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Exile Nation: Drugs, Prisons, Politics, and Spirituality
An "extraordinary" work of spiritual journalism that grapples with the themes of drugs, prisons, politics, and spirituality through Shaw’s personal story ( Chicago Tribune ), originally published as a series on Reality Sandwich and The Huffington Post .
In 2005, Shaw was arrested in Chicago for possession of MDMA and was sent to prison for one year. Shaw not only looks at the current prison system and its many destructive flaws, but also at how American culture regards criminals and those who live outside of society. He begins his story at Chicago’s Cook County Jail, and uses its sprawling, highly corrupt infrastructure to build upon his overarching argument.
This is an insider’s look at the forgotten or excluded segments of our society, the disenfranchised lifestyles and subcultures existing in what Shaw calls the “exile nation.” They are those who lost some or all of their ability to participate in the full opportunities of society because of an arrest or conviction for a non-violent, drug-related, or “moral offense,” those who cannot participate in the credit economy, and those with lifestyle choices that involve radical politics and sexuality, cognitive liberty, and unorthodox spiritual and healing practices. Together they make up the new “evolutionary counterculture” of the most significant epoch in human history.
In 2005, Shaw was arrested in Chicago for possession of MDMA and was sent to prison for one year. Shaw not only looks at the current prison system and its many destructive flaws, but also at how American culture regards criminals and those who live outside of society. He begins his story at Chicago’s Cook County Jail, and uses its sprawling, highly corrupt infrastructure to build upon his overarching argument.
This is an insider’s look at the forgotten or excluded segments of our society, the disenfranchised lifestyles and subcultures existing in what Shaw calls the “exile nation.” They are those who lost some or all of their ability to participate in the full opportunities of society because of an arrest or conviction for a non-violent, drug-related, or “moral offense,” those who cannot participate in the credit economy, and those with lifestyle choices that involve radical politics and sexuality, cognitive liberty, and unorthodox spiritual and healing practices. Together they make up the new “evolutionary counterculture” of the most significant epoch in human history.
- GenresPoliticsNonfiction
384 pages, Paperback
First published April 12, 2012
7 people are currently reading
43 people want to read
About the author
Charles Shaw
2 booksThere is more than one author in the Goodreads catalog with this name. This entry is for Charles ^5 B. Shaw. CHARLES SHAW is an award-winning journalist and editor, and his work has appeared in Alternet, Guardian UK, The Huffington Post, The New York Times, Reality Sandwich, and Znet. In 2009, he was recognized by the San Diego Press Club for excellence in journalism. He lives in Sebastopol, California.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
March 30, 2013
Mr Shaw makes himself out to be the victim. His parents abused him, although it wasn't clear how they did it. The cops abused and framed him (and some of that may be true, if you can believe him). Maybe he felt ignored by his father. However, his mother was always there to bail him out of many situations of his own causing. While in prison he seem to imply that there was only one gang, white supremacy. No mention of the black gangs, the Hispanic gangs, the gangs of Porto Rico, etc. And everyone in prison was innocent but then they all are, just ask them. I do agree with one of his themes, that drug users should not be in prison, however, I do not believe that tax payers money should be used to rehabilitate them nor should it be a mitigating circumstance in any crime the user may commit. All-in-all a very difficult book to read because of the poor, poor pitiful me attitude of the writer.
December 28, 2014
This book is pretty depressing. I can see where some types of people would be turned off by the author and his style of writing, but I think it was pretty well-written overall and provided a compelling image of the prison system of Illinois.
What I like most is the author does not make excuses for his behavior. He had a lot of garbage in his past, but he also acknowledged that that garbage did not excuse him from dealing garbage out to others and that he had to deal with the consequences of his actions from all the pain his spit back out into the world as a result of the pain he was trying to run from.
I think this book serves as a very hopeful and inspiring message of personal growth in spite of odds and how it is never too late to start fresh with yourself no matter how deeply in you are. It also serves as a pretty shocking indictment of the criminal justice system in the U.S. and how out of control certain police organizations can be as a result of the War on Drugs and not nearly enough oversight on officers doing their jobs. This is why I'm a fan of mandatory cameras for all police interactions. Psychological testing for extreme authoritarianism and sociopathic or overaggressive tendencies would also be nice.
Pretty chilling book. Not light reading, but not too difficult in content either. It will drain you emotionally and it can be pretty painful to read at times. Prison is not a pretty place. No matter what kind of punishment anyone thinks prisoners deserve, the conditions in the prisons are extremely harsh and difficult to read about.
I do recommend this to anyone willing to read it, though. What goes on in our prisons should not be invisible. We need to be aware of what we are doing and the potential side effects it can have on our communities and country.
What I like most is the author does not make excuses for his behavior. He had a lot of garbage in his past, but he also acknowledged that that garbage did not excuse him from dealing garbage out to others and that he had to deal with the consequences of his actions from all the pain his spit back out into the world as a result of the pain he was trying to run from.
I think this book serves as a very hopeful and inspiring message of personal growth in spite of odds and how it is never too late to start fresh with yourself no matter how deeply in you are. It also serves as a pretty shocking indictment of the criminal justice system in the U.S. and how out of control certain police organizations can be as a result of the War on Drugs and not nearly enough oversight on officers doing their jobs. This is why I'm a fan of mandatory cameras for all police interactions. Psychological testing for extreme authoritarianism and sociopathic or overaggressive tendencies would also be nice.
Pretty chilling book. Not light reading, but not too difficult in content either. It will drain you emotionally and it can be pretty painful to read at times. Prison is not a pretty place. No matter what kind of punishment anyone thinks prisoners deserve, the conditions in the prisons are extremely harsh and difficult to read about.
I do recommend this to anyone willing to read it, though. What goes on in our prisons should not be invisible. We need to be aware of what we are doing and the potential side effects it can have on our communities and country.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews