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Rediscovering American Values: The Foundations of our Freedom for the 21st Century
A compassionate celebration of such traditional ideals as fairness, honesty, humility, service, and leadership shows them to be alive and well and explains how they can be incorporated into one's personal and professional life. Reprint.
320 pages, Paperback
First published September 1, 1997
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November 10, 2016This a pathetic book. It was incredibly difficult to read but I persisted for the sake of finishing it. The topic is important, especially now one day after DT conquered America (that has such an ominous ring). The book on this subject by Jimmy Carter in 2005 is so much better, more thoughtful and intelligent. DeVos is more typical of the delusional, hyper-Christian zealots and self-appointed "teacher" types (like Limbaugh, O'Reilly and ilk).
The real difficulty for me, reading this book, is that the author makes so many statements that he doesn't even realize are profound arguments that require him to make a case. This kind of thinking comes when people suspend their own disbelief to certain personal "truths" and expect all others do the same. In reality, DeVos lacks imagination and curiosity.
p. 23 "When everything is subject to question--when everything is questionable, doubtful, or suspicious--the system goes awry."
This is not a thesis upon which to build a book designed to convince readers of his point. In fact, Dick DeVos, like Donald Trump now president of the USA, they don't think they are required to build a convincing argument. These kind of folks figure they can just speak, and everyone else should follow without question.
I could go on about the hypocrisy of this hyper-Christian, like how "Honesty" is the most important (and 1st chapter) value, but contains nudge-nudge, wink-wink little white deceptions he himself or others made, without even a pause to study the paradoxes philosophically in a chapter on honesty. More examples of flawed thinking, and unacknowledged paradoxical statements abound in this work but it simply worth the effort to refute them. It is a poorly conceived and written morass. Luckily, I paid 25c for this book at Wastewise...and even that is overpriced.
Read Jimmy Carter for a meatier discussion.
The real difficulty for me, reading this book, is that the author makes so many statements that he doesn't even realize are profound arguments that require him to make a case. This kind of thinking comes when people suspend their own disbelief to certain personal "truths" and expect all others do the same. In reality, DeVos lacks imagination and curiosity.
p. 23 "When everything is subject to question--when everything is questionable, doubtful, or suspicious--the system goes awry."
This is not a thesis upon which to build a book designed to convince readers of his point. In fact, Dick DeVos, like Donald Trump now president of the USA, they don't think they are required to build a convincing argument. These kind of folks figure they can just speak, and everyone else should follow without question.
I could go on about the hypocrisy of this hyper-Christian, like how "Honesty" is the most important (and 1st chapter) value, but contains nudge-nudge, wink-wink little white deceptions he himself or others made, without even a pause to study the paradoxes philosophically in a chapter on honesty. More examples of flawed thinking, and unacknowledged paradoxical statements abound in this work but it simply worth the effort to refute them. It is a poorly conceived and written morass. Luckily, I paid 25c for this book at Wastewise...and even that is overpriced.
Read Jimmy Carter for a meatier discussion.
Displaying 1 of 1 review