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Thinking For Yourself
In An Age of Unreason
By Dave Rubin
A book review by Jim “Gymbeaux” Brown, 7 May 2020
Consider just this one paragraph taken from this
book:
“…losing a debate isn’t a sign of stupidity or
weakness, but a sign of growth if you’re willing to embrace it with humility.”
It was when I read that one sentence I realized that
this book was indeed very special, at least to me .It is a book that as you
read it, you find yourself putting the book down, taking a sip of your coffee,
sitting back in your chair and not just think about what you have read, you truly think about what you have just
read. Most books you just read, a
sentence, a paragraph or a page, one at a time.
This book I found impossible to do that with because it did make me want
to think not only about what Rubin had written but more importantly how I felt
about what he had written and I began to question my own beliefs about a lot of
very topical subjects
Look at the sub-title of the book, “Thinking For Yourself
In An Age of Unreason.” In my opinion
Rubin has created a book that accomplishes that, it makes you think, maybe for
the first time regarding some very important subjects.
As background, Rubin points out that he was born
Jewish in a stable family life in the New York City area. Went to college and grew up like so many people
from that part of the country having strong left, Liberal beliefs. Rubin also
describes how he is gay and married. He
draws a picture of someone people on the political right would describe as
being Liberal thinking. But his beliefs
have significantly changed in a relatively short-period of time. He explains how the change took place in this
book and why the changes occurred. He
talks about such subjects as abortion, minimum wage, racism, language, sexism,
transgenderism, education, free speech, gun control, etc.
The value of this book can be summarized in the last
two paragraphs of Chapter 9:
“You’ve never had such incredible power and
reach. We have no idea how that awesome
power has changed the world already and will continue to do so. So how are you going to use that power? What do you want to put out into the
universe?”
“Begin your adventure now and you will be amazed at
how you can change your world.”
Who should read this book? Since it would benefit everyone, everyone
should read it but especially those who still believe in a perceived honesty of
the news media.
Would I read it again? Probably not, the lessons of the book were
well learned.
Would I give it as a gift? ABSOLUTELY!
