Rating
The Pequod Review:
Beyond Hypocrisy is an earnest and occasionally humorous doublespeak dictionary in the form of Ambrose Bierce’s Devil’s Dictionary. Here are some examples:
-- CONSPIRACY THEORY: A critique or explanation that I find offensive.
-- TRUTH: Emissions from the mouths of the powerful.
-- NATIONAL INTEREST: The demands and needs of the corporate community.
-- PATRIOTISM: Judging disputes on the basis of place of residence.
-- PRIVATIZATION: Disposing of public sector assets at low prices and high sales commissions to powerful groups and individuals who generously supported the ruling party’s last election campaign. It provides short-run cash windfalls to the government, while weakening its power and its cash flows in the years to come. In the Third World, a means of making valuable assets available to First World creditors and investors at fire sale prices in a situation of virtual state bankruptcy.
-- FREE ELECTION: A post-pacification election, in which the “hearts and minds” of the survivors are shown to have been won over by the force of pure reason.