Graduate Oregon State University and Northern Illinois University,
Former City Manager, Corporate Vice President, General Contractor, Non-Profit Project Manager, occasional free lance writer and photographer for the Las Vegas Review Journal.
There is something interesting about Oyeyemi’s story, but its fundamental value is in its creativity, not its revelations about race and gender or America’s failure to equitably deal with social dysfunction.
Audio-book Review By Chet Yarbrough
Blog: awalkingdelight Website: chetyarbrough.blog
Boy, Snow, Bird
By:Helen Oyeyemi
Narrated by: Susan Bennett, Carra Patterson
Nigerian author raised in London since the age of four.
Helen Oyeyemi tells the complicated life of a 20-year-old woman who chooses to run away from home. In the 20th century, running away from home was a child of 13 to 17, not 20. Today, being 20 and running away from home implies a 21st century economic reality. Every run-away has their own reason for leaving home. It can be a social, economic, emotional, or a combination of reasons. Oyeyemi’s main character, Boy, seems a combination. However, societal dysfunction seems at the heart of her story.
Boy is a young white woman who is unhappy with her father who abuses her emotionally with a trace of physical abuse. Boy in preparation for her flight secrets enough money to take a bus ride from New York City to the Boston area. Something is odd about Oyeyemi’s main character. Why would a parent name their daughter “Boy”?
Boy explains her father demands participation in his rat catching business that supports their family. Her father explains Boy’s mother is dead and that this is their life now. The story drags a bit in its first chapters because Boy seems a typical run-away looking for whatever work she can find to pay her rent and eat.
Boy meets her future husband whom she commits to but not for love but an undefined need that may be as simple as security or companionship.
Boy’s future husband is an educated historian who chooses to leave a professorship to become an artisan who makes odd jewelry. He has a young daughter from a former marriage and has disappointed his family by abandoning his professorship. His daughter’s name is Snow. Snow is characterized as a blond grade school age beauty with excellent social skills that endears her to others.
With this character introduction, the story takes a dramatic turn. Boy becomes pregnant. Her child is black rather than white.
Her new husband, who appears white, is of mixed parentage. He has an obviously black sister who is estranged from their mother though he stays in touch with her. Boy names her newborn “Bird”. Boy decides to send Snow to live with her husband’s sister while she raises Bird. The separation of Snow from her father and Boy estranges her from her stepmother. However, she manages to become a private detective in her new home with her father’s sister.
Oyeyemi further complicates her unusual story with a reveal about Boy’s life with her father. Her father is a transgender woman who cared for Snow’s mother after she had been raped by a black man. She became pregnant with Boy.
An author in Oyeyemi’s epilogue becomes interested in Boy’s life. The author begins researching Boy’s life. She finds Boy’s mother’s death had left her to the care of a transgender “father”. The dynamics of these many relationships reveal the complications of gender and race in American society. There is something interesting about Oyeyemi’s story, but its fundamental value is in its creativity, not its revelations about race and gender or America’s failure to equitably deal with social dysfunction.
Reflecting on “Blood Brothers”, a listener understands America is a long way from the ideal of equality. Being equal does not mean everyone can be the greatest heavy-weight boxer in the world. Equality means every citizen can choose to be the best version of themselves without being repressed by the society in which they live.
Audio-book Review By Chet Yarbrough
Blog: awalkingdelight Website: chetyarbrough.blog
Blood Brothers (The Fatal Friendship Between Muhammad Ali and Malcolm X)
By:Randy Roberts Johnny Smith
Narrated by: David Drummond
Randy Roberts (Professor of History at Purdue)Johnny Smith (Asst. Professor of History specializing in Sports at Georgia Tech.)
Randy Roberts and Johnny Smith offer a nuanced and well-written view of Muhammed Ali, his fame, his skill as a heavy weight boxing champion, and figure head for the Nation of Islam (NOI). The author’s juxtapose Ali and Malcolm X as “Blood Brothers” who shed light on the unquestionable value and horrendous harm religious belief can impose on society.
Roberts and Smith show human nature is an unconquerable beast that both leads and misleads humanity. The maturity and personal growth of Muhammed Ali and Malcolm X is revealed in “Blood Brothers”. They both become members of NOI, an American faction of Islam, that preaches Black America can only be equal through separation from non-black people. Elijah Muhammed, a self-proclaimed Messenger of Allah, creates a fellowship of Black Muslims (NOI) who insist on a Black American nation, independent of American governance. Elijah Muhammed insists–in order to become democratically free and equal to non-Black American citizens, an independent Black American nation must be formed.
What Roberts’ and Smith’s history shows is NOI’s flaw is in belief that separate can ever be equal based on race, religion, or color.
