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Review Summary: Signs of the times. Required reading. Excellent. |
Date: 2005-08-22 |
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Details: Although primarily directed towards an American audience, this excellent book is no less relevant to the rest of the Western world and the international community as a whole.
This extremely well written and penetrating book investigates a plethora of issues, including how today's society has purportedly abandoned what are described as old fashioned notions of "right and wrong" in favour of "consensuality". A way of life where two people can do whatever they want, no matter how "abominable" it may seem, as long as they don't "hurt" anyone else.
It being emphasised within the book that, by casting aside such principles, society has arrived at such a "deluded state" that individuals have no clear basis for determining if they are "hurting" another person or not.
Heartfelt concern emanates through the text as individuals are described as adopting a lifestyle and attitude that denies the existence of God and His laws and which treads underfoot the Judeo-Christian values upon which our society is cited as being based upon.
The study analyses how abortion has allegedly been portrayed as a "choice", a "personal decision" arrived at between a woman and her Doctor, with little or no attention being given to the morality surrounding the issue or the welfare of the unborn child.
Although this is not what I would essentially describe as a Christian/religious book, one of the questions asked herein is - "Is there a God ?". This issue is then addressed by further questioning whether man has an "immortal soul" and if our prime responsibility in this life is to be obedient and faithful to God and His laws.
The battle of world views and many of today's most contentious issues receive appropriate attention. Same sex marriages, paedophilia and the legalisation of homosexuality are among the many issues discussed. Promiscuity is itself cited as being portrayed as just another element of "freedom".
The reader is taken on a journey which reveals how values of fairness, generosity and tolerance have persuaded society and individuals to embrace virtually any type of behaviour or belief - no matter how obviously insane - where such are rationalized so they sound reasonable. Even where lies, both subtle and outrageous, are packaged as truth.
However, it can be seen from the text that such "tolerance" is not reciprocated towards those who adhere to Judeo-Christian values, where such individuals are cited as being "bigots" etc..
The book maintains that marriage is a "divine institution" between a man and a woman, something cited as being created by and provided for by God, emphasising that marriage embodies commitment, caring, unselfishness, restraint, planning, sacrifice, affection and endless patience, with sex itself being a precious part of such a relationship. Instead such standards are shown to be frowned upon with "easy divorce" and abortion on demand demonstrated as being on the increase.
The role of the media in all these issues is also addressed.
One separate issue in which the media is also described as playing a considerable role is in relation to the Palestinian/Arab - Israeli conflict.
Through a selective approach to this contentious subject, the media is cited as portraying the Israelis as the "aggressor", whereby the viewer/reader is subjected to what is cited herein as the "Trojan Horse of the Arab world".
The book describing how many Arab leaders, who have failed in their avowed intentions to eliminate the Jewish state by military means, now conspire to attain the self-same goal through what is described as "guile and deceit". Propaganda and the media being used as a platform.
Providing examples, the reader is shown how the media allegedly reinforces the Arab cause by the manner in which the conflict is addressed and reported (pages 177 - 181).
The downplaying of terrorism is also mentioned wherein even the use of the "T" word (terrorist) is to be avoided at all costs, except in the context of a quote.
Cited as "hiding behind the pretence of journalistic impartiality", the book studies how de facto activists "masquerade as objective, dispassionate reporters" and purportedly use the same techniques and propaganda employed by professional marketers.
Such allegedly culminating in the advancement of ideologies and agendas hostile to traditional American values.
These claims are made within the context of an impassioned plea for objective, accurate and courageous reporting that would effectively provide society with the "truth" surrounding so many contentious and serious issues.
The book closes with another profound and sincere, plea that we all examine ourselves - quietly, humbly and fervently - before God, seeking His direction and Salvation.
This book may offend those with a secular, humanistic, left-wing outlook but I feel that it is required reading for our time. Indeed, it is one of the best books that I have read for some time. Thank you for your time and patience. |
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Review Summary: Read the footnotes . . . |
Date: 2006-03-15 |
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Details: If only half of what Mr. Kupelian reveals is accurate, then any person who reads this book (regardless of political, sexual, or religious belief) should be very disturbed. Do you like to be manipulated by questionable practices and data? Wouldn't you rather have the facts so you can make the judgment regardless of the judgment you take? Read the footnotes and the sources cited by Kupelian (often the authors of the "marketing" strategies themselves). If the footnotes, quotes, and other source materials aren't entirely made up by Kupelian (and I haven't found them to be yet), then marvel at the book's revelations. |
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Review Summary: "Neutrality" is not neutral--it's collaboration! says author David Kupelian |
Date: 2005-11-02 |
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Details: "Marketing is the application of the knowledge of human psychology to the task of persuasion." (p.99)--author David Kupelian.
This is a great book that points out a lot of things to consider for conservatives and Christians to better understand our sinful culture and how our society got so bad in the last half century.
