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 Book Review: P.J. O'Rourke's,
 ALL THE TROUBLE IN THE WORLD
    by Dave Bealer
 =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-


   Repent, the end of the world is near! You'd think it was
 inevitable, what with all the (very fashionable) worrying about
 famine, plague, overpopulation, racial hatred, and environmental
 catastrophe. Doomsday myths have always been popular, but modern
 pseudo-science gives them an air of authenticity that is very
 seductive, even to the modern skeptical mind, unless you happen
 to have the actual facts.

   P.J. O'Rourke has been poking holes in over-inflated egos and
 debunking popular myths since the 1960s. A former editor of the
 NATIONAL LAMPOON, these days he writes for ROLLING STONE, and
 certainly gathers no moss, seeking out assignments as a correspondent
 that allow him to travel where the action is around the world. Unlike
 most popular economic/political commentators, O'Rourke has actually
 been to places like Bangladesh, Somalia, Bosnia, and Vietnam. He
 makes the most of these experiences, using them as the basis of his
 latest best seller, ALL THE TROUBLE IN THE WORLD: The Lighter Side
 of Overpopulation, Famine, Ecological Disaster, Ethnic Hatred, Plague,
 and Poverty.

   In the section on overpopulation, O'Rourke points out that
 Fremont, California, a tony city located on San Francisco Bay, has
 the exact same population density as Bangladesh. Even the worst
 doomsday predictions would leave the planet with the same population
 density as the State of Pennsylvania. Anyone who has driven Interstate
 80 through north central Pennsylvania can assure you that even in the
 worst case scenario, there will still be plenty of desolate places
 where people can "get away from it all."

   O'Rourke landed an assignment in Somalia, where he investigated
 famine. P.J. discovered that there is really plenty of food in
 Somalia. You don't even need food stamps to get it, just an AK-47.
 Statistics prove that the modern world grows a lot more food, feeds
 a lot more people than ever before, yet suffers from more famine.
 O'Rourke notes that "This would seem to defy physical law . . .
 When a thing defies physical law, there's usually politics involved."

   A long time commentator on American cultural eccentricities,
 O'Rourke is really in his element when he gets going on the shambles
 that is the American environmental movement. Starting off with the
 U.S. Government's horrendous record as a steward of the environment,
 he finishes with a summary of his attendance at the 1992 Earth Summit
 in Rio de Janeiro. Along the way, he takes well deserved swipes at
 such noted environmental "thinkers" as Henry David Thoreau and
 Roderick Nash.

   O'Rourke sums up his treatise on global suffering with a
 chapter on Economic Justice, subtitled: "The Hell with Everything,
 Let's Get Rich." As an example he uses the Republic of Vietnam.
 Although still a communist dictatorship, the citizens of Vietnam
 "have let go of Marx with both hands." Everyone in the country is
 hustling, making things or providing services on the side, in
 addition to whatever "official" job they might have. O'Rourke notes
 that "You can do pretty much what you want to do in Vietnam. You are
 not, however, supposed to have opinions about doing it." To give you
 an idea how well the country is doing, just 20 years after the last
 helicopter lifted off the roof of the U.S. Embassy in Saigon --
 Vietnam is sending food aid to the former Soviet Union.

   ALL THE TROUBLE IN THE WORLD: The Lighter Side of Overpopulation,
 Famine, Ecological Disaster, Ethnic Hatred, Plague, and Poverty.
 by P.J. O'Rourke; Atlantic Monthly Press, ISBN: 0-87113-580-9  $22

                               {DREAM}

 Copyright 1995 Dave Bealer, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
 ---------------------------------------------------------------------
 Dave Bealer is a thirty-something mainframe systems programmer who
 works with CICS, MVS and all manner of nasty acronyms at one of the
 largest heavy metal shops on the East Coast. He shares a waterfront
 townhome in Pasadena, MD. with two cats who annoy him endlessly as he
 writes and publishes electronically. Dave can be reached via e-mail
 at: dave.bealer@dreamforge.com
 ---------------------------------------------------------------------

 Sound Byte:

   "Everybody wants to save the earth; nobody wants to help
    Mom do the dishes."  - P.J. O'Rourke
 =====================================================================

