Why you should read America: The Shop Manual
Successional Ecology is the study of how nature responds to change. The change can be dramatic and pervasive or a subtle shift in one of the driving pressures, such as rainfall. Tom has a doctorate degree in successional ecology and practiced in that field for 30 years. Upon retiring, he noticed that the world of politics shared most of the same dynamics as the natural systems he's studied. There are predators and prey in both nature and in politics. There are those who pretend to be other than what they are. There are those who lay traps and those who fall into them. As a result, when Tom looks at a political situation, he does so from a completely different vantage point than the more common political analyst. The subsequent recommendations that Tom makes are not political. They are not self-serving. They are born of the analysis of the dynamics and aimed at recovering the special relationship between the citizen and government that had once made America exceptional. It is refreshing. It is frightening. It is comforting.
