Addicted to Outrage: How Thinking Like a Recovering Addict Can Heal the Country

by Glenn Beck

Glenn Beck—author of thirteen #1 New York Times bestsellers—issues a startling challenge to people on both sides of the aisle to give up our addiction to outrage.

America is addicted to outrage, we’re at the height of a twenty-year bender, and we need an intervention. In Addicted to Outrage, New York Times bestselling author Glenn Beck addresses how America has become more and more divided—both politically and socially. Americans are now less accepting, less forgiving, and have lost faith in many of the country’s signature ideals, he says. We are quick to point a judgmental finger at the opposing party, are unwilling to doubt their own ideologies, and refuse to have any self-awareness whatsoever. Beck states that our current downward spiral will ultimately lead to the destruction of everything America has fought so hard to preserve. This is not simply a Republican problem. This is not simply a Democratic problem. This is everyone’s burden, and we need to think like recovering addicts and change.

With a nod to a traditional twelve-step program, each chapter encourages self-reflection and growth and shows us the way to a more hopeful, happy future. Beck draws from his own life experiences and includes relevant examples for each step, from families who learned to forgive killers to remembering to believe in something greater than ourselves to understanding the importance of humility. Addicted to Outrage is a timely and necessary guide for how Americans, right and left, must change to survive.

Genres: Politics, Nonfiction, History, Psychology, Self Help, Audiobook, Cultural

400 pages, Hardcover

First published September 18, 2018

About the author

Glenn Edward Lee Beck is one of America's leading radio and television personalities. His quick wit, candid opinions and engaging personality have made The Glenn Beck Program the third highest rated radio program in America and Glenn Beck, one of the most successful new shows on the Fox News Channel. His unique blend of modern-day storytelling and insightful views on current events allowed him to achieve the extraordinary feat of having #1 New York Times bestsellers in both fiction and non-fiction. Beck also stars in a live stage show and is the publisher of Fusion magazine.

Online, he is the editor of GlennBeck.com and the publisher of TheBlaze.com.

Beck is the author of six consecutive #1 New York Times Bestsellers including his latest book, the thriller The Overton Window. When The Christmas Sweater, his first novel, debuted at #1 on the fiction list, Beck became one of a handful of authors to write books that reached #1 on both the fiction and non-fiction NYT lists.

Reviews

[Kurt Pankau · Rating 1 out of 5]

The last 20% or so of this book is pretty good. Beck makes an impassioned argument for reaching across the aisle and he offers some practical advice for how to do so, using addiction and AA as a metaphorical framework. I disagree with a lot of his base assumptions and feel like he leans too hard on his own pop philosophy, but those are relatively minor things in the long run. He admits that he built his career stoking outrage, comes dangerously close to actually apologizing for that, and his basic thesis of be-less-of-an-asshole-to-people-you-disagree-with is thoughtful, well-reasoned, and feels like it's coming from a place of honesty and good intentions.

Someone should really share it with whoever wrote the first 80% of this book.

It's. Just. Exhausting. I started this thing in November, for frick's sake. I had to take multiple breaks throughout because it just weighs down on the soul to be constantly called a moron. If Beck's main thesis is that he and his followers should try to find common ground with progressives, maybe he shouldn't spend quite so much time gaslighting progressives? The tenor of most of this book is "we need to get along and it'd be easier if Democrats weren't so wrong about everything!" There's some token both-sidesism, but he can't seem to help falling back on snarky asides and what I assume are his normal fan-favorite talking points. I mean, he brings up Jeremiah Wright--a man who was only vaguely relevant a decade ago--something like three or four times. And despite his insistence that his readers/listeners should be trying to find common ground with the opposition party, he makes no attempt to do that himself. He spares no amount of ink reaffirming his personal beliefs and talking about how eager he is to engage with other people, but he spends zero time at all actually exploring or inquiring about other people's.

Which speaks to Beck's general lack of self-awareness. Towards the end--you know, the good part--of the book he circles back on the idea that character matters and is important and he specifically calls out Donald Trump. He also has a section early on wherein he says "sure, Trump is a demagogue, but what about all the GOOD he's done?" (I'm paraphrasing, but "demagogue" was HIS word, not mine.) If character matters, and you really believe that, then demagoguery should be a bigger concern... right? He lambasts progressives for never wanting to let go of the evils of America's past, and three chapters later says that one of the problems with Americans is that they're too willing to let go of the evils of America's past. He takes great umbrage that people called his former employer "Faux" News, but he himself describes Roger Ailes as having "a passion for destroying the Democratic Party" and admits that while he was working there, Ailes was spying on him! It's wildly inconsistent, and in a section that I took rather personally, he offers an abridged primer on Carl Sagan's "baloney detector" and specifically cites "inconsistency" as a sign that a what you're hearing might not be true. Gah! I mean... Why even bring up Sagan at all if you're not going to apply that lens to your own arguments?

The answer, of course, is that Beck doesn't make arguments. He does what logicians refer to as the "Gish Gallop" where you just strew the bullshit together faster than a dissenting brain can process it. Beck tends to talk AROUND subjects rather than ABOUT them, loosely tying things together rather than exploring them. I assume this affect comes from primarily working in radio, where you have to generate hours and hours of content that has to be accessible to new listeners but still novel to older ones. But Beck takes this to a bizarre extreme. Just consider this section, which I'm paraphrasing:

You buy a self-driving car that takes you to work and then you send it off to work as an uber. Let's say it gets into an accident. Whose fault would the accident be? Who should own the insurance? Should the car therefore have its own insurance that it pays for out of the money it makes while working as an uber? Should it be allowed to play the stock market? If it can invest, could it be taxed? If it can be taxed, does that mean it's alive, and therefore should be able to demand representation? Should it be allowed to vote?

There are a good half dozen extremely complex topics there that are being completely glossed over, and in service of what? The point he arrives at is that these are things we need to be talking about. You know what? I agree! Maybe, since you brought them up, you should actually talk about them!

This disjointed non-sequitur argumentation extends to the entire book. There is no organization to the thoughts on display. Which astounds me, because if you're using the twelve steps as a framing device, grouping topics by "step" is a gimme. But no, topics are raised, dropped, and circled back on haphazardly, reading like a series of prolonged, disconnected rants. He rarely cites sources, and when he does drop a name or mention a book, it's usually in reference to the general topic he's discussing rather than the specific facts he presenting. The point is to reinforce his bona fides, not to give a curious reader somewhere further to go.

