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Rendezvous with Oblivion: Reports from a Sinking Society
From the acclaimed author of Listen, Liberal and What's the Matter with Kansas, a scathing collection of his incisive commentary on our cruel times--perfect for this political moment
What does a middle-class democracy look like when it comes apart? When, after forty years of economic triumph, America's winners persuade themselves that they owe nothing to the rest of the country?
With his sharp eye for detail, Thomas Frank takes us on a wide-ranging tour through present-day America, showing us a society in the late stages of disintegration and describing the worlds of both the winners and the losers--the sprawling mansion districts as well as the lives of fast-food workers.
Rendezvous with Oblivion is a collection of interlocking essays examining how inequality has manifested itself in our cities, in our jobs, in the way we travel--and of course in our politics, where in 2016, millions of anxious ordinary people rallied to the presidential campaign of a billionaire who meant them no good.
These accounts of folly and exploitation are here brought together in a single volume unified by Frank's distinctive voice, sardonic wit, and anti-orthodox perspective. They capture a society where every status signifier is hollow, where the allure of mobility is just another con game, and where rebellion too often yields nothing.
For those who despair of the future of our country and of reason itself, Rendezvous with Oblivion is a booster shot of energy, reality, and moral outrage.
What does a middle-class democracy look like when it comes apart? When, after forty years of economic triumph, America's winners persuade themselves that they owe nothing to the rest of the country?
With his sharp eye for detail, Thomas Frank takes us on a wide-ranging tour through present-day America, showing us a society in the late stages of disintegration and describing the worlds of both the winners and the losers--the sprawling mansion districts as well as the lives of fast-food workers.
Rendezvous with Oblivion is a collection of interlocking essays examining how inequality has manifested itself in our cities, in our jobs, in the way we travel--and of course in our politics, where in 2016, millions of anxious ordinary people rallied to the presidential campaign of a billionaire who meant them no good.
These accounts of folly and exploitation are here brought together in a single volume unified by Frank's distinctive voice, sardonic wit, and anti-orthodox perspective. They capture a society where every status signifier is hollow, where the allure of mobility is just another con game, and where rebellion too often yields nothing.
For those who despair of the future of our country and of reason itself, Rendezvous with Oblivion is a booster shot of energy, reality, and moral outrage.
240 pages, Hardcover
First published June 19, 2018
115 people are currently reading
735 people want to read
About the author
Thomas Frank
43 books715 followersThomas Frank is the author of Pity the Billionaire, The Wrecking Crew, and What's the Matter with Kansas? A former columnist for The Wall Street Journal and Harper's, Frank is the founding editor of The Baffler and writes regularly for Salon. He lives outside Washington, D.C.
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December 6, 2020
Praying Our Way to the Apocalypse
Having most likely entered my final decade of life, I have been drawn into reflecting on my experience with the various institutions in which I have been directly involved - the family, the church, the military, academia, and financial and commercial business. Ticking them off as a has-been in each, I’ve come to the tentative conclusion that I have been a consistent failure in them all. But reading Rendevous with Oblivion gives a glimmer of hope that perhaps this failure has not been all mine.
The collection of essays is a catalogue of institutional corruption, not just in politics where it has always thrived, but also in every significant class of human cooperative endeavour. Persistent sexual abuse by the clergy of children and vulnerable adults; the selling of university places on a large scale; the involvement of senior military people and politicians in patently treasonous activities; the systematic protection of the architects of worldwide financial collapse; the exposure of routine fraud and other reprehensible behaviour among leading cultural lights, all suggest that something systematically is undermining what we vaguely refer to as civilisation.
The issue which Frank raises is not that these institutions have corrupt members. Such has always been the case. It is rather that the institutions themselves now serve corruption, that they initiate, tolerate, and promote bad behaviour among their members. What was formerly considered as aberrant is now perceived as normal, even admirable. What were at one time institutional inhibitors to the excesses of human desire are now conduits through which those desires can be achieved. What in fact were refuges from the worst effects of free market competition are now places of the greatest intensity of self-aggrandisement.
To the extent that these institutions are the substance of civilised society, we are retreating into a sort of barbarism. This may not be noticed because the substitution of social virtue with expedient self-interest is subtle. Justice gives way step by step and with progressively strident argument to security. Social responsibility is privatised through ideological rationale as a matter of personal choice. Personal financial success or celebrity come to define social contribution. Integrity gives way to the necessities of ambition which is understood as admirable. And value is what other people say it is. This is the world which Frank documents. It is a world that even Thomas Ligotti might find shocking in its unrelieved exploitative evil (Chris Hedges, not so much).
It is difficult to maintain the institutional perspective when exhibitionist clowns like Trump, AM radio hosts and cable-news pundits, internet bloggers and social media inciters are what’s most visible and the most obvious symptoms of widespread deterioration in the social fabric. But the problem and its solution is institutional. That is to say, institutional corruption cannot be reversed by changing the leading players, nor through a change in the ruling political party, nor even by legislative or political reform, which would have to be carried out by the very people who would be its target. Paradoxically institutional reform is a purely personal and entirely local act. It starts and it ends in recognising the extent to which corruption has been internalised in each of us by the redefinitions of social virtue promulgated by these institutions.
Theologians call this kind of profound transformation metanoia, a spiritual conversion to an alternative way of acting. Such a transformation does not have a rational basis since the institutional rational of every aspect of current society argues against it. This is especially problematic for the religiously-minded who believe that they have already been subject to the required change in attitude. They are, on the contrary, the most resistant to anything which might dim their light of faith, their possession of the absolute truth; yet it is precisely this light, this obsession with formulas of truth, that blinds them to the reality of the situation. Quite literally it is their God who is the architect of our impending social doom.
Of course believers are generally not a majority of the population. But they don’t need to be. The really powerful source of institutional decay is the secularised legacy of religion. Two central principles of Christianity seem to be particularly relevant. The first is the idea of personal salvation, that is, an ethical responsibility solely for conduct and fate of one’s own life. The second idea is the way in which this fate can be assured, namely through total confidence, obdurate faith, in the correctness of one’s beliefs, rather than in the relationship with one’s fellows. These principles have been assimilated into Western culture and form the core of its ideology.
Historically, the development of modern institutions of government, politics, education, and law, has been at the expense of the institutional Church. The decline of the institutional Church, however, has perversely released the germ of anti-social, intransigent, militant faith more widely into these non-religious areas of civil life. The result is an ethos of selfish self-confidence which destroys democratic politics, promotes tribal loyalties, and prevents both learning and reasoned argument. It seems to me likely that this is the epicentre of the cultural malaise that Frank describes. We have learned the habits of religion so well that they have survived its institutional decline; and now they are destroying us.
My own failure within these institutions isn’t mitigated by their deterioration. But perhaps others, particularly the young, might see the implications of Frank’s analysis in their own lives. One can only hope. The track record of success of the old communicating with the young is abysmal. So I’m not holding my breath.
Having most likely entered my final decade of life, I have been drawn into reflecting on my experience with the various institutions in which I have been directly involved - the family, the church, the military, academia, and financial and commercial business. Ticking them off as a has-been in each, I’ve come to the tentative conclusion that I have been a consistent failure in them all. But reading Rendevous with Oblivion gives a glimmer of hope that perhaps this failure has not been all mine.
The collection of essays is a catalogue of institutional corruption, not just in politics where it has always thrived, but also in every significant class of human cooperative endeavour. Persistent sexual abuse by the clergy of children and vulnerable adults; the selling of university places on a large scale; the involvement of senior military people and politicians in patently treasonous activities; the systematic protection of the architects of worldwide financial collapse; the exposure of routine fraud and other reprehensible behaviour among leading cultural lights, all suggest that something systematically is undermining what we vaguely refer to as civilisation.