Though self-worth and pride can be immeasurably enhanced by exclusionary race, religion, or difference what is missed is the truth of human nature. Human nature is riven with self-interest based on money, power, and/or prestige. Elijah Muhammed and other leaders of religion are human. Religious leader’s self-interest drains the life out of Divinities force. In one sense, NOI offers a sense of pride and equality for Black Americans but in another, it creates further discrimination and inequality with separation and distinction from others.
Malcolm X assassinated in 1965Ali and Elijah Muhammed
Roberts’ and Smith’s story of Malcolm X, and to a lesser extent, Muhammed Ali’s friendship, show how religion can bring people together, but also tear them apart. Malcolm X evolves from an intelligent street punk to an insightful leader of the Muslim religion. Malcolm becomes a favorite of NOI until he challenges its leader (Elijah Muhammed) for abandoning what he believes is a fundamental tenant of the faith, marriage chastity. Malcolm X exposes extra-marital affairs of Elijah Muhammed as evidence of the leader’s fall from faith. As his disaffection grows, Malcolm X begins to believe separate cannot be equal and that NOI’s belief in separation of the races is a violation of a faith that says Allah or God created all humankind.
Elijah Muhammad (Leader of NOI 1934-1975, Born in 1897 as Elijah Robert Poole, Died at age 77 in 1975.)
Malcolm X is a teacher of Ali before his break with the leader of NOI. Malcolm X appeals to Ali’s innate ability as a fighter and doggerel actor for truth and justice. Ali is put in the position of following Malcolm’s differences with Elijah Muhammed or staying within the Nation of Islam. The authors infer Ali looks at Elijah Muhammed as the father he wishes he had while Malcolm X as a brother who has been led astray.
To the authors, the assassination of Malcolm X by NOI’s followers is inferred by Ali to be a threat to his life if he forsakes NOI’ beliefs. When Elijah Muhammed dies, some years after Malcolm’s assassination, Ali revises his view of NOI and leans more toward the teachings of his former friend, Malcolm X. Ali moderates NOI’s anti-white sentiment.
Reflecting on “Blood Brothers”, a listener understands America is a long way from the ideal of equality. Being equal does not mean everyone can be the greatest heavy-weight boxer in the world. Equality means every citizen can choose to be the best version of themselves without being repressed by the society in which they live.
The WEIRDest People in the World(How the West Became Psychologically Peculiar and Particularly Prosperous)
By:Joseph Henrich
Narrated by: Korey Jackson
Joseph Henrich (American author, professor of human evolutionary biology at Harvard, former professor of psychology and economics at the University of British Columbia.)
Joseph Henrich writes an explosive book focusing on social evolution. The explosion is in the first half of the book. The remainder has a few firecrackers but no explosions. His erudite research infers much of the world will either evolve in a western world way or degrade into an economically and politically poorer and disruptive society that distrusts the western world and foments military and political opposition. If Henrich’s analysis carries some truth, one hopes the western world will persist within a more secular religious belief system that will preserve the earth’s environment.
Henrich’s argument is that the rise of religion and the concept of gods and God changed the world from tribalist, kinship’ enclaves to nation-state societies. In the early days of human habitation, Henrich’s research suggests tribes of people developed society based on kinship. However, societies evolution into larger communities is burdened by the limitations of kinship. Henrich suggests history shows political and economic relationships fall apart when kinship is the sole cohesive force of society. Both kinship and religion remain important, but religion became the more significant and cohesive part of society. Kinship’s weakness is that it limits the size of community. The growth of religion incorporated kinship to provide greater social cohesion for larger political and economic systems. Rather than kinship as the only cohesive force of society, people began to believe in something more than familial relationships. With the creation of religion, the idea of a supreme being and a moral center for “the-many-rather-than-the-one” offers a concept of societal cohesion beyond kinship.
TRIBES OF THE WORLD
The big five religions, Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, and Buddhism became a cohesive force for nation-state development. (Of course, there are more religions than these five, but they account for 78% of the world’s population.) Religious belief provides a societal force that expands the concept of tribal communities to nation-state and, to a degree, eastern and western hemispheric cohesiveness.
However, it seems the world (particularly the western hemisphere) is becoming more secular.
One may argue advances in science erode religious beliefs. However, Henrich infers that erosion became a landslide in the western world with Martin Luther’s posting of the 95 Thesis on the Castle Church on October 31, 1517. Luther’s posting marks the beginning of the Protestant Reformation. Henrich argues the power of religion evolves with the church’s holiness, social objectivity, and political fairness being challenged by the public. Luther exposes the perfidy of the church for selling indulgences for parishioners to erase their sins to pave their way to heaven.
Whether the motivation is the posting, innate human curiosity, or the invention of the Guttenberg press (1440), history shows the public began to learn how to read and write. The public wishes to understand the world as it is, rather than how leaders of the church report their interpretation of God and the Bible.