Because at the end of the day Beck's putting on a show here--far more interested in the theatrics than the substance. Sometimes this is quite entertaining. At one point he reinterprets the Declaration Of Independence as a Dear John letter to King George, and it's pretty damned clever. There's a huge aside about Baskin Robbins that pops up in the middle of a sentence. While it didn't really add anything to what he was saying, it was a bizarrely compelling bit of performance art. But those are the exceptions. Most of the theatrics are just snarky asides and "funny" voices, if you decide to go the audio route.

And it's all just so tiring. Unless you already agree with him, in which case it's probably a fun ride with a sobering conclusion. Well, I'm sorry, but no thanks. You don't get to spend thirty chapters telling "liberal jokes" and then another seven or so admonishing people for making fun of liberals. I probably shouldn't be surprised--it's right there on the cover art! This is a book ostensibly about the troubles of addiction, and there's a smiling Glenn Beck extending a hand to offer you a big old pile of pills.

[Joe Vasicek · Rating 4 out of 5]

I wasn't always a fan of Glenn Beck. When I was in college back in the 00s, I thought he was a pompous blowhard—and I was probably right. We've both changed a lot since then. I started listening to his radio show podcast in 2017 at the urging of a friend, and to my utter shock I found him to be both reasonable and insightful. I've been listening ever since.

If you're a regular listener to Glenn's show, most of what you'll find in this book is stuff you've already heard. That said, on the show you pick it up in bits and pieces, whereas here it's all laid out in one place, without any filler or extraneous back and forth. Having done both, I would rather read this book and listen to his show only occasionally than listen to his show religiously and skip this book.

The thing I like most about Glenn is that he's one of the few political pundits who have checked their pride in recent years. In Addicted to Outrage, he gives his story: how he went from being one of the most prominent and virulent right-wing commentators to acknowledging that he's been wrong about some things and completely changing his approach. He lost a few of his old-time fans who preferred the screaming, ranting Beck, but gained an ability to understand and speak the language of those on the other side of the political divide.

The main thesis of this book is that outrage, especially social media outrage, has become an addiction very much like alcoholism, and that the steps for recovering for alcoholism apply equally as well for healing our modern outrage culture. Glenn brings up a lot of interesting points about how the outrage in our culture is increasing, how social media is designed specifically to foster a chemical addiction through repeated dopamine hits, and how it feeds into all of our worst impulses and does serious damage to our health, our relationships, and our ability to live together.

The most interesting part for me was where he talked about how our outrage culture and the news cycle is distracting us from the truly important stuff that's going on right now, such as the development of AI, the rise of big tech monopolies, technological disruption and the looming unemployment crisis, and geopolitical challenges that threaten to drive our world into war. Again, this is all stuff that Glenn covers regularly in his radio show, but it's useful to have it all in one place.

My biggest criticism of Glenn is that his obsession with all of the ways that things can go catastrophically wrong turns him into something of a doom pornographer at times. He generally keeps it classy, but classy doom porn is still doom porn. I don't think we're anywhere near a hostile artificial general intelligence sweeping the world with nanobots and turning us all into grey goo, for example. That said, his prediction track record is surprisingly good, so even with the doom and gloom it's still worth listening to him. At least he doesn't (usually) cross the line into fear mongering.

Glenn's love of the Constitution definitely shines through this book. He spends a great deal of it going through the Declaration of Independence and the Bill of Rights, which I found to be insightful. In one of the more interesting chapters he talks about how we should neither whitewash our history nor condemn it, but acknowledge both the bad and the good and strive to live up to the aspirational deals set forth in our founding documents.

All in all, it was a good and insightful read. If you've never listened to Glenn, this book is actually a really good place to start.

[Jonathan Maas · Rating 5 out of 5]

They say a truly open minded person actively reads those with whom they disagree – and if so, Glenn Beck is a way to do this

Why? He’s not a maniac, he’s not a reactionary. He reads books, and backs up his words with data – sort of, hahaha. But you get my point – there are a lot of maniacs in power these day, and he is not one of them.

Glenn Beck employs the words ‘we’ and ‘I’ a lot, and that gives the book a broader appeal.

Normally a writer should avoid the word I, but here it is justified. Why? Because Glenn Beck takes the blame himself, and refrains from pointing the finger.

Sort of.

But still – look at the cover. He says that ‘we’ are addicted to outrage. He probably gives a little more to the left – but he refrains from going overboard.

‘We’ are addicted to liking outrageous posts, and both CNN and Fox News are addicted to the revenue streams from us liking the most recent article about whatever thing Trump Tweeted, or any time a gathering of two or more Antifa protesters throw a brick through a window and cause a minor traffic jam.

What’s the solution? Recognize your addiction, and then unplug.

Recognize what you are getting outraged about, and recognize that you need to get outraged about it every day.

And then unplug. Detox from your social media accounts, maybe put your phone away. And then your life will be better.

Glenn Beck is not Noah Yuval Harari though

This book may be a rational voice from a right-wing commentator, but this is not the high-level one-stop book you need to read, like most anything from Harari is.

Beck is a voice, and he packs his books with more words and emotion than he needs. You read Harari slowly because every single paragraph threatens to change your worldview. You can kind of get the sense of what Beck is trying to say by reading the chapter title.

So yeah – this is not required reading, and if you do, you can skim it.

But it’s worth it, so regardless of your political affiliations, I’d check it out if I were you.

[Alexander Fitzgerald · Rating 3 out of 5]

I made myself buy this book because I agree wholeheartedly with the topic, and I told myself I would support anyone who was willing to call people out. Americans are getting addicted to hating the other side. Something needs to change.

I grade books on a simple premise. Do they provide what they say they will provide? It's dumb to give a book intended for laughter three stars because "it lacks substance." That's not what it was designed to do. I don't look at a spoon and wonder why it is not a fork.

Glenn Beck says he wants to explore how Americans can wean themselves off of outrage porn, and then does not hit the topic at all for 80% of the book.

To be fair, I found many of those unrelated swaths to be fascinating. But I also found many sections to be self-serving. It's amazing to me when you go to a town hall and all people want to do is share their story. I find it wildly narcissistic.

Glenn Beck has an interesting story to tell, but it often doesn't have anything to do with the topic at hand. It's made even worse when you realize, "...he has an entire television channel. He could have vented about this stuff at literally any other time." Instead, he muddies a necessary message.

There was little in the way of research done for many chapters. There was little follow through. While I was entertained, especially by his ingenious futurism and abolitionist monologues, I was not given what I paid for.

A damn shame. There's so much here to like.