"A well-known Bible verse says, 'Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!' (Isaiah 5:20). Indeed, this book is about how evil is packaged and perfumed to look good--and good to appear evil.
I read and listen a lot to Christian conservatives in their books and on the radio, so a lot of this is review for me, but it is a great place to start if you are just now getting interested in turning around our culture. But there are also plenty of little details that I found enlightening, even though I already have been exposed to the larger topics. For example, I did not know that AIDS was originally called 'Gay-Related Immunodeficiency Disease' (GRID), until homosexuals pressured the medical community to switch the name to AIDS (p.20), to take the onus off of sodomy. Even the medical community is susceptible to the negative influence of immoral pressure groups, which in turn effects our culture.
David Kupelian has a good chapter on the judicial activist, athiest LIE of Separation of Church & State. He writes how this untrue concept has been used to turn America into a de facto atheistic, secular state!
"You rarely hear the actual wording of the First Amendment anymore. But "separation of church and state" is one of those phrases that roll off the tongues of judges and journalists so easily and so often that most of us assume it's in the Constitution." (p.55)
"...in making any reference to God or biblical principles off-limits for those we've entrusted with this nation's government and charting its future course, do you realize what we are doing? We are deluding ourselves into believing there is some neutral ground between good and evil, and that this is where the government is supposed to be." "When Jews are being gassed and cremated down the street, 'neutrality' is not neutral--it's collaboration." (p.58)
Kupelian makes a good observation about how the 1960's selfish, self-obsessed "liberation" movements negatively rotted our culture. "A generation later, the various 'liberation' movements--sexual liberation, women's liberation, gay liberation, and so on--have blossomed into rampant infidelity, divorce and family breakdown, gender confusion, AIDS, abortion, and other mammoth problems." (p.89)
Kupelian points out how virtually all of our society's current ills can be traced back to the disregard and distate towards traditional family values, most notably the en vogue concept of fathers being unnecessary. Then the government steps in to pick up the slack of broken, fatherless homes, and the population becomes dependent on the SECULAR government instead of the traditional, bread-winning father figure. If you want to be dependent on the government, the liberal left wants to help you become dependent on the government, so they can then enforce secular atheism on the population, but if you want to be happily married in a traditional family, you are on your own. These government entities are self-perpetuating. These social workers are out of work if there are not enough famililes needing to depend on them. It sounds like a too sinister, crazy concept, but think about it. It's true!
He also writes about the secular public school system, to beware of what they are teaching our kids. "Of course, the main factor keeping most American children in government schools is that they're free. So isn't free schooling a good thing? Sure. Free food is great too, but not if it's been poisoned. The governments' schools are free in the same way everything else the government does is free--you're forced to pay for it with your hard-earned taxes or you go to prison." (p.163)
The most bracingly new things I learned from this book came from the abortion chapter. "What if reporters and editors cut through the high-flying rhetoric of civil rights and constitutional freedom and women's health and brought the issue down to little, perfectly formed human babies--three thousand of them every day...being painfully ripped apart, suctioned, chemically burned, sliced up, or decapitated?" (p.187)
"In one of the most successful marketing campaigns in modern political history, the 'abortion rights' movement--with all of its emotionally compelling catchphrases and powerful political slogans--has succeeded in turning what once was a crime into a fiercely defended constitutional right." (.189)
Kupelian rightly compares America's tolerance and support of abortion to the WWII era German citizens who let the Jewish Holocaust take place--both then and now, normal citizens were tricked by the marketing of evil as acceptable. Too many people think that if something is legal--even murder of innocent, defenseless human beings--then it must be moral, too. But remember, in a Godless, atheist government and culture, there is no morality.
The author talks a bit about how American Christians let too much of this happen without any vocal opposition, or any kind of opposition at all. Though, I wish he would have spent more pages expounding what we American Christians must do to turn things around in God's Country.
Sometimes the author digresses off the topic, about himself or his family, and this kind of loses the momentum, even though he eventually brings the story into the topic of conversation for that chapter. Also, sometimes I don't completely agree with his smaller details of theology, or culture. But overall, I generally agree with what he writes and this book is a great and enlightening page-turner. |
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Review Summary: Outstanding, must read |
Date: 2006-06-02 |
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Details: When I heard about the OSU college professor feeling unsafe and personally threatened by the prospect of someone reading The Marketing of Evil, curiosity got the better of me. Judging by the reviews here, the book obviously has some learned, thoughtful, and articulate readership. I was moved enough myself by the book to try and add my two cents worth.
