Kevin Phillips' New Book " American Theocracy"

[Algorem]

Thursday, 16 March 2006, 11:16 am
Press Release: Penguin Books

http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/WO0603/S00296.htm

...PREFACE

The American people are not fools. That is why pollsters, inquiring during the last forty years whether the United States was on the right track or the wrong one, have so often gotten the second answer: wrong track. That was certainly the case again as the year 2005 closed out.

Because survey takers do not always pursue explanations, this book will venture some. Reckless dependency on shrinking oil supplies, a milieu of radicalized (and much too influential) religion, and a reliance on borrowed money—debt, in its ballooning size and multiple domestic and international deficits—now constitute the three major perils to the United States of the twenty-first century.

Shouldn’t war and terror be on the list? Yes—and they are, one step removed. Both derive much of their current impetus from the incendiary backdrop of oil politics and religious fundamentalism, in Islam as well as the West. Despite pretensions to motivations such as liberty and freedom, petroleum and its geopolitics have dominated Anglo-American activity in the Middle East for a full century. On this, history could not be more clear.

The excesses of fundamentalism, in turn, are American and Israeli, as well as the all-too-obvious depredations of radical Islam. The rapture, end-times, and Armageddon hucksters in the United States rank with any Shiite ayatollahs, and the last two presidential elections mark the transformation of the GOP into the first religious party in U.S. history...



Tying Religion and Politics to an Impending US Decline

New York Times, United States - 18 hours ago

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/17/books/17book.html

... By Kevin Phillips. His latest book, "American Theocracy," the concluding volume of this "trilogy of indictments," ranges far beyond the subject suggested by ...



Decline and fall

Salon - Mar 15, 2006

http://www.salon.com/books/review/2006/03/16/phillips/index_np.html



An American devil's brew of oil, debt and religious fanaticism

Baltimore Sun, United States - Mar 12, 2006

http://www.baltimoresun.com/features/booksmags/bal-id.bk.theocracy12mar12,0,6606791.story?coll=bal-artslife-books

... a born-again Christian fundamentalist, an oilman, a hedge fund manager, or even simply the driver of an SUV, Kevin Phillips' American Theocracy should make you ...



March Books

Bloomberg - Feb 28, 2006

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000088&sid=aMReFgG0AJzM&refer=culture

... ``American Theocracy: The Peril and Politics of Radical Religion, Oil, and Borrowed Money in the 21st Century,'' by Kevin Phillips (Viking): According to this ...

[Kolesar]

1. The Dutch became an intolerant, fundamentalist society before their fall

I read the Michelle Goldberg story in Salon yesterday. Pretty damn grim. I don't know how the heck we are going to deal with petroleum at $300/barrel (my prediction) as it gets scarce.

[xchrom]

2. i don't know how we are going to live with

millions of our fellow citizens with every day of their lives so consumed by hate.

i think the house is divided. period.

[Kolesar]

3. Approach them in a "frame" that they can deal with

Apparently, the evangelical world is concerned about climate change. Greed is a moral issue that they can be approached on. How about lying?

We won't get the most single-minded and simple-minded of the RWers, but we can at least approach those who have some sense of decency and respect for other people.

[xchrom]

4. oh yes we can ''agree'' on some issues

but it's a ruse.

evangelicals want the first and last say on how this society operates.

this is a different crew from the evangelicals 50 years ago.

there is no intention on their part to get along with you, your children or whatever.