[Sara · Rating 4 out of 5]

I don’t always agree with Glenn Beck but this was a surprisingly thought-provoking book. There is definitely too much anger in our current political culture. More civility in our daily conversations with one another would be nice. Taking a break from social media nonsense would probably help also.
(I say more football and less news! Works for me anyway.) :)

[Audrey · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5 stars

I was surprised at how good this turned out. It’s quite different from Beck’s other books: no graphics, no footnotes. This is an honest appeal to the country to stop demonizing each other and be civil again. He reviews history, looks at the future, and encourages all sides (especially along the liberal/conservative divide) to see each other as human beings and to forgive each other for being human.

The divisiveness is growing and growing and will end in civil war if we aren’t careful. I am frequently reminded of the words of Isaiah in the Bible: “That make a man an offender for a word, and lay a snare for him that reproveth in the gate, and turn aside the just for a thing of nought.” All the time I hear and see on social media, “I’m very accepting. I just can’t tolerate THOSE people.”

I recommend this for anyone of any political persuasion who is tired of arguing and being angry all the time. I’ll just post some parts I highlighted.

If we actually listen to each other, we may find that one of us is mistaken in what we believe, what we think others believe, or what is separating us in the first place.

But somewhere we began judging people not by their character or their actions but by their political affiliation and beliefs. A person who had different opinions than you wasn’t just wrong but suddenly became a bad, deplorable person, someone not to be trusted. Someone who must be ostracized, isolated, and destroyed.

Outrage addiction has replaced constructive dialogue and suppressed genuine empathy and warmness. It’s no wonder that suicide has become the tenth leading cause of death in America—we don’t have authentic conversations anymore. We don’t express actual sympathy when others are suffering or being abused; we express outrage instead. Do people really care about women being sexually harassed or assaulted in Hollywood and the Arkansas’s governor’s mansion, or are they just following the crowd because to avoid doing so would be to aid and abet rape culture?

We have literally become chemically addicted to the social rewards we receive online, through digital thumbs and text-message acronyms and emoticons. Virtue-signaling our friends and trolling our foes have replaced actual virtue and spirited debate with our peers.

In 1976, studies showed, less than a quarter of the country lived in what Bishop called “landslide counties,” areas that delivered huge numbers for one presidential candidate, but by 2004 about half of the country lived in counties that voted by large margins for one party or the other. Whether consciously or unconsciously, we had self-segregated into communities of like-minded and like-moraled groups: We had created the first safe zones for ourselves and for our beliefs. And as we gathered in tribes around the campfires, it wasn’t enough just to be with people who thought the same way we did; it became necessary to reinforce our beliefs by demonizing the other side.

They are not us. That’s all that matters. Once you divide people into groups, it becomes much easier to scapegoat others. It makes it acceptable to criticize them. To be outraged at everything they do. To hate them. And then, gradually, it becomes okay if bad things happen to that group. And then it goes further: It’s actually okay to do bad things to that group.

Certainty and a lack of intellectual diversity always lead to dark places. When you demand absolute acceptance of your theories and back your “science” with arguments of moral outrage, you end up having to shove, shout, and, in the end, shoot.

We all know what’s right—it’s what we believe. So accepting the fact that someone can believe exactly the opposite of what you believe and be just as positive that he or she is right about it as you are is not the easiest thing to do. But admitting that you might be wrong is even harder. And there are reasons for that: Researchers have found that our political beliefs tend to get entwined with our personal identities; in other words, we become what we believe, so an attack on our political positions is perceived by our brain as an attack on our self, and the brain has been conditioned to fight that type of attack.

In 2016, for example, an ad by a supposed conservative organization on Facebook invited Americans to protest the “Islamification of Texas” by participating in a rally outside an Islamic center in Houston, but a second ad directed at the Muslim community invited them to attend a “Save Islamic Knowledge” rally at the same place and time. Both organizations were Russian creations, and the result was a nasty confrontation. Total cost to the Russians was estimated at $200. What was real? The confrontation.

What actually happens in these so-called debates is that neither side is listening for anything other than a few seconds of silence so they can jump in and tell the other side why they are wrong. When both sides believe there is nothing to be learned by listening to the opposition, we begin to dismiss them and ridicule them. Gradually the other rhetoric is ratcheted up, and we begin to dehumanize the other side. We may even begin to hate those who disagree with us and believe that if it wasn’t for people like them, America would be a safer, more prosperous, and happier place. Here, once again, is my reminder: The other side is thinking the same thing.

Do you really want to be someone who becomes outraged when other people don’t agree with your beliefs? Really? Listen to me now: You are not responsible for anyone else’s behavior; you are responsible only for your own actions.

The book is a heart-felt collection of thoughts that are meant to inspire real conversation.

There are some typos and editing errors, including a lot of sentence fragments.

[Donna · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've heard of this author before, but I'm not familiar with his politics. I avoid shows like his (and others) because they seem to just want to stir the pot and cause contention. So with that said, I'm not sure how I managed to download this one, but I did. I'm actually glad I did. The overall message is one I believe in .... wholeheartedly. I can see how this book could be a necessary stepping stone in his career considering where he's been and where he currently stands.

This book felt like two (sometimes three) separate books squished into one. The first third is exactly what the title says it is. Then it got a little weird as he got wound up talking about the global picture of many things. He spent a lot of time encouraging others to check the facts FIRST before getting all vocal on social media. Good advice, especially in the current political climate of the US. The last third he focused on his lessons he learned in AA and his conversion in finding religion. He then applied those lessons to his own political views.

I liked a lot of this, mainly his message in seeing the actual person and not just their political views. Some of his main messages were: find common ground, have respect and my favorite, reach for your best angels. But even with all that, I still rolled my eyes at some of this. He still got all wound up and theatrical, and as much as I hate to admit it, he was entertaining. He did the narration of his own audio and what I found absolutely fabulous is that he can DO VOICES. And he does them so well. All I'm saying here, is if this political day job thingy he has going on, doesn't work out for him in the future, he should definitely give audio narrations a shot. This book was a solid 3 stars for me, but because I liked that he pointed out this "outrage" and he managed to givee some good advice, I will add an extra star.

[Jeremy Cox · Rating 1 out of 5]

I made it about 2/15 of the way through and couldn't take anymore. I went in knowing I wouldn't agree with Beck but wanted to hear his thoughts none-the-less. What is ironic is that his premise that we are addicted to outrage by hyperbolic media reports, is negated by the hyperbole with which he conducts his account. He will go on a rant about liberals for paragraphs and then say, "it happens on both sides though, look at Trump's tweets, but Obama blatantly lied....". I had hoped that he had truly recovered, but he is still addicted not simply to the consumption of outrage, but to its manufacture. Additionally, Beck claims he wants a nation that considers facts, yet he is quick to let you know his facts are true (with no cites, reference, or logical argument) while the left's is blatantly lying (again with no cites, references, or logical argument). A great example of Becks outrage generation is when he compares the congressional softball shooter to Lee Harvey Oswald and John Wilkes Booth, claiming that because he was a Bernie supporter the media has protected him and we do not know his middle name. I'm not sure how one can write a book about media sensationalism and insert tangents that do exactly what you are accusing "those people" of doing.

