The Violence of Organized Forgetting: Thinking Beyond America's Disimagination Machine (City Lights Open Media)

Let’s face it, if you’ve read this book, or are thinking about reading it, chances are you’re probably on the radical side of the liberal/progressive side of the aisle. In fact, you probably don’t even consider yourself “liberal” because that word has been so tainted. Assuming that to be the case, there isn’t much in this book that you don’t already know. And in the unlikely event you are a more mainstream liberal who has stumbled on this book, there is nothing here that will alter your views to the left. (And of course there’s the possibility you’re a rightie, in which case you’ll just have a ball with this book.)I have moved radically leftward since my days of crying with joy at Obama’s first election (forgive me, I was eight months pregnant and filled with hormones). But even I found myself rolling my eyes a number of times at this book. It’s not so much that I disagree with anything that Giroux says per se, but it’s the way he says it. He clearly assumes he’s talking to a bunch of like-minded radical leftist, so he jumps right in with the jargon without bothering to explain it and pretty much goes off on a rant. The book is poorly organized and repetitious and, when it comes down to it, really doesn’t have much to say.For starters, he doesn’t even begin to explain what he means by his title or attempt to operationalize it in any way. I think of a number of things when I think of “organized forgetting”, such as taking Indian children from their homes, putting them in white, English-speaking schools and forbidding them to use their native language or learn about their native culture. Perhaps that’s something like what Giroux means in this context, perhaps not – he doesn’t really say, so we have to just assume we understand what he’s talking about.Further, Giroux also builds no systematic argument to defend his thesis (to the extent he has one). Assuming I’m roughly on track with the basic idea of what he means by “organized forgetting”, he gives few examples of how such things are happening in modern times nor does he make a coherent argument that these things are intentional examples of “organized forgetting”.Sure, Giroux has a litany of bad things that are happening in American culture – the surveillance state, perpetual warfare, restrictions in civil rights including and especially free speech/protest rights, education mismanagement, media violence and misinformation, etc. And sure, one can make one’s own connections about how these various forces might play into “organized forgetting”. But it’s not his readers’ job to make Giroux’s argument for him and he fails to make his own. People who are already on the same page with him may find themselves nodding in agreement, but there is nothing in the text to convince a skeptic, even an open-minded one.As mentioned, the book is very poorly organized. Nearly every chapter we get yet another recitation of the litany of ills from poverty to war to the media to education, but we keep losing track of the point of the chapter. Even in chapters that have a relatively concise focus, such as the chapter about the lockdown of Boston during the hunt for the marathon bombers and the one about the Chicago Teachers Union protest of the closing of 50 schools, there is very little discussion of the details of these events and how they relate to the thesis of the book. This book could do with a great deal of editing to hone the focus of each chapter and build a step-by-step argument.The book is filled with references to and quotes from other liberal and radical theorists such as Morris Berman, Zygmunt Bauman, Stanley Aronowitz, Angela Davis, Tony Judt etc., but again Giroux does a poor job of integrating those authors concepts and jargon within the context of his own argument. It seems he’ll throw out a concept or bit of jargon from one such theorist and just assume we all know what he’s talking about and move right along with his diatribe. Now, some of these other authors I’ve read, some I have not, but in either case, again, it’s not my job to build Giroux’s argument. It’s up to him to spell out how these theorists connect with and contribute to his point.To the extent there is a point to this book, it’s basically an attack on neoliberalism and the damage it has done to democratic society and any sense of shared, public space, public works and public good. Neoliberalism is about control by the elite, the “best and the brightest”, the rich and the powerful and true democracy is merely an impediment to efficiency. The ideology of the market economy trumps everything. The individual’s role in society (to the meager extent “society” exists at all) is to be a consumer and a worker – a cog in an economic system of incentives, costs and benefits. Human relationships and the struggle for democratic voice are not merely superfluous, but actively interfere with the efficient workings of the “free” market.To overcome these forces, Giroux basically says that we need to reimagine a pedagogy of hope and humanity. Various movements, from the labor movement to the women’s rights movement to the anti-war movement need to be united in common struggle to reimagine a form of government that addresses the needs of people as interconnected individuals. “Freedom” needs to mean more than just the freedom to be left alone; it needs to mean the freedom for all people, including and especially historically oppressed groups such as the poor, minorities, older and younger people, gays, lesbians and transgender people, to achieve their fullest potential within an interconnected society.Giroux spills a lot of ink on what is preventing this vision from coming to fruition; hence the frequent iterations of the litany of our nation’s and the world’s ills: militarization, growing inequality, poverty, the “carceral state”, the “surveillance state”, etc. But Giroux is hardly the first to say these things – most of the authors listed above, along with many others, have said the same and said it better. Where there is plenty of room for more ink is how to overcome these obstacles.Giroux’s solution, in his final chapter, basically comes down to hope. Really? That’s all you’ve got? I think we’ve heard that one before (and I’m no longer eight months pregnant and filled with hormones, so forgive me if I don’t cry with joy this time around). And even then, Giroux spends nearly three-fourths of the chapter telling us, yet again, why this hope is so hard to achieve and flourish (war, poverty, media violence,… stop me if you’ve heard this before).It’s sort of like how I imagine that a doctor in the Gaza Strip might feel right now dealing with a complicated case. He might very well properly diagnose his patient. He may even prescribe the proper form of treatment. But the specifics and the mechanics of exactly how to carry out that treatment under current conditions is the rub.The reality is that the neoliberal agenda is taking hold because the majority of people are buying into it. As Giroux says, it sounds like “common sense”. The trick is to try to get people to understand why that “common sense” is actually so poisonous. And that’s not easy to do. When you start telling people that the “common sense” things they believe in are oppressive, violent and racist, they tend to get rather defensive. You simply can’t go around accusing the majority of the population of being wrong or misguided or not understanding their own interests and expect to be taken seriously. You’ll find yourself labeled a nutcase and quickly marginalized.Given that the neoliberal agenda is so mainstream and “common sense”, and given that the corporations and the powerful elites control both education and the media, exactly how do we reach people to form these coalitions of hope that Giroux is talking about? When he has some actual, concrete answers to that question, I would love to hear them.

