It's sad that the mainstream media portrays the new book "The Good Citizen" as a "collection of essays by the best minds in the nation", when the editor, a San Francisco prof, has obviously screened out any writers with traditional views of anything American. Even a piece by the foreign-born "person of color" Dinesh D'Souza would have given this book "something of value". The composite mind here can be summarized rather easily. "We" are now ready to move beyond individual rights and move on to: "social rights", in which "society" (i.e., government) guarantees a certain standard of living for everyone; and "cultural rights", in which every self-identified minority group has a "right" to attempt to constantly increase their power and influence. Of course, it is "unthinkable" that the successul majority, would ever have the right to say that they did not wish to subsidize the remnants of society through tax payments to a so-called "acceptable" standard of living. Nor does the U.S. majority, which still happens to be white, Christian, and heterosexual, have the same rights as self-identified minority groups to attempt to constantly increase THEIR own power and influence. If you already believe this kind of deconstructionist fallacy, you will be supported in exactly what you already think. As for the rest of us, don't waste your time.

"The Good Citizen"; an equal opportunity inciter...

If an editor sometimes functions as a curator, David Batstone and Eduardo Mendieta have skillfully procured a stimulating collection of essays that provoke a response from their readers.

At first I wondered if there was a common theme connecting these diverse and original pieces, other than the subject matter of "Citizenship". After further reading I realized that I was being challenged to revisit our commonly held assumptions about the Social contract, community, and the Nation. It is the Process that is being championed, the process of entering into a dialogue with each other to re-define what it means to be a Citizen.

One can confidently commend "The Good Citizen" to the reader interested in these themes. The editors have succeeded in gathering an eclectic assortment of contributors who advocate, through their own energetic if sometimes undisciplined scholarship, theses guaranteed to variously challenge, please, incite, and motivate. One is left simultaneously catching her breath at the robust candor of assertions; and seconds later objecting to oversimplifications masquerading as research. The reader is hooked; the Process is working! One wants very much to engage in Dialogue with the authors.

The "Process" of interacting with these pointed and challenging essays isn't comfortable. "The Good Citizen" is an equal opportunity inciter. Whether Batstone and Mendieta fully envisioned the synergy they have created here or not, the push and pull of ideas, the sloppiness and unresolved dynamism emitted individually and between the essays, mirror the dilemmas we face in the Society at large.

The book is addicting. You find yourself caring what the author has to say. This is a book you want to read with a friend, over coffee,and discuss. Or choose for your Book club. But beware, faint of heart, if you are a consumer of DeCaf, this may not be the book for you. Fasten your seat belt. The Good Citizen" is a well blended, highly developed and intense Double Espresso, and it packs a punch.