The Great Derangement: A Terrifying True Story of War, Politics, and Religion at the Twilight of the American Empire (Hardcover) by Matt Taibbi

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07/08/08

Xysea rated it:

bookshelves: humor, political

Read in September, 2008

recommends it for: politic junkies, humorists, satirists, anthropologists, whack-a-doodle studiers of all kinds

Let me just say that Matt Taibbi kicks much ass, so when I say this next part don't shoot me. Whenever I see him on Bill Maher I think he swears too much. Yes, a contradiction but then I am full of contradictions.

Anyway, kudos to Matt for being an intrepid reporter. I wouldn't have wanted to participate in the church he did, to find out why people are so deranged. But he did and I and this book thank him for it.

Told with a great dose of humor, irony, satire and bewild...more Let me just say that Matt Taibbi kicks much ass, so when I say this next part don't shoot me. Whenever I see him on Bill Maher I think he swears too much. Yes, a contradiction but then I am full of contradictions.

Anyway, kudos to Matt for being an intrepid reporter. I wouldn't have wanted to participate in the church he did, to find out why people are so deranged. But he did and I and this book thank him for it.

Told with a great dose of humor, irony, satire and bewilderment this book is a great journey. It goes into what makes Americans who they are - the good, the bad and the ugly. (PS if you're one of those 'love America types who can't stand for people to criticize your country let me say (a) you're no patriot, you're part of the problem and (b) this book probably ain't for you.)

America is full of whack-a-doodles, tin-foil hat wearers, wingnuts, freaks and general misfits. Always has been. But over the years we've morphed our psyches, twisted them actually, into something perverse, egotistical and painful. We're still shouting 'We're #1' with big foam fingers to people who are actually passing us in the global race. How much dumber could we be? Plenty, actually.

Because on top of that, we think we're moral. Well, we're really not but religion works for good cover in the interim. We're greedy, self-interested folks who happen to like to shop a lot and eat a lot, and in some case, pray a lot. We critize the intellectuals, and despise elitism (?), and then get mad when someone says we cling to guns and religion - but we ARE clinging to guns and religion. lol

Matt's book goes a long way to exploring this cultural dichotomy and it's development. I found myself either shaking my head or chuckling - we ARE deranged, and that's not always a bad thing.

In the end though, we probably should work on being more united and being on a more even keel - we should probably work to be of the world and not above it, but it seems hard to comprehend how we can do that being so myopic. Make no mistake unless we get ourselves to a cultural opthamologist, we are indeed at the twilight of the American empire.

What we need to decide is where to from here - but even that will be difficult if we refuse to put our glasses on to read the map.(less)

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03/30/09

Jonathan rated it:

bookshelves: history, non-fiction, political

Read in April, 2009

Wow, what a scary, hilarious and depressing book this was! Veteran Rolling Stone political reporter Matt Taibbi visits two extreme sides of today's political "debate", a Christian Evangelist church in Texas and the wingnuts of the "Truth 9/11" squad, who maintain the whole Sept. 11 terrorist attack was really a government plot. A plot for what, no one seems quite clear, but a plot nonetheless.

His visit to the fire and brimstone evangelical mega-church in Texas is,...more Wow, what a scary, hilarious and depressing book this was! Veteran Rolling Stone political reporter Matt Taibbi visits two extreme sides of today's political "debate", a Christian Evangelist church in Texas and the wingnuts of the "Truth 9/11" squad, who maintain the whole Sept. 11 terrorist attack was really a government plot. A plot for what, no one seems quite clear, but a plot nonetheless.

His visit to the fire and brimstone evangelical mega-church in Texas is, of course, the scariest to this atheist. To imagine people buy into this far right wing talk of the apocalypse, brought on by Hillary Clinton (who really is the devil incarnate for these folks), is a truly depressing thought. Fine, have your religion if you need it, but show a little skepticism for these trumped up claims bellowed from the preacher man. There are some simply bust-a-gut laughing sections here, as he brings a liberalism and a truly cynical view to the scene.