I am a little surprised by the statistics surrounding some of the reviews of this book. "The Violence of Organized Forgetting," was published on August 12, 2014 yet 6 of the reviews of this book (one half) were written before that date.It appears that six people had a pre-publication look at this book. The most negative (2 stars) and the earliest was Dienne's written on August 1, a full eleven days before publication. Although it was a negative review it received a very positive 41 of 52 approval rating. No one else came close ( Brian M McKenna received 10 of 11.) Its been my experience that the earlier the review the more response it receives. That was certainly true in this case.I am an 84 year old "unreconstructed" New Deal liberal who believes in a strong middle class state which has an extensive social safety net, a progressive income tax and an estate tax, unlimited free public education, and regulation of business especially the banking business.I believe that the era of big government should be over with when the era of big business is over with and not before. Consequently I am big fan of Henry Giroux and have read many of his books (I have written the only review to date of his "Twilight of the Social.")These are maddening times in which a strong middles class state, introduced by FDR and containing most of the features listed above has been replaced, since Reagan, by a plutocracy of cruelty which looks like it is not going to be dislodged by anything short of a revolution. As was the case in his earlier works, Henry Giroux has produced in "The Violence of Organized Forgetting," a book which in the words of Brian McKenna is "an alchemy of poetic fury." Giroux tells us that "the stories that now dominate the American landscape, and of which I write in the following pages, embody what stands for common sense among market and religious fundamentalists in both mainstream political parties: shock-and -awe austerity measures; tax cuts that serve the rich and powerful and destroy government programs that help the disadvantaged, elderly, and sick; attacks on women's reproductive rights; attempts to suppress voter-ID laws and rig electoral college votes; full fledged assaults on the environment; the militarization of every-day life; the destruction of public education, if not critical thought itself; and an ongoing attack on unions, social provisions, the expansion of Medicaid and meaningful health care reform. These stories are endless, repeated by the neoliberal and neoconservative walking dead who roam the planet sucking the blood and life out of everyone they touch - from the millions killed in foreign wars to the millions at home forced into under-employment, foreclosure, poverty, or prison. . . . We see evidence of the culture of cruelty in the policies of liberal and right-wing politicians who refuse to extend unemployment benefits, have cut $8 billion from the food stamp program (SNAP), which primarily benefits children, and have opted out of Medicaid expansion."I am definitely a member of Giroux's choir and enjoy immensely the "poetic furies" which he unleashes from time to time. But what, you may ask, do they accomplish since respite from the culture of cruelty does not appear to be remotely in the offing? Numerous authors have written about inequality in America and some (Chris Hedges for example) have even advocated revolution. Perhaps, eventually, something will come of all this activity.Giroux devotes his last chapter to hope and discusses it's myriad different aspects. He points out that "the U.S.is ranked 27th out of 30 for child poverty and over 350,000 Americans with advanced degrees applied for food stamps in 2010, millions of young people are crushed under the burden of student loans, increasing numbers of youth are homeless and living on the streets and over 50 million Americans are uninsured. Inequalities in income, access to medical attention and legal assistance have created a country filled with gated communities on the one hand and derelict zones of abandonment and voiceless suffering on the other. . . . At the same time the least fortunate 47 percent have no wealth and 146 million Americans, or i in 2, are low income or poor, and a third of families with young children are now in poverty." Yet, these neoliberals claim that 146 million American are "moochers" rather than victims. Giroux concludes by saying: "Hope is an important political and subjective register to advance the forms of egalitarian community that celebrate the voice, well-being, and inherent dignity and participation as an integral thread in the ever-evolving fabric of living democracy." Hope springs eternal in the human breast.

