John
Arnone, resident in NE Thailand has been at it again. A compulsive writer,
he is well known to the readers of the letters pages in the major English
language dailies, expounding his own brand of philosophy. You never meet
John Arnone in print and leave without getting some ideas as to where he is
coming from, and where he thinks we should all be going.
Now I have probably been less than kind to John Arnone’s
writings in the past, and I must tip my hat to the American expat in that he
admits his previous books were not all that great. “In 1998 I wrote a book
entitled ‘Why I left America’. It was an angry rant, poorly written and
contained many famous names, not to mention a lot of expletives. The book
was rejected by several publishers and an agent in Los Angeles.”
I reviewed that previous book, writing, “By page 174 he
is describing himself appearing as a racist homophobic misogynist! However,
he does explain that whilst holding opinions, he does not pretend to be
offering proof. Nor does he offer any solutions. But what he has done is
state quite categorically just why he left America.”
This concept of offering no solutions, while piling on
the muck, was not lost on others either, including a woman in the US
publishing business who chided the fact that Arnone criticized almost
everything about America, but offered no solutions for the many problems he
outlined. Arnone admits to this and accepts the criticism.
If I were the President with the subtitle ‘Why I
left America Part II’ (ISBN 978-616-7526-01-0, self published 2011) is
John Arnone’s attempt to redress that situation, and by dreaming of himself
as the supreme US commander, with the supreme powers invested in a
President, he has the solutions.
In the 35 chapters, Arnone covers such disparate items as
Crime and Punishment, Terrorism, The Economy, Deadbeat Dads, Religion,
Science and Experimental Medicine, the News Services, advertising, The
American Family and finally “Reality”. And it is in that final chapter that
John Arnone bares his soul. He is not the self-centered man he appeared in
his previous books.
The book is available in major bookstores with an RRP of
B. 395, so it is not an expensive read. I began reading it with a bias,
based on his previous efforts, but this time I was pleasantly surprised.
Though much of his ideas are quite frankly not workable in today’s age, he
admits this. On page 9 he reports that, “There’s the way it should be and
there’s the way that it is. My first book represented the way that I believe
it is; this writing is my take on the way it should be.”
John Arnone’s writings have grown up. This book is not a rant, but a
reasoned approach to the problems in America (and many other countries, I
might add) with some ideas on how to get over the problems. It is not an
expensive read, and worth a few hours of your time in reading it. Well done,
John.
