Don't Vote - It Just Encourages the Bastards by P. J. O'Rourke | Free Audiobook

Listen to full audiobooks for free on : https://hotaudiobook.com/free Title: Don't Vote - It Just Encourages the Bastards Author: P. J. O'Rourke Narrator: Christopher Lane Format: Unabridged Length: 7 hrs and 53 mins Language: English Release date: 09-23-10 Publisher: Brilliance Audio Genres: Comedy, Satire Summary: In Don't Vote - It Just Encourages the Bastards, best-selling humorist P. J. ORourke, whose On the Wealth of Nations, about the foundations of economic,s has been published in 18 languages, delivers a hilarious theory of politics. Americas most subversive conservative, ORourke describes government as a devils bargain between power, freedom, and responsibility, and goes on to hilariously skewer the politicians who have bargained with us to consolidate power, and the many mini-bargains and evasions that citizens have made with the consequences of their choices. P. J. O'Rourke begins with a party game that comes to us from late-night giggle sessions in all-girls boarding schools: Kill, F@#%, Marry. Pick three men - or, in ORourkes version, three political ideologies, i.e., Democrat, Republican, and Independents (a.k.a. Confused). Then you have to choose which to terminate with extreme prejudice, which to go for a roll in the hay with, and which to settle down with permanently for a boring life in the suburbs. This astute tool of political analysis works on the parts of government as well as on the political thinking that led to those parts: Kill the Department of Education, screw Social Security, and marry the Armed Forces. The same for political policies: Screw the bailout, marry a balanced budget, and national health care kills you. ORourke explores the basis of our democracy - the aforementioned power, freedom, and responsibility, a.k.a. the Kill, F@#%, Marry of liberty and self-rule. ORourke favors - reluctantly, he admits - responsibility. From the woes of nation-building to the woes of letting politicians rebuild the automobile industry, no irresponsibility of Americas political establishment is spared. Why, he asks, was the health care reform debate framed in terms of health insurance? ("When your house is on fire, do you call Allstate or 911?") Listen to P. J. ORourke on the pathetic nature of politics and laugh through your tears or, what the hell - just laugh. Contact: [e-mail]

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:07):
Brilliant Audio presents the unabridged recording of Don't Vote It
Just Encourages the Bastards by p J. O'Rourke, performed by
Christopher Lane to my wife Christina for her encouragement of
this particular bastard and for not imposing term limits. Apologia

(00:28):
pro expletive sewa. I beg forgiveness from the reader for
the vulgar language in this book. Politics is a vulgar
fucking subject. I have resorted to barnyard words because of
the amount of bullshit, horseshit, and chicken shit involved in politics.
I'm sorry I can't devise a more polite mode of expression.

(00:49):
I can only blame myself. It is possible. I suppose
to take a decorous approach to politics, but I am
reminded of the American guest at a dinner in one
of the great houses Britain. The American was seated to
the left of a very grand and fat old duchess,
and an Englishman was seated on her right. During the
soup course, the duchess farted. The Englishman, taking chivalrous responsibility,

(01:14):
said I beg your pardon. During the fish course, the
duchess farted again louder than before. Once more the Englishman said,
I beg your pardon. Then, during the meat course, the
duchess cut loose with a tremendous resounding blast. The Englishman said,
I beg no no. The American interrupted. This one's on me.

(01:39):
Part one The Sex, Death and Boredom theory of politics.
The man of system is apt to be very wise
in his own conceit, and is often so enamored with
the supposed beauty of his own ideal plan of government
that he cannot suffer the smallest deviation from any part
of it. Adam Smith scientific socialism would hold a special

(02:06):
attraction for intellectuals by promising to replace spontaneous and messy
life with a rational order of which they would be
the interpreters and mentors. Richard Pipes, here's a good rule
of thumb, too. Clever is dumb Ogden Nash one kill

(02:29):
fuck Mary. Having been a political commentator of one kind
or another since nineteen seventy, it has occurred to me
to ask, what the hell have I been talking about
for forty years. It's a surprisingly difficult question to answer.
One subject has been power. The skull beneath the skin

(02:49):
of politics sometimes we get flayed completely and there's nothing
left but a pile of skulls. Then there's freedom. From
my addlepated hippie youth to my right wing grouch maturity.
I've been a fan of freedom, particularly my own, Furthermore,
because I've always lived in a nation that is self ruled,
if often by selfish selves, and that is under the

(03:13):
rule of law, if often legally unruly. Responsibility, too, has
been a topic, although I dislike taking any power. Freedom
and responsibility are the trinity of politics in a free
and democratic country. But it's hard to know how to
go about understanding this triad. We are so passionate about

(03:34):
our politics, and how do passionate affairs end in a passion,
usually in a crime of passion. Sometimes occasionally they turn
into stable, permanent, connubial relationships, which is to say, endless
peevish quarrels. How should the political institutions of America be approached.

(03:54):
Do we overthrow them with violence? Do we screw around
with them while they screw around with us? Or do
we try to build something that's lasting and boring, worthy
and annoying, marvelously virtuous, and at the same time dreadfully stifling.
No wonder, most of my fellow political commentators and I
have preferred to rave about politics rather than consider them.

(04:16):
It's human nature, at least among free and democratic humans,
to be angry, confused, and instinctual about politics. So how
do we go about creating a set of political principles
that don't suck? We need a reasonable, reasonably precise, and
reasonably well reasoned way to look at political institutions, political policies,

(04:38):
and politicians. There is ample evidence of what happens when
such principles are lacking. Somalia, power, freedom, and responsibility are
not principles in and of themselves their perspectives, but we
can use these three ways of looking at things to
analyze politics. The game Kill Fuck