The Great Derangement: A Terrifying True Story of War, Politics, and Religion at the Twilight of the American Empire
A REVELATORY AND DARKLY COMIC ADVENTURE THROUGH A NATION ON THE VERGE OF A NERVOUS BREAKDOWN?FROM THE HALLS OF CONGRESS TO THE BASES OF BAGHDAD TO THE APOCALYPTIC CHURCHES OF THE HEARTLAND
Rolling Stone?sMatt Taibbi set out to describe the nature of George Bush?s America in the post-9/11 era and ended up vomiting demons in an evangelical church in Texas, riding the streets of Baghdad in an American convoy to nowhere, searching for phantom fighter jets in Congress, and falling into the rabbit hole of the 9/11 Truth Movement.
Matt discovered in his travels across the country that the resilient blue state/red state narrative of American politics had become irrelevant. A large and growing chunk of the American population was so turned off?or radicalized?by electoral chicanery, a spineless news media, and the increasingly blatant lies from our leaders (?they hate us for our freedom?) that they abandoned the political mainstream altogether. They joined what he calls The Great Derangement.
Taibbi tells the story of this new American madness by inserting himself into four defining American subcultures: The Military, where he finds himself mired in the grotesque black comedy of the American occupation of Iraq; The System, where he follows the money-slicked path of legislation in Congress; The Resistance, where he doubles as chief public antagonist and undercover member of the passionately bonkers 9/11 Truth Movement; and The Church, where he infiltrates a politically influential apocalyptic mega-ministry in Texas and enters the lives of its desperate congregants. Together these four interwoven adventures paint a portrait of a nation dangerously out of touch with reality and desperately searching for answers in all the wrong places.
Funny, smart, and a little bit heartbreaking, The Great Derangement is an audaciously reported, sobering, and illuminating portrait of America at the end of the Bush era.
The Great Derangement: A Terrifying True Story of War, Politics, and Religion at the Twilight of the American Empire Accessories
 Smells Like Dead Elephants: Dispatches from a Rotting Empire
What Happened: Inside the Bush White House and Washington's Culture of Deception
Spanking the Donkey: Dispatches from the Dumb Season
When You Are Engulfed in Flames
The Post-American World
The Imus Ranch Record
The Dark Side: The Inside Story of How The War on Terror Turned into a War on American Ideals
Nixonland: The Rise of a President and the Fracturing of America
The Prosecution of George W. Bush for Murder
Great American Hypocrites: Toppling the Big Myths of Republican Politics
The Great Derangement: A Terrifying True Story of War, Politics, and Religion at the Twilight of the American Empire Reviews
Summary: better as a blog. But the whole look-how-ridiculous-and-obnoxious-I-can-be shtick gets old after a while. Matt Taibbi's "terrifying true story of war, politics & religion at the twilight of the American empire" is an expose laced with David Sedaris-like humor. He mocks the behavior and beliefs of members of a Christian megachurch in Texas (even going so far as to be baptized all in the name of getting material for the book), debunks the logic-defying contentions of certain 9/11 conspiracy theorists, shines a light on some of Congress's reprehensible priorities and procedures, slams politicians' misleading actions after the Democratic takeover in 2006 (who passed a supposedly earmark-free bill.full of earmarks), and tried to shed some light on the war in Iraq, (p 88), "it was abundantly clear to most all the soldiers I spent time with that the real mission was to drive around in circles so as to provide the enemy with a target once daily." Although The Great Derangement benefits from being, at times: funny, informative, and entertaining, its death knell is its datedness. And in this day and age of up-to-the-minute availability of news via the Internet, these writings (some as old 2005) might have been better as installments of a blog.
The infiltration of Pastor Hagee's megachurch in Texas is where Mr. Taibbi puts forward a more sympathetic portrait of megachurch parishioners, he has no problem allowing Hagee and his ilk to damn themselves. The final set of notes that Mr. As a writer for Rolling Stone, Matt Taibbi covers a wide variety of subjects. That said, the Truthers don't have a major political party beholden to them or hundreds if not thousands of adherents positioned within elected and non-elected government. Taibbi's strongest point, one that I don't remember him stating directly, is that in today's America, a person can choose from a buffet of ideas and ideologies and there will always be somebody willing to spout reality optional 'facts' that support that position. 'Derangement' is a record of Hagee's willingness to lie to his congregation to further his political ends and ingratiate himself with his Washington benefactors.