He's equally tough on the Truth 9/11 group. In fact, one of the funniest sections of the book is his "transcript" of a meeting of the cabal lead by The Dark One himself, Dick Cheney and the rest of the leading neocons, as they figure out the plans for the 9/11 plot. It is so laughably an accurate account of how things must have happened if even a portion of their conspiracy theories are right that it makes it clear how far fetched it all really is. Yet, astoundingly, something like 40% believe some or all of these theories.

He intersperses these two stories with truly depressing chapters on how things currently are in Congress. The book actually goes past the 2006 Democrat uprising yet describes a "business as usual" attitude among our Congress critters. It's a very bleak, dark and depressing look at the politics of power and just how much it is to just stay in power and get money from lobbies. The main thrust of the 9/11 Truthers is that the whole plot was to change public opinion, but reading these other chapters makes you believe that they don't care about public opinion in the slightest.

I wish I still had the book on me so I could quote a few of the more outrageously cynical and humorous paragraphs. But Taibbi also does a very good job at trying to figure out what makes these people tick. What is it about big time religion that attracts folks? He works hard at humanizing them even if he can't believe what he is seeing sometimes. He understands both groups attempts at getting black and white answers in this very grey and confusing world. He makes the point that the 9/11 are just making their own version of the "truth", as today's news/marketers can't be trusted to do it for them.

A very good read, but ultimately very depressing. All the more so given the slow rate of change with the current administration, and the business as usual of both Congress and appointed leaders like Larry Summers, who has been in the pocket of big finance for years and yet is Obama's chief economic advisor.

Sigh. Now I'm depressed all over again.(less)

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06/11/08

Dalebrayden rated it:

bookshelves: history, politics

Read in June, 2008

The Great Derangement has the best tutorial I've seen on the actual workings of Congress. Chapter 2 describes in detail the processes of the Republican-controlled congress (prior to the 2006 elections), explaining in detail how bills are actually created and rammed through. Taibbi explains why it is that CSPAN2 is so mind-numbingly dull - an endless parade of house resolutions to name a post office or honor a dead chamber of commerce booster. The real work of the congress is done in the middle o...more The Great Derangement has the best tutorial I've seen on the actual workings of Congress. Chapter 2 describes in detail the processes of the Republican-controlled congress (prior to the 2006 elections), explaining in detail how bills are actually created and rammed through. Taibbi explains why it is that CSPAN2 is so mind-numbingly dull - an endless parade of house resolutions to name a post office or honor a dead chamber of commerce booster. The real work of the congress is done in the middle of the night (literally) in the offices of committee chairmen, energetically inserting and deleting provisions into legislation to satisfy the needs of their true constituents, the large corporations that donate so generously to the campaigns of those committee chairmen. This is Civics 101 as it was never taught in our public schools. Chapter 6 describes the same process at work now that the Democrats have a clear majority in Congress. Not much has changed. Later in the book, Taibbi describes a meeting between leaders of the peace movement with the new Democratic leadership - a meeting in which the topic of discussion was how to sell angry voters on the reason why the Democratic congress did absolutely nothing to end the Iraq war.

The premise of this book is that starting 20 or so years ago both government and the media abandoned their responsibilities. Government became unabashedly a government of the few against the interests of the many, and corporate controlled media simply stopped reporting the news, turning to trivialities and sleaze instead. This left a vacuum into which poured the phenomena of right-wing end-times fundamentalism and left-wing conspiracy theories. Both camps have enormous numbers of followers, and neither side is able to talk to the other.

Taibbi infiltrated the Cornerstone Baptist mega-church in San Antonia Texas - Pastor John Hagee's church. He dove right in and went through their training/indoctrination programs, attended weekly cell meetings and the weekly church services. The ideology preached at that church, as at most fundamentalist churches, is equal parts anti-liberal, anti-science, pro-Israel, and pure ignorance and prejudice throughout, with massive doses of demons, Satan, hell, and a vengeful wrathful Lord. It makes for entertaining, but scary, reading. Taibbi was pretty depressed by the end of that months-long experience.

