Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

This book is a personal, family-oriented guide to the socio-political issues that a book like Juggernaut: Why the System Crushes the Only People Who Can Save It handles on the macro scale. It is a voice of reason and common sense in a time of alternative facts and fake news. It is a reminder of what it is to be human in an increasingly post-human world. The argument is simple: Various cultural forces have altered our institutions so that we no longer educate our young. The phase of adolescence which had been a transitional phase is now the permanent goal, and most do not escape. Most high school grads have not worked a job at all. The norm is for college grads to go back and live with their parents. Video games occupy the attention of most young adults. Marriage and family is put off until one’s thirties if ever. Sasse doesn't spend much time discussing the origins of this epidemic. He jumps right into the solution, which amounts to character building. There are five main pillars to this character building, based on the Sasses’ own parental program: 1. Overcome peer culture 2. Work hard 3. Resist consumption 4. Travel to experience the difference between need and want 5. Become truly literate It's astonishing that these principles even have to be mentioned. But they do. Thankfully they do not read like tired cliches, but rather clarion calls to a more virtuous life and education. In addition to Juggernaut, I would recommend Out of the Ashes: Rebuilding American Culture as well as The Road to Character as complementary reads. Ben Sasse is one of a few new politicians who have offered a fresh perspective on our longstanding problems. We can only hope that the muck and mire of Washington doesn't defeat him the way it has so many other bright stars to arrive there of late.