The Assault On Reason: By Al Gore

[RestoreGore]

That is the title of the next book to be released by Mr. Gore, scheduled for release this May. It is to be released by Penguin Press, and is reported to be about the difficulty politics has with making decisions based on facts and reason. I am sure it will then go into great detail regarding the Democracy crisis we face on the whole, and the name of the book does sound like something Thomas Jefferson would have written, which is another reason why I am looking forward to its release and hope it actually sparks debate on how far away this country has moved from the Republic Thomas Jefferson envisioned so many years ago.

I am very happy to see Mr. Gore pursuing this avenue in speaking his mind on these issues now because being out of the political beltway that I don't believe ever truly appreciated his prescience and intelligence on these matters.

It has also certainly given him the chance to be a great advocate for the people and for Democracy to truthfully speak his mind on issues of great importance to the life of our Democracy without worrying about what "handlers" will say, which also extends to the truth of An Inconvenient Truth. Many years of insight will be included in these pages that I do not beleive he wrote to give himself the limelight, but to give us guidance and vision into how WE can now work to see that more perfect union through the politics of fear, distraction, and propaganda that have made us blind to truth.

My comments on this topic are then as follows:

Can we truly get back to the way of thinking as a nationthat cares about true Democracy after years of debasement from media and those in government who liken themselves to the very despots we sought freedom from to begin with? I suspect if Thomas Jefferson were alive today he himself would not run for office in this debased, corrupted, corporate owned political system we have made either. Consider these quotes:

"I have seen enough of political honors to know that they are but splendid torments." 1797 letter to Martha Jefferson Randolph

And:

" Whenever a man cast a longing eye on them (public offices) a rottenness begins in his conduct." 1799 letter to Tench Coxe.

He would then not only be vocally calling out those who not only have debased it at our expense and at the expense of reason and true Democracy, he would also be forcefully excoriating US for allowing it to happen and to continue and to be perpetuated by our own inaction while looking the other way when time for responsibility for it rolled around.

A man like George W. Bush nor his ilk would NEVER have been tolerated by the likes of a man of reason like Thomas Jefferson. The fact that he is now tolerated only illustrates how far down we have come from the reason that bore this country. Therefore, if Al Gore's new book can in any way shed a light on that and bring us towards turning to that reason again to guide us in our debates and decisions, it would be a great contribution to this nation and generations to come that may otherwise never truly understand and respect the brilliant men of reason who believed in this grand experiment and OUR part in making it a success.

The questions I then must pose on that after the last six years are: Is it too late? Are we beyond reason? Beyond truth? Beyond being able to even fight for it on our own? Have we become too complacent to care? Can we even place ALL of the blame on media and government, or does some of it also fall on our laziness to even seek the knowledge we need to make change? It is there. All we need is the will to seek it out.

Why then could our founders be victorious over ignorance and yet we find it so difficult to do as they did? Well, they READ BOOKS. They discussed events of the time amongst themselves and had an interest in them because they were important to their lives. Government wasn't just some secret, mysterious, distant entity out of touch with them... THEY WERE the government. They also had a sense of pride in working to build a country that would last the test of all despotism... and their work wasn't completed, because they handed off this country to US to continue building that more perfect union.

However, we have dropped the ball. We have become complacent. We have lost our ability to use reasoned debate and truly Democratic means to secure policy that benefits America as a whole and to hold government accountable. We have become debased, bought and sold by entities caring not for freedom and Democracy but only their bottomline and getting votes at the highest price. In short, we have become all that Jefferson and others of that time warned against.

It is then past time for us as a nation to come back to the reason that bore us. It is then time to hear our voices in the townsquare again. It is time for us to take a good hard look at what we have become and take responsibility for it. For solutions can only come once we admit our own part in the problem. Where our country stands today didn't just happen without our help in one form or another. Inaction and complacency breed corruption and lead us farther away from that reason Jefferson so believed in. And we can no longer allow it to stand.

Therefore, thank you once again to Mr. Gore for being the statesman and advocate for Democracy he is. We most definitely could use more out here, and I truly hope this book is accepted in the spirit it is written in and heeded seriously on the part of the American people who must now once again become active participants in their Democracy in order for it to survive.