The issue which Frank raises is not that these institutions have corrupt members. Such has always been the case. It is rather that the institutions themselves now serve corruption, that they initiate, tolerate, and promote bad behaviour among their members. What was formerly considered as aberrant is now perceived as normal, even admirable. What were at one time institutional inhibitors to the excesses of human desire are now conduits through which those desires can be achieved. What in fact were refuges from the worst effects of free market competition are now places of the greatest intensity of self-aggrandisement.
To the extent that these institutions are the substance of civilised society, we are retreating into a sort of barbarism. This may not be noticed because the substitution of social virtue with expedient self-interest is subtle. Justice gives way step by step and with progressively strident argument to security. Social responsibility is privatised through ideological rationale as a matter of personal choice. Personal financial success or celebrity come to define social contribution. Integrity gives way to the necessities of ambition which is understood as admirable. And value is what other people say it is. This is the world which Frank documents. It is a world that even Thomas Ligotti might find shocking in its unrelieved exploitative evil (Chris Hedges, not so much).
It is difficult to maintain the institutional perspective when exhibitionist clowns like Trump, AM radio hosts and cable-news pundits, internet bloggers and social media inciters are what’s most visible and the most obvious symptoms of widespread deterioration in the social fabric. But the problem and its solution is institutional. That is to say, institutional corruption cannot be reversed by changing the leading players, nor through a change in the ruling political party, nor even by legislative or political reform, which would have to be carried out by the very people who would be its target. Paradoxically institutional reform is a purely personal and entirely local act. It starts and it ends in recognising the extent to which corruption has been internalised in each of us by the redefinitions of social virtue promulgated by these institutions.
Theologians call this kind of profound transformation metanoia, a spiritual conversion to an alternative way of acting. Such a transformation does not have a rational basis since the institutional rational of every aspect of current society argues against it. This is especially problematic for the religiously-minded who believe that they have already been subject to the required change in attitude. They are, on the contrary, the most resistant to anything which might dim their light of faith, their possession of the absolute truth; yet it is precisely this light, this obsession with formulas of truth, that blinds them to the reality of the situation. Quite literally it is their God who is the architect of our impending social doom.
Of course believers are generally not a majority of the population. But they don’t need to be. The really powerful source of institutional decay is the secularised legacy of religion. Two central principles of Christianity seem to be particularly relevant. The first is the idea of personal salvation, that is, an ethical responsibility solely for conduct and fate of one’s own life. The second idea is the way in which this fate can be assured, namely through total confidence, obdurate faith, in the correctness of one’s beliefs, rather than in the relationship with one’s fellows. These principles have been assimilated into Western culture and form the core of its ideology.
Historically, the development of modern institutions of government, politics, education, and law, has been at the expense of the institutional Church. The decline of the institutional Church, however, has perversely released the germ of anti-social, intransigent, militant faith more widely into these non-religious areas of civil life. The result is an ethos of selfish self-confidence which destroys democratic politics, promotes tribal loyalties, and prevents both learning and reasoned argument. It seems to me likely that this is the epicentre of the cultural malaise that Frank describes. We have learned the habits of religion so well that they have survived its institutional decline; and now they are destroying us.
My own failure within these institutions isn’t mitigated by their deterioration. But perhaps others, particularly the young, might see the implications of Frank’s analysis in their own lives. One can only hope. The track record of success of the old communicating with the young is abysmal. So I’m not holding my breath.
August 19, 2018
Leave it to Thomas Frank to take a bad year and make it even worse. His collection of essays spans a few years and several topics: McMansions, middle America, higher education. But mostly Donald Trump and the disaster that befell the nation in 2016 when we elected a spectacularly unqualified man to office. Frank, true to form, goes after the Democrats and how they blew it. And he makes a lot of sense.
His Listen Liberal of 2016 made similar warnings to the purported Party of the Left. They’re too tight with big banks and private power; they’re spending too much time talking to themselves; they’re selling out unions and the working class. I thought he was right, and I think the election proved him right. This time around, he couches his discussion in a forensic examination of the election that, I suspect, he could have made months after the fact. Hillary Clinton lost, he argues, because she’s the one the Democrats chose to run. Because it was her turn. Because look who she was running against. Because we (the neoliberals) know best, and most of all, because come on. It’s rather remarkable, Frank seems to muse, that this time around, it was a Clinton trying to sell us on trade agreements and Silicon Valley, while the Republican was heaping scorn upon Wall Street and NAFTA. (That Trump is so full of shit on such matters does not escape Frank, of course.)
I’ve heard similar lines of reasoning from the likes of Matt Taibbi and Glenn Greenwald, but here, I don’t know, it resonated more. As did his prescription for victory. Even if Trump fumbles the country into the Dark Ages (which is not impossible), Frank warns the left not to get too comfy from their perch of self-righteousness, since that’s what cost them the last election in the first place. He says it’s time to let go of the mottos of the 90s, stop getting hard-ons for the tech industry and Goldman Sachs, talk to working people, get them on board with the agenda they actually want in the first place. He’s convinced me. I hope he convinces them too.
His Listen Liberal of 2016 made similar warnings to the purported Party of the Left. They’re too tight with big banks and private power; they’re spending too much time talking to themselves; they’re selling out unions and the working class. I thought he was right, and I think the election proved him right. This time around, he couches his discussion in a forensic examination of the election that, I suspect, he could have made months after the fact. Hillary Clinton lost, he argues, because she’s the one the Democrats chose to run. Because it was her turn. Because look who she was running against. Because we (the neoliberals) know best, and most of all, because come on. It’s rather remarkable, Frank seems to muse, that this time around, it was a Clinton trying to sell us on trade agreements and Silicon Valley, while the Republican was heaping scorn upon Wall Street and NAFTA. (That Trump is so full of shit on such matters does not escape Frank, of course.)
I’ve heard similar lines of reasoning from the likes of Matt Taibbi and Glenn Greenwald, but here, I don’t know, it resonated more. As did his prescription for victory. Even if Trump fumbles the country into the Dark Ages (which is not impossible), Frank warns the left not to get too comfy from their perch of self-righteousness, since that’s what cost them the last election in the first place. He says it’s time to let go of the mottos of the 90s, stop getting hard-ons for the tech industry and Goldman Sachs, talk to working people, get them on board with the agenda they actually want in the first place. He’s convinced me. I hope he convinces them too.
March 24, 2018
Having been mightily impressed by Listen, Liberal, I really looked forward to the next insight by Thomas Frank. Unfortunately, Rendezvous With Oblivion is simply a collection of earlier essays, and not any deep new thought to set politicos back on their heels. These reprints are mostly a dated look backward, with much less value than new insight. Once read, they can be forgotten.
Some of them are really forced. Frank has access to Lexis/Nexis, so he can research the obscure, like how many nonprofits use the word “vibrant” in their mission statements. And then he quotes many of them. This is boring. A lot of others trounce Trump, everyone’s favorite whipping boy. Too easy. And there is his tired prescription for Democrats to take back the country. It is a complex mélange of tactics the Democrats won’t adopt and which won’t work. What they need is a clean, honest, charismatic leader, and they don’t have one. Even on the horizon. But Frank doesn’t see that. He’s still mourning Hillary. Really.
I think the best essay concerns presidential libraries. Frank visited three – Bush I, Clinton and Bush II, and was scathing in his appreciation. For lack of anything worthwhile, they all have life-sized replicas of the Oval Office and souvenirs like the president’s actual limo. Right there, live in front of you! They rationalize the subject’s term, minimizing or hiding their blunders and playing up their successes, if any. Mostly, they are an astonishing waste of money: half a billion dollars for the Bush II library, for example.
Fortunately, Frank writes engagingly. He keeps your attention with the promise of intelligent discourse. This covers a lot of sins, and makes Rendezvous With Oblivion readable, if not memorable.
David Wineberg
Some of them are really forced. Frank has access to Lexis/Nexis, so he can research the obscure, like how many nonprofits use the word “vibrant” in their mission statements. And then he quotes many of them. This is boring. A lot of others trounce Trump, everyone’s favorite whipping boy. Too easy. And there is his tired prescription for Democrats to take back the country. It is a complex mélange of tactics the Democrats won’t adopt and which won’t work. What they need is a clean, honest, charismatic leader, and they don’t have one. Even on the horizon. But Frank doesn’t see that. He’s still mourning Hillary. Really.
