Tyler's Blog Death of Destiny

“Empire of Illusion” by Chris Hedges

Empire of Illusion is a non-fictional book by Chris Hedges. It examines how society is headed towards illiteracy, and goes on to demonstrate what people are resorting to instead (that being illusions and other false beliefs).

That being said (its topic largely being about false beliefs), it probably seems like a book that I would enjoy. I too was expecting that outcome. However, I don't think my understanding of this book was thorough enough to accomplish that outcome--in addition to a fast approaching library due date, I was also presented with the obstacle of there being a heavy emphasis on social, political, and economic structural knowledge throughout the book (of which the political and economic structure sections left me giving the book blank stares).

The book is largely example based, many of the examples I didn't find to be entirely relevant to the topic (although, I probably missed out on a lot of what was meant to be examined by the examples). More specifically, examples involving the porn industry, world corporations, and also American politics (including Obama's campaign, seeing as this book was just published in 2009) are examined throughout different parts of the book and shown to how their growth and evolution are catering to the illiteracy of the people.

That being said, the writing style of the book I didn't find to be overall pleasing. Although I find the topic to be interesting (and I largely agree with his intended argument, or at least that which I have perceived to be his), I found his way of presenting his argument to not be the most effective way of presenting it to the average reader.

This book wasn't my favourite, but it wasn't entirely unbearable. I recommend this book to those interested in the issue of false beliefs, or any of our current social, political, or economic relationships with individuals (or with our overall anthropogenic influence on this planet).