Jailyn: A book that everyone should look into reading
The New American State tackles different topics about the American government and society while using other Western and non-Western governments and cultures to compare. Having been published in October of this year, this political work extends its commentary to Donald Trump’s presidency and their handling of COVID-19 as well as the presidential election of 2020. Reading this at the start of election week, might have been the best possible time, as Dimitar Avramov discusses historically what a leader should embody but also voices the worries of this current election. This is a piece that everyone should read, if not the whole thing then definitely a few chapters. The following chapters are the one that stood out to me most.
One of the beginning chapters, titled “Is it Important Who Rules?” focuses on the perception of who should lead a country and Avramov cites Plato’s, The Republic, to discuss the image of an “honest politician” as a leader. The author does cite an issue with creating an “image of a ruler concerned with the good of society,” stating that “justice” is not an ethical category but a political concept. Avramov claims that in order to do the best for the maximum of our population we cannot concern ourselves with the images of “honest politicians” or “charismatic leaders.”
Chapter VIII titled “America Back to the Old World,” takes an honest approach at discussing President Trump. The author cites Trump’s lack of answering political questions as a result of his politics being based on “reality television.” The last chapter also discusses Trump’s leadership but with the pandemic, citing the government’s “downplay” of the virus but also the different approach that our country took when compared to most European and non-Western cultures. The author argues that those cultures believe in the phrase, “the economy can be recovered, human life cannot.” And as an American living through this pandemic, it has definitely felt like this country has worried more about preserving the economy instead of helping each other–not just our government but the public as well has failed at caring about the lives that this virus can destroy.
I would recommend The New American State to anybody that has a slight interest in our politics. I found my own worries voiced in this piece–specifically those regarding future leaders of this country and the current presidential election. The topic of either Trump or Biden winning the election raises an issue that a lot of younger votes have brought up, and that is the age of the presidential candidates. How do we move forward when the possible leaders are that much older?
Review by Jailyn: “A book that everyone should look into reading” left in Amazon.