The following is a précis of:
The ASSAULT ON REASON

AL GORE

Introduction
Al Gore’s introduction is designed to layout his central arguments and the ultimate solutions to an alarming crisis of reason that is emerging in the United States of America. Gore begins by noting that the representative democracy intended by the Founders is in a state of crisis where rational thought is being usurped by the way ideas are communicated. The media is obsessed with the triviality of Paris Hilton or O.J. Simpson motivated by sensationalism that leads to record profits for television conglomerates. Gore argues that cycle of image over substance began with the Simpson trial and has not been abated but rather has advanced – during the Bush administration – to new heights of mass manipulation. America rushed into the Iraq war because of the subservient willingness of media to co-modify ideas in an irrational and fear driven manner. Basically, substance is constantly being defeated by image in American political culture. Television is watched, on average, 4.5 hours per day by the American public. Reading is on a massive decline and political engagement occurs through visual representations in the television medium. Senator’s are too busy planning a 30 second campaign spot over actually discussing policy in a constructive forum…um…like the Senate. Meanwhile politicians are disproportionably from the most affluent class in America society leaving meritocracy in jeopardy against elite patronage. Gore turns to the emergence of the Age of Reason which begat the Founder’s intended democracy. Gutenberg’s 1450 invention of the printing press allowed a vast expansion in human knowledge. Literacy was once the foundation for democratic discourse in the marketplace of ideas. Today, Jurgen Habermas argues that the marketplace of ideas (public forum) is narrowing in scope; the electorate can no longer discern the difference between Democrat and Republican despite glaring ideological differences, according to Gore. The root of this emerging democratic crisis is, most centrally, the change in communication that has led to a feudalistic media sharing society. The media is sensationalist: “if it bleeds, it leads”. The line between entertainment and news is being skewed in American culture: citing Jon Stewart. Gore explains the philosophical underpinnings of his solution by explaining Marshall McLuhan’s thinking on media. McLuhan recognized that the medium is the message: the form of communication such as television/reading is more important than the content. McLuhan recognized that reading is an intensely cognitive process while television is counter-intellectual and stimulates the emotion centres of the brain excessively. Al Gore wants to return to a reasoned approach to democracy, which means that the citizens brain patterns themselves should to be reorganized in order for America to return to the democracy the Founders intended.

Chapter One: The Politics of Fear
The opening line of this chapter is also its central argument: fear is “the most powerful enemy of reason.” At equilibrium, fear and reason are both instrumental in survival. When fear dominates reason, however, irrational hatred and division lead to de-stabilization of the democratic institutions and there is a collapse of meaningful dialogue. The exploitation of fear is demagoguery while leadership harnesses some fear for constructive political change. Suppression and fear-mongering should be alien to the American way of life. He mentions that the assault through fear is destructive: McCathyism and the fact that the conflation of 9/11 and Hussein is still widely believed by over 50% of the American public. Bush’s yellow cake evidence has been revealed as forged. Clearly, when the ‘immune system’ of nation does not exploit these massive errors there is something deeply wrong. So what is happening to the human mind? Gore examines the human brain itself to suggest that emotional fear is processed in a unique manner that influences action. Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is organized differently than other memories. PTSD memory is not organized in a time sequence but rather can emerge at any given moment to re-assert itself. The reasonable weighing of policy and action can be overwhelmed by these PTSD memories that are emotionally process in the amygdala. Even the historical memory of the Turkish invasion of Greece from 800 years ago still has staying power. Gore wonders how we reconcile these grievances in a democratic manner. Those who watched television on 9/11 were emotional scarred in the same level as someone who was in New York at the time. Television is able to invoke PTSD and orienting response . Television drives our brain receptors that are being excessively activated, thus triggering a susceptible to hypnotic fear. Professor Barry Glassner notices that fear-mongering requires repetition, irregularity and misdirecting. The horrifying picture of Abu Ghraib prisons, Vietnam and Iraq have fuelled the visual responses. 9/11 led the imagination to visualize other conceivably devastating events. Fear can be both legitimate or imagined fear but both are equally powerful forces. Invading Iraq was both tragic and absurd. Gore admits he trusted Bush like everyone else. Iraq was a new product for the 2002 midterms after Bin Laden was no longer a viable target. Curiously, DeLay abused the new Department of Homeland Security to track Democratic legislators and bring them to Congress for important votes . The politicization of the Iraq war, for partisan support, gives the Republican Party the national governing status that has marginalized Democrats. Bush and Nixon both disregarded their party policies to advance their re-election. Nixon explained that “people react to fear, not love. They don’t teach that in Sunday school, but it’s true.” A fearful society is what has emerged and it is jeopardizing America’s democratic foundation.