I think the best essay concerns presidential libraries. Frank visited three – Bush I, Clinton and Bush II, and was scathing in his appreciation. For lack of anything worthwhile, they all have life-sized replicas of the Oval Office and souvenirs like the president’s actual limo. Right there, live in front of you! They rationalize the subject’s term, minimizing or hiding their blunders and playing up their successes, if any. Mostly, they are an astonishing waste of money: half a billion dollars for the Bush II library, for example.
Fortunately, Frank writes engagingly. He keeps your attention with the promise of intelligent discourse. This covers a lot of sins, and makes Rendezvous With Oblivion readable, if not memorable.
David Wineberg
September 14, 2019
The author is reminiscent of Orwell and Hitchens in cutting through the crap and telling it like it is.
Two of his books (links below) in particular, What's the Matter with Kansas and Listen, Liberal, exemplify this.
This book is a collection of essays. This Guardian column is included in whole and is a rare voice in explaining how the Demo Party shot itself in the foot and, in some ways, still hasn't learned from its mistakes.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentis...
=====
Books....
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/5...
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2...
I recall posting the link of the latter in the midst of the WSJ comments section debate in mid-2016 and some apparent Demo saying: "we've heard all of this ad nauseam" Now he gets to listen to Trump ad nauseam.
Two of his books (links below) in particular, What's the Matter with Kansas and Listen, Liberal, exemplify this.
This book is a collection of essays. This Guardian column is included in whole and is a rare voice in explaining how the Demo Party shot itself in the foot and, in some ways, still hasn't learned from its mistakes.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentis...
=====
Books....
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/5...
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2...
I recall posting the link of the latter in the midst of the WSJ comments section debate in mid-2016 and some apparent Demo saying: "we've heard all of this ad nauseam" Now he gets to listen to Trump ad nauseam.
November 12, 2018
Frank is one of the most persuasive commentators about the crises inside American liberalism, having garnered attention with his What’s the matter with Kansas and Listen Liberal. Here he offers a series of essays that aims to situate the reader inside the crises progressives in the United States find themselves. The Trump presidency was a shock to many but not Frank who elucidates the real life problems caused by thirty years of neoliberalism and the political party that had chosen to abandon working class people. Frank asks American progressives to look themselves in the mirror in trying to explain the exploits of trump and to break from an economic philosophy that feels more interested in wooing the professional class than winning elections. Frank is hard hitting and unforgiving but also offers lessons those wanting to defeat Trump and Trumpism need to hear.
July 8, 2019
Thomas Frank hates everything. He hates airports and colleges and ‘vibrancy’ and mansions and billionaires and fast food and diploma mills and STEM and Doris Kearns Goodwin and the movie ‘Lincoln’ and presidential libraries and Breitbart and the press (in particular the Washington Post) and free trade. He hates it all.
What does he like? He likes recycling old essays into a book whose subject matter is largely obsolete by the time it is published.
He’s a good writer though.
What does he like? He likes recycling old essays into a book whose subject matter is largely obsolete by the time it is published.
He’s a good writer though.
July 1, 2018
Rendezvous with Oblivion: Reports from a Sinking Society
is a collection of essays from 2011 to the present that provides a travelogue of the downward journey of the US. Not that it starts at the top of the hill, because for the bulk of the population that's been forbidden territory for several decades—only the nobility gets to occupy the castles.
That's sort of the metaphor used in title of the first set of essays, "Many Vibrant Mansions," and the subject of the second piece, "The Architecture of Inequality." Describing his trek through the world of the McMansion, he observes they are "houses that seemed to have been designed by Stanford White after a debilitating brain injury."
Those unfamiliar with Mr. Frank's work should consider reading his earlier books The Wrecking Crew and Listen, Liberal! before joining him on this trip. The former answers the question many who only became politically involved during the 2016 election keep asking, which is "What are the Republicans doing?" The latter explains that it isn't just the Republicans, and why.
So, the first part describes how we came to accept escalating inequality, encouraged by politicians on both sides of the aisle who lied and obfuscated to ensure we stayed convinced there was really nothing wrong. That if the benefits of the tax cuts and the trade deals and the bank deregulation somehow missed us…well, it was our fault for not working hard enough, or for making bad choices, or not getting the proper education. Supported by news media and TV and movies that bombarded us with the message that the billionaires were the above-mentioned heroes we must needs struggle to emulate.
Meanwhile, the first African-American president, who promised us hope and change, saved the banks and the Wall Streeters while millions of the middle-class lost their homes and/or their retirement funds.
And speaking of not getting the proper education, that's the topic of Part 2: "Too Smart to Fail." This section covers the encroachment of neoliberalism on campus, which has led to a decrease in the number of tenured professors and an increase in the number of adjuncts most of whom can't live on what they're paid and don't know from one week to the next if they'll even have a job. In fact, a writer I know who works as an adjunct had a class he was counting on to pay his living expenses cancelled four days before it was scheduled to start, with no compensation.
And then there is soaring tuition, which more and more goes to pay inflated salaries for legions of unnecessary administrators while services (and those tenured professors) are cut back. Four-year college graduates are re-entering the world carrying a massive load of debt, which is not just stressful but a major drain on the economy both because wages and salaries have stagnated or actually declined in the last four decades and because money that goes into the vaults of lenders isn't being spent in the economy.
Part 3, "The Poverty of Centrism," traces the path by which, beginning in the 1980s with Ronald Reagan and continued unabated by those administrations that followed him, the rich got filthy rich and the 90% were tricked into believing keeping them that way was good for us.
In this section, Mr. Frank also talks about the role the news media have played in enabling this mess. I don't share his admiration for the Washington Post, but I have to wonder if his informal analysis of the way they undermined Sen. Bernie Sanders during the 2016 primaries wasn't a bit painful. Or even disillusioning. He also seems unwilling to admit the collusion between the DNC and the Clinton campaign and the news media to achieve that goal; he avoids referring to the email leaks that revealed just that, and sadly, he seems to at least partly believe the so-far unsupported insistence on "Russian influence."
Even so, his criticism of the Democrats was apparently sufficient to get him blackballed by those major news media he tries hard not to accuse of bias.
The final section, "The Explosion" addresses the why of the election of Donald Trump and why it was the direct result of the Democrat Party's refusal to accept that they could no longer take their traditional working-class and minority base for granted. Which brings us to this year.
As I said earlier, I wouldn't recommend this as an introduction to Thomas Frank's work. The broad scope of the subject matter is easier to take in context if one has a background in what he's written at length. For those familiar with that body of writing, these essays are sharp-tongued snippets of the history of the last seven years, with reference to those that preceded them. They do require personal honesty, in that we who allowed this mess to come as far as it has must take the responsibility for not paying attention and staying informed.
Well done, Mr. Frank. May we please have some more?
That's sort of the metaphor used in title of the first set of essays, "Many Vibrant Mansions," and the subject of the second piece, "The Architecture of Inequality." Describing his trek through the world of the McMansion, he observes they are "houses that seemed to have been designed by Stanford White after a debilitating brain injury."
Those unfamiliar with Mr. Frank's work should consider reading his earlier books The Wrecking Crew and Listen, Liberal! before joining him on this trip. The former answers the question many who only became politically involved during the 2016 election keep asking, which is "What are the Republicans doing?" The latter explains that it isn't just the Republicans, and why.
"In politics, of course, the scam and the fib are as old as the earth itself. Even so, the past decade has been a time of extraordinary innovation in the field…Millions of Americans came to believe that everything was political and that therefore everything was faked; that everyone was a false accuser so why not accuse people falsely; than any complaint or objection could ultimately be confounded by some clever meme; that they or their TV heroes had discovered the made-up argument by which they could drown out that still small voice of reality."