More Jefferson quotes:

"My hope that we have not labored in vain, and that our experiment will still prove that men can be governed by reason." --Thomas Jefferson to George Mason, 1791. ME 8:124

"I have so much confidence in the good sense of man, and his qualifications for self-government, that I am never afraid of the issue where reason is left free to exert her force." --Thomas Jefferson to Comte Diodati, 1789. Papers 15:326

"Let common sense and common honesty have fair play, and they will soon set things to rights." --Thomas Jefferson to Ezra Stiles, 1786. ME 6:25

"It is comfortable to see the standard of reason at length erected, after so many ages, during which the human mind has been held in vassalage by kings, priests, and nobles; and it is honorable for us to have produced the first legislature who had the courage to declare that the reason of man may be trusted with the formation of his own opinions." --Thomas Jefferson to James Madison, 1786. ME 6:10

" principles founded on the immovable basis of equal right and reason." --Thomas Jefferson to James Sullivan, 1797. ME 9:379

"A government of reason is better than one of force." --Thomas Jefferson to Richard Rush, 1820. ME 15:284

"The idea of establishing a government by reasoning and agreement, publicly ridiculed as an Utopian project, visionary and unexampled." --Thomas Jefferson: The Anas, 1797. ME 1:419

"Our people in a body are wise because they are under the unrestrained and unperverted operation of their own understandings." --Thomas Jefferson to Joseph Priestley, 1802. ME 10:324

"This blessed country of free inquiry and belief has surrendered its creed and conscience to neither kings nor priests." --Thomas Jefferson to Benjamin Waterhouse, 1822. ME 15:385

"No experiment can be more interesting than that we are now trying, and which we trust will end in establishing the fact, that man may be governed by reason and truth." --Thomas Jefferson to John Tyler, 1804. ME 11:33

"Truth and reason are eternal. They have prevailed. And they will eternally prevail; however, in times and places they may be overborne for a while by violence, military, civil, or ecclesiastical." --Thomas Jefferson to Rev. Samuel Knox, 1810. ME 12:360

"Truth will do well enough if left to shift for herself. She seldom has received much aid from the power of great men to whom she is rarely known and seldom welcome. She has no need of force to procure entrance into the minds of men." --Thomas Jefferson: Notes on Religion, 1776. Papers 1:547

"A patient pursuit of facts, and cautious combination and comparison of them, is the drudgery to which man is subjected by his Maker, if he wishes to attain sure knowledge." --Thomas Jefferson: Notes on Virginia Q.VI, 1782. ME 2 7

"Shake off all the fears and servile prejudices under which weak minds are servilely crouched. Fix reason firmly in her seat, and call to her tribunal every fact, every opinion. Question with boldness even the existence of a God; because, if there be one, he must more approve of the homage of reason, than that of blindfolded fear." --Thomas Jefferson to Peter Carr, 1787. ME 6:258 Papers 12:15

"I was bold in the pursuit of knowledge, never fearing to follow truth and reason to whatever results they led, and bearding every authority which stood in their way." --Thomas Jefferson to Thomas Cooper, 1814. ME 14:85

"It is surely time for men to think for themselves, and to throw off the authority of names so artificially magnified." --Thomas Jefferson to William Short, 1820. ME 15:258

"Lay aside all prejudice on both sides, and neither believe nor reject anything because any other persons, or description of persons, have rejected or believed it. Your own reason is the only oracle given you by heaven, and you are answerable, not for the rightness, but uprightness of the decision." --Thomas Jefferson to Peter Carr, 1787. ME 6:261

"In a republican nation whose citizens are to be led by reason and persuasion and not by force, the art of reasoning becomes of first importance." --Thomas Jefferson to David Harding, 1824. ME 16:30

"Nothing is so desirable to me as that after mankind shall have been abused by such gross falsehoods as to events while passing, their minds should at length be set to rights by genuine truth. And I can conscientiously declare that as to myself, I wish that not only no act but no thought of mine should be unknown." --Thomas Jefferson to James Main, 1808. ME 12:175

