“A Cry from the Far Middle”: Lots of Laughs, And a Few Important Insights

“If there is an underlying argument here, though, it is that Americans ought to quit taking themselves—and their own tribe’s political convictions—so darn seriously.”

In A Cry from the Far Middle: Dispatches from a Divided Land, P.J. O’Rourke ties together a number of columns from his American Consequences magazine with some original content to provide readers with a bevy of laughs. A former Atlantic and Weekly Standard writer, O’Rourke surveys America’s political and social landscape and finds plenty of targets—from politicians to woke activism—for his biting wit.

It is difficult to draw out a central theme of A Cry from the Far Middle. O’Rourke bounces around from critiquing woke ideology, socialism, and the nationalist right to praising traffic jams, fast food, and sixties drug culture. If there is an underlying argument here, though, it is that Americans ought to quit taking themselves—and their own tribe’s political convictions—so darn seriously. Especially as we approach the close of an incredibly divisive campaign season occurring in the midst of an extraordinarily challenging national moment marked by a pandemic and ongoing social unrest, it is worth engaging with O’Rourke’s dry-humor-saturated political takes.

The overweening self-seriousness of the American political and activist classes serves as the principal motivator behind the biting critiques of O’Rourke, a self-described “humorist.” He writes: “We need a political system that isn’t so darn sure of itself. It’s time for the rise of the extreme moderate. Power to the far-middle! Let’s bring the Wishy and the Washy back together, along with the Namby and the Pamby, and the Milque and the Toast.”