Gag Rule: On the Suppression of Dissent and the Stifling of Democracy - Softcover

Lapham, Lewis

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0143035029 ISBN 13: 9780143035022

Publisher: Penguin Books, 2005

Synopsis

Stating that there has never been a greater need for democratic reform in the form of organized public protest, a history of American political dissent charges the Bush administration with forsaking democracy in favor of preserving the American oligarchy. Reprint.

About this title

About the Author

Lewis H. Lapham is the editor of Harper’s Magazine, for which he writes an award-winning monthly column called “Notebook.” He is the author of numerous books, and his writing has appeared in major publications, including the New York Times and Wall Street Journal.

From Publishers Weekly

Lapham, editor of Harper's, plays the role of a modern-day Tom Paine, propelling stinging criticisms and scathing indictments at the Bush administration and its supporters for what he claims are their bald-faced deceptions about the justifications for the war in Iraq and for establishing policies—especially the USA Patriot Act—he sees as aimed at silencing dissent about its policies and the war in Iraq. Lapham argues that the muting of dissenting voices has contributed to the erosion of democracy, because policy disagreements form the heart of a democratic republic. Most disturbing, says Lapham, is the complicity of the media in its support of the steady erosion of individual civil liberties in the name of national security. Lapham also levels forceful criticism at our educational system: "An inept and insolent bureaucracy armed with badly written textbooks instills in the class the attitudes of passivity, compliance, and boredom." This, charges Lapham (30 Satires; Theater of War; etc.), results in schools producing citizens who blindly accept the pronouncements of their leaders. The United States, he points out in a strong historical sketch, has a deep history of quashing dissent when politicians have raised alarms over perceived threats to the well-being of the country, most notably with the Sedition Act of 1798, the Espionage Act of 1917 and, he asserts, the Patriot Act. Lapham's compelling book reminds us that "democracy is an uproar, and if we mean to engage the argument about the course of the American future let us hope that it proves to be loud, disorderly, bitter and fierce."
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About this edition

• Publisher: Penguin Books
• Publication date: 2005
• ISBN 10: 0143035029
• ISBN 13: 9780143035022
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 192