So, the first part describes how we came to accept escalating inequality, encouraged by politicians on both sides of the aisle who lied and obfuscated to ensure we stayed convinced there was really nothing wrong. That if the benefits of the tax cuts and the trade deals and the bank deregulation somehow missed us…well, it was our fault for not working hard enough, or for making bad choices, or not getting the proper education. Supported by news media and TV and movies that bombarded us with the message that the billionaires were the above-mentioned heroes we must needs struggle to emulate.
Meanwhile, the first African-American president, who promised us hope and change, saved the banks and the Wall Streeters while millions of the middle-class lost their homes and/or their retirement funds.
"The one percent got the of both ['a brief experience with deficit spending' then President Obama's 'famous turn to austerity']: not only were they bailed out, but the also chalked up some of their best years ever under Barack Obama, taking home 95 percent of the nation's income growth during the recovery."
And speaking of not getting the proper education, that's the topic of Part 2: "Too Smart to Fail." This section covers the encroachment of neoliberalism on campus, which has led to a decrease in the number of tenured professors and an increase in the number of adjuncts most of whom can't live on what they're paid and don't know from one week to the next if they'll even have a job. In fact, a writer I know who works as an adjunct had a class he was counting on to pay his living expenses cancelled four days before it was scheduled to start, with no compensation.
And then there is soaring tuition, which more and more goes to pay inflated salaries for legions of unnecessary administrators while services (and those tenured professors) are cut back. Four-year college graduates are re-entering the world carrying a massive load of debt, which is not just stressful but a major drain on the economy both because wages and salaries have stagnated or actually declined in the last four decades and because money that goes into the vaults of lenders isn't being spent in the economy.
"[E]very democratic movement from the Civil War to the 1960s aimed to bring higher ed to an ever widening circle, to make it more affordable. Ours is the generation that stood by gawking while a handful of parasites and billionaires smashed it for their own benefit."
Part 3, "The Poverty of Centrism," traces the path by which, beginning in the 1980s with Ronald Reagan and continued unabated by those administrations that followed him, the rich got filthy rich and the 90% were tricked into believing keeping them that way was good for us.
"To a Washington notable of the pre-Trump era, a team of rivals was a glorious thing: it meant that elections had virtually no consequences for members of the consensus. No one was sentenced to political exile because he or she was on the wrong side; the presidency changed hands, but all the players still got a seat at the table.
"The only ones left out of this warm bipartisan circle of friendship were the voters, who woke up one fine day to discover what they thought they'd rejected wasn't rejected in the least."
In this section, Mr. Frank also talks about the role the news media have played in enabling this mess. I don't share his admiration for the Washington Post, but I have to wonder if his informal analysis of the way they undermined Sen. Bernie Sanders during the 2016 primaries wasn't a bit painful. Or even disillusioning. He also seems unwilling to admit the collusion between the DNC and the Clinton campaign and the news media to achieve that goal; he avoids referring to the email leaks that revealed just that, and sadly, he seems to at least partly believe the so-far unsupported insistence on "Russian influence."
Even so, his criticism of the Democrats was apparently sufficient to get him blackballed by those major news media he tries hard not to accuse of bias.
The final section, "The Explosion" addresses the why of the election of Donald Trump and why it was the direct result of the Democrat Party's refusal to accept that they could no longer take their traditional working-class and minority base for granted. Which brings us to this year.
"Trump succeeded by pretending to be the heir of populists past, acting the role of a rough-hewn reformer who detested the powerful and cared about working-class people. Now it is the turn of Democrats to take it back from him. They may have to fire their consultants."
As I said earlier, I wouldn't recommend this as an introduction to Thomas Frank's work. The broad scope of the subject matter is easier to take in context if one has a background in what he's written at length. For those familiar with that body of writing, these essays are sharp-tongued snippets of the history of the last seven years, with reference to those that preceded them. They do require personal honesty, in that we who allowed this mess to come as far as it has must take the responsibility for not paying attention and staying informed.
Well done, Mr. Frank. May we please have some more?
July 31, 2024
“The con game is our national pastime. Everyone either is in on it or has a plan for getting in on it soon.”
Frank is on really good form throughout this entertaining collection of essays which casts a cynical and informed eye across a wide range of subjects from McMansions, airports, “vibrant” cities, academic capitalism and diploma mills and propaganda theatres (AKA presidential libraries).
Like in his other work he’s great at getting stuck into the smug, liberal elite, who remain wildly and increasingly out of touch with the majority of the electorate, the kind who regard voting for Clinton as progressive. He’s good on the media pile-on of Bernie Sanders, revealing the avalanche of increasingly personal and petty attacks courtesy of the likes of “The Washington Post”, which helped pave the way for Trump in the same way that the exact same smug, liberal elite in cahoots with right-wing media over in the UK did the same to Corbyn which led to the full scale cluster-fuck of Boris and his band of incompetent toffs.
“All a city really needs to prosper is a group of art-school grads, some lofts for them to live in, and a couple of thrift stores to supply them with the ironic clothes they crave. Then we just step back and watch them work their magic.”
He's also very sensible on the hyper-debt ridden world of American tertiary education, where he reveals that textbook prices increased 812% over 30 odd years (to 2013) far outstripping inflation, and even the likes of healthcare and home prices etc, using every trick in the book to obsolete their products to close off the second hand market, in a cynical bid to squeeze every last dollar out of students.
“Everyone knows how poorly fast-food jobs pay. They also know why this is supposed to be okay: fast food workers are teenagers, they don’t have kids or college degrees, and it’s an entry level job. Hell, it’s virtually a form of national service, the economic boot camp that has replaced the two years our fathers had to give to the armed forces.”
January 20, 2019
In some ways, you could argue that this is just a reiteration of Frank's ideas, insights, and critiques, and I guess that's true but 1) it's a collection of journalism from the past several years, so, uh, what do you expect it to be? and 2) those pieces are focused with a laser-sharp-eye on some of the most urgent issues of our time- the enervation of the middle class and the Midwest, the goofiness of centrism, the rise of Trump and the possible fallouts (good and bad) from his hypothetical downfall, and why the Democratic Party has run out of juice, ideologically and politically, from years of self-satisfied awe at the wonder of the technocratic elite (Silicon Valley, academia, number-crunchers, Big Data, etc)….so, yeah, there's no wonder why these pieces are repetitive...
June 29, 2019
Die Prämisse und der Klappentext lasen sich gut. Ich muss jedoch sagen, dass ich nicht wusste, dass es sich um eine Essaysammlung handelt. Und genau dies ist ein Problem des Buchs: Es ist äußerst wiederholend. Habe ich zu Beginn noch großes Interesse an dem Text gehabt, musste ich irgendwann eine längere Lesepause einlegen, denn es fing an mich zu langweilen, auch wenn Franks Ansichten grundsätzlich nicht verkehrt sind. Auch wenn manche Analyse interessant ist, so gab es dann doch einige Längen.
Ich glaube, mit wesentlich weniger Seiten und einem zusammenhängenden Text hätte mir Americanic wesentlich besser gefallen. Da lese ich doch lieber Chomsky und Konsorten.
Ich glaube, mit wesentlich weniger Seiten und einem zusammenhängenden Text hätte mir Americanic wesentlich besser gefallen. Da lese ich doch lieber Chomsky und Konsorten.
February 13, 2025
You can find far better reviews of this book than I could write from Black Oxford and Michael Perkins. I'll simply say that reading this in 2025 is like listening to Cassandra long after her predictions have come true. Just the same, there is much here that might still be of use in formulating a way out of our current dumpster fire of a situation.
February 27, 2019
Man, Rendezvous with Oblivion is interesting.
