Saturday, November 7, 2020

Review of Amerikaganistan, Dystopia Inc.: What Every Movement Activist Should Know by Dale Johnson

This review was written by Eugene Kernes

Book can be found in:
Genre = Sociology
Intriguing Connections = What It Means to be an Activist,

Elaborate Description

Utilizing poetry and various discussion scenarios such as pillow talk, Johnson created a satire of the recent political situation. Showing a variety of paradoxes of double-speak politics. Although both US political parties take a hit, Johnson targets mostly only one side. In a sense, this book is poetic justice. Using poetry to grotesquely alter what the politicians would say to help reduce the double-speak.

A major problem of the book is that the examples of the political system are only expressed in their façade, what they appear to be, not the underlying structure creating problems. If both parties are at fault, showing how the problems currently appear, how the problems express themselves, does not mean that the problem will go away by changing the result of the problem. Meaning, this book is targeting the result, rather than the process which creates the problems.

The author does express the political system in such a way that it might motivate people to at least alter the way the narrative is being discussed. An issue with this motivation is that it is exactly what the authors opponents do. The author tries to retaliate against the current political system via the same measure that the political system uses to alter the story of what is actually happening. Retaliation in kind may not be the best way to solve problems.


Book Details

Edition ISBN:  9781545321737
Pages to read:   81
Publication:     2017
1st Edition:      2017
Format:            Paperback

Ratings out of 5:
Readability     4
Content           1
Overall           2