Summarizing a thriller

Last night I read Patrick Robinson's latest thriller "Diamondhead". I could say it was a good read, but the best I can honestly manage is that I read it because I had to find out how far right and manipulative of reality Mr Robinson could get. Pretty far, as it happens.

Here's a summary:

1. Bosses are benevolent people, interested only in the welfare of those who work for them

2. CNN is a liberal network intent on bashing Republicans

2a. Fox News is the only worthwhile news channel

2b. The press, especially the NY Times, are liberal and anti-America because of, well because!

3. It's okay if the US takes the law into its own hands

3a. It's not okay if someone else does

3b. The US is incapable of developing general rules of engagement for asymmetrical war

4. The French are evil

4a. No they're not!

4b. They are incompetent

4c. No they're not!

4d. Yes they are - and they're evil, too!

4e. No they're not!

5. Morality necessarily has context

I finished the book thinking that #5 was an accident. The rest of the book deals with morality as a black and white issue: evil doers are evil, Americans are good. (Politicians are sort of evil, but not so much if they're Republican right wingers. French politicians are thoroughly evil, but not if they're pro-American. And so on.) Basically.

Dick Cheney would love this book. Newt Gingrich would probably be jealous he hadn't thought of it. John Ringo will see one of his characters redeployed. Don Rumsfeld could have used it a long time ago - it would have helped him plan the Iraq war. The far right will enjoy it.

For me, it was yet another simplistic adventure into irrational right wing demagogy. Disappointing is not a word I'd use to describe. That would imply an expectation that wasn't lived up to. I had little expectation, so I wasn't disappointed.

Carolyn Ann