This is one of those books where the author's academic background and affectations get in the way of communication. There are lots of little problems like the use of undefined terms (casino capitalism), big words where little ones work better (pedagogy is used throughout even when the appropriate word is education or teaching), vague abstractions the reader apparently is supposed to already understand, quotes from other academicians in place of facts or even anecdotes concerning the issues with our government and economy, and the repetitiveness of someone who doesn't have enough material to fill a book. To be clear, the issues discussed are real. They are thoroughly discussed, and every once in awhile the author insightfully captures an essence or two. Obviously our democracy is under some threat from the malignant tendencies we have encouraged in our current unregulated form of capitalism, and if you are a scholar you may appreciate the elegant and erudite discussion; but there are quite a few books (written by journalists) that do a better job documenting and illustrating the existing, deeply problematic reality.

Often repetitive, some overly broad strokes such as neoliberal ideology constructs a mass incarceration state...the two may feed each other in the U.S. but as his own stats show, the U.S. is an outlier...would have liked more international comparisons. A lot of strong information, language is pretty academic -- never use a simple word when you can find four or five syllables...Glad I read it, but finishing was something of a struggle. Amazing that after Hurricane Sandy NYC was going to devote generators and bottled water to runners when citizens were so much in need...

First things first, I would never have ordinarily read this book. A member of my book group had picked it up in the famous City Lights bookshop on a recent visit to San Francisco and decided it would make a good book for the rest of us to read.Most of the group, including me, are left-leaning liberal types so, before reading it, I imagined this book would be playing to the gallery. And, to an extent, it does. Giroux catalogues America's many ills, all of which are well known to anyone who follows world events, and seen in black and white it is a damning and alarming list: a neoliberal elite systematically disenfranchising the poor, the elderly, the young, people of disputed residency and people of color; America's obsession with violence and guns; mass state surveillance; the war on terror; the large number of citizens residing in prisons; rampant consumerism; assembly line education; job insecurity; increased militarisation; reduced social mobility; the treatment of Edward Snowden; Guantanamo Bay; the shameful aftermath of Hurricane Katrina; and so on.Giroux writes in a very strident style but one that is also overly intellectual and peppered with jargon. As I read it I wondered who Giroux hopes to reach with this book. Not only did the sociological jargon mean little to me, it is also very repetitive. It's like sitting next to a drunk professor ranting about the state of America. He's clearly very bright and well informed but his points quickly become repetitive, his language incoherent and before long I wanted to make my excuses.So what exactly is Giroux trying to say? And to whom? Once I'd fought my way (OK, frequently skimmed my way) through the forest of jargon (never explained) and references to numerous other theorists, what is Giroux's solution? In the last chapter Giroux suggests hope. Riiight. Against the backdrop of the powerful elites so painstaking described by Giroux over 280 pages it's hard to see where that's going to get anyone. Indeed Giroux again spends most of the final chapter continuing to rake over America's ills and qualifying why "hope" is so hard to create and maintain.Shouldn't I have felt angry and inspired by the end of this book? I actually felt depressed, bored and relieved to have finished. A missed opportunity.

The Violence of Organized Forgetting : Thinking is frighteningly true about the state of the world today . It is not an easy read, but a profitable one, because it answers a lot of questions about why thing are like they are. And things are not 'good'.The media no longer sees things as they are, but have a vested interest in imposing a view that protects the 'system'I enjoyed this book , even though at times I had to put it down because of the frustration of knowing what is happening, and the inability to change it.Henry A Giroux is a Brilliant Author. I look forward to reading more of his work.

Henry Giroux doesn't pull any punches or make excuses for the way he lays it out or the current situation of the world. I read some of his stuff when I was taking a Criminology program and enjoyed his work so much that I started reading his literature for fun. Or more correctly, for added knowledge.

This is an incredibly insightful, brilliant book that provides a clear and damning overview and assessment of America today, and although published in 2014, presaged Trump's presidency, and its calamitous impact on democracy. It may be as consequential a book as Alexis de Tocqueville's Democracy in America. Should be compulsory reading in every north-american high school and university.

Excellent analysis! I liked it even better than "Disposable Futures"! I recommend "The Violence of Organized Forgetting" without reservation.