The first half of the essay collection is fairly forgettable; Frank certainly raises good points amongst myriad topics, but it was the second half that really got me. His essays focused on the democratic party and the 2016 election were engrossing. A Bernie supporter himself, he seriously digs into the core issues of how Trump was elected not by simply blaming Trump supporters, but by addressing the ongoing failings of the democratic party. There's a power, too, in the fact that these essays, insightful as they are, were written as these events were unfolding. That is to say, they weren't all written with the power of hindsight, proving that much of the 2016 debacle was foreseeable, and even avoidable. And the essays are certainly worth reading now, even as the U.S. starts the descent into the 2020 elections. A lot of Frank's observations are unfortunately still relevant and already observable in these early stages of the campaigns.
I also can't express enough the importance of a good writer. As a university student, I've had to read plenty of pieces with good theses but that were let down by writing that was dry, boring, confusing, or just plain bad. The real gems are those pieces written by authors like Frank: he has something worth saying and he goes about saying it well.
The first half of the essay collection is fairly forgettable; Frank certainly raises good points amongst myriad topics, but it was the second half that really got me. His essays focused on the democratic party and the 2016 election were engrossing. A Bernie supporter himself, he seriously digs into the core issues of how Trump was elected not by simply blaming Trump supporters, but by addressing the ongoing failings of the democratic party. There's a power, too, in the fact that these essays, insightful as they are, were written as these events were unfolding. That is to say, they weren't all written with the power of hindsight, proving that much of the 2016 debacle was foreseeable, and even avoidable. And the essays are certainly worth reading now, even as the U.S. starts the descent into the 2020 elections. A lot of Frank's observations are unfortunately still relevant and already observable in these early stages of the campaigns.
I also can't express enough the importance of a good writer. As a university student, I've had to read plenty of pieces with good theses but that were let down by writing that was dry, boring, confusing, or just plain bad. The real gems are those pieces written by authors like Frank: he has something worth saying and he goes about saying it well.
July 12, 2018
Really 4.5/5 with one catch: if you are a pre 2016 Thomas Frank fan this book is not for you.
Because it's not a real book: it's a patchwork quilt of TF essays and writings over the past 10 years or so. If you've been following those over the years you've already read this "book".
However, if your a receipt fan, it's great. It's basically the selected (and highly recommend) works of Thomas Frank.
Perfect to catch up with the lefts most bitter, snarky, and insanely on point pundits and commentators.
This satisfys me for now, but I want an entire TF book in the next year or so.
I'd say we are going to need it.
Because it's not a real book: it's a patchwork quilt of TF essays and writings over the past 10 years or so. If you've been following those over the years you've already read this "book".
However, if your a receipt fan, it's great. It's basically the selected (and highly recommend) works of Thomas Frank.
Perfect to catch up with the lefts most bitter, snarky, and insanely on point pundits and commentators.
This satisfys me for now, but I want an entire TF book in the next year or so.
I'd say we are going to need it.
August 18, 2018
Who is this guy? I’m not sure, but he waxes eloquent on everything there is to poke a stick at: McMansions, airport architecture and snobby frequent fliers, “vibrant” communities, higher education, presidential libraries, and, of course, The Donald. Cynical, sardonic, and sometimes cranky, Thomas Frank, former columnist for The Wall Street Journal and Harper’s, and who writes regularly for The Guardian, reams and skewers just about everyone here, liberals and conservatives alike. Flashes of brilliance here amid a little too much complaining in places. But overall, quite enjoyable. This guy has something to say and says it well.
September 24, 2018
Mr. Frank’s collected essays from the past few years
(3 & 1/2 stars)
These essays, originally from Harper’s, The Guardian, and two other publications, are from the author of . He delves into subjects societal and political, with the latter third of the book focusing most on Trump and Trumpism. Although the essays were “tweaked,” there’s a certain amount of repetition on topics such as how the Democratic Party went wrong in the last presidential election and what it should do to right itself. The writing is consistently refreshing and clear, with occasional insights of possible value.
(3 & 1/2 stars)
These essays, originally from Harper’s, The Guardian, and two other publications, are from the author of . He delves into subjects societal and political, with the latter third of the book focusing most on Trump and Trumpism. Although the essays were “tweaked,” there’s a certain amount of repetition on topics such as how the Democratic Party went wrong in the last presidential election and what it should do to right itself. The writing is consistently refreshing and clear, with occasional insights of possible value.
August 12, 2018
As always, Frank is tough on both progressives and conservatives in this collection of essays, but some times just much too cynical and mean spirited to my way of thinking. Having said this, I suspect history will judge much of his criticisms as accurate, especially those that point back to how both parties have refused to make the economic reality of America's working class front and center of their agendas.
February 15, 2019
A collection of hot takes Thomas Frank has written over the past few years. There’s nothing new in here per se; some of the critiques stay biting and incisive while others already feel dated. If you’ve read Frank’s work before, this isn’t essential reading. If you are new to him, however, you’ll find a lot to enjoy.
August 28, 2019
Even funnier the second time around. Frank really sells it in the audiobook. Totally recommend.
September 14, 2021
I really appreciated this thoughtful, impassioned series of essays on contemporary culture and politics from a left populist POV. Frank identifies and inveighs against the rot and subsequent hollowness of several of the US’s biggest institutions, and the bipartisan consensus on core economic issues that is responsible. My only complaint is that he occasionally dilutes an otherwise great argument with a diversion into taste that, even when I agreed with him, still felt like it weakened his point. That’s a minor issue though, and overall this is a satisfying and clarifying read.
“You can have a shot at joining the 1%, Money tells us, only if you are first committed to making the 1% stronger, to defending their piles in some new and imaginative way…what I am describing is not sustainable…you can’t build a civilization on rip-offs.”
“Everything we do seems designed to make this thing possible. Cities must sprawl to accommodate its bulk. Eight lane roads must be constructed. Gasoline must be kept cheap. Coal must be hauled in from Wyoming on mile-long trains. Your taxes must be higher to make up for the deductions given to McMansion owners. Lending standards must be diluted so more suckers can purchase them. Banks must be propped up. Bonuses must go out. Stock prices must ascend. Everyone of us must work ever longer hours so that this millionaire’s folly can remain viable, can be sold successfully to the next one on the list.”
“These were all triumphs of human ingenuity…and yet that intense concentrated efficiency also demanded a fantastic wastefulness elsewhere… Inside the box was a masterpiece of industrial engineering. Outside the box was things and people that existed merely to be used up.”
“The (modern city-planning concept of the) ‘vibrant’ on the other hand, would separate the artist from such boring souls. The creative ones are to be corralled into a scene where they work their magic pumping up real estate prices and inspiring creative class onlookers. But what of the people no one is interested in attracting and retaining? Millions of Americans go through their lives in places that aren’t ‘vibrant,’ in areas that don’t have a scene, in jobs that aren’t rewarding, in industries that aren’t creative. Their experiences are, almost by definition, off limits for artistic contemplation.”
“The disaster that the university has proceeded to inflict on the youth of America is the outcome of this grim equation…it was a matter of simple math. Grant to an industry control over access to the good things in life, insist that it transform itself into a throat-cutting market-minded mercenary, get thought leaders to declare it the answer to every problem, and send it your unsuspecting kids armed with a blank check drawn on their own future. Was it not inevitable? Put these pieces together and of course attendance costs will ascend at a head-swimming clip…of course young people will be saddled with life-crushing debt.”
“A chronic complacency has been rotting American liberalism for years. A hubris that tells Democrats they need do nothing different, they need deliver nothing really to anyone, except their friends at Google and Goldman. The rest of us are treated as though we have nowhere else to go and no role to play except to vote enthusiastically on the grounds that these Democrats are the last thing standing between us and the end of the world.”
“You can have a shot at joining the 1%, Money tells us, only if you are first committed to making the 1% stronger, to defending their piles in some new and imaginative way…what I am describing is not sustainable…you can’t build a civilization on rip-offs.”
“Everything we do seems designed to make this thing possible. Cities must sprawl to accommodate its bulk. Eight lane roads must be constructed. Gasoline must be kept cheap. Coal must be hauled in from Wyoming on mile-long trains. Your taxes must be higher to make up for the deductions given to McMansion owners. Lending standards must be diluted so more suckers can purchase them. Banks must be propped up. Bonuses must go out. Stock prices must ascend. Everyone of us must work ever longer hours so that this millionaire’s folly can remain viable, can be sold successfully to the next one on the list.”