He also spent considerable time with 9/11 Truthers - people who hold a variety of evidence-free beliefs about a vast corporate/government conspiracy to carry out and cover up the attacks of September 11, 2001. He characterizes this as a left-wing movement. I'm not so sure about that, since many of its proponents seem not to have ever been left-wing before they adopted the theories. But, whatever. The problem from Taibbi's perspective is that 36% of the US population believes in some part of the 9/11 conspiracy theories. A substantial part of the population, in other words, is willing to accept preposterous theories without evidence, because they are so convinced that every time they read a paper, see something on television, or read news on the internet, that they are being lied to. And they are right, for the most part.

In the end Taibbi sees some cause to think that the situation might be changing. Written at the end of 2007 he saw the campaigns of Ron Paul, John Edwards, and Barack Obama indications that people are starting to rebel in meaningful ways both from the 2-same-party system and from the us/them demonization represented by religious fundamentalism and conspriracy crackpotism. He points out that Obama is massively funded by the same corporate interests that fund the rest of the power elite, but believed that Obama's 'tone' represented a promise of change for the better. We'll see.

I wish that Christian evangelicals and conspiracy theorists could read this book. It provides a much-needed dose of reality. Sadly, as with most political books, he will be preaching mostly to a choir of like-minded realists. (less)

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05/29/08

joseph rated it:

Read in May, 2008

Taibbi's thesis: Americans no longer have shared facts or a shared pool of knowledge from which to draw conclusions about their world. The institutions that ostensibly should provide objective truth, the government and the media, do not do so. In this intellectual wilderness, Americans have created their own truths, their own narrative.

Taibbi compares two narratives that he sees as being predominant. On the right, there are evangelicals of the megachurch variety, lonely, damaged pe...more Taibbi's thesis: Americans no longer have shared facts or a shared pool of knowledge from which to draw conclusions about their world. The institutions that ostensibly should provide objective truth, the government and the media, do not do so. In this intellectual wilderness, Americans have created their own truths, their own narrative.

Taibbi compares two narratives that he sees as being predominant. On the right, there are evangelicals of the megachurch variety, lonely, damaged people who in exchange for camaraderie and a sense of community in an atomized culture, are willing to swallow the most obscene claims of preachers like John Hagee: 9/11 and Katrina are punishment for America's permissiveness toward homosexuals; America should support Israel, for only when Israel holds dominion over all lands promised to it in the bible can the apocalypse and rapture (the ultimate aspirations of true Christians) occur.

On the other side are 9/11 Truthers, those kids in the subway screening Loose Change who believe that the Bush administration, in cahoots with any multitude of government agencies, military brass, and the FAA, planned and executed the murder of 3,000 of its own citizens. Taibbi goes through the various, often contradictory, theories of how 9/11 came to pass, revealing the absurdity of the claims (not a hard task). Taibbi has made fun of the Truthers for some time now, often to hilarious effect, but in this book he seems more saddened than pissed off. He goes undercover as a Truther himself and, at the conclusion of another meeting where no action has been planned beyond scheduling another meeting, Taibbi implores his fellow Truthers actualize their discontent, rather than continue their circle jerk.

What Taibbi is really interested in is what such a movement says about American democracy:

"Rather than admit to their own powerlessness and irrelevance, or admit that they've spent the last fifty years or so electing leaders who openly handed their tax money to business cronies and golfed in Scotland while middle America's jobs were being sent overseas, the adherents to 9/11 Truth instead flatter themselves with fantasies about a ruling class obsessed with keeping the terrible truth from the watchful, exacting eye of The People.

Whereas the real conspiracy of power in America is right out in the open and always has been, only nobody cares, so long as Fear Factor and Baseball Tonight come on at the right times. A conspiracy like the one described by 9/11 Truth would only be necessary in a country where the people are a threat to actually govern themselves effectively.

