Status
Available
Call number
Genres
Publication
QPD paperback, 1994, 341 pages
Description
With All the Trouble in the World, P. J. O'Rourke once again landed on best-seller lists around the country, confirming his reputation as the pre-eminent political humorist of our time. Attacking fashionable worries - all those terrible problems that are constantly on our minds and in the news, but about which most of us have no real clue - P. J. crisscrosses the globe in search of solutions to today's most vexing issues, including overpopulation, famine, plague, and multiculturalism, and in the process produces a hilarious and informative book which ensures that the concept of political correctness will never be the same again. "One of the funniest, most insightful, dead-on-the-money books of the year." - Los Angeles Times; "All the Trouble in the World is O'Rourke's best work since Parliament of Whores." - The Houston Post; "The dispatches are unfailingly funny....Mr. O'Rourke gets to the heart of the matter with a steady stream of wisecracks....Economists, political scientistsand sociologists are inclined to approach the ills of society with regression analysis. P. J. O'Rourke just points and laughs. Not surprisingly, it is Mr. O'Rourke who gets it right." - The Washington Times; "Bottom line: Buy the book." - The Wall Street Journal.… (more)
User reviews
LibraryThing member dmcolon
I went through a P.J. O'Rourke phase a few years back. At the time, I was in a more right-wing frame of mind, so you have to take that into account. Still, I can't deny that I find his stuff well-written and incredibly funny. This book skewers environmentalism and its disciples.
As I've thought
As I've thought
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about why I still find this book amusing even with my political conversion, I can only say that it reminds me of Orwell's Road to Wigan Pier where he describes your "typical" leftist. There's a bit of that in O'Rourke's piece. I don't agree with Mr. O'Rourke's conclusions, but he makes me disagree with him in an amiable manner. He seems like the kind of conservative I'd like to hang out with. But that's just me... Show Less
LibraryThing member glade1
I enjoyed this book more than I expected to. O'Rourke is generally more conservative than I am but he is rational and lighthearted. In this book he investigates various problems with the human condition by visiting areas that seem to epitomize the problems: Bangladesh to explore overpopulation,
I'd like to end this book a lot of ways. Except I don't have any answers. Use your common sense. Be nice. This is the best I can do. All the trouble in the world is human trouble. Well, that's not true. But when cancer cells run amok and burst out of the prostate and take over the liver and lymph glands and end up killing everything in the body including themselves, they certainly are acting like some humans we know. All the trouble in this book is human trouble. We can fix it all and we'll still be humans causing trouble.
Maybe this isn't such a hopeful moment in history. Really, it's something of a disappointment to know that when mankind--through noble struggles, grim sacrifices (and a lot of money-making)--does achieve such things as property rights, rule of law, responsible government, and universal education, the fruit borne of these splendid accomplishments is, um, me.
Quite an enlightening and surprisingly enjoyable read.
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Mogadishu to look at famine, the Balkans to examine ethnic hatred, etc. Even though it was written in 1994, most of the stories still resonate. You might have to substitute "Darfur" for "Mogadishu" or "Kyrgystan" for "the Balkans" to make it current, but the problems are the same. The stories of his travels and encounters are fascinating and, in the end, I certainly agree with a number of his conclusions. Mostly, though, he admits he cannot recommend how to solve the problems:I'd like to end this book a lot of ways. Except I don't have any answers. Use your common sense. Be nice. This is the best I can do. All the trouble in the world is human trouble. Well, that's not true. But when cancer cells run amok and burst out of the prostate and take over the liver and lymph glands and end up killing everything in the body including themselves, they certainly are acting like some humans we know. All the trouble in this book is human trouble. We can fix it all and we'll still be humans causing trouble.
Maybe this isn't such a hopeful moment in history. Really, it's something of a disappointment to know that when mankind--through noble struggles, grim sacrifices (and a lot of money-making)--does achieve such things as property rights, rule of law, responsible government, and universal education, the fruit borne of these splendid accomplishments is, um, me.
Quite an enlightening and surprisingly enjoyable read.
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LibraryThing member aarch235
Unlike most of O'Rourke's writings, I came to this very late - over a decade after it was published. This may be the reason I found it such a slow, difficult read - the world has changed so much since then, I found myself constantly trying to file his experiences into the timeline of my own memory.
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Still, very funny, thought-provoking and at times beautifully observed. Show Less
LibraryThing member RandyStafford
My reactions to reading this book in 1994.
As in his Parliament of Whores, O’Rourke makes libertarian/conservative arguments in popular, humorous satiric prose. As in that earlier book, O’Rourke is not a mindless basher of government employees and bureaucrats but sees some – not at the
O’Rourke also shows a great deal of compassion for those caught in the hells of the world – with the exception of the Somalians and the aforementioned bureaucrats in Rio. (He really hates Somalians and the predatory, nomadic culture of the warlords which despises productive work like farming.) He does a nice job of showing how most of the problems of the title are caused by government interference in property rights and free markets. (Though I thought he mischaracterized as a "plague" the miliions of children who die of diarrhea each year. That's not exactly a plague. It is a problem exacerbated by governmental interference. Still, his general point that a rich society with respect for law and free from corruption doesn’t suffer this kind of thing is well taken.)