Chapter Two: Blinding the Faithful

Al Gore turns to the question of religion and politics. The Founding fathers knew that faith alone could not govern American society and that religious dogma and governmental power were a dangerous mix. Reason and faith cohabitate better than reason and fear but there is an epidemic of fundamentalism in the world. Irrationality masquerading as faith is the most powerful force in society. The separation of Church and State is at the soul of the U.S constitutional order; America is a secular state. Jefferson knew that the love of power could intoxicate reasonability hence checks and balances exist against the president. Printed word is how America democracy has functioned but this is eroding. An immune system should not be exposed to anti-biotics that do not allow the immune system to learn from its diseases. Like an immune system, democratic citizenry should not be exposed to excessicw television that distracts citizens from writing and reading intellectually and directly about the health of their democracy. Bush used the religious dichotomy of good and evil to cloak an unprovoked war. The promise of “rid[ding] the world of evil” was used to justify acts that are repugnant to the religious doctrine in which such good and evil are discussed. Bush’s over-simplicity is sometimes seen as striking at the core of the complex situation America’s foreign policy finds itself, however, the opposite is the case. Anyone who opposed Bush was unpatriotic thus maligning the Democrats. Like J. Edgar Hoover’s attempt to smear Martin Luther King as communist, the CIA attempted to connect Al-Quada with Saddam Hussein. Bush called the Iraq war a crusade while a Republican congressman called for the imposition of the ‘word of Jesus Christ’ on Iraqi civilians . Abu Ghraib was a bi-product of the Bush Administrations rejection of the Geneva Convention and acceptance of torture which only abandons American founding values. Bush was practicing blind faith, with massive gaps in logic, that he masked with attempts to re-invent reality through media propaganda. Bush is no doubt a religious man, according to Gore, however he has stolen the symbols and language of religion to achieve a hidden agenda. He is so rigid in his reactionary right-wing ideology that he does not bother to assess the facts at hand. Bush is “out of touch with reality” . Al Gore then turns to explain that right-wing politics is a massive coalition of paradoxical groups who are striving to share power for their own sakes. He argues that Bush pursued policies regardless of the facts so as to benefit friends and supporters. The first group in the coalition is the economic royalists who are primarily interested in eliminating their own taxation because a) the public interest is an unfair burden on the powerful, b) laws should only serve to limit the rights of the disadvantaged. The economic royalists are against Al Gore’s agenda and fuel think tanks, political action committees, media companies and grassroots activism designed to protect their goals. The second group in the coalition are foreign policy hawks whose policies are directed towards economic imperialism. Ignoring due process of detainees because of the belief that what the president authorizes is never illegal. Nixon felt, like Bush, that the president should be above the law. This is wrong. The abandonment of reason has required a propaganda machine that supports government only when it advances the vested interests of industries that have won their way into the elite. They employ pseudo-journalists like Ann Coulter which is a new phenomenon. Under the cloak of religiosity, the Bush administration is impervious to reason. Madison feared that the political factions may degenerate into a quasi-religious sect: his fear has been realized. The third group are the ultra-conservative religious leaders (which are actually politicians). Al Gore’s rebuttal is that it is blasphemy for God to support one political party. Religious zealots subverted law in A Man for All Seasons and they were wrong much like today’s situation. Ultimately, it is a lust for power that explains the manipulation of faith and the assault on reason.