"There is not a truth on earth which I fear or would disguise. But secret slanders cannot be disarmed, because they are secret." --Thomas Jefferson to William Duane, 1806. ME 11 4

"Unlearned views... are, perhaps, the more confident in proportion as they are less enlightened." --Thomas Jefferson to Caspar Wistar, 1807. ME 11:243

"I think it is Montaigne who has said, that ignorance is the softest pillow on which a man can rest his head." --Thomas Jefferson to Edmund Randolph, 1794. ME 9:280

"Man once surrendering his reason, has no remaining guard against absurdities the most monstrous, and like a ship without rudder, is the sport of every wind. With such persons, gullibility, which they call faith, takes the helm from the hand of reason, and the mind becomes a wreck." --Thomas Jefferson to James Smith, 1822. ME 15:409

"It was more in our spirit to let things come to rights by the plain dictates of common sense than by the practice of any artifices." --Thomas Jefferson to James Monroe, 1800. ME 19:120

Thomas Jefferson Quotations

Time to read the words again and live them.

[OrangeCountyDemocrat]

1. I'm Definitely Buying This Book In Advance!

I looked at Amazon, and it's discounted for pre-orders.

I hope he does a book tour like he did for An Inconvenient Truth book, so I can get this autographed as I did that one.

[NYCGirl]

4. BTW, Al Gore is on Conan O'Brien's show tonight (it is a rerun). NT

[kestrel91316]

2. K&R

[Milo_Bloom]

3. Candidate Gore, releases his book. Gotta love it!

Al Gore really figured out how to run... without actually running and getting caught in the muck and mire.

While Clinton, Obama and others slug it out, Gore can offer his thoughts, pretending to be an "outsider".

Al Gore has learned much from 2000 and first and formost is there is no reason to expose himself to the slings and arrows when he can do all the same things a candidate does, without receiving a candidates scorn.

Beautifully played.

[RestoreGore]

5. He is sincere

Your intimating that Mr. Gore is a liar and sneak in other threads with your innuendos against his character were enough. Do you work for FOX? Because your comments sure do sound like something we would see there.

[Milo_Bloom]

8. Nope, he is just smart

No, in fact he is making sure he is not a liar and a sneak by choosing his words very carefully, unlike in 2002 when he made it absolutely clear he was not seeking office and took steps to stop the Draft Gore movement.

Al Gore has figured out how to run for office, without getting his hands dirty and getting caught in the wheel. This book is about exactly that. Changing the way things are done and the way we think about things.

When someone officially "runs" for office, everything they say is seen through a political eyeglass, and essentially ignored. Genuine ideas are seen as part of their "stump speech" and no one takes them really seriously in terms of solving today's problems.

This is an issue that Al Gore has always had with the polticial process and now he has found a way to change it.

This book IS a campaign book, no doubt about it... but much like the title of the book, it is about CHANGING the way things are done.

[RestoreGore]

9. yes, changing the way things are done

and that means the people finally waking up and doing something besides expecting him to do it all for them. But far be it for me to expect a REAL discussion of the substance of this book here.

[Milo_Bloom]

12. This is a POLITICS forum

If you want to discuss just the book content, there are book forums for that purpose.

In here we discuss this book as the political tool that it is and how it alters politics.

[Guaranteed]

13. I think Gore should run for President, but I don't think you're giving him

enough credit for his very sincere beliefs, here. This book is not a political stunt. It is an extraordinarily badly needed wake up call for our democracy.

Gore's years as an outsider have given him enormous insight into what is going on here. He sees our problems very clearly, and how they are related to each other, as well. And he has an alternative vision of the way our country should be that he wants to implement, to make our country functional again.

[Milo_Bloom]

15. They are not mutually exclusive

And that is part of the problem. I am not calling it a "political stunt", but it is a political act. But why can't a political act be sincere?

This is part of the problem that OP has (and part of the problem with the political process). When someone runs for office, their actions, BY DEFINITION, are not seen as sincere, when they may very well be. Once they announce, everything they do and say is seen as self-serving and towards some political end, when, in fact, they may just be offering good ideas.

