By James Holland

Glenn Beck has been impersonating Paul Revere and William Dawes in order to warn the public of the approaching enemy. Now he is morphing from those Revolutionary War nightriders spreading the alarm to Thomas Paine the Revolution’s Pamphleteer. His last book Common Sense was the embodiment of that change in character.

Glenn’s greatest strength, unlike most of the media, is that he is able to see the whole picture. He doesn’t just focus on a single tree, rather he sees the whole forest. He isn’t rushing to put out small brush fires flashing up all over the line of sight, he is seeing an overview of the “Big Burn,” a giant, unstoppable firestorm that is roaring through the forest just over the nearby mountains and destroying everything in its path. His gift is seeing the whole picture by studying many individual pieces of the puzzle and mentally putting them together like a secret code breaker using logic combined with intuition rather than just looking for two single pieces of the whole picture that might fit together. It’s a rare gift. Glenn Beck is a guy who envisions the whole picture, plot, or conspiracy. The title of this book is similar to other books by both liberals and conservatives. Like some of those books, Beck’s weapon of choice is facts, facts, indisputable facts to shatter good intentions and deliberate misinformation.

Another of Glenn’s gifts is the ability to take the complicated puzzles he puts together and explain them to others. Any reader who has watched his television show knows that Beck will use a blackboard and chalk, drawings, flow charts with pictures and any other kind of props he thinks will help him explain the point he is trying to make. His writing uses the same approach. He is smart enough to use some of “Rules for Radicals” founder Saul Alinsky’s own rules against him. His weapon in this struggle is humor. Alinsky taught that making your enemies and opponents a laughing stock was more effective than his usual smear, extortion and confrontation tactics. While this reviewer doesn’t consider himself to be a “useful idiot” he would still hate to argue with this laid-back genuinely comic satirist.

Arguing With Idiots contains 12 chapters including, "In Defense of Capitalism, The Second Amendment, Education, America’s Energy Future, Unions, Illegal Immigration, The Nanny State, Owning A Home," and others with the final chapter entitled “The U.S. Constitution.” In his directions on how to use this book Beck says the reader will immediately notice that each chapter is formatted as an ongoing conversation between the idiot and me. In the book  “'idiots' aren’t defined by the way they vote, they’re defined by the way they think. Sometimes that means a political activist with an agenda bigger than a brain, sometimes it means a well-intentioned person who’s just a little misinformed, and sometimes it means the idiot is, well, me.” He then goes on to explain how idiots can be anybody and has nothing to do with what political party they belong to.

Other gems of knowledge shared by Beck are: “The truth is that a minimum-wage worker in America is still one of the wealthiest people in the world:” Amtrak was created in 1970 and has lost money every single year since: “You Know You’re Turning Socialist When the French president is less interested in redistributing wealth than the American one:” and throughout the book are illustrations and sections entitled ”Who Said It?” Followed by some multiple-choice names. Those tests will make you think you are back test-taking in school.

As fans of Glenn’s radio, television and books are expecting, this tome is more of Beck at his best. It’s impossible to convey much of his wisdom in a short testimonial/reader review, but the reader won’t be disappointed, and even some of the idiots may start to doubt that they know the answers to any and all things. Beck tends to say things in such a seemingly outrageous manner that it both surprises and forces people to step back and try to see things from his overview of the whole picture. It’s like his use of the term “Idiot.” That’s mostly to catch the reader’s attention and fits right into his attention grabbing style. Keep on truckin' Glenn! Make us all think, even if we disagree with some of what you say. Nobody wants to be an idiot!

Arguing With Idiots: How to Stop Small Minds and Big Government (Threshold/ Sep 2009) by Glenn Beck

Glenn Beck: National Debt to Balloon to $806 Billion

James Holland is Author of Adventure Photographer (A Bit of Boston Books/ 2009)

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