Chapter Three: The Politics of Wealth
Democracy and capitalism share an internal logic: they are part of a double helix that forms the structure of freedom, according Gore. Capitalism is however about competition while democracy is about equality. The Founders worried about the concentration of wealth as a threat to the harmony of these two principles. The forum of democracy is not open when the gatekeepers are affluent and dominate the marketplace of ideas. The meritocracy, where ideas can come from anywhere, is being blocked and the rule of reason is being manipulated. Gore sees the 30-second candidate commercial as the epitome of this manipulation. Votes are being purchased and the true interest of voters is being ignored or otherwise manufactured. Private foxes have been placed to guard the henhouses of American; that is – for example – the oil industry control climate change discussions. Corporations are outsourcing the truth. Corporate wealth has silenced the two-way conversation of democratic discourse. Halliburton undermined U.S. policy in Iraq, in fact, that policy prescription was in motion prior to 9/11. The Founders did not want this to happen; they even believed that those without property should not be allowed to vote because they would likely be influenced by the political leanings of rich property owners. Capitalism defended slavery, like it defended Bush’s Iraq policy. Lincoln feared capitalisms growing strength during the Civil war. Corporation have personal status as of Santa Clara County v. Southern Pacific Railroad 1886. Upton Sinclair and other ‘muckrakers’ were able to awaken the American consciousness when it was being threatened by vested interests. Radio was introduced in Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy as a propaganda tool before it become accountable. Bernays was a propaganda genius and the father of public relations who turned women on to cigarettes by dubbing the ‘torches of freedom’. Advertising manufactures consent as Lippman and Chomsky noted. Each new media technology (cable, satellite and internet) requires an awakening from the corporate deceit engrained in the capitalist section of the double helix called freedom, however, today the awakening seems an insurmountable tasks. Greed and wealth now allocate power in America at the expense of democracy.

Chapter Five: The Assault on the Individual
Gore argues that the information revolution has had vast political implications. The individual has the potential to leverage massive political power. Illiteracy has emerged because of the dominance of television over the printing press and the continued infancy of the Internet. Blogs are an emerging check on mass media. The assault on individuals however is manifested in policies where the president can seize and imprison any citizen and suspend habeas corpus by using the label ‘unlawful enemy combatant’. This is Kafka-esq. Bush has circumvented the Supreme Court on numerous occasions. The Patriot Act allows for a ‘sneak and peak’ approach where citizens’ privacy can be invaded at the whim of Washington without a warrant. Internet, emails, phone the Bush Administration is monitoring calls and this could be used to win re-election or blackmail Democrats but no one can stop them, it appears. The FBI attends church meetings, rallies, political meetings and looks at bank records, credit cards etc. This is an absurd contravene the American constitution. Al Gore claims that 9/11 could have been prevented if the Bush Administration had been smarter. Gore lists a series of warning signs that showed Bin Laden had nefarious intentions. Gore does not believe Bush intentionally ignored that data to heighten the chances of attack but Gore does fear a Big Brother-style America. He adds that the surveillance information they gather for all American citizens is mostly superfluous and most of it should be cut out . The technology of surveillance is tantamount to a police state while corporations could be sold this data and are engaged in enhancing sales themselves. Some people believe that the concentration of power in the executive was what the constitution calls for but this not true. Immediately after 9/11 Arab immigrants were rounded up and sent to Guantanamo, this is similar to Japanese internment in the 1940s. Like the innocent arrests on American soil, elite decision-makers who did not emphasize legal rights for detainees caused the Abu Ghraib debacle. They then downloaded responsibility to the ‘bad apples’ involved in the scandal. Abu Ghraib was a former torture prison under Hussein; the only difference is the torturers. McCain’s anti-torture amendment was passed but Bush stated the president is not bound by the legislation. Gonzales has publicly stated that Geneva is ‘too quaint’ while Ingraham has argued that Americans love the show 24 because of the tough tactics and therefore they approve of the Bush Administrations strategy in Iraq. Gore thinks the Neilsen ratings should not be used to interpret public opinion. The dehumanization of Iraqi civilians is the first step towards the destruction of the soul of American soldiers. Anyone who questions these policies is unpatriotic and the drive to consolidate power in the name of national security is an old story. Some one has to change last page.