THAT is the distinction that needs to be made. Al Gore can be both running as a candidate AND offering his sincere and honest opinion on important topics. Unfortunately, in the current political climate, that is IMPOSSIBLE, since the two are seen as mutually exclusive, but they are not.

This is exactly why Gore cannot announce until later this year... if he did, this book, despite its intentions, would be seen as a political stunt, the concerts, a political stunt... yet I have no doubt they are sincere.

[RestoreGore]

14. Discussing people taking responsiblity for their Democracy IS POLITICS

You also don't have to BE IN POLITICS to DISCUSS IT. This book to me is a call to arms TO US along the lines of Common Sense written by Thomas Paine. It was written with heart and soul by a man who I see as this century's Thomas Jefferson, not the sneaky deceptive political operative type YOU depict him as here and you will never convince me otherwise. Therefore, I REFUSE to go any further with this deflective discussion regarding more speculative rhetoric about whether he is running or not. I have frankly HAD IT with reading that. This thread's intent was to discuss the SUBSTANCE of the book. If you can't do that then perhaps you need to move on. You are also now on ignore. I'm tired of you harranging me here.

[Milo_Bloom]

16. I guess the truth hurt too much.

[Labors of Hercules]

21. damn, you hit that nail dead-on every time!

[AndyTiedye]

19. DRAFT GORE AT THE CONVENTION

[catgirl]

29. How can we do that AnyTiedye?

Can you start a new thread with some ideas?

[Labors of Hercules]

20. Hey Milo, Welcome to restoregore's shitlist!!

:toast:

[Milo_Bloom]

23. RestoreGore is not a fan of the obvious! LOL

There is definately some type of personal crusade that I don't know about here, because this particular path is so screamingly obvious, but I can't see why anyone would get tweaked about it.

I am loving the "I'm not running" style of running. Its the way I always wished we found Presidents.

We really have a chance to see America get behind someone for their REAL IDEAS instead of their stump speech... to me that is a really exciting prospect.

Kinda like Perot without the twenty different kindsa crazy. :crazy: (not compairing their ideas, just the fact that people may actually listen to the ideas and want him to run based on them, instead of his name or by how much we won his senate seat.)

[elfin]

6. I LOVE Al Gore - gonna buy it

Thanks for the alert.

[RestoreGore]

7. You're welcome n/t

[Guaranteed]

10. This is going to be a very, very important book.

Gore is trying to "restore" the idea of the civic mind to our country. I think it will work, too. I think the people are ripe for it. I think they are sick of the use of social weapons in politics, like personal attacks and sensationalism. They are THIRSTING for a reasoned debate. I think they are tired of the careless ultra-individualism and are ready to address what is best for all of us, for our country as a whole, and to work toward it. They are ready to be held to a higher standard, to be given a responsibility. To put their well-being in the hands of their neighbor, and take their neighbor's well-being into their own hands.

"Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country."

This book is going to flip the world upside-down, and it's about time. This book is why I want Al Gore to be our next President. I think he could do it, too. I have faith in our people.

Great Jefferson quotes, too. It's kind of funny how a man like him truly does have faith- it's just what he has faith in, people and reason, that is different than others.

To Al Gore, the next President of the United States.

[bagrman]

11. The dumbing down of Amerika has been going on for generations. It's bearing fruit.

[RestoreGore]

18. I agree. I just hope we aren't too far gone n/t

[RestoreGore]

17. Will this book spur more people on to calling for Impeachment of Bush?

I sure hope so.

[UrbScotty]

22. Fort God's sake, Al, RUN DAMNIT!!!!!!

Well, he has said he won't, and unlike the runner-up in the 2000 election, Al is someone I find believable.

[Apollo11]

24. Looking forward to the book

I don't expect it to have the same huge success as An Inconvenient Truth and Live Earth

But then who would have predicted that An Inconvenient Truth would reach such a huge audience?

I still say that Al Gore is the best-qualified person to become the next President of the USA.

But I also believe Al when he says that (right now) he has no plans to be a candidate again.

Fortunately there is still time for him to (re)consider his postion and change his plans.

