Soros is not quite the evil puppet master that the political right imagines him to be, nevertheless Soros is far too close to that caricature for comfort. He exposes his globalist authoritarian agenda in this book to any reader that isn't blinded by idolatry, ideology, or his wealth.

Soros exhibits hypocrisy and self-contradiction throughout this book. For example, he claims to be a champion of democracy only when the people support his globalist/collectivist policies but when the people vote for a nationalist populist policy he's suddenly a champion of any powerful elite bureaucratic institution willing to quell the uprising (see comment on Poland p150). Truly supporting democracy often means accepting popular opinions you don't like and for globalists like Soros, that means recognizing that people often value the sovereignty of the nation-state as a means to protect benevolent civic and cultural values. Of course he maligns this as "Xenophobia."

He also claims to dislike authoritarian governments but goes ahead and wistfully reminisces about how the early European Union enjoyed a "monopoly on power" (p140). Soros and other globalist's chagrin over the rise of national populism is a clear indication that they fail to grasp the meaning of the saying "power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely." He doesn't seem to realize the rise in national populism is direct blowback from his socialist impositions via un-Democratic influence peddling that dignified people don't really want once they get a taste of it.

Soros reveres Keynes's "General Theory" in the same way a Christian fundamentalist reveres the bible (p122). Meanwhile he calls Austrian economists "Market fundamentalists" (this is known as shadow projection in psychology). Like any fundamentalist whenever one of his Keynesian policies fail, he can just say "well they implemented the policy wrong," or "they acted too late" so he doesn't need to critically examine the faults of his Keynesian dogmas or shoulder any responsibility when things go awry (he does this many times in this book). The many boom bust cycles and monetary devaluation under the Fed's Keynesian policies are never considered to be a result of Keynesian policies by Soros. This exposes Soros is far more of a dogmatic ideologue central planner rather than a free-market advocate or self-aware free-thinker. He also demonstrates his god-complex when he gushes over the Keynesians in the Federal Reserve saying "experts at the Federal Reserve, with proper supervision [by whom?], can be counted on to make the right judgements." (p125). It's clear Soros sees himself as god and savior of the economy here via his high priests of the Fed and even talks about which financial institutions "deserve to be saved" or not (p125). It's also clear the "proper supervision" is HIS supervision so accusations of him at least aspiring to be a puppet master are grounded in his own commentary and not a tinfoil hat conspiracy. We can surmise from this that his support of Open Society, at least financially speaking, is disingenuous and he prefers one controlled by ideologically driven elites, preferably himself.

Soros was a student of Popper (a true intellectual), and loves Popper's "Science as Falsification" (real science) but then goes ahead and demonstrates that he has no clue what Popper's view of scientific methodology was by mindlessly supporting the unfalsifiable claim of catastrophic anthropogenic climate change. Sorry George but without a control earth that lacks humans, the anthropogenic climate doom speculation cannot be empirically tested so please stop trying to appropriate science to support your dogmas. I would expect more from a student of Popper. However, near the end of the book he accurately critiques the misapplication or overzealous application of science to social sciences (scientism) while recognizing the limitations of scientific methodology. I found this to be the most important and refreshing part of the book and it was spot on.

I was saddened that he believes the US drug addiction problem is "insoluble" which belies his ignorance of the advances in psychotherapy and addiction intervention but at least he realized that prohibition and criminalization is in fact making matters worse. So thanks George.

Also, his take on the Ukraine-Russia situation was spot on, even prophetic considering when he wrote about it all. Generally, his assessment of Eastern European cultural dynamics and how they affect politics is pretty accurate reflecting his eastern European upbringing. By contrast, his understanding of American political culture is abysmal and reflective of his limited time in the US which has entirely been spent in the insular social bubble of wealthy New York leftist culture. He is simply extremely out of touch with Average Joe Six Pack American and instead of seeking greater understanding, he seems to merely disregard them entirely by condescending to them (as leftists tend to do).

It's clear from this book that Soros and his foundation are dangerous to lovers of nationhood, meritocracy, limited government, free-markets and individualism. The animosity directed at Soros by the political right regarding his incessant meddling and un-Democratic influence peddling of socialist ideas has largely been earned by Soros himself. They are not tinfoil hat delusions and this book proves it. ( )