The consequence of these two sociological conclusions benefited the western hemisphere more than the eastern hemisphere. One concludes that may be related to the way religion is viewed in the west versus the east, with the caveat that such a generalization ignores the reality that many eastern hemisphere countries have predated, if not exceeded, the economic and social growth of the west.
However, it seems those eastern hemisphere countries that have emphasized religion over secular human interests have lagged behind western economic and social growth. Henrich’s sociological studies imply a balance is needed between religious and secular belief for economic and social growth to achieve peace among nations. It seems nations of the world need to reconcile belief in religion with the social needs of society for earth to survive as the home of humanity.
Henrich ends his sociological analysis with two fundamental requirements for civilizations’ continued advancement. Contrary to an oft assumed cause being the lone genius that invents something new or discovers some unknown truth of science, Henrich suggests interconnectedness and diversity are the foundation of civilizations’ advance.
If Henrich’s theory of society is correct, humans need to quit killing each other and embrace diversity with the tools of technological communication and innovation that will come from respect for different cultures. From that foundation, innovation will change the world and earth will have a chance to become a place of peace and prosperity.
Doctor Benaroch’s fundamental point in writing this speculative history is to emphasize the importance of a patient’s explanation of their symptoms in coming to a conclusion about a diagnosis.
Audio-book Review By Chet Yarbrough
Blog: awalkingdelight Website: chetyarbrough.blog
Medical Mysteries Across History
By:Roy Benaroch MD
Narrated by: Roy Benaroch
Roy Benaroch MD (Author, general pediatrician practitioner at Emory University near Atlanta, Georgia.
From kings to jazz singers, Roy Benaroch reviews the diagnosis of ten historical figures with a medical opinion about their cause of death. Based on written evidence of their physical complaints, Benaroch offers a medical opinion about what today’s knowledge of medicine would have revealed about their lives and causes of death.
Benaroch presents his analysis with an element of mystery by not revealing the more familiar names of the dying person until later in each chapter.
The historical figures he chooses are famous, so their medical complaints are recorded in ancient or more modern publications. With written documentation of their complaints, Benaroch gives his opinion on modern-day diagnosis with cursory notes about their accomplishments. In his review of written reports of their medical complaints, he surmises a medical diagnosis and their probable cause of death.
FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT (1882-1945, DIED AGE 63 )HELEN KELLER (1880-1968, DIED AGE 87)MARIE CURIE (1867-1934, DIED AT AGE 66)ALEXANDER THE GREAT (356BC-323BC, DIED AT AGE 32)BILLIE HOLIDAY (1915-1959, DIED AT AGE 44)HENRY VIII (1491-1547, DIED AT AGE 55)
This interesting and brief journey through history reflects on the medical complaints of Franklin Roosevelt, Helen Keller, Marie Curie, Alexander the Great, Billie Holiday, and King Henry VIII, among four others not noted here. Roosevelt’s polio, Keller’s deafness and blindness, Marie Curie’s aplastic anemia, Billie Holiday’s addiction, and the causes of death for Alexander the Great and King Henry are interesting examples of Beneroch’s diagnosis of their diseases, its symptoms, and how their medical complaints should or could be treated today.
Though polio had been around for thousands of years, it is not identified as a virus until 1909. It usually attacks children under age 5 but can be acquired from contaminated water at any age.
Roosevelt first shows symptom of paralysis when he reaches the age of 39 in 1921. His symptoms were fever, muscle weakness, facial numbness, bowel and bladder dysfunction. Benaroch notes Roosevelt first notes symptoms after diving into water off his family’s yacht. Dr. Robert Lovett, with consultation from William Keen (a former doctor for Presidents and America’s first brain surgeon) came up with the correct diagnosis.
A practical nurse named Anne Sulivan is hired by Keller’s family because of her experience with deaf children.
Helen Keller, aka “bronco kid” because of her unruly behavior as a child, contracted an illness at age of 19 months. She exhibited a high fever and lost consciousness. She survives her symptoms but is unable to hear or see after her return to consciousness. Benaroch explains the high fever likely induced damage to Keller’s optic nerve and auditory processing system without fatally impairing her remaining nervous system. Sullivan becomes Keller’s teacher and companion who helps Keller learn how to read, write, and speak despite her lost sight and hearing. Keller becomes the first deafblind person to earn a Bachelor of Arts degree. She became a global advocate for the blind from 1924 to 1968 when she died.
Marie Curie is diagnosed with aplastic anemia, a disease that destroys bone marrow ability to create red blood cells.
Marie Curie and her husband were chemists working with radioactive material before its harmful effects were known. Her husband dies in a street accident in 1906 so is not known to have been affected by their joint experiments with radium and polonium. Later, Marie Curie works with x-ray machines during WWI. To compound her risk from exposure, she is known to have carried test tubes of radium around in her lab coat. Benaroch notes Curie dies at age 66 in 1934 which is remarkable considering her exposure to radon and other radioactive materials. Benaroch explains her symptoms are fatigue, shortness of breath, rapid heartbeat, bruising, headache, and fever. However, years after her death, Curie’s body is not found to have excessive levels of radiation in her remains. The cause of death remains obscure according to another book that notes Curie as an exemplar of women in science.
