Book Review - The Assault On Reason - Al Gore

The Assault On Reason, by Al Gore

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For the record, I haven't read the book - Yet. What I have read are a series of reviews of the book and the possible, but not-likely, Presidential bid of former VP Al Gore. So, without further ado, I'll give you the links to the reviews, and selected quotes from the reviews. Followed, of course, by own critical analysis of the situation and the book.

WashingtonPost - E.J. Dionne - Free to be Al Gore
Gore's book, "The Assault on Reason," to be released today, is about "the strangeness of our public discourse" as mediated through television. He thinks the Internet may revive the art of reasoned argument that has been lost in our obsessions with "Britney and KFed, and Lindsay and Paris and Nicole."

New York times - Michiko Kakutani - The Assault On Reason
As for his conviction that the Internet can help re-establish “an open communications environment in which the conversation of democracy can flourish,” it plays down the more troubling aspects of the Web, like its promotion of rumor and misinformation alongside real information, and its tendency to fuel polarizing, partisan warfare.

Boston Globe - Jim Sleeper - Gore's 'Assault' makes his case for an open market of ideas
He notes that Internet openness is reviving the mental stimulation of reading and writing, and its interactivity is reviving Revolutionary-era pamphleteering, generating new "committees of correspondence" and strengthening a "meritocracy of ideas" instead of letting conglomerates corner the "marketplace of ideas."

You can read the growing list of reviews here.

Everyone has something to see and say in the book. The anti-war, anti-Bush crowd are hailing it as truth to power. MSM critics are hailing it as a kick in the butt for the media's performance in the past 6 years. Political junkies see it as Gore's return to politics. Me, I see it as one more Gore prophecy - The importance of the internet in politics. As for Gore, this is one smart cookie. He's got just about everyone, except for President Bush, eating out of his hands. That said, there's one thing neither Gore nor his army of supporters can change - He's not in the White House, and he's never going to be.