This is the stuff that creates revolution? 2010-09-03

Reviewer: Give Me Liberty

This is the most negative discourse on life and the state of the world (ok - maybe just France, but it mentions other places too) that I have ever read. If it wasn't published into a book, I would have thought these were the ramblings of a person or persons who were on the verge of suicide. I wonder what kind of a person would be motivated to take action from a book like this where the authors don't even make any attempt to support their claims nor identify any end state/positive outcome that this "insurrection" would bring. I can only hope that the extreme people who read this book would also take some time to read something from a Libertarian view. Maybe then they would be able to form a claim with some substance and background to it. It gave me the feeling that I was listening to a communist university professor who spoke with a point of view of never having a job in a business. I am upset that I had to even give this one star, because I wouldn't have given it that if I had the opportunity. If you want to read this book, try borrowing it or checking it out at the library before you fund these people further.

Sincere, if immature, theorizing 2010-09-01

Reviewer: T Bowden

A manifesto on changing life as we know it. The authors' charges against corruption, stress, social anomie, etc., are well taken, but their solution(s) are inconsistent, contradictory, poorly thought out, and based more on ideological certainty than lived reality. All ideologies are forms of intellectual dishonesty, so to embrace an ideology is to erase ambiguities and feel certain that all questions, past and future, have already been answered. It's hard not to be self-deceptive in such a mind set.

Not worth reading - period 2010-08-31

Reviewer: Jay R. Chase

Whether you believe this claptrap or not... the ideas of communism have been much more eloquently voiced by other authors. This diatribe tries to take credit for the youth riots in France several years ago. Sorry... that had nothing to do with the communist ideal. Try looking to the clash of cultures between the West (Christian, Jew, or Secularist)and the mind of Radical Islam. I could go on, but hopefully, I have already made my opinion clear.

Whoever wrote this book could have cut it by two thirds and saved us the long tired journey! I do not recommend this book!

All the best,

Jay

Gaullic commie codswallop; available online for free 2010-08-26

Reviewer: Scott C. Locklin

I ordered this hoping to get a book, but alas, it was some "book on tape" CD's. The anodyne voice of the narrator ... well, books on tape never worked for me; the effect is soporific. It would have been better if they got someone with an outrageous French accent to narrate the thing, as that's what it reads like, when you read it. Imagine in Pepe LePew voice,

"you, zee Eeeenglish; vee vill not work for yooooo, vee is too busy smoking zee galoises and talking to zee femmes du philosophie in zee cafe, no? Your advertizeeeng is very bad, yes? Vee do not like you very much, no? Vee vill form zee commune to show you how zee real peoples do it, yes?"

That's kind of the content of the book. Some of my anarchist pals sent me this some time ago, and I've read it. It appears to be completely without content. Sort of a unibomber manifesto, minus the clarity of thought or the capability to, you know, accomplish things. It's rather sad the French police did these clowns a favor by granting them notoriety for this ridiculous screed. As such, these gasbags will be on the French leftist lecture circuit for as long as there is such a thing, rather than wallowing in the obscurity they richly deserve. In all seriousness, I like a good bit of political invective, and have been known to dabble in such things myself, but this is the screed of a bunch of neurotic teenage girls; the type who smoke clove cigarettes and ape intellectual bona fides by sporting a black turtle neck. They have very little understanding of how the world works, or what is arrayed against them. Their real message here is plain old whiney teenage angst. Which is why this book appeals to the types of anarchist "black block" ninnies who think they're bold revolutionaries for showing up at political rallies and throwing rocks at the local chain food store.

Worth reading (or listening to) regardless of your politics 2010-08-25

Reviewer: Michael A. Duvernois

Sure, it's long-winded, theoretical in the manner of the French lit theorists, implacable, impractical, and bombastic, but doesn't it also ring true? A plaintive call against the out of control corporate-consumerist mindset. Screams of protest at the status quo. Worth seeing, and hearing, but do we really think there's a revolution coming? In fact, they chose the work insurrection to, I think, avoid the cliches about "the revolution" (first against the wall, not televised, and long predicted). Similar works inspired folks 40-45 years ago to no measurable revolution. Regardless of intents and smarts, that precedence is hard to ignore.