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How Mumbo-Jumbo Conquered the World by…
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How Mumbo-Jumbo Conquered the World

by Francis Wheen

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1,027237,485 (3.42)13
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The author has a superficial look at the actions of world leaders and various other points of contention, such as medicine that doesn't work. He seems to take far too much at face value- for example he has not asked Tony and Cherie Blair why they had a mayan rebirthing ceremony- it may have been that they just wanted a sexy sauna. He also doesn't realise that a UFO is an Unidentified Flying Object - some of which are subsequently identified. This does not make them interplanetary travel devices. On the whole it is a journalist doing what they do best - sensationalise to sell papers, in this case a book. Far too superficial for me I was left thinking this is five hours of my life wasted. ( )
  wrichard | Mar 13, 2011 |
The quotation on the front of the book from Jeremy Paxman described it as 'hilarious' - obviously Mr Paxman and my ideas on humour differ greatly as this book didn't raise many laughs. Parts of it did raise a wry smile and it pointed the finger at many ludicrous things, but this book is not humour as I have seen it categoried - unless like Paxman your idea of fun is terrorism, Islam, Enron, New Labour and post-modernism then don't come here looking for laughs. Having said that, I did enjoyed most of this book. The most light-hearted that looked at the popularity of self-help books which just rehash platitudes. Some times, I was confused by how certain things were going to be connected (Iran and post-modernism for example) and I did wonder that in some cases if his connections and conclusions would really hold up to close scrutiny. That he pours similar scorn on people playing the lottery as terrorists misinterpreting the Koran seems a bit off at times. But overall an interesting book even if I didn't always agree totally with the author. And it made me relieved that I didn't always 'get' post-modernism. ( )
1 vote sanddancer | Jan 2, 2010 |
This one had me torn between agreeing with him and wanting to slap him for lumping all belief systems into the melange of stupidity.

However it is a book several people should read about how spin has blinded us to reality. ( )
  wyvernfriend | Oct 27, 2009 |
Presents some of the absurdity of accepted wisdom of various classes of people. (I have no idea how to tag this.) ( )
  cgodsil | Oct 17, 2009 |
Wheen throws a few well-aimed jabs at deserving subjects, but the book only sporadically becomes more than a meandering grumble about his pet hates. ( )
  stancarey | Aug 29, 2009 |
Showing 1-5 of 23 (next | show all)
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Amazon.com Product Description (ISBN 158648348X, Paperback)

In 1979 two events occurred that would shape the next twenty-five years. In America and Britain, an era of weary consensus was displaced by the arrival of a political marriage of fiery idealists: Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher transformed politics with a combination of breezy charm and assertive "Victorian values." In Iran, the fundamentalist cleric Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini set out to restore a regime that had last existed almost 1,300 years ago. Between them they succeeded in bringing the twentieth century to a premature close. By 1989, Francis Fukuyama was declaring that we had now reached the End of History.

What colonized the space recently vacated by notions of history, progress and reason? Cults, quackery, gurus, irrational panics, moral confusion and an epidemic of idiocy, the proof of which was to be found in every state, every work-place, and every library. In Idiot Proof, columnist Francis Wheen brilliantly evokes the key personalities of the post-political era—including Princess Diana and Deepak Chopra, Osama bin Laden and Nancy Reagan's astrologer—while lamenting the extraordinary rise in superstition, relativism and emotional hysteria over the past quarter of a century.

In turn comic, indignant, outraged and just plain baffled by the idiocy of it all, Idiot Proof is a masterful depiction of the daftness of our times and a plea that we might just think a little more and believe a little less.

(retrieved from Amazon Thu, 14 Feb 2013 13:55:58 -0500)

In 1979 two events occurred that would shape the next 25 years - the arrival of Margaret Thatcher and the restoration in Iran, by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, of a regime that had last existed over 1300 years before. The author explores the post-political era and the rise in relativism.… (more)

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