"When all is said and done, a case can be made that Americans are not very good citizens. Many don't even vote and few keep up with current events. How many can tell you the name of their congressional representative? How many can tell you how many members there are in the House of Representatives? How many know the size of the national debt? How many could name 5 of the departments of the federal government?
But they are not totally to blame. They have been offered an alternative to good citizenship - entertainment. Regardless of how we stack up to the rest of the world in other areas, there is one area that we excel at - entertainment. We have year-round ball games complete with playoffs.
We have movies, TV, popular music and more to keep us entertained. Although most cannot answer the questions above, most could pass a test on movie stars, music stars and sports stars.
We have failed to take the advice of some great men:
"The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing." - Edmund Burke
"The price of freedom is eternal vigilance" -Thomas Jefferson.
We are lacking in both the involvement of good men and vigilance. But the question is "when you are out to dominate an entire people, how much do you want them to know about government and current affairs and how involved and vigilant do you want them to be?" The best situation is that they sit in front of the TV all day and watch ball games or sitcoms. As long as they are having fun, everything is fine. This allows the status quo to change things slowly and in the background while the public is looking the other way. It's like the magician who is doing the trick with his left hand while he is showing you his right hand. It's called misdirection. This book is about the consequences of misdirection." - Author Bill Pirkle
Explaining the New America in Plain English: Recent American History for Ordinary People is a 262-page paperback with a retail price of $20.00 (eBook $15.00). The ISBN is 979-8-89341-383-0. It was published by Dorrance Publishing Co., Inc. of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. For members of the press, to request a review copy or author interview, please visit https://bookstore.dorrancepublishing.com/pages/media-requests or to buy the book, visit our online bookstore at https://bookstore.dorrancepublishing.com/products/explaining-the-new-america-in-plain-english-recent-american-history-for-ordinary-people
GET IN TOUCH
Matthew Zappone
Dorrance Publishing
http://www.dorrancepublishing.com
You can see the original version and more on PRLeap here: http://www.prleap.com/pr/298815/federal-way-wa-author-publishes-book-on-america