It's always good when an author backs up his conclusions with good sound science, especially when that author is a well-known politician who certainly has his views. In his book, The Assault on Reason, Al Gore does just that. He hypothesizes that most of the ills plaguing our political system have their roots in psychology, thereby, linking all of our recent foibles in elected political officials to the last several decades. Gore takes us on a quick tour of the human mind, which is basically partial to sound bites and visual stimuli and, through the automatic flight or fight response, highly susceptible to stress, thus making us easy prey to the drug of television and other media. He then observes that conservatives, particularly the current Bush administration, are particularly adept at capitalizing on the quick sound bite and the politics of fear.

Drawing on personal experience, scientific research, and insight into legal and political issues, Gore’s political beliefs and unique insight on environmental issues can be seen throughout the book. Indeed, with the onset of global climate change and the pending breakdown of many ecological systems, for many who are beginning to ask, “Why didn’t we listen to the environmentalists!”,  Gore’s book comes at a perfect time. Now even, with Newt Gingrich now calling himself an environmentalist, you know things are pretty bad. Yet, it is not too late, if even those who used to laugh at things like global warming are willing to recognize the causes of the environmental crises, then it is easy to start taking steps to do something about them.

To this end end Gore courageously treads on the forbidden ground of placing the blame for the nations political demise squarely were it lies – in the hands of the voters. Our tendency to be duped by the media and slick politicians, it seems, has never been healthier as illustrated by recent presidential and congressional elections, where we enthusiastically placed them into office only to find that the corruption and resignations seem to have reach pandemic proportions.

Yet, ironically, according to Gore, because we have only ourselves to blame for environmental and other problems we have created through our bad choices, we are the ones most equipped to do something about it. Gore inspires us to hope, as vividly illustrated by the message voters sent to capital hill after the 2006 congressional elections, that there is finally public and political momentum to take back the capitol and recover or dignity.

- Harold Shepherd