No Is Not Enough
Ratings4
Average rating3.5
15
Ratings4
Average rating3.5
The New York Times–bestselling roadmap to resistance in the Trump era from the internationally acclaimed activist and author of On Fire and The Battle for Paradise. The election of Donald Trump is a dangerous escalation in a world of cascading crises. Trump’s vision—a radical deregulation of the US economy in the interest of corporations, an all-out war on “radical Islamic terrorism,” and a sweeping aside of climate science to unleash a domestic fossil fuel frenzy—will generate wave after wave of crises and shocks, to the economy, to national security, to the environment. In No Is Not Enough, Naomi Klein explains that Trump, extreme as he is, is not an aberration but a logical extension of the worst and most dangerous trends of the past half-century. In exposing the malignant forces behind Trump’s rise, she puts forward a bold vision for a mass movement to counter rising militarism, nationalism, and corporatism in the United States and around the world. Longlisted for the National Book Award “I hope that Klein’s book is read by more than just her (mostly) leftwing fan base. For whatever you think about her economic arguments, she makes a powerful and an important point: that you cannot understand Trump without looking at how he reflects bigger cultural and social dynamics. And what is perhaps refreshing about No Is Not Enough is that Klein tries to move beyond mere outrage and hand-wringing to offer a practical manifesto for opposition.” —Financial Times “Brims with ideas rarely heard in the mainstream media. And her fiery, punchy writing style, which is occasionally laced with humor, makes it hard to put down.” —The Georgia Straight
Reviews with the most likes.
I will almost certainly never read another book by Naomi Klein. She is infuriating, pompous, condescending, opinionated (a very bad trait in someone who calls herself a journalist), and self-aggrandizing. I expected this book to be mostly a re-hash of all the horrible things we know about Trump, and it was. But Klein's gratuitous swipes at Hillary Clinton were pointless. She whines that people like her have been blamed for Clinton's loss, and well they should be. Sure Sanders had some good ideas and aired some important issues, but he was essentially a one-dimensional candidate, just as Klein is a one-dimensional writer. Capitalism is evil. End of story for her. Except, no it isn't, and her recipe to fix it won't work. It is also infuriating when certain labels are co-opted. Progressives good, Pragmatists bad. And then she defines neo-liberal one way and then applies the label another. Why can she–and other purists–not understand that no candidate is all one thing or another. Sanders wasn't all progressive (his position on guns and women's rights were weak, as was his position on the environment, firm belief in climate change notwithstanding). And Clinton may be a Pragmatist, but on issue after issue she was actually to the left of Sanders. Even Trump isn't all conservative or all Republican. The labels are sloppy. Enough. No more Naomi Klein, please.
Helpful as we begin to transition from just saying NO, to providing a vision people can say YES to. We just can't play defense and hold ground, we have to provide something to look forward to. Although this book is important for the current state, I found it wasn't as gripping as The Shock Doctrine, the author's blockbuster earlier work. But then she admits she rushed this to the publisher, knowing that time is of the essence!
As horrific as it is to have Trump as President, Klein shows how his election is part of the pattern of corporate dominance of the governing of the country, going back many years. This is a highly enlightening analysis. She also relates the shock politics (get everyone focused on a crisis, then make the changes to benefit corporations and the rich) currently used to past uses of these techniques. While the section on what to do is uplifting and hopeful, it leaves a lot yet to be figured out. Passionate leadership to harness people to take back their government is needed and no one seems to have figured out how to make that happen or stepped up to lead.