Taibbi shines most. Also, Tiabbi fails to make any real connection between the 'Truthers' and any tenet of Liberalism. 'The Great Derangement' attempts to provide 'balance' to his critique of Evangelicalism by comparing it to the '9/11 Truth' movement, something that Mr. Although my personal religious leanings are very similar to the author's, I grew up in the church (if a much more 'main line' denomination) and I recognize the individuals that populate Cornerstone Church in San Antonio. Conspiracy theories, and this one in particular, have very little to do with political ideologies. Where 'Derangement' is more successful is in actually reporting from inside of each of the three 'worlds' he covers.
In the end, Mr. At that he is only marginally successful. One is left wondering how anything ever gets done. 'The Great Derangement' is something of a mongrel. Taibbi's inside look at how ear marks work is just crushingly disheartening. The amount of disfunction is staggering.
Taibbi characterizes as 'left-wing' though I find that claim a bit dubious. He manages to differentiate between the zealots running the show, the crackpot 'yes-men' that form the middle management, and the actual believers in the pews who, while overly credulous, are really just looking for some answers, stability, and a sense of belonging in their life.
Taibbi had stacks of notes on three different subjects, each set too large for an article but too short for a book on its own, and his solution was to combine them all in one book and claim that the combination was in an effort to compare and contrast. I accept that each one is based on a similar sort of fact-free, take it on faith, 'I-want-to-believe' sort of movement.
At times 'Derangement' felt as if Mr. While the Truthers come off as goofy and the Hageeites come off as unsettling, Mr.
People who think that the World Trade Center was dynamited may try to convince us to adopt their point of view but they're not trying to pass laws and/or change laws so that conform with their ideology. While Mr.
Taibbi used to fill out 'The Great Derangement' was on the combination of corruption and gridlock in Congress.
Matt Taibbi is in my opinion the most interesting political writer working today. I regularly find myself stopping and rereading paragraphs in his books that seem to perfectly capture the essence of what makes American politics so annoying, yet fascinating. Basically, religious nut-jobs (as supposed examples of the extreme Right) and 9/11 conspiracy nut-jobs (as supposed examples of the extreme Left) are.wait for it.both equally nutty. I frankly expected him to be more left-leaning, but he is refreshingly equal-opportunity in his skewering. Worth a read, but I'd suggest his "Spanking the Donkey" as much more satisfying and spot-on in its observations (if you skip some of the silly fantasy sequences). Taibbi's strong writing and total immersion in his subject matter still manage to make this somewhat underwhelming thesis interesting, but in the end it felt like he was trying too hard to wrap it all up in a neat theme rather than just letting the writing do its work. All that said, I found the central premise of "The Great Derangement" to be a little flimsy. He is a writer's writer, clearly in love with the language (in a very approachable way, don't worry) and quite gifted at turning a phrase.
Only slowly does Taibbi's basic compassion for these people rise to the fore. Later Taibbi gives his real opinions of what idiots they are, and asks what America is coming to. And maybe, Taibbi suspects, part of the con has been to get them to blame and hate each other. He basically plays Borat, inventing oddball past experiences to play his part, and letting the unsuspecting locals make fools of themselves for the camera. But to do so he goes undercover, posing as a believer in far right-wing Christian-Zionism, or far-left 9/11 conspiracy theories. These are people, he reasons, both conservatives and liberals, who feel so conned by the political rip-off system that they can't tell who to trust. Taibbi commendably takes his journalist spotlight off the corrupt actors on Washington's center stage, and instead investigates the most disaffected ordinary Americans.
The author has a good sense of humor and his adventures are quite interesting. I really enjoyed this book. Probably not for you if you are sensitive about religion.
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