| Mike's review:
"The Asshole Conspiracy" is supposed to be a tongue-in-cheek look at the role a secret association of assholes is playing in the destruction of everything good and decent about our society. It neither succeeds at being funny nor providing much insight into the roots of the world's problems.
The author takes on the tone of the cranky old man up the street yelling at the neighborhood kids to get off his lawn. Not that the cranky old man schtick can't be hilarious, but here it is just tedious. Thankfully, the book is a short read.
The targets of the author's humor are sometimes way off the mark. At one point, he rails against Gloria Steinem's supposed statement that all men are rapists. He might have had a point, either humorous or insightful, except that Gloria Steinem never said such a thing. Another feminist, Marilyn French, did. (By the way, in the book, it's "Gloria Stoneham". The author fictionalizes the names of most of the celebrities he criticizes, either because he thinks it is funny or he was too lazy to check up on the quotes he attributes to them.)
At another point, he asks who could be the asshole behind "Beavis and Butthead". The author doesn't seem to be hip enough to realize that the person behind the show is the brilliant satirist, Mike Judge, and that Judge is making fun of idiots like Beavis and Butthead, not glorifying them.
The most interesting chapter is "Playing Both Ends", where he points out that the majority of people, moderate in their views about controversial issues like abortion, are confused and polarized by a minority of people who hold extreme opinions. The author claims that these extremists are really a conspiracy of assholes who are purposely pushing pairings of harsh opposing views on the general public, while they themselves do not really care about the issues they claim to care about. I found the chapter interesting because I have often thought about the detrimental effect that extremists have on the civility of the majority of society. But I see no reason to doubt that the extremists sincerely care about their chosen issues.
"The Asshole Conspiracy" is the third book of the pseudonymous X. Crement's "asshole trilogy". From others' reviews, the first book in the series, "Asshole No More", sounds like it is a lot more humorous.
|