But none of that even matters nearly as much as what 9/11 Truth says about the mental state of the population. The whole narrative of the movement is so completely and utterly retarded, it boggles the mind. It's like something cooked up by a bunch of teenagers raised on texting, TV and Sports Illustrated who just saw V For Vendetta for the first time and decided to write a Penguin History of the World on the strength of it. A genius on the order of a Mozart or a Shakespeare would be hard-pressed to dream up the awesome comedy that is the alleged plot from the point of view of the plotters."

This book is perhaps not as laugh out loud funny as previous works, but Taibbi never wanted to be purely a gag man. At times it feels like Taibbi has not completed his thoughts, has more to say on his subjects, but hasn't the time or perspective to truly get at what he thinks it all means.

Conclusion: Taibbi Rules.(less)

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07/08/08

Jack rated it:

Read in July, 2008

The comparisons to Hunter S. Thompson are widespread and inevitable. After all, Taibbi not only shows much of Thompsons's influence, he's a national political writer/editor for Rolling Stone.

But Taibbi also shows a voice of his own, updating that sense of moral outrage and energetic despair for the modern political climate. His discussions of where and how American government have gone wrong, and how it has left Americans on both sides of the political spectrum moving around in b...more

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03/19/09

Andrew Hecht rated it:

bookshelves: die-laughing, must-read, non-fiction, political-animal, public-library

Read in March, 2009

For fans of Taibbi, this is pure gold. If you want a sense of how fucked up things are, it's a perfect read: a s edifying as it is entertaining.

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11/24/08

Mike rated it:

Read in November, 2008

After having spent time as a participant-observer with extreme evangelical christians and hardcore believers in 911 as government conspiracy—more time with the former—reporter Matt Taibbi examines both as reactionary faiths: popular movements that lend meaning in a world rendered opaque by a derelict media that obfuscates the actions of the political class upon which it should be reporting. His encounters are with those who have been—pardon the pun—left behind by the prime movers of soci...more

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01/09/09

Daniel rated it:

Read in January, 2009

First of all, this book is wickedly funny. The heaping helpings of liberal derision that Taibbi spreads around like so much hateful cream cheese on the bagel of Americana while tasty to ingest ultimately left a bad taste in my mouth. While I share many of his worldviews especially regarding the 911 Truthers and the failures of our legislative branch of government, I have a hard time watching him do a hatchet job on individual people who naively allowed him entry into their worlds, however flawed...more First of all, this book is wickedly funny. The heaping helpings of liberal derision that Taibbi spreads around like so much hateful cream cheese on the bagel of Americana while tasty to ingest ultimately left a bad taste in my mouth. While I share many of his worldviews especially regarding the 911 Truthers and the failures of our legislative branch of government, I have a hard time watching him do a hatchet job on individual people who naively allowed him entry into their worlds, however flawed and self-serving those worlds might be. When Taibbi calls these movements, specifically evangelical Christianity and 911 truth, the masturbatory fantasies of an alienated people, I don't have too much of a problem with it. But when he singles out individuals within the movements and attacks them solely on the basis of believing things which cannot be whole-heartedly supported by an east-coast education, he comes off as excessively mean and self-serving. Ultimately, it seems that Taibbi isn't scared of commitment, but rather of conviction of any sort. So much so that he can't tell anymore when it is real. So, rather than allow himself to get caught up in it, he would rather attack it all in the name of intellectual skepticism thus becoming guilty of the very crimes he harangues the Truthers and the Jesus-freaks. That these people would lash out at communities which do not support their worldviews is fair to say. To subject himself to that same scrutiny is something that Taibbi doesn't want to do apparently, because under the microscope he's essentially saying the same exact thing, "think like I do, or you're (stupid, corrupt, going to hell) fill in the blank".