“These were all triumphs of human ingenuity…and yet that intense concentrated efficiency also demanded a fantastic wastefulness elsewhere… Inside the box was a masterpiece of industrial engineering. Outside the box was things and people that existed merely to be used up.”
“The (modern city-planning concept of the) ‘vibrant’ on the other hand, would separate the artist from such boring souls. The creative ones are to be corralled into a scene where they work their magic pumping up real estate prices and inspiring creative class onlookers. But what of the people no one is interested in attracting and retaining? Millions of Americans go through their lives in places that aren’t ‘vibrant,’ in areas that don’t have a scene, in jobs that aren’t rewarding, in industries that aren’t creative. Their experiences are, almost by definition, off limits for artistic contemplation.”
“The disaster that the university has proceeded to inflict on the youth of America is the outcome of this grim equation…it was a matter of simple math. Grant to an industry control over access to the good things in life, insist that it transform itself into a throat-cutting market-minded mercenary, get thought leaders to declare it the answer to every problem, and send it your unsuspecting kids armed with a blank check drawn on their own future. Was it not inevitable? Put these pieces together and of course attendance costs will ascend at a head-swimming clip…of course young people will be saddled with life-crushing debt.”
“A chronic complacency has been rotting American liberalism for years. A hubris that tells Democrats they need do nothing different, they need deliver nothing really to anyone, except their friends at Google and Goldman. The rest of us are treated as though we have nowhere else to go and no role to play except to vote enthusiastically on the grounds that these Democrats are the last thing standing between us and the end of the world.”
March 13, 2021
Thomas Frank has become one my favorite commentators on America's current political situation. In contrast to the hand-wringing incredulity and moralistic scolding that pervade liberal editorial boards across the country, his analysis gets straight to the heart of what made the Trump presidency possible: the wholesale abandonment of progressive politics by the Democratic party.
This book is a collection of some of his most incisive and prescient editorials spanning from 2010-2018, with a particular emphasis on the run up to 2016 election. Reading through them as a unified work was like watching a train crash in slow motion. Frank knew at the time what many have only come to understand through hindsight, and what many within the Democratic establishment still refuse to understand. Seeing his predictions come true one after another would have been satisfying had they not carried such dire consequences.
This book is a collection of some of his most incisive and prescient editorials spanning from 2010-2018, with a particular emphasis on the run up to 2016 election. Reading through them as a unified work was like watching a train crash in slow motion. Frank knew at the time what many have only come to understand through hindsight, and what many within the Democratic establishment still refuse to understand. Seeing his predictions come true one after another would have been satisfying had they not carried such dire consequences.
December 1, 2019
The essays in this collection are insightful, cutting, and occasionally humorous. Frank does not subscribe to any particular ideology, so he is able to turn an unbiased eye to each of his topics. Add to that his clear support for the little guy, and you have a book that is by turns maddening and enlightening, but never dull.
August 14, 2020
I can always go to Thomas Frank for some righteous anger and integrity. Written in the lead up to and immediate aftermath of the 2016 election, these essays eviscerate Donald Trump and the corporatist rot that made his rise possible in the first place. He calls out the cons played on the average person by the student loan industry, media structure, presidential libraries, and the big orange man himself. While I'd probably say his Listen, Liberal or The Wrecking Crew are better overall, I love hearing this fiery Kansan wax eloquently about the hyperdrive decline of the American experiment we've found ourselves in.
November 8, 2018
Frank's compendium of selected essays from the past five years is so compelling, I can forgive him for his presidential vote in 2016. He has admitted on the record that he was one among millions of Americans who, motivated primarily by Trumpophobia, voted for Clinton/Kaine in 2016 when their policy preferences aligned more with Stein/Baraka. Like Michael Moore, Cenk Uygur, and other analysts with progressive cred, Frank has railed tirelessly against the hypocrisy and corruption in the modern Democratic Party...yet he cast that less-of-two-evils vote. Understandable, sure, but it's no help toward blowing up the outdated and pernicious partisan duopoly in the US.
I seriously want to stage an out-loud reading of the entire collection, or perhaps a series of readings because who wants to sit through the out-loud reading of an entire 225-page book?—and invite people to listen and discuss. It's really that good. And I'm above average at reading complicated texts aloud, if I say so myself (see my review of Ulysses).
Not all readers will agree with Frank's premise or his diagnoses. Some will point out, with some accuracy, that Frank is the very stereotype of the smug, self-satisfied "punditburo" he so fiercely indicts as part of the problem. (After all, he uses university-level vocabulary and rhetorically looks down upon bigots of whatever socioeconomic stratum.) Habitual Democratic voters will take umbrage to many of his conclusions. As for me, I was ready when I bought the hardback to nod (or headbang) along as Frank reminds us Progressives that we are not alone, that other Americans see the US polity and economy as we do.
The writing is economical, despite the presence of a plethora of $20 words like plethora, and quite disciplined: very few tangential detours into related topics (a bad habit of mine). The analysis of a 21st-century America that markets to upper-middle-class tastes while driving more of us into lower-middle-class income brackets (and allowing its institutions to decay from within—hell, aiding and abetting that decay!) is spot-fucking-on. Most importantly, although he paints a bleak picture, Frank refuses to wallow in despair: There are solutions, most of which involve replacing capitalism with community-oriented and cooperative approaches. If I want despair, I'll read Chris Hedges, whose latest tome is next on my To Read list.
The dramatic arc of several of the essays is sublimely satisfying—yea, essays with arcs! He spends a few pages setting up a scene that gives the reader a keen sense of Situation A; then he introduces a twist, with words along the lines of, "And yet, despite what you might think from the evidence supporting Situation A, the reality is more like Situation A-Prime, or even Opposite-of-A."
"America Made Great Again," the concluding essay, is a double twist. Frank invites us to envision the 2020 presidential election from the perspective of 2018. In one scenario, Donald Trump rides the current economic wave, taking credit for the results of his predecessor's economic manipulations, and wins re-election. In another, on the other hand, Trump continues bumbling his way through this whole presidenting thing, bigots large and small continue to be emboldened, the economy teeters on the brink of collapse...and he wins re-election. We've developed this habit, you see, of re-electing even buffoons to positions of power. I won't spoil the ending, in which Frank advises the Democratic Party apparatus to pull its collective head out of its collective ass and try the strategy he prescribes for them. (If you've read Listen, Liberal or What's the Matter with Kansas? you probably know already.)
I seriously want to stage an out-loud reading of the entire collection, or perhaps a series of readings because who wants to sit through the out-loud reading of an entire 225-page book?—and invite people to listen and discuss. It's really that good. And I'm above average at reading complicated texts aloud, if I say so myself (see my review of Ulysses).
Not all readers will agree with Frank's premise or his diagnoses. Some will point out, with some accuracy, that Frank is the very stereotype of the smug, self-satisfied "punditburo" he so fiercely indicts as part of the problem. (After all, he uses university-level vocabulary and rhetorically looks down upon bigots of whatever socioeconomic stratum.) Habitual Democratic voters will take umbrage to many of his conclusions. As for me, I was ready when I bought the hardback to nod (or headbang) along as Frank reminds us Progressives that we are not alone, that other Americans see the US polity and economy as we do.
The writing is economical, despite the presence of a plethora of $20 words like plethora, and quite disciplined: very few tangential detours into related topics (a bad habit of mine). The analysis of a 21st-century America that markets to upper-middle-class tastes while driving more of us into lower-middle-class income brackets (and allowing its institutions to decay from within—hell, aiding and abetting that decay!) is spot-fucking-on. Most importantly, although he paints a bleak picture, Frank refuses to wallow in despair: There are solutions, most of which involve replacing capitalism with community-oriented and cooperative approaches. If I want despair, I'll read Chris Hedges, whose latest tome is next on my To Read list.