Chapter Six: National Insecurity
This chapter is dedicated to an attack on the Bush Administration’s foreign policy. America should be respected in the world but Bush has served to make America a growing target of international disgust. Unilateralism results in the suffering of an entire country. Gore believes that we should cause the change we wish to see in the world: there are other threats beyond terrorism. These threats include global warming, the water crisis, defeating drugs, corruption and HIV/AIDS. AIDS may kill more people in sub-Saharan Africa in the first decade of the 21st century than the entire war related death of the 20th century . These problems can be overcome much like slavery during the Civil war, hopefully without the bloodshed. Why has America gone astray? In every policy area, Bush-Cheney has been trying to reduce constraints. The United States has traded in respect for fear during the Iraq war. The pre-emptive doctrine of military engaging sovereign states that were not an imminent threat has totally discredited America’s foreign policy and destroyed international laws conventions. Why has the Bush administration abandoned Afghanistan, Gore believes we should finish the job there. The Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty has also been ignored so that the military industrial complex can build smaller bunker busting nuclear weapons. Bush is only enhancing the likelihood that other nations will desire nuclear weapons. More states will join the nuclear club on account of Bush’s misstep on the CTBT. The weaponization of space is another debacle that rejects the Outer Space Treaty, which states that every nation deserves to travel in the Earth’s upper atmosphere. Bush rejects the International Criminal Court because Americans have violated the Geneva Convention. Bush has turned a $5 trillion dollar surplus into a projected cumulative deficit of $4 trillion. Guantanamo has also harmed our prestige abroad: how can we criticize China’s human rights records now? Bush deserves the benefit of the doubt on preventing 9/11 but the CIA briefings: “Bin Laden determined to strike in U.S.” showed that the alarms were ringing while no one cared. We should prevent catastrophe from other crises like climate change, in advance. Terrorism has been on the rise since 9/11. Bush’s failed policy in Afghanistan and Iraq has made the world a more dangerous place. Those who attacked these policies were sidelined or publicly humiliated. Gore believes that Bush senior should have deposed Hussein in 1991 but missed the chance. America had little foreign support and the UN was not supportive of the 2003 invasions, it discredited the entire international community. The enlightened vision of the UN, NATO as international organizations needs to be restored. America’s moral authority in the world needs to be resurrected or risk damage that is incalculable.

Chapter Seven: The Carbon Crisis
Al Gore claims that his raison d’etre in public life is centred around the greatest challenge of the 21st century: climate change. This chapter explains the Bush Administration’s policies on climate change which are motivated by vested interests. It is largely a re-working of all the primary and some secondary arguments forwarded in An Inconvenient Truth but attacks the Bush Administration’s energy obsession in Iraq, response to Katrina and the manipulation of the American public. For more information read An Inconvenient Truth.