[Orion Maple · Rating 4 out of 5]

There are multiple messages in this book, I will say that many of the messages I agree with and even think all of America could benefit from hearing. There were also many theological points out of his Mormonism that I as a Christian disagreed with, or just in general didn't follow the logic always. I also don't believe the AA mantra that you are always an alcoholic. I don't believe that's biblical, and is contradictory to the biblical principle of us being new creations in Christ. With all that said I again would encourage people to read this, but glean from it what is true.

[Isabella · Rating 1 out of 5]

After reading James Comey's book, I became very interested in the issue of partisanship. As a fairly politically moderate person myself, I was interested in the view of both sides. Knowing a bit of Beck's right-wing background before hand, I was very happy when I found it laying around at the library. After reading it, I was really just disappointed.

For a book supposedly about the evils of political partisanship, it was remarkably partisan. Don't get me wrong, I find that people on the left are among the most strongly partisan in my experience, so they definitely need to be called out. At the same time however, I feel like he spent 99% of the book complaining about the left, and only mentioned the partisanship of the right as a footnote a few times. He repeatedly spoke about the importance of taking responsibility for our own part in the divide, but the delivery of his message almost contradicted that point entirely.

Secondly, I thought his writing style was very convoluted. He overused metaphors and analogies, to the point where such literary devices--which are usually used to make something easier to understand by relating it so something else--only made reading and understanding his argument harder, as if I was keeping track of 2 narratives at once. This isn't a huge deal of course, but when it comes to argument (especially in writing), the delivery does matter. I can't help but wonder if I would have been more receptive to his ideas had his writing been a bit more eloquent.

Overall, I do think the book started off with good intent, and generally speaking, I agree with his message. Partisanship is tearing our country apart, and we do have to check our biases and really listen to opposing views. I just don't think this book did a very good job of conveying that message effectively.

[Hayden McCombe · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great book. This book got me attached to actually reading books.
However, this book could have been better. All of the chapters had a great purpose, but Glenn Beck spent too much time ripping on the left.
A lot of the chapters talk about the left side. They say how the left side is bad but we must respect opinions (which I agree with) and how no matter what side you are on, we must come together (which is a strong point).
To sum it up, the left shouldn't have been ripped on too much. A good political book shouldn't destroy one side, rather not destroy at all; if ripped at all, both sides should deserve it.
Otherwise, I loved this book just as much as I love Glenn Becks beard.

[Sydney · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Help me be a better man than I was yesterday."

Think what you want of the author, but after getting through several chapters of how scary the world is (and this was written 5 years ago), I found his message to be kind and uplifting. It would behoove all of us to follow the tips and tricks within on how to treat everyone (regardless of their opinions or how they treat you) with respect to make the world less scary.

[Alex Shrugged · Rating 4 out of 5]

I haven't listened to the Glenn Beck Show for a couple of years now. His outrage regarding candidate Donald Trump was all out of proportion to the danger. I agreed with Glenn that we could do a lot better than Trump, but I did not agree that Trump's candidacy was the end of civilization. I've seen several knuckleheads elected as President. Lots of things went wrong, but for the most part we survived. So I stopped listening to Glenn.

Now I listened to Glenn Beck's audiobook appeal to give up outrage. I believe him when he says that he is trying to address his personal problem. I also believe that he cares about others and their outrage problem. Outrage is hurting my family while not accomplishing anything. So a book dedicated to giving up on outrage seems like a good idea.

It is not a perfect book. Somewhere in the middle it seems like Glenn engages in some outrage. I could feel myself getting wound up, but then Glenn settled down. He takes the reader/listener though the 12-Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous applying them to the problem of outrage. He does so in a smooth and reasonable way. I'm not sure how helpful it will be ultimately, but the Steps are well presented.

For those practicing modesty, Glenn uses the F-word once while quoting someone else. It seemed OK, but I would have avoided it.

The narrative is interspersed with pop culture references and humorous voice impersonations. That is just what Glenn does and he does not disappoint. I wonder how well it came off in the book. I was listening to the audio narrated by Glenn himself and he did marvelously.

I might listen to this book again, but it is not a sure thing.

[LynnG · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent bipartisan book. Unlike books I have read by Michael Moore and Michael Savage (maybe it's a Michael thing?) that are written with a focus on "shock jock" tactics and name calling, this book focuses on what we all have in common, and why our outrage and arguing over less than critical issues (football players kneeling, for example) is making it impossible to come together for really serious issues like national security and poverty. Even though Glenn Beck is well known for his own right-wing name calling and outrage, he owns it and admits he's been part of the problem. I highly recommend this read to everyone...but it is especially relevant for people with loved ones on opposite sides of today's issues. :)

[Travis Jackson · Rating 3 out of 5]

So many people say that they are “tolerant”, but they will not even listen to Glenn because they KNOW that he is a racist, homophobic, intolerant hater that just hates. They know this, not because they have heard his “hateful” words, nut because they have been told that’s how he is. If you are one of those people who has never listened to Glenn Beck on Radio, tv or in print or audio book, be as tolerant as you say you are. Be as tolerant as you expect him to be. Give him and his opinions and ideas a chance. If you disagree, fine. Lay out your own thoughts. Make your own coherent points and present them.

[Nolan · Rating 3 out of 5]

The longer I live, the more convinced I am that looking at issues from every side just makes sense. Few other commentators have managed the kind of polarizing effect that Glenn Beck has achieved in recent years. What was it about the man that created such sharp divisions. Does anyone listen to him and merely shrug, saying, “well, ok, that’s his perspective, time to live and let live?” Or are we more inclined to revile the man for his politics and the sometimes-shrill nature of his delivery?

Beck addresses his polarizing behaviors in his most recent book, and I came away with a deeper understanding of the journeys and evolutions all of us go through as we age. None of us are who we were perhaps even as recently as five years ago. If we’re honest, we can point to ways in which a cherished belief of even a few years ago suddenly takes on a different shape or color; sometimes, we discard those cherished beliefs altogether.