I don't want to sound like I didn't like the book, because I did. I thought it was smart, witty and awfully cynical sometimes in a good way. But in the end, the highlight was the conversation between the author and a close friend revealing the true nature of Taibbi's discourse, that of the "establishment pseudo hipster". Granted, a really insightful and sharp-witted pseudo hipster. Maybe once he finds something that he can believe in and invest himself in, he'll really write something worthwhile, or rather a little more emotionally honest. I'll be waiting, because the flip side is still awfully entertaining and there are worse things to be than a lefty Christopher Buckley.(less)

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04/24/09

Marc rated it:

Read in April, 2009

Taibbi enters interesting journalistic territory exploring the inner mechanisms of the 9/11 Truth Movement, Congress, and a southern Evangelical church. While the anecdotes of extremism prove fertile fodder for a cynic like Taibbi and provide for some humorous and mind boggling moments, the author seems to stretch too far in trying to tie these subcultures together to form a single theory: Extremism in America is the direct reaction of a disenfranchised public to an ineffective and corrupt...more

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05/13/09

Tim rated it:

I'm fed up. I'm tired of politics and politicians and revolted by how they elevate self-interest over public interest. It can be therapeutic to see you're not alone. And Matt Taibbi's The Great Derangement, also indicates there's a lot of people out there who feel the same way. It's just that the disaffection manifests itself in different, at times somewhat deranged, ways. [return][return]Often scathing, frequently humorous and usually insightful, Taibbi sees Americans as becoming deranged ...more I'm fed up. I'm tired of politics and politicians and revolted by how they elevate self-interest over public interest. It can be therapeutic to see you're not alone. And Matt Taibbi's The Great Derangement, also indicates there's a lot of people out there who feel the same way. It's just that the disaffection manifests itself in different, at times somewhat deranged, ways. [return][return]Often scathing, frequently humorous and usually insightful, Taibbi sees Americans as becoming deranged by the state of political and national affairs. He explores this derangement but what he views as analogous counterparts at either end of the political spectrum -- the end times-tinged evangelical movement and the 9/11 Truth Movement. To him, they are prime examples of the factionalization of the so-called blue-red divide stemming from an underlying and growing distrust of politics and government.[return][return]The main storyline here is Taibbi joining Cornerstone Church, founded by Pastor John Hagee, the evangelical minister whose endorsement John McCain so proudly trumpeted and then distanced himself from. We follow Taibbi to a church "encounter weekend" which culminates in participants vomiting out the demons that possess them, prayer groups with leaders who make sure to incorporate the church's political viewpoints, and even street (actually shopping mall) evangelism. While The Great Derangement provides insight to such activities, equally fascinating is Taibbi's discovery of how he adapts to the culture. He begins to grasp how and why the feelings it creates in members has helped churches like this grow and succeed, politics aside.[return][return]Taibbi also joins a meet up group of the 9/11 Truth Movement, which believes the Bush Administration was involved in -- or at least aware of and did not stop -- the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. Although classifying the movement as "a narcissistic pipe dream for a dingbat, sheeplike population," Taibbi casts it here as a left wing counterpart to the ideas of Hagee and similar evangelicals on the right.[return][return]Interspersed with these focal points are trips behind the scenes of the budget process in Washington (which should be required reading for every American) and time Taibbi spent with American troops patrolling the streets of Baghdad. And while Taibbi is no fan of the evangelical right or the Bush Administration, he is an equal opportunity critic. Both parties and the media are frequently excoriated. [return][return]Balance of review here.(less)

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01/18/09

Randy Lander rated it:

(review of isbn 038552062X)

bookshelves: politics

Read in February, 2009

I'm a fan of Taibbi's writing, and there's a lot to like about this book. Taibbi gives a pretty insightful look into the world of people who I honestly don't understand at all, the 9/11 Truthers on the far left and the Evangelicals on the far right, with a stop off in the middle to point out how hopelessly corrupt and f*cked our political system is.

