance of differing viewpoints, and they completely misunderstand the reasons behind why elected officials are failing to represent the electorate.

At the bottom of page 43 they write: “Do yourself and your country’s future a service and invest time researching and educating yourself on these issues.”

But an authoritarian mindset that worships power and orthodoxy hampers their ability to do just that. They never once correctly identify the power that runs this country, the people who own the corporations, and the corporations who operate the government and have brainwashed the Doyle’s into internalizing their values, and fomenting a rebellion that plays safely within the parameters of acceptable action and thought.

Those who have hijacked this democracy have spent centuries perfecting a system of brainwashing that keeps people like the Doyle’s leveling buckshot at bogeymen. The oligarchy has no greater friend, not even the lackeys that serve it render such valuable service, because in their collective ignorance, politically correct bellyachers like the Doyle’s and the Silent Majority they misspeak for, give the oligarchy their true power.

(James Giago Davies is an enrolled member of the Oglala Lakota tribe. He can be reached at skindiesel@msn.com)


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