Chapter Eight: Democracy in the Balance
Al Gore turns to a thorough analysis of the institutions of American democracy and how the Bush Administration has successfully circumvented long-standing traditions of political discourse. The Founders relied on a ‘well-informed citizenry’ to exercise the rule of reason and free expression to safeguard American democracy. Madison wanted ‘auxiliary precaution’s of the checks and balances that our Founders used in their design of the Constitution. War needs to be passed through the Legislature, however, the president’s commander-in-chief persona played a more prominent role in perceptions after 9/11. Public opinion shows that people have automatically assumed the president is above the law. The threat of how we react to terrorism and manage our fears is extremely important, according to Gore. When Caesar combined his military command with rule of the Roman Empire democracy died. Bush has similarly conflated his role of commander-in-chief, head of government and head of state. The rule of law is crucial for the survival of freedom. Gore focuses on the ‘signing statements’ abuse by President Bush. These SS abuses are when the president issues a not-withstanding clause upon a signing of a bill of law. Ignoring legislation, or “putting a bill in one’s pocket” until Congress adjourns is thus called a pocket veto. These manoeuvres basically allow that whatever the bill says in total Bush can ignore certain provisions if he writes a signed statement to that effect. For example, Bush could have vetoed the bipartisan bill against torture but instead just told Congress after accepting it that he did not to comply. This is obviously unconstitutional. The president has to either veto the bill or comply with it – if he complies, he can still ignore the unpleasant parts, which amounts to a pretty sweet deal and potential for massive corruption of democratic reason. Article II calls for the president to ‘faithfully execute the laws’ but the new initiative is to bend all executive branch policy making to the president’s political agenda as part of power-seeking strategy. Karl Rove lamented the Nixon era and told Bush in 1999 to read Energy in the Executive: The Case for the Strong Presidency by Terry Eastland. Libertarian Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito called for the expansion of power under Reagan. Hamilton stated that if the judicial and the executive branch combined forces liberty would be crushed. FDR wanted to control the Judiciary during the New Deal crisis but Bush has gone further. The Right has been engaged in openly threatening federal judges while Tom DeLay uttered similar threats in the House of Representatives . Judicial independence is currently under siege and the Constitution is also being corrupted. Judges are invited to conventions for orientation education bent on altering “their frame of reference for cases involving economic issues” . The 30-second spot is the most common form of communication with the American voter. This is clearly a mistake since the spin-doctors are completely skewing discourse at the expense of more objective engagement with public policy. Also, the House of Representatives typically have a 15% seat change ratio in America in 1980s, and 1990s. Lately there has been more seat changes in the Senate than the HofR at 85% versus 96% re-elected respectively. The Senate is supposed to be a longer standing body than the HofR but the way campaigns are run and media is ingested democracy works differently in recent years. Gore is appalled that Republican leaders have even called for the end of the filibuster in the Senate. The Senate filibuster is one of the strongest weapons in America’s arsenal for democracy. The filibuster was used against Clinton-Gore and the Republicans said it was not a political crisis, but when the Democrats used it against Bush-Cheney it is seen as ‘undermining democracy’ according to Orrin Hatch . The executive branch has followed a determined strategy of obfuscation, delaying, withholding information etc. Congress has been made subservient and this is completely out of place with the Founders intent. The following chapter will attempt to suggest how the above structural, cultural and rational crisis may be remedied.

Chapter 9: A Well-Connected Citizenry
Many Americans feel that their government is unresponsive and that no one in a position of power listens to or cares about what they think. The votes seem to make no difference and thus there is a decline in political participation. TV gives you information but it is a one-way street – people should be heard. Soldiers in Iraq should not be silences. The way children are raised impacts their political participation; those who feel that they are powerless are the most likely to commit criminal acts, according to Gore . Democracy must be a two-way communication environment, when people can communication in a meaningful manner they create democratic spaces. Education is important for engaging in reason but the Nazis were among most educated people in Germany, so we need civic engagement and interaction between people. Gore points out that statistics demonstrate that the average American does not know their congress-person, that the Supreme Court can declare Congressional legislation unconstitutional or that only Congress (not the president) can declare war. A participatory democracy must hold their leaders accountable. Debates in the Senate should be broadcasted with the whole floor in view not just the individual speaker so that the public can know who is in attendance. Al Gore believes that pursuing the truth is important. The Internet must be developed and protected through the establishment of fair rules of engagement and exercise of the rule of law. Online organizations are helping to re-engage the citizenry in politics but only certain citizens with a previous interest get engaged. The growth of blogging is something to watch out for in the future: bloggers are often gatekeepers that have real effects on society. Gore’s CurrentTv is attempting to create a two-way means of communication through the ‘viewer-created content’. The Internet has flourished with both positive and negative attributes but is on the whole a good thing. Web companies are changing the way the service sector functions. The Founder’s insights are just as relevant today as they were more than two hundred years ago. The key requirement for redeeming the integrity of representative democracy in the age of electronic media is to ensure that citizens are well and fully connected to an open public forum.

Conclusion:

The Rebirth of Democracy Gore’s book asserts that the rule of reason is the true sovereign of the American system. If reason comes under assault, American democracy is threatened. From basic cognitive engagement through reading to further advances in media, democracy has been challenged by threats to rational thought. America is a courageous place and Al Gore loves his country dearly. The Constitution is the sacred centre of everything a country does. Without abiding by a constitution, then entire country is drawn in a state of disrepute. Should we continue to live as a people under the rule of law embodied in the constitution? Gore believes it’s the peoples’ choice. He is optimistic that the correct option will be chosen.