Review: The Fifth Risk

The Fifth Risk by Michael Lewis
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

"Here is where the Trump administration’s willful ignorance plays a role. If your ambition is to maximize short-term gain without regard to the long-term cost, you are better off not knowing the cost. If you want to preserve your personal immunity to the hard problems, it’s better never to really understand those problems. There is an upside to ignorance, and a downside to knowledge. Knowledge makes life messier. It makes it a bit more difficult for a person who wishes to shrink the world to a worldview."

Being a history teacher, I have a greater knowledge of how our government system works, as I have spent time studying it and teaching about it. But I confess, that after reading this book, even I had a new appreciation for the complexity of all the different departments and the many things that they do. What I wasn't surprised to hear was the Trump administration's failure to fully staff the government so that it can do its job. While this isn't surprising, it is a scary idea. The best way to undermine the foundation of the government is to pull it apart stone by stone and ignore the cracks that need fixing. If your curious about learning more about how our bureaucracy works and the vulnerable state it is in, check this book out.

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