First, I'm very impressed with how well written and edited the book is. Most non-fiction that is any good might make a worthwhile point every few pages. With this book, it's more like every couple of sentences. It's short and easy reading, but fully packed. And not one of the topics raised is a puff piece. Each is big, really big, and poignant to today's society. The author discusses ten issues, one per chapter, and I expect any one of them dropped among a random group of people could start a heated argument in about 15 seconds. You can't do a "search inside the book" so here's the 10 topics/chapters:
Gay rights
Myth of church-state separation
Selling of sex
The 60's generation
Destruction of marriage
Sexual revolution based on fraudulent science
Hijacking of American school system
World of illusion created by press
Selling of unrestricted abortion
Role of Christianity in America
Like I said, heavy-duty stuff. And the author addresses each topic head-on without sarcasm, hyperbole, or sensationalism. He is also very consistent to his theme, i.e., how the radical elements within our society have successfully, and with intent, marketed their particular view to the rest of us. To those that doubt the author's premise, all I can say is I was in college in the 60s and the evidence presented seems right on target to me. And if you don't believe it, then read the admissions of the very people doing the marketing in question. Do some fact checking. Read some of the source material. It is eye popping, depressing, and maybe even scary.
The book is not up lifting, nor intended to be. Reading it is like turning on a bright light in a smelly flophouse. We had a good idea the roaches were in there, but we'd rather let someone else deal with it. (Unfortunately, there's no one else living here but us).
It seems the book's first chapter, gay rights, gets most of the attention from detractors. None of the other chapters are any less weighty or volatile. It's not a book about the evil of gay rights, it's a book about successful marketing. There is much irony here for both the left and the right. The radical left, the avowed enemies of Wal-Mart, capitalism, Christianity, traditional morality, etc. make use of the very tools of the society they condemn, and very much to their personal profit. Meanwhile, those on the right have allowed themselves to be sucked into the moral abyss by the very same tools they hold in such high regard. Nothing to be proud of. It's terribly sobering and thought provoking. That the book might be recommended reading for an incoming freshmen class is the height of sanity to me, definitely not something to be condemned and investigated.
I also find interesting how unenthusiastic and ineffective the negative reviewers are for this book. When Al Franken or Ann Coulter write a book, we can count on the negative reviewers getting in some good shots and collecting a reasonable momentum of fellow reviewers. Not so with The Marketing of Evil. Why not? A couple of reasons, I think. First, the author treats each subject and his readers with deep respect. There is no attempt at humor or provocation. He just presents his evidence in a professional and effective manner. Second, the evidence results in a pretty much iron clad case. Detractors just come off looking petty and infantile. The best recourse for those on the left is to not draw attention to this book.
I have a better understanding why the college prof acted the way he did. The act of people reading this book could very well be a threat to your worldview because there is almost no defense against the enlightenment contained. The radical left worldview is built on such an illogical house of cards, the prospect of removing just one (let alone 10!) could indeed be terrifying. All you can do is scurry under the refrigerator or flip on your back and waggle your arms and legs in a fit of mortal hysteria.
Finally, no matter what the subject, I really appreciate books that are well written, succinct, and cut through the fog of muddled, conventional dogma with sincerity and honesty. There are so few! (In the last year I've only come across two ... this one, and Hunicutt's Joe X). Yes, The Marketing of Evil may be a bit of a downer (though the last chapter is a good counter balance), but it's also highly clarifying. It's an outstanding book, and an important one to read. |
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Review Summary: Time to Wake up America |
Date: 2006-03-13 |
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Details: This book is a quick snap-shot look at some of the hot-button topics of today. The main problem with the book, is much like a modern day news cast, the 20 page chapters are not nearly enough to handle the topics in any detail. So we are just given a quick introduction. I'm not faulting the author and he does a masterful job at hitting some of the main points in each area but it can leave the reader willfully unprepared for dialogue with someone who is well versed in that topic.
I'll give to quick examples from his book:
Gay Rights is oxymoronic. It's not about rights since it is illegal to discriminate against homosexuals in hiring, promotion, housing, medical, insurance, etc, etc, etc.
The only argument homosexuals can possibly make is marriage, but that is a false argument. Because marriage is not a RIGHT in our country it is a legal contract that is described between a man and a woman. You need to change the LAW. Rights are granted by the constitution and are were considered inalienable, which when written meant GOD given, that's basic history perhaps if our schools were better we wouldn't have these problems. Oh well.
The campaign to destroy marriages was one of my favorite chapters of the whole book. Who is ever taught is school the true costs of broken homes. Yet why does the government allow the break up of a marriage contract today to be easier than firing an employee hired last week or getting out of a cell-phone contract? In reality as the author explains and anybody who has done study on this know involuntary divorce is a marvelous tool that allows for the infinite expansion of government power.
In the end the book will probably not change anybody's mind. It's just too quick for detailed reasoned arguments to be made of the myriad of subjects it breaches.
In the end those who give the book 1 star break down into two camps - Relativists - who if they are true to their title will end in social anarchy.
Or Modernist who will in the name of tolerance, become hyper-intolerant on those groups they deem intolerant. Rather Orwellian, but they themselves are blind to it. So these modernist in the name of liberalism (or progressivism or some other ism) will restrict freedoms from these groups in our society that are most trying to protect and keep the original American concept alive.
Truly scary times we live in people. It is time to wake up.
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out of 228 Reviews
