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Title: Spirit Of Community by Amitai Etzioni ISBN: 0671885243 Publisher: Touchstone Books Pub. Date: May, 1994 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $20.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.5
Rating: 4
Summary: Really thought provoking
Comment: I had to read this book for my political science class, and completed it well ahead of the due date. Etzioni writes a book that clearly targets what he believes is wrong with our system, where the wrongs came from, how we can fix it, and then he ends with a call for us to join him in his Communitarian movement.
The problem, he believes, is that there is an over-emphasis on individual "rights." Everyone these days believes that they have so very many rights, and that stating a right is an END to any argument. What we really need, Etzioni believes, is a new system where we have several layers of communities within communities that take care of one another.
He also discusses the need for a large reformation of our money-driven political system, and a desire to sweep our teenagers away from places like McDonald's, where the only thing acquired is a paycheck.
The family must be restored as well, because family values are gone these days. Parents should weigh their children into account before divorcing, and laws should be made to make divorcing less easy.
Sadly, Etzioni goes a bit too far and loses sight of the American Dream in the end. There is no way that the U.S. as a whole will ever give up our success-oriented system and start devoting all of our time to one another. It's hard to imagine achieving a "community" in gang-ridden South Central L.A.
Worst of all, Etzioni descends into Reagan/Eighties bashing in the first few pages! Sure sign of a socialist loser. Ah well...nice try at disguising your TRUE agenda, Etzioni. While I don't agree with his ideas, this is still a good book to read, and that's why it gets a high rating. Check it out if your beliefs are rock-solid, or else you might swept into following this stuff.
Rating: 5
Summary: Common Sense Revisted
Comment: Communitarianism, I believe, is the natural, common sense philosophy towards personal, social and political life that the majority of this nation holds. Before Dr. Etzioni and his cohorts in the DC area gathered, no one had put into words what many of us have felt and believed. The world is not one of absolutes; there are many shades of grey. Individual rights cannot rule supreme and the needs of the community cannot always overrule the needs of the individual. There has to be a middle ground and I believe this book speaks to that middle ground.
Many people find it easy to complain and degrade our social and polical structures and people in general, without suggesting any solutions. Dr. Etzioni provides clearcut resolutions to the problems of our day, such as drug use, AIDS, and even the corruption of our politicians.
What strikes me most about this book is how Etzioni shows that Americans have come to feel entitled to "rights" that are not really rights, and all this without having any responsibilities in turn.
If you wonder constantly how the ACLU can mount so many campaigns against laws that seem perfectly reasonable to you, or if you are tired of hearing kids getting kicked out of school for giving a friend a cough drop (no drugs at all!!!) then you will enjoy this book. I couldn't put it down.
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Title: The Essential Communitarian Reader by Amitai Etzioni ISBN: 0847688275 Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Pub. Date: 01 February, 1998 List Price(USD): $16.95 |
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Title: The New Golden Rule: Community and Morality in a Democratic Society by Amitai Etzioni ISBN: 0465049990 Publisher: Basic Books Pub. Date: April, 1998 List Price(USD): $21.00 |
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Title: The Good Society by Richard Madsen, William M. Sullivan, Robert Neelly Bellah, Ann Swidler ISBN: 0679733590 Publisher: Vintage Books Pub. Date: September, 1992 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
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Title: Habits of the Heart: Individualism and Commitment in American Life by Robert Neelly Bellah, Richard Madsen, William M. Sullivan, Ann Swidler, Steven M. Tipton ISBN: 0520205685 Publisher: University of California Press Pub. Date: May, 1996 List Price(USD): $17.95 |
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Title: Next: The Road to the Good Society by Amitai Etzioni ISBN: 0465020909 Publisher: Basic Books Pub. Date: February, 2001 List Price(USD): $23.00 |
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