This is Beck’s journey. He straightforwardly apologizes for fanning the flames of outrage. And while he stands opposed to abortion and gun control, he seems far more intent these days on building bridges to those who disagree with him, not so much to convert them to his certainty but to better understand them and see whether some kind of middle ground can be reached.

Beck contends here that the nation’s only hope is to find those things in common that once held us together—particularly the Bill of Rights.

There is much here that touched me. He writes here with real candor of his mother’s suicide and his own very near success at repeating her performance. He writes about friends he has won and lost in his efforts to build bridges wherever possible. He includes information here about his conversion to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints and what an initially strange experience that was. I laughed out loud through that portion of the book; I could see the kind of people he described. But he also talks of the home he found with that group, and his ongoing search for greater truth.

Beck postulates that the nation is addicted to anger and hate, and writing from the point of view of a recovering alcoholic, he insists the nation needs an intervention. He points out ways in which all of us are eager to point a judgmental finger at the opposite side, and he admits to have played a part in that process. Beck emphasizes that this isn’t about political parties. He says the problem is everyone’s problem, not a Democratic or Republican problem, and he says thinking like addicts in need of change will help.

He devotes each chapter to the steps in a 12-step program and explains how using those steps can bring us all closer together.

He provides examples here of Americans who have gone deep and learned to forgive. He warns against the kind of certitude that forces out every other perspective but the one in which you’ve convinced you’re right. He focuses on the value of believing in something larger than self, and he extols humility and gratitude.

This is not some kind of deathbed conversion to a more enlightened way of thinking. If you found Beck strident and boisterous in years past, you may still find this book falls into that. I was touched by the journey, and I came away a little surprised that he would be so candid and public about his personal flaws and shortcomings.
I find his sometimes hyperbolic thoughts on how technology will change us all to be a bit amusing. Maybe he’s right, but I’m a little less inclined to slurp that soup until it cools a bit.

I guess if I were in a frame of mind that said, “I’m going to read this and keep track of all the inconsistencies and gotcha statements,” I’d find this book a chore and unworthy of my time. If I adopt the author’s perspective that I need an intervention, I might read this. Beck aptly points out that our addictions to Facebook likes and Twitter retweets contribute to a division that has the potential to destroy the nation. I’m not entirely convinced he’s wrong.

I went into this with a lot of trepidation. Is it going to be just another rehash of Beck’s politics? I could get that pretty much every day. I wanted this to be something different, and while he doesn’t switch sides, he accepts responsibility for his part in the divisions among us, and that seems hard to do. He also offers thoughtful suggestions on steps we can take as individuals to lower the volume and increase our ability to simply listen and respect the difference of those around us rather than forcibly shout them down. Instead of reading this to gain amunition with which to punch back, I read it to learn more about the evolutoin of one individual and to ponder his thoughts on how we reconnect.

Part of the narration is a bit hyper-dramatic. He gets pretty out there in a paragraph or two. You can almost visualize wild gestures as he reads. It gets a bit whispery and funky in a spot or two, but on balance, it’s a highly listenable narration.

NLS:
Addicted to outrage: how thinking like a recovering addict can heal the country DB92907
Beck, Glenn. Reading time: 15 hours, 32 minutes.
Read by Glenn Beck.

Social Sciences
Government and Politics
Bestsellers

The author of Miracles and Massacres (DB 77942) discusses America's growing social and political division and penchant for cultural anger. Frames this trend as an addiction and proposes a solution similar to traditional twelve-step programs. Unrated. Commercial audiobook. Bestseller. 2018.

[Soo Yen · Rating 1 out of 5]

I don't think this book is achieving what it's trying to achieve. It's like a super duper long newspaper op-ed piece without any data and statistics to back up the claims. There is no cohesion of ideas and Beck wrote a lot about issues that I felt were unrelated. He probably started out with good intentions but the general tone that he conveyed was hardly non-partisan.

[John · Rating 3 out of 5]

Yikes, this is tough to rate. On the one hand, I wish everyone would read it. On the other hand, it's a total mess. It's a Frankenstein's monster of a book, its chapters haphazardly stitched together without regard for aesthetics, concision, or cohesion. And though I greatly like and admire Glenn Beck as both a political pundit and an overall human being, his tendency to overindulge in self-recrimination and constantly remind you of his vast integrity can start to grate on your nerves. God bless him for trying to promote peace and understanding among the various political factions, but I wish he came across more like Martin Luther King sounding the call for national unity and less like Rodney King plaintively asking, "Can we all just get along?"
Regardless of whether Republicans and Democrats ever learn how to agree to disagree, I am all for the idea that both sides need to dial down their rhetoric and stop painting each other as villains and lunatics. Ideally, we should be able to battle over public policy without resorting to personal attacks and character assassination, but who knows whether this is still actually possible in the age of social media. I see little evidence of anyone reaching out an olive branch without having it slapped from their hand.
Beck also makes a great point when he details how we as a society are being manipulated by internet trolls, Russian bots, and other bad actors intent on spreading chaos, and that refusing to give each other the benefit of the doubt will lead to lasting societal harm. America is truly addicted to outrage, and our media works overtime at fanning the flames. It's a hugely important issue, and ADDICTED TO OUTRAGE is perhaps the fairest and most non-partisan book to try to tackle it. I can't imagine anyone reading it without engaging in some healthy self-reflection.
Problem is, the book's approach is very muddled. There's something very odd about Beck telling all of us to calm down, then spending multiple chapters on how America is going to Hell in a hand basket. I assume the implication is that we must learn to band together if we hope to overcome the REAL threats to humanity's future. But the impression I actually got was that Americans are pretty damn justified in freaking out right now, even if freaking out is bad for our mental and physical health. It's as though Beck wants to douse the fire by blowing on the embers.
It would help if Beck offered some kind of metric for determining when outrage is actually warranted. He admits there are times when outrage is the correct response, yet offers no suggestions for recognizing when such is the case. And while the idea of using AA's twelve-step program to help beat outrage addiction is a cute idea, there really isn't very far you can go with it. Plus, if you're a long-term Beck listener, I imagine you're probably as tired of hearing about his former alcoholism as I am. Not because I don't consider it a valuable topic, but because I've already heard him talk about it. A lot. And always in his super-serious voice, too.
Then there's the way the book is written and organized. I understand wanting to come across as conversational and easy to relate to, but there's often a thin line between unpretentious and just plain lazy. Listening to Beck read the audio version, you'd be forgiven for thinking it was an extended radio monologue rather than an actual hardcover book with a retail price of $28. Too bad he didn't have his crack writing staff assist him on this one. Maybe they could've given it a boost, or at least deleted the weak attempts at humor.
As for organization...what organization? Half the chapters are barely related to the stated topic (because why would a book on outrage addiction NOT include chapters on artificial intelligence, universal basic income, and China's cutting-edge surveillance tech?), and Beck frequently induces deja vu by repeating information in a manner that suggests he forgot he already covered it. All of which makes the book feel bloated and clunky. Interesting, yes...but clunky.
Still, there's tons of good stuff here, so I don't think it's something you ought to dismiss. I must admit, despite him being a conservative author, Beck enabled me to empathize with the left's POV a little bit more, and I'm sure progressives who read the book are likely to say the same thing about the right. And though I rarely get worked up over politics and am not on any social media apart from Goodreads, I still found plenty of stuff here to sink my teeth into. I only wish there wasn't such a huge gap in quality between presentation and substance.

