I grabbed Crunchy Cons: The New Conservative Counterculture and Its Return to Roots on impulse as I was going the local purveyor ofbooks. You see, I am a "Crunchy Con" of sorts, being an avid recycler.But, this book really failed to make me. In fact, I felt like I wasbeing preached at with certain topics being outright hammered into myskull due to their repetitive re-occurrence.
Pluses:
-The bible addresses the fact that the conservative movement is notmonolithic and their are a kind of reasons for masses to espouseconservatism.
-Embraces a feeling in buying local - something I try to do when I go out to eat or shop whenever reasonably possible.
-Points out how ridiculous it is to use big business agricultural regulations to family farms.
Negatives:
-What the heck is "crunchy"? Search the net and you may get areference to "Crunchy granola", which essentially means being hippie-like.Or, you may get a citation to this book, or you may get a reference tosome sort of street drug.
-Dreher gets too preachy, too mystical about the virtues of organicfarming and quaint old neighborhoods that time forgot in the interior city.Plus, he goes on and on for scores of pages about these topics withmultiple interviews that do little but reward the points alreadymade.
-Dreher repeats the old worn line that we in the West should be morelike the East: ".in the West, economics is reinforced on philosophicallymaterialist assumptions, but in the East, the whole person is taken intoaccount." (p. 49) Really. The East, home to the Khmer Rouge, sexslavery, the caste system and foot binding. Besides, which "Eastern" philosophy are you release to follow? Confucianism? Daoism? Sikhism? Samuari Bushido? There truly is no "Eastern" philosophy. Let's take it - no society, East or West hasall of the answers.
-Dreher's answer to the un-competitive nature of organic agriculture is adecidedely un-conservative one, have the office of the federalgovernment choose in favour of the organic farmers "and encourage throughtax incentives the growth of small-scale, locally basedagriculture." (p. 86)This is particularly odd considering his priorexhortation: "We aim to the thought that there's nothing wrong with ourcountry that a new tax or a government program can't fix." (p. 10)
-Dreher waxes poetically about home-schooling. Page after page wehear about how his family does it and how others do as well. He drags upquotes from the 1800s and the 1920s about how the philosophicalunderpinnings of public schools are inherently anti-family. He offerstwo choices: A) immoral public schools who are just out to indoctrinateyour children (pp. 136-139) or B) perfect family homeschoolers. Now, tobe fair, you should recognise that I am a public school teacher - one thattrusts in vouchers and does not believe in the inherent goodness ofpublic schools (or any other human institution, for that matter). I'veseen families do home-schooling right (some of our family's best friendsdo it right), but I've also seen it done wrong and experience had kidscome to school functionally illiterate, having been "taught" by parentswho can scarcely read themselves(I've had great homeschooled students -ones that do A quality shape and I had students who were pulled fromschool in place to "homeschool" because the counselors were concernedthey were being abused). Dreher compares the whip about public schoolsto the best, idealized homeschoolers. C'mon, not only is it not fair, itis insulting to the readers.
While sympathetic to many of his points, the most I can say about this word is "disappointed."
I place this book 2 stars out of 5.
Reviewed on October 13, 2008.
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