#861 Musings Beyond the Bunker (Tuesday February 20)
Good morning,
Continuing with my weekly book recommendations, after the 10 decades of favorites, the book club selections, sports books, books about Lincoln, and dystopian novels, here’s the latest…
BOOKS AND ARTICLES THAT HELP EXPLAIN THE CRAZINESS
Life is confusing and often treasured and dependable norms are upended. I struggle to understand not only our political environment, but our civic environment, our relationship to truth and logic, an inability to understand statistics, and the general craziness. Occasionally there emerge articles and books that can explain different aspects of the modern world. I thought it might be interesting to highlight some interesting spins on our world and provide links to short summaries of their major observations and conclusions:
The Signal and the Noise: Why Most Predictions Fail—but Some Don’t, by Nate Silver. Probability and statistics in the real world. The metaphor is how to identify the “signal” (the important message) from the “noise” (all the other blather that offers little information. This is a short summary of the book’s conclusions: https://lifeclub.org/books/the-signal-and-the-noise-nate-silver-review-summary
Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community, by Robert D. Putnam. One of the most insightful books of this century. The metaphor is that Americans in the 50s and 60s belonged to organized social institutions, like bowling leagues—like churches—institutions that brought people of various backgrounds and socio-economic positions together socially. In those days, people were joiners of philanthropic community organizations—the Lions, the Elks, the Rotary, in greater number than today. They seemed happier and seemed more able to interact with others of different politics and opinions. Today, we “bowl alone,” with our iPhones and laptops, with social media in place of social interaction. The hopeful rejoinder is from the title when this first was published in 2000. The basic premise seems obvious today—we are separated from each other and do not do enough as a community. The realist in me worries that there is not much to warrant hope that the political isolation and decline of social capital will turn around any time soon. Here is an update in National Affairs on the book’s propositions 20 years after its publication: https://www.nationalaffairs.com/publications/detail/bowling-alone-at-twenty
The Coddling of the American Mind, by Jonathan Haidt and Greg Lukianoff. The seminal book about the absurdity of trigger warnings, safe spaces and trying to protect students from new and different ideas. How much protection is warranted in a university setting, after all? One must sometimes trade off perceived personal comfort and “safe spaces” for learning and wisdom. The authors maintain there are “three terrible ideas that have become increasingly woven into American childhood and education: What doesn’t kill you makes you weaker; always trust your feelings; and life is a battle between good people and evil people. These three Great Untruths contradict basic psychological principles about well-being and ancient wisdom from many cultures. Embracing these untruths—and the resulting culture of safetyism—interferes with young people’s social, emotional, and intellectual development. It makes it harder for them to become autonomous adults who are able to navigate the bumpy road of life.
“Why the Past 10 Years of American Life Have Been Uniquely Stupid,” by Jonathan Haidt. Not actually book, but a long essay from The Atlantic. This is the best summary of how social media, hyper-partisanship, and intellectual laziness are destroying our body politic and society. The “share” and “like” buttons on Facebook arguably are the most insidious and soul-destroying innovations of the past 10 years. https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2022/05/social-media-democracy-trust-babel/629369/
“The Problem of Misinformation in an Era Without Trust,” by Jennifer Szalai. A great summary of the issues around disinformation on the Internet, the crazy relationship Elon Musk has with truth, the Russian roiling of susceptible people, and the multiplicative effect of misinformation, which drowns out actual facts. A great piece in the New York Times, which cites and details several books on the subject. Here is The New York Times article: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/31/books/review/elon-musk-trust-misinformation-disinformation.html#:~:text=The%20Spread%20of%20Misinformation%20and,The%20stakes%20are%20enormous.
“Gunfight: The Battle Over the Right to Bear Arms in America“ by Adam Winkler. A great summary of the historic fight over gun control through the landmark Heller decision. Here’s a review of the book, offering much of the substance, from the Law and Politics Book Review: http://www.lpbr.net/2012/07/gun-fight-battle-over-right-to-bear.html
“Abortion in Early America,” from The Center for American Progress puts the lie to Justice Alito’s misreading of early-American experience with, and acceptance of, abortion: https://www.americanprogress.org/article/scarlet-letters-getting-the-history-of-abortion-and-contraception-right/
Peril, by Bob Woodward and Robert Costa. Some day Bob Woodward will be seen as the greatest chronicler of the plight of modern presidents. He has a way of getting at the key information on the people and circumstances at the West Wing, getting people to provide information previously not reported. The events between 2020 election through January 6th, based upon hundreds of interviews and thousands of transcripts. This is the third Trump book by Woodward, following Rage and Fear. A definitive view of how Donald Trump worked to subvert democracy and cling to office, despite the results of the election. Here's a good NPR article on the book: https://www.npr.org/2021/09/20/1038149610/peril-bob-woodward-trump-biden-book
Oath and Honor: A Memoir and a Warning, by Liz Cheney. One of the last patriots remaining in the Republican Party. Her perspectives on January 6th and Donald Trump’s unique dangers make this “must” reading. Ms. Cheney of course will be remembered as one of the two Republicans on the House committee investigating January 6th. Her withering attacks on the weak and venal leadership in Washington that kowtowed to Trump, all the while well aware of his transgressions will stand as a historical testament to the Trump phenomenon of capturing the Republican party and shifting the narrative from actual deeds to “feelings” and grievance. This book stands singularly as an inside view of the enablers of the Trump counter-narrative about the great “patriots” of January 6th.
On Tyranny, by Timothy Snyder. “History does not repeat but it instructs.” So begins Timothy Snyder’s short “handbook” on the story of tyranny in the 20th century and how it could happen here. He reviews in this short book the intent of the Founders to prevent a single charismatic figure or subgroup from wielding dictatorial powers. But they never accounted for someone using the very levers of democracy in a manner that might bring about precisely what the Founders sought to avoid. He is unmoved by the “it can’t happen here” argument (recall that Germany in the 1930s was one of the most advanced, literate, democratic societies in human history).
Picking Presidents: How to Make the Most Consequential Decision in the World, by Gautam Mukunda. I met this author at the Aspen Ideas Festival last summer. Mr. Makunda discusses findings explaining how presidents are picked, largely based on “filtering” (for our purposes, call it experience) and tries to correlate that with performance. Until President Biden, the two most “filtered” presidents were Gerald Ford and James Buchanan. One of these two wasn’t actually elected to the presidency and the other arguably did more than any single individual to placate the South and bring about the Civil War. But in these stories also are stories of “accidental presidents.” And then there are some that are “unfiltered,” Donald Trump being the most unfiltered (I suppose one can say this about any number of his properties…). Curiously, Makunda says the most filtered presidents also are good but not great—like how good corporate leaders rise in the ranks without rattling feathers and without doing things too far out of the norm. He argues Buchanan failed as much because the system was broken, despite his preparation, as for his lack of vision. Sometimes greatness is discovered only once in office, as was the case with Teddy Roosevelt—generally deemed by Republicans as dangerous as governor and, thus, slotted into the irrelevant position of Vice President. The greatest dangers, says Mukunda, are narcissism, Machiavellianism, and psychopathy. Hmmm…
In the coming weeks, the “Brad series,” biographies and recent short novels.
Have a great day,
Glenn