Nick Gillespie on The End of Power and Why Being in Charge Ain't What it Used to Be

"With the federal government willing and able to surveil every phone call made in the U.S., pump trillions of dollars into the economy via fiscal stimulus, bail out whole industries, and force all residents to buy health insurance by the start of next year," writes Nick Gillespie, "it sometimes seems that most of us have no real control over our lives. Sure, we can dress like slobs at work and get any number of coffee drinks at even the lousiest freeway rest stop. But when it comes to power, the folks at the top of the figurative pyramid seem to have even more control than when the Pharaohs were forcing us to build actual pyramids."

That's why Moisés Naím's new book, The End of Power: From Boardrooms to Battlefields and Churches to States, Why Being In Charge Isn't What It Used to Be, is so great. In a fully convincing account, the former editor of Foreign Policy shows that contrary to superficial indicators, little people all over the globe are actually gaining more control over their—our—lives.