With confidence in government at a historic low thanks to rampant corruption, a lack of basic efficiency and much-needed investigations or prison time for the worst among us, itís perhaps a good time to revisit ìParliament of Whoresî (Grove Press, 240 pp. $13.00), libertarian humorist P.J. OíRourkeís 1991 screed against government in general.

David Forbes

Itís aged very well in some places; at times itís even prescient. But overall itís woefully outdated. A product of the relatively peaceful late ë80s and ë90s, it proves shaky as any sort of universal manual for the times of turmoil in which we find ourselves.

A long-time satirist and observer of absurdity, first for National Lampoon, then for Rolling Stone, where he still writes, OíRourke got increasingly bitter as time went on. On top of that, he was never exactly the type to pull punches in the first place (observe the title).

So he takes naturally and enthusiastically to puncturing government. OíRourke is also very, very thorough. Short of riding along with black-ops squads, he covers just about everything: Supreme Court, President, Congress, town meetings, interest groups, and even a military invasion (Panama in this case) just for fun.

OíRourkeís gift is that he can find the absurdity in everything ó he even makes farm policy funny ó and despite his own biases, he gives everyone a fair share of ridicule.

To be fair, some things in this book still ring true. OíRourkeís indictment of the stuffy ìperpetually indignantî alignment of ìconcernedî interest groups will resonate with anyone whoís ever been to college or attended a protest.

Take this description of one of the groups OíRourke observes:

ìYoung would-be hippies dressed exactly like old hippies used to dress (remarkable how behind the times the avant-garde has gotten).î

OK, so that one isnít dated.

At one point, however, OíRourke manages to combine humor, insight and a healthy dose of rage for his most prophetic chapter: taking apart the modern incarnation of the ìWar on Drugsî during the height of the crack epidemic.

ìIt is one more measure of our lack of seriousness that we wonít dispassionately investigate or rationally debate which drugs do what damage and whether or how much of that damage is the result of criminalization. Weíd rather work ourselves into a screaming fit of puritanism and then go home and take a pill.î

For that section alone the book is worth its cost.

So where does OíRourke fall down?

Throughout the book, most parts of government come off as benignly harmless, filled with clueless types that may be wasteful and intrusive, but rarely do horrible damage. Maybe this is a product of the bookís era ó that of the first President Bush ó but it makes it clear that save for seeing exactly where the drug war was heading, he missed the point.

Maybe not even someone as cynical toward government as OíRourke could have predicted where things were headed. He did say that government was wasteful, clueless, meddling and corrupt; he just had no idea how bad it could get or how badly the next major crises could be botched.

Idiocy was well within OíRourkeís frame of comprehension. Malevolence and hubris he did not see.
Sixteen years ago, ìParliament of Whoresî was a plenty-controversial title. Today, it would be an insult to the honor of the oldest profession ó and an accurate name for a follow-up isnít even printable.

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David Forbes, who writes book reviews for the Daily Planet, may be reached at marauderAVL-at-hotmail.com. Suggestions and comments are always welcome.