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Title: The President of Good and Evil: The Ethics of George W. Bush by Peter Singer ISBN: 0-525-94813-9 Publisher: Dutton Books Pub. Date: 08 March, 2004 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.24 (17 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: A fair and damning review of our current Head of State
Comment: If you belive that this country and the world would be a much better place if people took the time to think through their opinions and try to maintain consistent ethical beliefs then this book is for you. Singer is a revolutionary philosopher not because he espouses any new ethical theories but rather for the thorough manner he extrapolates innteresting moral conclusions from basic ethical principles. In this book he cuts through any and all political mudslinging and spin, leaving only the facts and reason as a guide. Not only is Singer systematicaly logical in his condemnation of the President he is also not without humility. When Bush deserves credit, he gets it (like his action towards AIDS treatment in Africa.) Singer seeems to have no agenda toward the President when the book begins. No axe to grind. Because of his persistent fairness Singer has written the Presidents most damning and justified condemnation. Critics might call Singer simplistic, deconstructing complex moral questions into simple black and white principals. This criticism is not in itself substancial unless someone could cite a specific example of incorrect ethical reasoning on the part of Mr. Singer. They would be hard pressed to do so. Critics be warned, Singer is no simpleton. His simple writing style is a deliberate choice on his part to make the arguments as clear and consise as possible. He understands that tax policy is a complicated and thorny issue but he avoids the numerous tangents that could arise from this issue and sticks to his subject, the ethical consistency of GW. Because of his logical and forceful arguments Singer has shown more conclusively,and with much less bile, that our President is very, very, ethically troubled.
Rating: 5
Summary: A Heavyweight Review of a Lightweight President
Comment: You don't have to follow the news closely to see the inconsistencies in Bush's policies. But Singer's book reveals these inconsistencies to be far more insidious than they appear at first glance. The President of Good and Evil is a heavyweight treatment of a lightweight President. Thinking along these lines, there's a reason that heavyweight boxers aren't allowed to step into the ring against lightweight opponents. The results would be too brutal to witness. Reading this book offers a similarly distasteful experience. But it brings a level of insight into the Bush presidency that is unmatched.
Rating: 4
Summary: Misspelling 'Inconsistent': Bush Jr.'s Rhetoric & Practice
Comment: Peter Singer is a world renowned philosopher and ethicist. George W. Bush is, well... err.
Let's start over. In 'The President of Good and Evil: Taking George W. Bush seriously', Peter Singer makes a thorough examination of George W. Bush's ethics. As Singer observes: "No other president in living memory has spoken so often about good and evil, right and wrong" (p.1). Singer examines Bush's moral philosophy, and the gaps between what Bush preaches and what he does.
The results of Peter Singer's study are not very encouraging. Bush is inconsistent about virtually everything. Does he believe that life is sacred? He says he does, but then he's willing to sacrifice thousands of innocent Afghans and Iraqis in his quest to rid the world of evil (p.50). Fine, then is George W Bush, despite what he says, a Utilitarian, that is, holding the view that the right action is that which is expected to the best consequence for all those affected by one's action now and in the future? Well, that does not square with his position against stem cell research. Stem well research can save lives, but Bush apparently values the life of unborn, sure-to-be-discarded embryos over the life of the many people who can benefit from the cure. Apparently, sometimes life is sacred and sometimes it isn't.
It goes on - does Bush believe in free trade? He says that the case for trade is "not just monetary, but moral. Economic freedom creates habits of liberty" (quoted on p. 126). But how can the imposition of a 30% tariff on steel imports be "work[ing] to end tariffs and break down barriers everywhere"(pp. 128-129)?
Similar inconsistencies abound as to State's rights (they have the right to put up the confederate flag, but not the right to use Marijuana for medical purposes, nor the right to decide for themselves about physician assisted suicide), Freedom (the US is the "freest nation in the world", but if Bush thinks you might be a terrorist you can be held for as long as he fancies without a trial, without the right to see a lawyer, and possibly be tortured), and lying (which is wrong, but not when you're knowingly misleading your countrymen about Saddam Hussein's attempts to acquire weapons of mass destruction in Africa pp. 212-216).
Perhaps the grossest inconsistency is in Bush's justification for engaging in Pre-emptive war. Who gets to determine whether a threat is serious enough to warrant a pre-emptive strike? Given the US possession of Nuclear weapons, its current policy of pre-emption, and Bush's verbal threats to North Korea, would North Korea be justified in launching a pre-emptive strike on the US? Singer notes:
"one might say, as Bush himself has often said, that the United States is a 'peace- loving nation', and it is peace-loving nations that can be justified in waging a preemptive war" (p. 183)
The weakest parts of Singer's critique come in two parallel issues - the domestic rights and obligations of the state and the international rights and obligations of the United Nations. Singer is correct that the UN, and not the US, has the greater moral authority to decide questions of international war and peace, and that the state, and not the individual members in the society, has the obligation to promote equality and fight poverty. But in both cases, Singer ignores or underplays the main conservative argument - that states are inefficient in dealing with poverty through reallocation and resources, and that international bodies are inefficient in diffusing international crises. You don't have to agree with these positions (I have serious misgiving about them myself), but if they are true, they make a good case for small governments at home and unilateral action abroad.
Most of Singer's critique, although it hits the mark, is hardly new. There are countless books which make all or most of these points, and some others. Sources as wide apart as The Economist and The New York Review of Books have criticized Bush's politics, economics, and (although usually implicitly) morals.
I think Singer is somewhat unfair in criticizing Bush's ethics and scrutinizing his speeches in quest for a "coherent moral philosophy" (p.2). Along with Professor Singer's cynical friends and colleagues, I think Bush is a politician whose business is to get reelected, not to teach or demonstrate ethics. Singer writes that "tens of millions of Americans... share the views [Bush] puts forward on a wide range of moral issues.... Those who think I am naïve Bush's view may therefore see [the book] as an examination or critique of a set of beliefs widely shared by the American public." (pp.5-6). Surely there is a better champion of these views then the American President? Attacking some of the leading right wing conservatives may be less commercially successful, but fairer to these views.
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Title: Freethinkers: A History of American Secularism by Susan Jacoby ISBN: 0805074422 Publisher: Metropolitan Books Pub. Date: 01 April, 2004 List Price(USD): $27.50 |
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Title: Worse Than Watergate: The Secret Presidency of George W. Bush by John W. Dean ISBN: 031600023X Publisher: Little, Brown Pub. Date: 06 April, 2004 List Price(USD): $22.95 |
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Title: American Dynasty: Aristocracy, Fortune, and the Politics of Deceit in the House of Bush by Kevin Phillips ISBN: 0670032646 Publisher: Viking Books Pub. Date: 01 January, 2004 List Price(USD): $25.95 |
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Title: Against All Enemies: Inside America's War on Terror by Richard A. Clarke ISBN: 0743260244 Publisher: Free Press Pub. Date: 22 March, 2004 List Price(USD): $27.00 |
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Title: The Price of Loyalty: George W. Bush, the White House, and the Education of Paul O'Neill by Ron Suskind ISBN: 0743255453 Publisher: Simon & Schuster Pub. Date: 13 January, 2004 List Price(USD): $26.00 |
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