The dramatic arc of several of the essays is sublimely satisfying—yea, essays with arcs! He spends a few pages setting up a scene that gives the reader a keen sense of Situation A; then he introduces a twist, with words along the lines of, "And yet, despite what you might think from the evidence supporting Situation A, the reality is more like Situation A-Prime, or even Opposite-of-A."
"America Made Great Again," the concluding essay, is a double twist. Frank invites us to envision the 2020 presidential election from the perspective of 2018. In one scenario, Donald Trump rides the current economic wave, taking credit for the results of his predecessor's economic manipulations, and wins re-election. In another, on the other hand, Trump continues bumbling his way through this whole presidenting thing, bigots large and small continue to be emboldened, the economy teeters on the brink of collapse...and he wins re-election. We've developed this habit, you see, of re-electing even buffoons to positions of power. I won't spoil the ending, in which Frank advises the Democratic Party apparatus to pull its collective head out of its collective ass and try the strategy he prescribes for them. (If you've read Listen, Liberal or What's the Matter with Kansas? you probably know already.)
December 23, 2018
Thomas Frank's previous book, "Listen, Liberal", was prescient in 2016, predicting the election of Donald Trump due to Democrat's clueless-ness about class divisions in the US. I was hoping more enlightenment from his next book, published in 2018, but this one has a few new insights. The bulk of it is the same.
p.48 What today's airport instructs us in are the wonders of globalization. ...From the CNBC-sponsored bookstores selling volumes on innovation and leadership to the advertisements that decorate the walls of every concourse... lessons in the glory and soulfulness of market-based civilization.
p. 68 A while ago I was talking about rural depopulation with an officer of a Kansas farmers' organization; as it happened, he had thought about the problem a great deal. Using arts festivals to make small towns appear "vibrant" a favorite strategem of ArtsPlace - was not one of his suggestions. What he proposed instead was universal health coverage.
p. 74 No one really knows the exact educational recipe that is supposed to save us.
p.89 ..President Obama was right when he would talk about education's importance. Not because college augments our future earning power, or helps us compete with Bangladesh, but because the pursuit of knowledge is valuable in its own right.
p. 191 Liberalism today is an expression of an enlightened professional class, and their core economic interests simply do not align with those of working people.
p. 200 What did crop up persistently was a disgust with the perceived moral haughtiness of liberals. ...There was resentment of "Ivy League graduates" who felt entitled to "micromanage the rest of the country."
p. 202 ...the nostalgic urge does not necessarily have to be a reactionary one. There is nothing unprogressive about wanting your town to thrive, about recognizing that it isn't thriving today, about figuring out that the mid-century, liberal way worked better, <-- Well, wanting to find solutions is good, but the solution might be forward rather than backwards, or some combination of both. Just going back to the old ways isn't necessarily the right answer.
p.48 What today's airport instructs us in are the wonders of globalization. ...From the CNBC-sponsored bookstores selling volumes on innovation and leadership to the advertisements that decorate the walls of every concourse... lessons in the glory and soulfulness of market-based civilization.
p. 68 A while ago I was talking about rural depopulation with an officer of a Kansas farmers' organization; as it happened, he had thought about the problem a great deal. Using arts festivals to make small towns appear "vibrant" a favorite strategem of ArtsPlace - was not one of his suggestions. What he proposed instead was universal health coverage.
p. 74 No one really knows the exact educational recipe that is supposed to save us.
p.89 ..President Obama was right when he would talk about education's importance. Not because college augments our future earning power, or helps us compete with Bangladesh, but because the pursuit of knowledge is valuable in its own right.
p. 191 Liberalism today is an expression of an enlightened professional class, and their core economic interests simply do not align with those of working people.
p. 200 What did crop up persistently was a disgust with the perceived moral haughtiness of liberals. ...There was resentment of "Ivy League graduates" who felt entitled to "micromanage the rest of the country."
p. 202 ...the nostalgic urge does not necessarily have to be a reactionary one. There is nothing unprogressive about wanting your town to thrive, about recognizing that it isn't thriving today, about figuring out that the mid-century, liberal way worked better, <-- Well, wanting to find solutions is good, but the solution might be forward rather than backwards, or some combination of both. Just going back to the old ways isn't necessarily the right answer.
July 10, 2018
A series of essays by Thomas Frank - concerning his observations about the fragmenting U S. society - the impact of political policies 30 and 40 years ago, how these policies still impact us today - and how it's likely (possible) that if no changes are made to the Democratic Party's strategy, messages, outreach and etc., it's reasonable to assume that Trump and his gang could "do enough to win The Presidency yet again in 2020..."
Tough to read about elites, trade policy and the feeling within the US - my summarization is that Trump supporters were more (economically) frightened of the current and the future (for their children) that they were bigoted... obviously some bigotry but overridden y economic fear n my opinion.
I believe in the liberal agenda, trade and globalization of supply chains.
Trade reduces prices for good Trump supporters buy at Wal-Mart as an example.
The benefits of trade are widely felt but not recognized - but plant closings are both recognized and widely felt.
Add to this the dumbing down of conversation - the fact that people don't read in detail and speak in emotions not facts or public policy. This doesn't bode well for dialoging our way out of this impasse.
Jon Meacham's book tries to tell me this too will pass....
Bottom line a difficult but worthwhile book detailing maybe a feedback loop or two would have been useful for the liberal agenda - how's it playing in Perioa type questions... if not playing well how could public policy be amended - job retraining that actually works as one example Democrats should propose it - when the Republicans don't fund this proposal - they have an issue to bring to the voters.
Failing that other than reorienting the Democratic Party back towards the working middle class - few proposed solutions. Don't know how credible a reorientation towards the working class would be - what are the proposed policy positions the Democrats proposed Contract for Prosperity 2019 detailing how they will run the shop....
Courage!
Carl Gallozzi
Cgallozzi@comcast.net
Tough to read about elites, trade policy and the feeling within the US - my summarization is that Trump supporters were more (economically) frightened of the current and the future (for their children) that they were bigoted... obviously some bigotry but overridden y economic fear n my opinion.
I believe in the liberal agenda, trade and globalization of supply chains.
Trade reduces prices for good Trump supporters buy at Wal-Mart as an example.
The benefits of trade are widely felt but not recognized - but plant closings are both recognized and widely felt.
Add to this the dumbing down of conversation - the fact that people don't read in detail and speak in emotions not facts or public policy. This doesn't bode well for dialoging our way out of this impasse.
Jon Meacham's book tries to tell me this too will pass....
Bottom line a difficult but worthwhile book detailing maybe a feedback loop or two would have been useful for the liberal agenda - how's it playing in Perioa type questions... if not playing well how could public policy be amended - job retraining that actually works as one example Democrats should propose it - when the Republicans don't fund this proposal - they have an issue to bring to the voters.
Failing that other than reorienting the Democratic Party back towards the working middle class - few proposed solutions. Don't know how credible a reorientation towards the working class would be - what are the proposed policy positions the Democrats proposed Contract for Prosperity 2019 detailing how they will run the shop....
Courage!
Carl Gallozzi
Cgallozzi@comcast.net
July 14, 2018
I recently saw a political cartoon which showed a fellow looking bug eyed out the window of his home with a shotgun clutched tightly in his hands as the Republican elephant, carrying bags of cash marked "Social Security" and "Medicare" slipped out the back with the warning - "Keep your eye out for those Democrats coming to take your guns!" The cartoon reminded me of the first book I read by Thomas Frank, "What's the Matter With Kansas?" which attempts to explain why the less educated, rural voter would be responsive to the Republican party which does its best to hurt them economically by holding down the minimum wage, attempting to destroy national healthcare, etc. Frank posits that the answer is that the Republicans distract them using social issues such as gay marriage, gun rights, immigration threats, and fear of the "other" while looting the system with tax cuts, de-regulation of environmental and financial protections, etc.
