The Samaritan's Dilemma: Should Government Help Your Neighbor?

by Deborah Stone

Book Overview

Politics has become a synonym for all that is dirty, corrupt, dishonest, compromising, and wrong. For many people, politics seems not only remote from their daily lives but abhorrent to their personal values. Outside of the rare inspirational politician or social movement, politics is a wasteland of apathy and disinterest.

It wasn't always this way. For Americans who came of age shortly after World War II, politics was a field of dreams. Democracy...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1568583540
• ISBN13: 9781568583549
• Release Date: July 2008
• Publisher: Bold Type Books
• Length: 304 Pages
• Weight: 1.15 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.2" x 5.7" x 8.4"

Customer Reviews

An outstanding presentation

Politics has become synonymous with corruption, and many are alienated from the political system, yet it wasn't always this way. It used to hold the promise of cure and public policy improvement. THE SAMARITAN'S DILEMMA charts the downward course of the political structure and special interests, offering a blend of political essay and reporting on the changing public and political arena. Stories focus on how people practice concern and kindness both within and outside of the political structure and make for an outstanding presentation.

Open your eyes to how we've been led astray

This book, better than any other piece of journalism that I have seen, lays out clearly and shockingly, all in one place, the way we as a society were led down the path of mistrust and the politics of scarcity over the past half century. It is mind-blowing even to someone who is well-educated and reflective like myself to have all this put together in one place, to see how the United States of America turned so dramatically from the legacy of FDR and LBJ to the path of Reaganomics along which even our one Democratic president during the time since Reagan also trod. The book should be required in all public policy, ethics, political science, philospophy, and ethics classes at every college and university, undergraduate and graduate progam, in the country! I did not support Obama for President (was a Hillary supporter), but after reading this I see why he won the nomination -- he knows how to speak the language of altruism and morality that Stone articulates so well in her many examples offered throughout the book. Somehow, if we are to survive as a society and a political entity/nation, we MUST get back to the recognition of our mutual interdependence and away from the politics of fear-mongering and threatened scarcity that conservatives have been so good at for so long. We are coming apart at the seams; this book helps explain why.

A ethic for our time

Deborah Stone's Samaritan's Dilemma is a wise book that we all need to take seriously. Extremely well-written, highly readable, it is also well-researched. While based on the best available social science, it practices what it preaches: it exercises real care for its subject matter. Stone obviously cares deeply about the topic. She not only has evidence on her side but is deeply concerned that we take some time to think about how people are motivated by more than self interest. When we do, we recognize the obvious. We all are human, we all have feelings, we all are basically afflicted by pain and cruelty, whether it is inflicted on ourselves or others. People are basically good and government is a manifestation of that. Sure government also reflects our ability to be cruel and to dominate, but it also reflects the better angels of our nature. Now, more than any time in the last 50 years, is the time for us to see this and to act accordingly. We can begin by reading this eloquent and very insightful book.

Inspiring and Engrossing

I use Stone's excellent "Policy Paradox" in teaching classes on public policy, so looked forward to reading this meditation on the role of government in society and our political system. It surpassed my high expectations going in. Very readable: completely free of academic jargon, and a wonderful mix of thought-provoking points and engaging stories kept my interest throughout. At the book's heart is a deceptively simple--and vital--question: how and when should we help our neighbor? And who, if anyone, should do so when I'm unable/unwilling? Stone convinced me that our current answers, rooted in a false spirit of "self-reliance," are poorly thought-out and, too often, downright cruel. I'm a fiscal conservative, but her account of what we the people collectively (i.e., our government) should do for one another in times of need left me both profoundly moved and ready to help. A genuinely important book, by a national treasure of an author.