[Mark Scheel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Known by most as the politically conservative radio host and founder of TheBlaze television network as well as a twelve-time best-selling author, Glenn Beck, with his most recent work Addicted to Outrage, has adopted a stunningly fresh approach. Identifying the state of America’s present irrationally vitriolic political discourse and brutal war of words as parallel in ways with addiction and substance abuse, Beck draws on his own personal experience with AA to offer a novel “10-step” remedy for dialing back the hatred and restoring civility to the country.

The book is divided into four parts: “We Have a Problem,” “Why We Must Fix This Now,” “Finding Our Unum,” and “Reconciliation.” The progression follows a similar pattern to the AA regimen. His thesis is clearly spelled out early on: “…[I]f we don’t overcome the urge to preach to the choir and silence all other voices, this country will not survive as we know and love it, and time is much shorter than you think, for reasons that very few are even aware of.”

Make no mistake, Beck puts aside any partisan bias to extend an olive branch to the liberal contingent, yet he also warns against extremists on both sides who would dismantle the nation’s constitutional bedrock and introduce either anarchy or totalitarianism. How many, for example, are aware of Aleksandr Dugin and the threat he and his following pose?

As with AA, Beck stresses the importance of “faith” and the surrender to a “Higher Power.” He was raised a Catholic; however, he later converted to Mormonism. And his reasons for doing so would come as a surprise to many.

Along the way, being an astute student of history, Beck informs the reader of some surprising factoids to illustrate certain points he wishes to make. Who knew that the original painting of Washington Crossing the Delaware was destroyed during the Allied bombing of Germany in World War II? Or that the first U.S. coin minted wasn’t engraved with “In God We Trust,” but rather on one side “We Are One” and on the other “Mind Your Business”? Scattered throughout one finds quotations by such luminaries as Lincoln, Franklin, Mandela and Gandhi.

Always one with an eye toward any dark clouds on the horizon, Beck also sounds a clarion call regarding the technological advance toward artificial intelligence. He distinguishes among AI, AGI (artificial general intelligence) and ASI (artificial superintelligence) and delineates chillingly the risk to humanity the latter may constitute if not rigidly controlled. And it behooves us all to join together with an appreciation of the need for that control.

Beck also dedicates space to an analysis of what really represents “fake news” and “fake history.” In a chapter titled “Think,” he creates what he terms a Baloney Detection Kit warning of such fallacies as “Argument from Authority,” “Argument Ad Hominem,” “Straw Man Argument,” “Inconsistency Bias,” and “Non Sequiturs.” The employment of such verbal devices unfortunately isn’t confined to any one side or the other.

Ultimately his appeal is to our “better angels”—to rein in our anger, listen to what our fellow human beings are actually saying and show mutual respect even where differences exist. And especially cultivate the common ground we find. Often we might discover that underlying values are the same, just the means of preserving them differ. In any event, Beck maintains convincingly that it’s crucial to rid ourselves of this habit and indulgence of rhetorical outrage so prevalent today, both for the sake of our own health and well being and that of the nation as a whole. To continue unabated along the path we’re on leads nowhere but to a road of ruin.

[Trevor Parker · Rating 5 out of 5]

What can I say? I feel like he makes a lot of good points. And I love how there are a lot of notes so you can go look things up for yourself.

In fact, Beck spends a part of this book arguing that to understand an issue you HAVE TO take the time yourself to research and come to your own decisions. Go strait to the original source. Things are too politicized, and fact checking is too rare to find a full picture just by listening to talking heads online or TV.

A few key thoughts that got me pondering:

Our thumbs up, or like, or lol make each of us an unwitting dope dealer. Thumbs up, dopamine surge. Retweet, serotonin hit kicked off. A new subreddit thread, a splash of oxytocin.

Dopamine is the root word of the slang dope. So make no mistake, our addiction to outrage is as real and as chemically rich as the latest street drug. But even worse because it's 100% legal and it's being reinforced by the press, social platforms, celebrities, and political leaders.

- Glenn Beck, “Addicted to Outrage.” Published September 18th, 2018 by Threshold Editions. Audio book @23:30


Bloomberg warned… “Bringing the country back together,” he said, “won't be easy, but I believe it can be done. And if we are to continue as a true democracy, it must be done. Because bringing the country back together starts with the first lesson you learn here at Rice: honesty matters. And everyone must be held accountable for being honest.”

- Glenn Beck, “Addicted to Outrage.” Published September 18th, 2018 by Threshold Editions. Audio book @55:16

There's an old Cold War story told about a two horse race between a Russian horse and an American horse. The American newspapers reported, accurately, that the American horse won by 10 lengths. The Russian newspapers reported, just as accurately, that the Russian horse finished second while the American horse finished next to last.

It would be impossible for me to overstate the danger of the loss of our grasp on truth and facts.

Giving the commencement address at Virginia Military Institute in May 2018, the recently fired Secretary of State Rex Tillerson warned if our leaders seek to conceal the truth, or we as people become accepting of alternative realities that are no longer grounded in facts, then we as American citizens are on a pathway to relinquishing our freedom. This is the life of non-democratic societies. “A responsibility of every American citizen is to preserve and protect our freedom by recognizing what truth is and is not, what a fact is and is not, and begin by holding ourselves accountable to truthfulness, and demand our pursuit of America's future be fact based. Not based on wishful thinking. Not hoped for outcomes made in shallow promises. But with a clear-eyed view of the facts as they are, and guided by the truth that will set us free to seek solutions to our most daunting challenges. When we as people, a free people, go wobbly on the truth, even on what may seem to be the most trivial of matters, we go wobbly on America.”

- Glenn Beck, “Addicted to Outrage.” Published September 18th, 2018 by Threshold Editions. Audio book @1:00:40


Latin Proverb:
Doubt is the beginning of wisdom.

