Worth the Fighting For
I just read Worth The Fighting For by John McCain.
The book was written by a man currently practicing politics and still pursuing his ambitions. Unsurprisingly, the book is not critical of anyone whom McCain hasn’t already criticized in public, and it is very positive in its portrayal of himself and his friends.
With that understanding, I found it to be a great read and it offered me a new perspective on some of the recent Balkan and Middle Eastern history I’ve studied. It also offers an informative (though not all-encompassing) view of the modern Republican Party from a mostly-insider.
More than recent history, I enjoyed the personal explanations of what McCain tries to be and how at many times he has failed to live up to his ideals. It’s easy for me to relate to his high expectations for himself and his struggles to resist urges of vanity (which he recognizes as silly). In the book’s epilogue, McCain reminisces about his image in his youth:
It had been enough for a while for people to know me as a fighter and an individualist. But it didn’t seem to give my life enough meaning to justify the risks I took. That was because I took them for myself alone.
He concludes, “Vietnam changed that.”
I’d prefer my Vietnam to be less bloody and on a battlefield of my own choosing, but I definitely feel myself seeking a cause Worth the Fighting For.
August 5th, 2008 at 12:15 PM
Ah, the Cause Worth the Fighting for … … now that’s the sort of concept that has moved me to delve into the deep meanings of protension. (42? tensegrity? glasperlenspiel? We’re not bereft of salient concepts; we’re just very distracted!)
cheers ben
p.s. casting around for a way of initiating a non-trivial conversation, it occurs to me that http://groundplane.wordpress.com/gp-101/ might serve … does this resonate with you at all?