Skip to main content

Decision Points

Decision PointsDecision Points by George W. Bush


In Decision Points, George W. Bush reflects on the most consequential choices he made in his eight years in office, declaring some to be good decisions and others to be poor ones. In his discussion, the reader gains insight into his decision-making process, learning that values were foremost in his mind. Where his values conflicted with the urgency of a situation, Bush showed--such as with his decision to invest taxpayer money to sustain the insurance, banking, and auto industries--that he was willing to adopt behaviors that opposed his values, but that ultimately helped the country. If you are interested in a history of the political events surrounding the United States in the first decade of the twenty-first century, this offers an overview of those events from the perspective of the White House. If you are interested in learning about George W. Bush as a person, this book is also helpful: while Bush focuses almost exclusively on politics, he does describe important personal life events, especially with regard to family. In the end, Decision Points helps the reader understand the mindset of a man compelled to make decisions about science and the nature of human life; war and defense; the economic direction of the country; and more. On a personal note, I noticed the extent to which the country differs now compared to even ten years ago, especially with regard to the salient divisions on race, when in Bush's presidency those divisions focused more acutely on Iraq. As a Bush supporter, I recommend this book as a way to learn about the person himself, and I would recommend it for those who are interested in a president's perspective on the issues of the day that he faced. In reading this, you get the impression of a man of strong convictions, as well as one willing to listen to a wide variety of perspectives on issues. I personally found the president to be more centrist and pragmatic than I had first believed, particularly on immigration, but also one who never forfeit his values.


View all my reviews

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Persuasion

At different points in history, governments have devoted men, women, and resources to try to persuade others to their side. One significant example of this occurred in Germany under Adolf Hitler. Hitler knew how important it was to make sure the German people were on his side as leader of the country. One way he did this was by controlling what people heard. Specifically, near the beginning of World War II, Hitler made it a crime for anyone in Germany to listen to foreign radio broadcasts. These were called the “extraordinary radio measures.” He did this to ensure that Germans weren’t being persuaded by enemy countries to question their loyalty to Hitler. He knew that a German listening to a radio broadcast from Britain might persuade that German to believe that Great Britain was the good guy and Hitler the bad guy. This was so important, in fact, that two people in Germany were actually executed because they had either listened to or planned to listen to a foreign radio broadcast (one...
Post a Comment
Read more

Comparison

Psychologists and others have studied ways in which we compare ourselves to each other. One man named Leon Festinger argued that we tend to compare ourselves to other people when we don’t know how good or bad we are at something (like football or playing the guitar). One way we do this is when we compare ourselves to those who are not as good as we are, to protect our self-esteem (called “downward social comparison;” example: we’re playing basketball and miss most of our shots, but we feel okay because a teammate wasn’t even given the ball). Another comparison we make is when we compare ourselves to others who are doing much better than we are (called “upward social comparison”). When we see others who appear to be doing better than we are, we can respond by trying to improve ourselves, or by trying to protect ourselves by telling ourselves it’s not that important. There was a study published in 1953 by Solomon Asch, who asked students to take part in a “vision test.” The par...
Post a Comment
Read more

Learning and Change

In a recent article in National Geographic ( "Why Do Many Reasonable People Doubt Science "), Joel Achenbach attempted to explain why humans have trouble believing the evidence laid out in scientific research. In the article, he cited a phenomenon called confirmation bias , our tendency to adopt the evidence that fits what we already believe. Now, I am a feeling person by nature. Subconsciously, I make choices in my environment based on my emotional reaction to it. Similarly, I have found that the information I remember most is the information I respond to with strong emotion, whether that emotion is humor, anger, shock, or something else. This is why I believe confirmation bias exists: we respond to facts emotionally. However, sometimes we learn information that, instead of confirming what we believe, has the opposite effect. We are introduced to facts that shock us out of our complacency. That shock can jar us into questioning long-held beliefs, and even entire worldviews...
Post a Comment
Read more