- Prologue to Abelard's Sic et Non: "By doubt indeed we come to questioning; by questioning, we perceive the truth.”

[Ash Wilson · Rating 4 out of 5]

I saw this book advertised somewhere, and what was interesting about my choosing to read it is that I’m kind of neutral on Glenn Beck. I think he’s quite impressive as a historian, constitutionalist, etc, and I have enjoyed others of his books - yet I haven’t really cared for him on radio or tv much, and one of the main reasons for that is that I felt his strong, emotional passion for what he believes tends to border on outrage, and I definitely have felt in the past that he exaggerated things greatly and used scare tactics to outrage his base right along with him, which I didn’t care for. Therefor, when I saw his new book, “Addicted to Outrage” being advertised, I had to kind of laugh at what I felt was the glaring extreme hypocrisy there. However, it did intrigue me enough to read it.

I’m glad I did. Very glad. It wasn’t the greatest book I’ve ever read. It was a 3 to 4 star effort. But it was closer to 4 most of the time than it was to 3.

Although it could get redundant and repetitive at times, & I still felt he contradicted himself completely from time to time throughout it as well, (which Beck even calls himself “a lot of contradictions” towards the end of the book, so I can’t even really blame him), and I also did feel preached to a few times, which I never care for, and I felt the comparisons to AA and his own personal struggle with alcoholism was exemplified as tied too closely to our nation’s current political problems a bit too much, (although I should have guessed that, as the sub-title of the book is “how thinking like a recovering addict can heal the country”) - even with all that, I still found a lot to be learned and positively taken away from it as well.

There were times throughout the book I thought I may have misunderstood it as trying to defuse the outrage, when actually, it just made me far MORE outraged. Especially the section on growing technology, predicted major job loss in our not so distant future, and technological control. But in the end, I believe that that’s what that section was meant to do. I think he meant to take us on a journey of emotions throughout the book so that by the final section, he could show us what that does to us and why the constant outrage hurts everyone - internally and externally - in your day to day personal life, and to the nation and even world as a whole.

I did really admire and appreciate that Beck did not shy away at all from pointing out his own personal flaws, mistakes, problems, and contributions as an extremely polarizing public figure, to what has caused such great political outrage throughout our country. He even went so far as to tell specific stories as to where he feels he was out and out just plain wrong. He went into great detail about why he chose to leave Fox News at the peak of his success, why he has regrets about things he did as the “leader of the Tea Party movement”, about his time at CNN, about his drinking history, about his misguided anger on live radio, etc.

Those were actually some of the most interesting parts of the book to me. His chapter on Samantha Bee, (which, trust me, WILL surprise you). His story on Roger Ailes (major eye roll). He and his wife’s search for faith and a united religion, (they landed on Mormonism themselves, though he does not try to strongly push any religious views on anyone throughout the book, only faith in something, ANYTHING, bigger than ourselves, be it a-God/God’s, nature, the universe, or whatever else.)

He stated more than one time throughout the book that he considers himself an “optimistic catastrophist”, and I think that perfectly states what makes this book so interesting. He could definitely at times be over the top in this book, because that’s just who Beck is, but you get used to that if you know his character and just shrug those pieces off when reading or watching him.

I also enjoyed that this book did not come off as an attack on the left. He makes it crystal clear that the problem is BOTH major parties, and that they share the blame equally. Yes, he’s clearly a conservative, but as he states in the book, there are many shades of conservative, just like there are many shades of liberal, and we are ALL Americans, who ALL love this country and wants what’s best for it and all of the people living in it, even when we completely and totally disagree on what that is. And obviously, there’s no secret and hasn’t been since the last presidential election, that as a famous talking-head conservative, there is zero love lost between Beck and Trump, which for me personally, is a true and relatable struggle as well.

Overall, although it had its slow and repetitive parts, pieces that seemed to contradict each other, and things that I just flat out disagreed with - I also learned a lot from this book and took positive lessons away from it, and I believe that ALL Americans on BOTH sides of the aisle could as well... if we can just put our ‘outrage’ aside for long enough to do so.

[Julie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved Addicted to Outrage. Glenn makes so many important points. It seems that as a country we are more divided than any other time that I remember in my lifetime. Our political parties, for so many, is the most important allegiance that we have. We only listen to the news that we agree with, and in some cases friendships and family relationships have suffered. It seems that there is a tendency to think “I am right, you are wrong, and not just wrong, but evil.” That is a scary road to travel down. When a society starts calling entire groups of people evil, they begin to dehumanize those people. Dehumanizing whole groups of people leads to terrible things.

His chapter on race was just heartbreaking. Hatred is a terrible thing whether it is directed at a person for their skin color, gender, religion or whatever holds that person or group separate. My ancestors lost their homes and most of their possessions and were driven out of their state in the middle of the winter. They settled in the valley of the Great Salt Lake. Unfortunately the persecution did not end there. In fact it continues today. Here in Utah it is not at all uncommon to hear of one of our chapels getting vandalized or even burned down. My local meetinghouse that I attend was vandalized. A quick search will show the frequency of such acts of hatred. Last week I was visiting a church history site in a different state, and someone drove past us and screamed “F-Mormons”. Also on this trip were groups of people screaming their hatred of us in a bull horn, holding up signs telling us we are going to hell. I don’t understand putting that much effort into hate. It is very sad and I feel for these people that live in such a dark place.

Glenn talks about how we combat such hatred, whether it is directed at someone’s political opinions or their race, gender, sexual orientation or religion, etc. We need to love our enemies and follow the teaching of Jesus Christ.

He also addresses how to handle the addiction to outrage that is so prevalent. Which is, we need to realize we cannot always be right all the time. We have things we can learn from the other side. We need to take a deep breath and lighten up a little. If something one president does outrages us, then when your guy does the same thing it’s no big deal (both parties are guilty of this), then we should take a step back and realize the hypocrisy.

I highly recommend this book.

[Camilla · Rating 3 out of 5]

So this book made me very uncomfortable. It's not that Beck said anything inappropriate or that the narrative took a weird turn. It's that he kept pushing for the reader to redefine how we view ourselves and others and I was constantly having to self-assess to see where I stood on issues and people. It was uncomfortable. I told my husband every time I put the book down, I was a little cranky for like an hour afterward because my guilt and cognitive dissonance would kick in and make me tense. It was just such a difficult book to read since I was really trying to adopt the awareness that Beck taught. I found out that I am guilty of almost everything that he mentions in the book when it comes to my view of people who disagree with me politically. He goes through a step-by-step plan for recovering addicts in his book and with each chapter, I found myself trying to slough off one more bias that affects my relationship with other Americans.

