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The Assault on Reason
Al Gore
Penguin
June 2007
On Sale: May 22, 2007
320 pages
ISBN: 1594201226
EAN: 9781594201226
Hardcover
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Non-Fiction
A visionary analysis of how the politics of fear, secrecy,
cronyism, and blind faith has combined with the degration of
the public sphere to create an environment dangerously
hostile to reason At the time George W. Bush ordered
American forces to invade Iraq, 70 percent of Americans
believed Saddam Hussein was linked to 9/11. Voters in Ohio,
when asked by pollsters to list what stuck in their minds
about the campaign, most frequently named two Bush
television ads that played to fears of terrorism. We live
in an age when the thirty-second television spot is the most
powerful force shaping the electorate's thinking, and
America is in the hands of an administration less interested
than any previous administration in sharing the truth with
the citizenry. Related to this and of even greater concern
is this administration's disinterest in the process by which
the truth is ascertained, the tenets of fact-based
reasoning-first among them an embrace of open inquiry in
which unexpected and even inconvenient facts can lead to
unexpected conclusions. How did we get here? How much
damage has been done to the functioning of our democracy and
its role as steward of our security? Never has there been a
worse time for us to lose the capacity to face the reality
of our long-term challenges, from national security to the
economy, from issues of health and social welfare to the
environment. As The Assault on Reason shows us, we
have precious little time to waste. Gore's larger goal in
this book is to explain how the public sphere itself has
evolved into a place hospitable to reason's enemies, to make
us more aware of the forces at work on our own minds, and to
lead us to an understanding of what we can do, individually
and collectively, to restore the rule of reason and
safeguard our future. Drawing on a life's work in politics
as well as on the work of experts across a broad range of
disciplines, Al Gore has written a farsighted and powerful
manifesto for clear thinking.
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