Ship of Fools: How a Selfish Ruling Class Is Bringing America to the Brink of Revolution

I loved the opening passage: Imagine you are sailing along placidly on a tranquil sea and then the ship's crew goes seemingly crazy endangering your and all the other passengers' lives. Apparently the author lifted this scenario from Aristotle or Plato so this is not a new condition. Unfortunately anyone deeply imbued in the doctrines of the Democratic elite is not likely to be enlightened by reading this book. It should give the openminded reader pause however.

"Ship of Fools" is searing expose’ of the self-interested performance by today’s ruling class in America. This thin layer of society includes D. C. politicians of both parties, the owners of major media outlets (Facebook, Yahoo, Google), newspapers, cable news stations, and powerful heads of top universities. It includes the best-connected lobbyists, lawyers, & scientists. Tucker Carlson compares our existing situation to a cruise ship where something has gone terribly wrong. The passengers are not focused on the problems and the ship’s crew has gone insane… acting grandiose, aggressive, and drunk with power. Despite the crew’s incompetence, the passengers are powerless to take control and steer the ship, thus trapped on a show more ship of fools.

Originally an allegory from Plato’s Republic written hundreds of years ago, the final outcome of the journey has never been revealed. Tucker claims the ship’s demise has now become a reality which helps to explain why Donald Trump was elected President. “It was a throbbing middle finger in the face of America’s ruling class”.

"Ship of Fools" is broken down into seven chapters addressing various critical issues.

In a nutshell, the elite are focused on a New World Order in which they rule the planet. Immediate goals: Unsecured open borders with more immigration- in any way that can be accomplished by promoting globalism, diversity, and an abstract concept of fixing climate change– but above all, maintaining their own wealth and power. As a result, the primary concern and support goes to the richest and most influential investors, welfare recipients and illegal immigrants, with the concept that immigrants can be roofers, maids, fast food servers, or any number of low skilled labor jobs… and welfare is not a problem because the upper middle class pays most of the taxes. Don’t try to compete for the elite power or live in their highly restricted neighborhoods. You most likely will not get in.

Tucker talks about poor foreign policy and the foolish wars that the United States has been fighting for 20 years with no strategy for success or withdrawal… Iraq, Somalia, Bosnia, Kosovo, Afghanistan, Libya, and Syria. The goal is generally to usurp a “bad dictator”. But then what? We leave countries in chaos for years, even decades. And Max Boot, one of the D.C. elites, appears to be a war monger with a lot of persuasive power over several most recent past Presidential administrations. Tucker asks, “What happened to the past anti-war liberals?” Peace – Love – and “hell no, we won’t go” are a thing of the past. Now there is a battle cry for open hunting season- pick a target and “bombs away”. The entire elite “anti-Trump” establishment wants WAR.

A chapter is devoted to the First Amendment, Free Speech. Tucker reiterates many examples of forced censorship- the cries of “hate speech” at anything that differs from the mainstream opinion, that is construed as offensive and results in someone’s hurt feelings- from college campuses to court rooms, and corporations to public media. That leads to a chapter on Diversity. I would love to cite several profound quotes, statistics and facts from the book, but limited word-space must prevail. I will say that Tucker believes with good reason that Saul Alinsky’s theory of “divide and conquer” is in effect. And it seems to be working.

“Elites Invade the Bedroom” is Carlson’s chapter chronicling examples of “anti-man” rhetoric, especially “anti-white man”. “They Don’t Pick up Trash Anymore” addresses environmental protection and climate change. The most shocking fact I learned in this chapter is that 40% of the forest fires in California between 2006 and 2010 were caused by illegal immigrants deliberately set to mislead Border Patrol Agents and divert their attention so groups of illegals could slip by without getting caught. In 2016 an illegal immigrant set fire in Sequoia National Park which caused 29,322 acres to burn to the ground causing $61 million in measurable damages. Where was that on the news?

And here’s another little tidbit. A lot of the money designated for improving the environment and controlling climate change in organizations like The Sierra Club is being siphoned off to support illegal immigration, transgenders, and literally anyone fighting oppression, because of abstract scientific theories of physical and emotional “toxic pollution”. Meanwhile, whole neighborhoods in California are suffering from streets soiled with feces and used hypodermic needles.

"Ship of Fools" not only confirmed my suspicions about the ruling elite, but reveals who exactly is pulling the strings in Washington, their motives, and their end goal. It’s very alarming, even frightening.