It's a depressing book, but also a funny one. And there's something comforting about the full-blown, detached from reality insanity of th...more

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10/27/08

Jeff rated it:

Read in November, 2008

Taibbi's rage is distracting occasionally, but never inappropriate. Loved this book.

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06/07/09

Angie rated it:

Read in May, 2009

since dr thompson checked himself out, i have been looking for some kind of replacement (although i know there could never be another exactly like him), and i have found one in matt taibbi. not since thompson, have i laughed so openly and hilariously at the things that scare me the most about society. this book covers the two major loves in this country, religion on the right and conspiracy on the left. its sad how we tend to ignore the biggest outrages that occur, but tend to focus on totall...more

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07/01/09

Jason rated it:

If you, like Matt Taibbi, think our public culture is broken, that Democrats stand for nothing, that government has become "a criminal enterprise, expected to lie always," that we are caught in a "diabolical web of bullshit," you will find this book as funny and sad as I did.

It's amazing how fantastical our imaginary country can seem when you stop and look around at how bizarrely everyone behaves. Like Tom Frank and Jon Stewart, Matt Taibbi is willing to address o...more

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02/28/09

Eris_discordia rated it:

Read in March, 2009

This book really should have been two books. For half the book Taibbi is investigating how Congress really works (a topic that he reports on quite well and makes understandable, but that really could fill hundreds of pages on its own). For most of the rest of it, he's in deep cover at John Hagee's Cornerstone Church, exposing the craziness of the people who appear to have taken over government and public discourse. I would have loved to have seen more of this as well, and maybe he could suppleme...more

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12/01/08

Lisa rated it:

matt taibbi's writing lays down the complexities of political language. he's a great writer for anyone who likes the overuse of words like 'masturbatory' and 'horseshit' to explain politics. this book brings an interesting insight about cultural fringe ideas and the health of society when these fringe ideas are accepted in the mainstream.
the book is well written (ie for those who's okay with insulting writing) and well researched. taibbi sheds light into what it's like to be a journalist ...more

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12/10/08

Jessica rated it:

Read in December, 2008

recommends it for: Political Junkies, Hunter S. Thompson fans, skeptics

This book was excellent, I couldn't put it down. Taibbi's writing is hilariously descriptive, surprisingly informative and reminds me of another young reporter from The Rolling Stone, circa 1977, named Hunter S. Thompson. It is a bit outdated, because he wrote it before the 2008 campaigns had really begun,and it left me wanting to hear more about his thoughts on the Obama phenomenon... but it still offers a clear, and disturbing, picture of the congressional process. Also, the bits about the far...more

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02/27/09

Sam rated it:

bookshelves: 2009-read, government-at-work

Read in February, 2009

Matt Taibbi is smug and convinced that he's smarter and generally better than the subjects of his book. Of course, he might very well be, but that doesn't cut the occasionally overbearing tone of his writing (and his television appearances for that matter). None of this, however, makes his writing about his time as an undercover religious fundamentalist in Texas any less hilarious or horrific.

One gets the feeling from reading Taibbi's writing that he knows the result he wanted to ac...more

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12/02/08

Kelly rated it:

A book divided between politics and religion--alternating chapters.

The politics chapters are marked by Taibbi's acerbic wit, casual profanity, and progressive politics (though he doesn't preach his politics). He decries the smug and corrupt Republicans of the last 8 years and attacks post '06 election congressional democrats for being insincere and merely power hungry. They don't truly want reform, Taibbi would argue, and they aren't truly committed to removing the U.S. from the ...more

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09/19/08

Dan rated it:

bookshelves: political-science

Short version: Taibbi is an angry activist ranting about our current political system.

Long version: This book is both an investigative report on several demographics that relate to each of the two majority parties in the country, and an editorialized essay that harshly criticizes both extremes, as well as the overall system. As a contributing writer for Rolling Stone, Taibbi tends to be stylistically colloquial and, very often, abrasive to the point of discomfort. That said, he has...more