Here's our #TwiPlum book club Branch! Yay technology!

guys lets talk

One of the things I keep thinking as I go through this book is that yes, the "American body politic is sick" and it seems that we see crisis after crisis and scandal after scandal, *but* doesn't it also seem like awareness of these things is at an all-time high? That the web and the 24hr news cycle have put the goings-on of the nation and the world at the forefront of our minds all the time? (My one stat - voter turnout in Nov was about 59%, the highest it's been since the 60s) Maybe I'm guilty of echo-chamber-y groupthink, but doesn't it at least *seem* like there's a very high level of public awareness, and if there is, doesn't that put us in a better place for the long run?

I haven't read the book under discussion, only glanced at reviews. For me living in a post-apartheid South Africa following the "successful" democratization of the country, are a couple of similarities, such as bafflement, disillusionment, corruption" and failure of the government. What angers and frustrates SAs, is non-delivery: we expected so much. The millions of disenfranchised SAs who for the first time could look forward to getting a voice, have been failed. I can well imagine what Americans must feel like - the greatest nation on earth in decline. American society might be collapsing under its own weight as a result of over-consumerism, debt, failed (political) systems, resource depletion, and selfishness. "Bowling Alone", are u not?