The first step towards resolving the problem is to read this book. Unfortunately, the author leads the reader to believe there is no easy fix. In the meantime, the American voters will most likely continue to elect radical, outspoken, courageous individuals who are willing to stand up to the ruling class. show less

I never read current political books, but this one was highly recommended by a relative, and I felt compelled to give it a shot. It wasn't exactly what I expected . . .Carlson is much more of a populist and less of a conservative than I anticipated. He addresses many of the issues where there is major contention in the U.S. between the progressives and the more extreme conservatives, and basically points out that the middle is being left out in the cold by the elites. He talks about a variety of topics - from war to feminism to environmentalism. I found myself agreeing with many, but not all of his observations (I'm more libertarian and more pro corporation - who knew), but the overriding theme is that the elites of this country are show more quite self serving, but at the same time want to feel good about themselves by taking meaningless moral stances that don't actually jive with the reality that normal Americans face. I thought he supported that thesis quite well. show less

This is actually a book which primarily argues for the restoration of a two party system with actual ideological differences (environmentalism vs business, labor vs employers, etc), rather than the neoliberal/neoconservative status quo (elites vs everyone else). Ironically of course the author (and most readers, and myself) benefit from the current situation as members of these elites.

There are definitely parts people will disagree with for ideological reasons, but the fundamental point is that we need political debate and opposition over those issues, as nothing else causes moderation and compromise. The immigration/identity politics part is probably the most contentious, but it is argued in an economic way, and the counter is the pro show more immigration economic argument.

My biggest concern with the author is there isn’t a really a clear point where he would stop fighting against economic progress (elimination of many classes of jobs, efficiency, etc) for social status quo; the argument for accepting change and then compensating the losers, vs hindering change, needs to be made, both on rate of change and absolute change basis. (There are probably some areas where values other than economic efficiency should always triumph, as a way to hedge against truly existential risks (keeping domestic capacity in the case of war, building in some inventory and strategic reserve in the case of disaster), as well as a level of fairness for children (whether or not provided by the state), but others where it is better to merely compensate a truck driver who has lost his job to automation to retrain, rather than holding back progress forever.)

Totally not the book I would have expected from a Fox News talk show host, but a great book for the country today. show less

My nephew raved about this book so I decided to see why he thought it was a level-handed treatment, and if I thought the same. Although I know Tucker Carlson hosts a FoxNews program, I do not watch it. Both Democrats and Republicans disgust me. I wish both parties would learn to work together for the good of America. Carlson's book provides insight into why it no longer happens. He shows how both parties deviate from the platforms they espoused fifty years ago. Although he criticizes both groups, liberals draw more criticism.Topics covered include war, environmentalism, labor unions, the middle class, jobs, immigration, and more. I listened to the audio book read by the author and while many points he made resonated with me, I found show more myself wanting to see a physical copy of the book to see the supporting documentation. Books on politics likely won't garner high ratings from me, so my "3" rating shows I did not hate the book. It engaged me and made me ponder political matters and the state of our country. show less

Tucker Carlson cherry picks all of his example. His research, although factual, may have been taken completely out of context. Also, his book is no way annotated, so we don't know exactly where to find all of his information nor do we know how reputable or established his resources are. However, Carlson does provide some compelling arguments about the status of an American elitist ruling class of citizens and how they are literally bringing the rest of the 95% of the country to its knees. Furthermore, his underlying and often unspoken yearning of returning to an earlier time of civil, reasonable political discourse and former values of both traditional conservatism and liberalism is truly felt and definitely widely shared, especially by show more this reader. show less

Of all the Fox News commentators who have written books in 2018, Tucker Carlson's "Ship of Fools" is by far the best of the lot. As opposed to so many of the other books written by this group of political commentators, Carlson's book is a good combination of political history and explanation of how the U.S. grew into such a divided country. Unlike the usual political book from both sides of the aisle, this is not merely a recapping of what has happened in the past 12 months or so. Those books are boring to anyone who has been paying attention for themselves - and they are a waste of precious reading time.

But...read "Ship of Fools" if you are prepared to do a little thinking in the process. Carlson makes his points, and then he backs show more them up. That's not the norm for a political book these days. This is a good one for those interested in modern politics. (Carlson is neither Democrat nor Republican, and it shows in his writing.) show less