POST-ELECTION READING SUGGESTIONS

original post: Thursday, November 6, 2008

Congratulations! For only the second time in her adult life, on Tuesday night Michelle Obama was proud of her country.

Now that the first ever American Idol presidential election is over and the United States has decided (due to a massive Bush hangover) to turn toward European-style socialism, here are some reading suggestions that may help steer some of our citizens to an alternative way of thinking.

***Sorry, none of these books have pictures; I know it's a stretch to ask a government school-educated citizen to actually read a book longer than a People magazine article because, after all, we have so little free time to expand our minds, due to the fact that there are so many great TV shows to watch and video games to play. ***

BRAVE NEW WORLD by Aldous Huxley. Written in 1932, this novel depects a "negative utopian" vision of the world, as opposed to the slew of books popular at the time that presented a positive view of communial living. 1984 by George Orwell. Written in 1949, about life under a futuristic totalitarian regime in the year 1984. It tells the story of Winston Smith, a functionary at the Ministry of Truth, whose work consists of editing historical accounts to fit the government's policies. The book has major significance for its vision of an all-knowing government which uses pervasive and constant surveillance of the populace, insidious and blatant propaganda, and brutal control over its citizens. The book contributed the term 'Big Brother' into popular use.

ATLAS SHRUGGED by Ayn Rand. Published in 1957, this is one of the longest novels ever written (645,00 words) and one of the most audacious. It is also becoming more eerily prescient as the years progress. If this book doesn't make you feel uncomfortable (or pissed) and if you cannot see the parallels between this story and the world we live in .... God have mercy on us all.And last,but not least .........

THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE / THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES.THE FEDERALIST PAPERS by Alexander Hamilton, James Madison and John Jay.
**For extra credit, do you know who killed Hamilton, what office Madison held and what famous treaty John Jay signed? ***