This book points out that sadly, the Democratic party, once the bastion of the working class, middle American populace has now sold out as well. The difference is that while the Republicans cater to the moneyed "elite", the Democrats now cater to the educated "elite" preferring to steer favoritism and control to the professional class (which naturally includes Wall St. bankers and tech moguls), especially with those with ivy league credentials. So with both parties now serving the top 10% who is left to defend the suffering majority who have not seen wages rise and who watch as their plants shut down and their small town stores and restaurants close? Frankly, no-one. Note that until about 1980, 70% of gains in profits and income went to workers. Since 1997, none of it has; it has all gone to the owners and managers. How to fix it? Frank has some interesting ideas and if you are interested in politics, this small tome should provide some interesting food for thought. It is a collection of essays, not as compelling as his books, but still provides some grist for your mental mill.
This book points out that sadly, the Democratic party, once the bastion of the working class, middle American populace has now sold out as well. The difference is that while the Republicans cater to the moneyed "elite", the Democrats now cater to the educated "elite" preferring to steer favoritism and control to the professional class (which naturally includes Wall St. bankers and tech moguls), especially with those with ivy league credentials. So with both parties now serving the top 10% who is left to defend the suffering majority who have not seen wages rise and who watch as their plants shut down and their small town stores and restaurants close? Frankly, no-one. Note that until about 1980, 70% of gains in profits and income went to workers. Since 1997, none of it has; it has all gone to the owners and managers. How to fix it? Frank has some interesting ideas and if you are interested in politics, this small tome should provide some interesting food for thought. It is a collection of essays, not as compelling as his books, but still provides some grist for your mental mill.
August 7, 2019
Reading this all I could think was how much of Frank's voice still lives in The Baffler, the publication he founded and left ages ago for more establishment shores.
The paeans against suburbia and neoliberalism and the corruption of the establishment are quite entertaining, even if Frank now finds himself a bit more comfortable among them.
Some of his edge is blunted, and his continual insitence on economic anxiety as an explanation of the Trump phenomenon seems quite dated by now though a little more defensible when he was writing this. Racism and white fear is definitely more of a driving force behind the phenomenon than Frank wants to admit, though he does admit it.
It rambles a bit in the end: Frank scolding or predicting the future is tolerable but not nearly as fun as him dissecting architecture or consumer culture as symptoms of national rot.
Come for the on-point if somewhat bluntrd politicising. Stay for the poignant, gleeful barbs.
The paeans against suburbia and neoliberalism and the corruption of the establishment are quite entertaining, even if Frank now finds himself a bit more comfortable among them.
Some of his edge is blunted, and his continual insitence on economic anxiety as an explanation of the Trump phenomenon seems quite dated by now though a little more defensible when he was writing this. Racism and white fear is definitely more of a driving force behind the phenomenon than Frank wants to admit, though he does admit it.
It rambles a bit in the end: Frank scolding or predicting the future is tolerable but not nearly as fun as him dissecting architecture or consumer culture as symptoms of national rot.
Come for the on-point if somewhat bluntrd politicising. Stay for the poignant, gleeful barbs.
January 28, 2020
I'm a big fan of the author but when he reads his own words in the audiobook version, it's almost as if he doesn't think we'll get the joke if he doesn't signal with his voice that it's meant to be funny. In fact, it more often ruined the joke to do that so I'd like to suggest you stick with the old fashion text version of this book, at least for the first half.
I'm not sure if civilization is collapsing or if it's been crumbling for years but the current rot is merely more apparent to us. The individual situations differ, of course, but though, for example, the university has certainly devolved in the many ways outlined in the essay American Fight Song, we need to also remember some of the awful ways it used to be that are no longer the case. Admission of minorities, or even merely those of the wrong class, used to rarely happen at all back when America was great. And even though you were taught by actual scholars instead of adjuncts, some of those scholars didn't communicate as well as they did research. I've been an adjunct and though I'm aware that I was being underpaid, I could teach a better course than many having tenure.
Similarly, Trump being president may represent a new low or may merely be what was always present becoming less hidden because Trump is incapable or unwilling to hide who he is. Never the less, I wish I could make everyone read the final chapter America Made Great Again in which Frank spells out Trump’s potential path to reelection as president of the United States for a second term.
I'm not sure if civilization is collapsing or if it's been crumbling for years but the current rot is merely more apparent to us. The individual situations differ, of course, but though, for example, the university has certainly devolved in the many ways outlined in the essay American Fight Song, we need to also remember some of the awful ways it used to be that are no longer the case. Admission of minorities, or even merely those of the wrong class, used to rarely happen at all back when America was great. And even though you were taught by actual scholars instead of adjuncts, some of those scholars didn't communicate as well as they did research. I've been an adjunct and though I'm aware that I was being underpaid, I could teach a better course than many having tenure.
Similarly, Trump being president may represent a new low or may merely be what was always present becoming less hidden because Trump is incapable or unwilling to hide who he is. Never the less, I wish I could make everyone read the final chapter America Made Great Again in which Frank spells out Trump’s potential path to reelection as president of the United States for a second term.
September 11, 2020
I thoroughly enjoyed this book. Even though most of the ideas were not new or unique, Thomas Frank has a way of writing and interruption which cuts straight through. This book is a compilation of previous essays he has written yet it felt prescient to this moment. Instead of taking pot shots or ignoring Trump supporters he tries to figure out and reason why they might support him. As a left leaning Democrat it is easy for me to dismiss Trump supporters as being a certain way (either social conservatives, wealthy business people or bigots) but Frank details why this is often false. His essays show a system in which the Democratic apparatus has forsaken their previous reliable base of working class peoples for a wealthier white collar one. He questions why a working class person should support a party which has turned their back on them. By demonstrating that the recent administrations of both Republicans (the Bushes) and Democrats (Clinton and Obama) have been harmful for working classes he paints a full view of why Trump had so much appeal. He shows that the coupling of free trade (NAFTA) and deregulation have harmed blue collar workers exponentially and have enhanced the portfolios of white class members. Even Obama who showed promise early on, abnegated his obligations when he let the Wall Street bankers off scot-free. He furthered ignored the plight of blue collar workers by ignoring the growing opiod epidemic which has disproportionately affected them. Overall, this book did a fantastic job of explaining the why and how things are the way they are now.
July 6, 2018
Thomas Frank is the kind of writer who gets trotted out when the national media wants to cast its distracted gaze on the hinterlands. It helped that he wrote a book a decade and more back about his home state titled What’s the Matter with Kansas? After the 2016 election a whole lot of pundits wanted to know the answer to that question. Why would so many people in the heartland vote for a candidate with big city, Acela Corridor brashness and a class profile so different from the majority of his voters?
When he wrote that book in 2004, Frank was pointing to the populism to come, noting the many working class folks who have been growing ever more distanced from the elite who, unlike them, have benefitted from the cosmopolitan world that global economic trading and technological innovation have created. Frank himself may have wandered from his thesis in the Obama years, if the essays collected in his latest book are any indication. Rendezvous with Oblivion: Reports from a Sinking Society shows a writer searching for a master narrative that only snaps into focus with the presidential election.
To crib from Samuel Johnson, there’s nothing like a catastrophe to concentrate the mind.
Read my full review on Heartlands...https://alexjoyner.com/2018/07/06/the....
Metropolitan Books provided a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
When he wrote that book in 2004, Frank was pointing to the populism to come, noting the many working class folks who have been growing ever more distanced from the elite who, unlike them, have benefitted from the cosmopolitan world that global economic trading and technological innovation have created. Frank himself may have wandered from his thesis in the Obama years, if the essays collected in his latest book are any indication. Rendezvous with Oblivion: Reports from a Sinking Society shows a writer searching for a master narrative that only snaps into focus with the presidential election.
To crib from Samuel Johnson, there’s nothing like a catastrophe to concentrate the mind.
Read my full review on Heartlands...https://alexjoyner.com/2018/07/06/the....
Metropolitan Books provided a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
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