Escaping Plato's Cave: How America's Blindness to the Rest of the World Threatens Our Survival

By Mort Rosenblum

Book Overview

Cave Blindness Like Plato's cave-dwellers who only saw inaccurate reflections of reality on the wall, America has been blinded to dangerous realities inside and outside our borders, argues award-winning journalist Mort Rosenblum. Our ignorance is not just deplorable, it is literally killing us--and others. Rosenblum--who has reported from more than one hundred countries, many of which he has outlived--explains how we all can and must learn more about what's really happening in the Middle East, Europe, Africa, Asia, Latin America, in matters of war, peace, business, the environment, and education. This "cri de coeur" by one of our planet's most eloquent journalists is a must-read for anyone concerned about what they "don't" see in the newspaper or on TV. It offers both insight and practical ways for Americans to get out of the cave and see what's really going on around us.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0312364407
• ISBN13: 9780312364403
• Release Date: October 2007
• Publisher: St. Martin's Press
• Length: 272 Pages
• Weight: 1.14 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 6.4" x 9.5"

Customer Reviews

Why am I reading this book?

What led me to buy this book? I don't know. I have always read newspapers and news magazines for serious news, light fiction for pleasure. and bought books that I wanted for reference materials. 'Escaping Plato's Cave' has riveted me from the first few pages. Early on, Rosenblum gives a quote that is a major theme of the book. The answer to the question of what has been going wrong with our country for the past fifty years, he quotes, is that we have been treating the EFFECTS, not the CAUSES. We are always behind. Think about that. When the bombers flew the planes into the World Trade Center, what was our reaction? "Go get 'em." Did anyone ask, "Why were these people so angry that they would do such a thing?" How can we win a "War on Terrorism" when our actions make more and more people furious with us? The ranks of terrorists increase when we kill innocent civilians, hold (and torture) prisoners for years before finding out that many were not who we thought they were, insist on imposing our form of government on cultures that do not admire or want it, arrogantly refuse to cooperated with the rest of the world in curbing pollution and conserving energy. I thought that we were redeeming ourselves through our disaster aid. Wrong. Rosenblum tells us what has really been happening. He was there. I'm only part way through the book. Join me in seeing reality.

Exploding the myth

The author piles on historical fact after fact on the high end of the real vs unreal teeter-totter to counteract the the weight of false beliefs, concepts, and expectations that so often keep the wrong end of the teeter-totter on the ground because of our unrealistic and ignorant expectations that have resulted from looking at the shadows on the cave wall instead of turning around to view the reality exists around us and accept it for what is really going on in the world as a result of our ignorance and the capitulation of the news media to cover world affairs in order to sell entertainment.

Deliver us from evil

Mort Rosenblum's book, Escaping Plato's Cave, is, alas, the kind of wisdom that those who would most benefit from it, are the very same that are least likely to seek it. This is a highly reommended present for George W. Bush and his most fervent supporters, Bill O'Reilly and those that nod in approval under his rants and finally as a teaching aid for all the budding reporters that dream of working for Rupert Murdoch. To those of you that are saying; well then, what about the terrorists; I say, Bush is not making it better.

A veteran's perceptive take on the world

Mort Rosenblum's writings are always deeply perceptive, keenly observed and smartly composed. Those of us belonging to a certain journalistic generation know how wonderful Mort's dispatches were during his long tenure at The Associated Press. His books are something to look forward to, and "Plato's cave" is a delight. This kind of writing can only come from long experience and from personal knowledge of the world's complexities.

excellent!

I found Escaping Plato's Cave to be an eye opening view of the corporate journalism in American now and a "must read book". It is well written and packed with a lifetime of tales of traveling to wars and disasters as a reporter. Like a good reporter, he speaks in a well modulated and clear voice throughout despite the horrible catastrophe he is describing. He is reporting a vast attack on journalism that is not being reported in the press. This is not some fringe lunatic, but a major mainstream professional writer and reporter who has been our trusted eyes and ears fro a long time. This is a book by an insider about how and why the news is no longer accurate reports from the source at the scene. When organizations like the AP cut down the number of reporters on location, soon the news from many places is only available from official government sources. How can you have news without reporters? As this books shows it maybe exactly what the major news organizations are doing. It is a first hand account of the corporate takeover that is happening in many critical areas of American life. Like all news, it is meaningless unless you understand it and believe it to be true. The many ways the truth can be spun should not be the hallmark of good journalism. Mort Rosenblum and many other experienced journalists have been gotten rid of as part of a downsizing trend. It is a trend that suits the new owners since it cuts costs and all the difficulties with reporters in the field whose stories don't agree with the press releases from Washington. With no reporters in the field who can disagree with the word from Washington?