Most of the arguments for free markets, property rights, and universal education I was familiar with already but I learned some specific things. (Still, there’s some inspired juxtapositions here like linking of O’Rourke’s alma mater Miami University and its new obsession with multiculturalism with the very empowered – with guns – minorities in the shambles of the old Yugoslavia.) He rightly points out, using Bangladesh (and shows its not the lurid hellhole most imagine) as an example, that overpopulation is only a problem for poor countries (Fremont California – an average suburb – has a denser population concentration than Bangadelsh) and population growth slows with increasing wealth. Furthermore, Bangadelsh is a rich country hampered by ignorance, poor government policies (though there, he notes, Milton Friedman is on a bureaucrat’s bookshop unlike the U.S.), and bad advice from outsiders via foreign aid, advice which seems to trap the country in an agricultural past. Somalia’s famine is due to governmental policies and a thuggish culture of warlords. Chapter 4 – “Saving the Earth: We’re All Going to Die Anyway” – makes the usual – and valid – libertarian case (as does Chapter 3) for considering cost/risk calculations and gives specific examples of how U.S. governmental policy harmed the environment. Haiti’s tragic, violent history is covered (along with a nice section on the emotional genesis and significance of voodoo. O’Rourke sees a poor country beset by two not all together evil or good government factions and a very generous, ambitious people he thinks we should let immigrate. (He compares voodoo to what humans abducted by aliens might come up with by way of religion. After all Haiti’s original slaves were kidnapped by strange looking people of a strange, advanced culture.) A trip to Vietnam turns into a happy examination of a country that officially babbles the Marxist tune but who has really fully embraced capitalism with much ambition and ingenuity.
There is much truth – and humor – in O’Rourke’s final musings that riches and liberty allows humans to act so disappointingly … human, that man’s long, painful history of struggle and sacrifice has produced O’Rourke (and many less ambitious, gifted, perceptive Americans) so how happy an outcome is that? Finally, I agreed with O’Rourke’s opening that we should stop whining and realize we have it better than any other humans ever had.
As in his Parliament of Whores, O’Rourke makes libertarian/conservative arguments in popular, humorous satiric prose. As in that earlier book, O’Rourke is not a mindless basher of government employees and bureaucrats but sees some – not at the
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attendees of the Earth Summit in Rio though – as trying to do their best even if hampered by other bureaucrats or ignorance. (He has praise for the doctors combatting childhood diarrhea in WHO.) O’Rourke also shows a great deal of compassion for those caught in the hells of the world – with the exception of the Somalians and the aforementioned bureaucrats in Rio. (He really hates Somalians and the predatory, nomadic culture of the warlords which despises productive work like farming.) He does a nice job of showing how most of the problems of the title are caused by government interference in property rights and free markets. (Though I thought he mischaracterized as a "plague" the miliions of children who die of diarrhea each year. That's not exactly a plague. It is a problem exacerbated by governmental interference. Still, his general point that a rich society with respect for law and free from corruption doesn’t suffer this kind of thing is well taken.)
Most of the arguments for free markets, property rights, and universal education I was familiar with already but I learned some specific things. (Still, there’s some inspired juxtapositions here like linking of O’Rourke’s alma mater Miami University and its new obsession with multiculturalism with the very empowered – with guns – minorities in the shambles of the old Yugoslavia.) He rightly points out, using Bangladesh (and shows its not the lurid hellhole most imagine) as an example, that overpopulation is only a problem for poor countries (Fremont California – an average suburb – has a denser population concentration than Bangadelsh) and population growth slows with increasing wealth. Furthermore, Bangadelsh is a rich country hampered by ignorance, poor government policies (though there, he notes, Milton Friedman is on a bureaucrat’s bookshop unlike the U.S.), and bad advice from outsiders via foreign aid, advice which seems to trap the country in an agricultural past. Somalia’s famine is due to governmental policies and a thuggish culture of warlords. Chapter 4 – “Saving the Earth: We’re All Going to Die Anyway” – makes the usual – and valid – libertarian case (as does Chapter 3) for considering cost/risk calculations and gives specific examples of how U.S. governmental policy harmed the environment. Haiti’s tragic, violent history is covered (along with a nice section on the emotional genesis and significance of voodoo. O’Rourke sees a poor country beset by two not all together evil or good government factions and a very generous, ambitious people he thinks we should let immigrate. (He compares voodoo to what humans abducted by aliens might come up with by way of religion. After all Haiti’s original slaves were kidnapped by strange looking people of a strange, advanced culture.) A trip to Vietnam turns into a happy examination of a country that officially babbles the Marxist tune but who has really fully embraced capitalism with much ambition and ingenuity.
There is much truth – and humor – in O’Rourke’s final musings that riches and liberty allows humans to act so disappointingly … human, that man’s long, painful history of struggle and sacrifice has produced O’Rourke (and many less ambitious, gifted, perceptive Americans) so how happy an outcome is that? Finally, I agreed with O’Rourke’s opening that we should stop whining and realize we have it better than any other humans ever had.
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LibraryThing member danoomistmatiste
This book entailed a tour of the world's most prominent basket cases, Somalia, Bangladesh and Haiti and some of the lesser afflicted but nonetheless gravely affected ones such as Vietnam and Czech republic. All these conditions such as War, Famine, Poverty etc are of course self inflicted and man
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made and all of them of course have a solution. Show Less
LibraryThing member JBarringer
I didn't enjoy this one as much as Holidays in Hell, but O'Rourke has a great storytelling style even when his politics and mine don't exactly agree. He makes a lot of good points, and is funny enough that even where I don't agree with him, his stories are great reading.
Language
Original publication date
1994
Physical description
368 p.; 9.2 inches
ISBN
0330335030 / 9780330335034