Beck describes plenty of experiences, both personal and historical, that demonstrate the enmity between democrats and republicans, liberals and conservatives. He explains why that enmity exists and how it came to grow to the epic dimensions it is currently in. He also details ways to combat that enmity, primarily through our individual commitment to avoid hatred in thought, speech, and action until we've reached the point that we've broken through our addiction to our outrage and can reasonably sit down with another person and discuss the future.

I'm not the biggest fan of Glenn Beck, mostly because I don't like his doomsday viewpoint (he calls himself an optimistic catastrophist), but I really appreciated his candor, honesty, well-moderated pacing, historical insight, and speaking ability (he personally reads the book in the audio version I listened to). He certainly has skill and talent as a radio personality because I was surprised when I'd shake myself from the hypnotic reverie of his speaking to discover that an hour had passed in the blink of an eye. The book doesn't resolve any of the current events issues or future issues that Beck mentions in the book, but it does provide a road map for how we can change ourselves to prepare ourselves to meet those current or future issues.

[Christy Peterson · Rating 5 out of 5]

United we stand, divided we fall.

My heart is heavy today with how divided we are.

People have forgotten, or don't know that we have a national debt clock. More people need to watch it for 60 seconds to be awakened how close to devastation the US is. Drastic action needs to be take to keep us from following the path of the Weimar Republic. Yes, individuals and families will suffer from those drastic decisions, but they have to be made to keep the entire nation from suffering the same. The current spending and corruption is unarguably unsustainable. The media, which should be our watchdogs, has long been serving the evil that wants to bring the US down, as seen by the spin they put on news. I have watched them inflame the situation they are reporting on, instead of giving a fair account. This evil wants to keep us outraged and divided. They want to keep people ignorant of what the Constitution says. They use fear propaganda, just as twisted as Germany's WWII propaganda. And people fall for it. Because fear.

There is so much more going on here.

This book is an attempt to wake us up to how we are being spun up to rage against one another, instead of working together to find a solution. I finally understood a little how people can support super wacked out ideas about government. But I still wished they have more education of history and economics.

Beck reminds us on how much power the government has, which is no more power than a single person has. For example, we have the right to defend ourselves, but we don't have the right to go into our neighbor's home, take food and money, and give it to another neighbor.

This book was written in 2016, so I was concerned about dated outlooks and predictions. But there wasn't much to that.

[Jim · Rating 2 out of 5]

Whenever a political figure indicates that issues are complex and it's time to come together to solve problems, I perk up my ears. Because this is something America is really, really bad at these days.

Unfortunately, I was suckered. The overlying message is a good one, but what Beck really meant to say is the same thing Trump said when he won and Obama said when he won and pretty much everyone else said when they won in the last 20 years... "come together and agree with me because I won and you didn't."

I also felt there was too much AA and religious stuff in there, but that's just my personal blah. Beck is religious and there's nothing wrong with religious people talking a lot about AA. And it has helped him in his life, so that's great.

What he writes about treating people with opposing views with respect... that's an important message. I wanted more meat around that. And strange that he says Jake Tapper is respected by everyone even though he's CNN when Tapper is obviously extremely partisan. Makes you think that he's trying to prove a red point by giving you incredibly low expectations of the left wing of the media.

At any rate, I don't find Beck's message authentic even though it's one we need. He has spent too much of his career being the right-wing version of a Tapper or an Amanpour to get the benefit of the doubt and he juxtaposes all these healing messages with right-wing arguments.

[Donald Allen · Rating 2 out of 5]

Glenn Beck just doesn't get it.

A good book,well written and very knowledgeable. I like Glenn on the radio and generally agree with a lot of what he is about. But I think he just has lost sight of the fact that in order both sides to come together we must have the same goals in sight for the country. In America at this time in history true conservative republicans are interested in going back to living and building this country according to the constitution. The true liberal democrats(say of Jack Kennedy) are being quickly replaced by a new Democratic breed of hardend Marxist socialist who are on the fast track too outright communism. Beck a a couple of years back talked about this frequently and seemed to have a firm grasp on the subject. I feel like he has traded in his love of the constitution in order to sell these new touchy feely lets all discuss are feelings and sing Kum by ya over some comfort food. Glenn,can this crap you know better. Get back to doing what you do best,we need you buddy.

[Regina · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love Glenn Beck's books. They always make me think and I learn so much. He researches everything so well. I've never understood the hatred directed at him because he is always very fair and insightful and shares both sides of issues. (I think people that don't like him have simply never read his books.) This book was no exception. I originally bought the book as a gift for my dad (I wanted to read it before I gave it to him), but loved it so much I had to buy my own copy. It felt like Beck had been listening in on conversations that my husband and I have been having for months. Every American needs to read chapter 26 in particular. As a lover of history, I so admire Beck's constant truthfulness in discussing the history of this great country, the good, the bad, and the ugly. I will be thinking about and discussing this book for a long time to come.

[Tony · Rating 5 out of 5]

A must read regardless of political view. We are to divided as Americans and we are thrown in the middle of chaos specifically to divide us so we will not pay attention to serious issue which will affect all of our futures. This book addresses this perfectly and why we must stop. Our world is being catapulted into the technological future for which we need to make specific and timely decisions about now! If we are just beating each other up over stupidity we will be poorly positioned for the future and the Chinese and Russians will take the lead because we’re being a bunch of spoiled rotten siblings fighting over stupid things. So read this everyone.

[Don · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is at times poorly stitched together and a bit circular, and could have benefited from closer editing of what at times seems like a series of separate essays. But the main point, that we as a society are addicted to and feed off of outrage that is destroying our ability to find common ground, compromise, and reasonable ways to tackle difficult issues, is an important one that is addressed ina passionate, heartfelt, and personal way. The book could have gotten its point across in fewer pages without substantially surrendering or weakening the robust examples offered by Mr. Beck. I highly recommend this book despite its sometimes-distracting flaws.

[Ed Barton · Rating 5 out of 5]

The book is between a 4 and 5 star - but I will lean to round up. Glenn Beck brings home his own journey to recognizing his addiction to outrage - paralleling his own struggle with alcoholism and drug abuse. Written in a clear and straightforward tone, Beck laments the devolution of discourse and interaction in not only our politics, but our communities as well. Weaving thoughtful observations with Beck's reflection on his own life and role in getting us to this moment in history, you will come away after reading the book with a healthy self-questioning of your own role, as well as what you should do to try and break the addiction to outrage and begin the healing. A good read.