Let's all find ways to show our support for Al Gore! :patriot:

Read Al's blog: http://blog.algore.com

Help Al Gore lobby Congress: www.algore.com/cards.html

Get ready for Live Earth on 7/7/07: www.liveearth.org

Sign the petitions at www.algore.org and www.draftgore.com

:kick:

[RestoreGore]

25. Thanks for the stimulating intelligent conversation about the substance of Democracy...

And what led us here. It sure gives a good gauge (hopefully also to someone who sees this that knows Mr. Gore) just how hard the work will be in this country to get people back to giving a damn. This wasn't a thread to once again see the same spammed responses and the same cheerleading. Al Gore is not that kind of man. We have a SERIOUS problem in this country today that needs to be discussed, but I should have known better than to post this here and expect sincere discussion on his sincere concerns that should be all of ours.

But thank you to those who recommended the thread so more can see just how much people really care about the hype and petty backbiting over the substance... At least Mr. Gore will now know if he does have book signings (which I would gladly stand in the 100 plus heat for over six hours without food or drink again to see him) that most of the people attending them are more than likely only going because they just want a souvenir from their new "star" instead of seriously being concerned about what they can do to bring this country back by becoming actively involved in this Democracy and appreciating the guidance of a statesman whether or not he is ever a "candidate" for anything. Thomas Jefferson is definitely rolling in his grave today.

[Apollo11]

28. Wasn't Thomas Jefferson a "candidate" for something?

He stood as a candidate for President and lost to John Adams in 1796, then stood again in 1800. The electoral college was tied, and so the election was decided by the House of Representatives, which after 36 ballots elected Jefferson as President.

So lesson one for Al Gore: if at first you don't succeed, go back and try again! :)


Finally, here are a couple of tips for people attending Al Gore booksigning sessions:

Tip 1 - If you are going to stand for 6 hours in climate crisis conditions, please take some water with you!

Tip 2 - While you are waiting patiently in line, here is how you can recognize RestoreGore. He is the guy right at the back of the line, yelling at everyone else for not being sufficiently concerned about what they can do for America. ;-)

[RestoreGore]

30. He never even mentioned being president as one of his accomplishments...

because he knew the it wasn't like being a King. He was also not a "politician" and abhorred the trappings of politics and what it did to men's souls. You would have known that had you actually read my OP.

"I have seen enough of political honors to know that they are but splendid torments." 1797 letter to Martha Jefferson Randolph

And:

" Whenever a man cast a longing eye on them (public offices) a rottenness begins in his conduct." 1799 letter to Tench Coxe.

[Apollo11]

35. Both quotes are from his time as VP

Apparently his mixed feelings about political office did not prevent Jefferson seeking the Presidency in 1800 and a second term in 1804. I don't know if he would evaluate his own conduct during his 8 year Presidency as "rotten" or not.

But anyway, it proves that having mixed feelings about "political honors" and how the system works doesn't necessarily prevent natural born leaders from rising to the challenge and achieving their destinies! :)

I'm not saying that Al Gore is necessarily "destined" to be President, but I do find it hard to believe that any of the currently announced candidates would do a better job (of campaigning - maybe, of governing - not).

[RestoreGore]

36. It was his belief...

no matter how you wish to now nit pick at me about it to suit your own purposes. On his tombstone he also had three great accomplishments in his life that he wished to be remembered for and being president wasn't one of them. And that tombstone was placed after he was VP so again, I think the point is made. I don't remember Thomas Jefferson first and foremost as a president. I remember him as a STATESMAN, an author, an inventor, a teacher, and a great American. The same way I will always think of Al Gore. A man who sacrificed all for a much higher calling than many seem to understand.

[Ninja Jordan]

26. Definitely pre-ordering this.

[wyldwolf]

27. Let's see... successful movie, Academy Award, NY Times Best Selling book...

...gee, ya think the guy might run for office one day?

[RestoreGore]

31. No. And why should he?

he isn't a great man unless he plays the game?

[NYCGirl]

32. You forgot the Live Earth concerts!

http://liveearth.org/index.php

[wyldwolf]

33. Thanks for the reminder.

[Uncle Joe]

34. And his Webbie for championing the internet

thereby empowering democracy.:)

[RestoreGore]

37. Addendum to the OP

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=132&topic_id=3148155&mesg_id=3148155