Benaroch notes drugs are miracles of pain reduction. When one becomes addicted to drugs to relieve one’s pain, humans need treatment, not incarceration.
Benaroch tells the story of Billie Holiday’s tragic life and death. As a physician, he notes a condition of human abuse that ranges from a low of 1 to a high of 10. His opinion is that Holliday nears 8 if not 10 on that scale. She was raped twice as a teenager, married three times to husbands that abused and took advantage of her fame and income from singing. She was arrested several times for drug possession and with a drug conviction in 1947, her cabaret license is revoked. Though she made a lot of money as a blues singer, Benaroch explains she died from cirrhosis of the liver at the age of 44 with $750 strapped to her leg. Benaroch notes addiction is a disease that continues to be misunderstood by the public and law enforcement. Benaroch explains America lost a national treasure when Billie Holiday died. He implies being black in America is hard but being addicted and black in America is a death sentence.
Benaroch suggests Alexander the Great drank to excess by choice, not because of addiction to alcohol.
Alexander the Great is characterized by Benaroch as a binge drinker, not an alcoholic. On Alexander’s last overindulgence, he falls unconscious, appears to quit breathing, and dies. The odd recording of his condition after death is that the body lays quiescent for several days without putrefaction. The embalmers refuse to treat his body because he appears to be something other than dead. Benaroch is unsure of whether this is a myth or accurate report of Alexander’s dead body. After considering what written record exists, Benaroch suggests Alexander probably died from blood poisoning from a former wound that never healed. Alexander appears alert up until his breathing and heartbeat stops. Benaroch suggests the slow advance of organ shutdown from blood poisoning allows Alexander to react to those who draw his attention. Benaroch infers the lack of putrefaction is likely a myth because blood poisoning could slow Alexander’s breathing and his stillness and inactivity reduce his heartbeat to the point that his body remained nourished enough to delay his actual death.
Benaroch notes jousting events in which the King of England’s head is hit with a lance. In a 1524 Henry is nearly killed in a match.
Benaroch’s diagnosis of King Henry is one of the more interesting diagnoses of his short book. Benaroch suggests Henry, in his early years as ruler of England, is an affable, intelligent, and effective monarch. However, Benaroch suggests Henry’s athletic life resulted in head injuries that changed his personality and the direction of his reign to one of erratic rule, unnecessary divorces, marriages, and behavior unbecoming a King. He is hit in the face by splinters from one jousing encounter that could have killed him. He continues to participate in jousting tournaments.
In 1533, Henry formally marries Anne Boleyn after his marriage to Catherine of Aragon. Henry marries four more times between 1533 and 1543. Benaroch suggests Henry’s behavior changes as he got older. In Beraroch’s opinion, he becomes more of an erratic tyrant than pragmatic ruler because of repeated head injuries. Jousting, like football, is a physical hard-hitting sport that has affected many of history’s athletes.
Doctor Benaroch’s fundamental point in writing this speculative history is to emphasize the importance of a patient’s explanation of their symptoms in coming to a conclusion about a diagnosis. Physical examination is important but listening to a patient’s physical and mental explanations of their condition are the best evidence for determining a correct diagnosis. This is the belief of other physician’s books that have been reviewed in this blog. There are many reasons why doctors may misdiagnose a patient’s condition. Some are too busy to take the time necessary to properly understand a patient’s comments. Doctors have various levels of experience and may not know how to interpret what a patient is saying. That does not change the point of Benaroch’s observations. It is essential for a good diagnosis to be based on the details of the patient’s history.
The flaws of society are only magnified by the surreptitious use of private information. McCarten shows human self-interest is unlikely to change in a surveillance driven society. As long as human self-interest revolves around money, power, and prestige, private information should be protected.
Audio-book Review By Chet Yarbrough
Blog: awalkingdelight Website: chetyarbrough.blog
Going Zero: A Novel
By:Anthony McCarten
Narrated by:Marin Ireland
Anthony McCarten (Author, New Zealand writer and filmmaker.)
Anthony McCarten creates a fictional story that fits today’s truth about a brave new world revealed by Aldous Huxley in 1932 and reinforced by George Orwell in 1949. https://chetyarbrough.blog/2019/09/08/2-2-makes-5/ The striking revelation and threat in “Going Zero” is that our human desire for recognition drives society to accept the intrusion of government and big business into our lives. The popularity of the former company Twitter, today’s Reddit, internet users, and ubiquitous mobile phone’ users show how addictive recognition has become to the young and old. That need for recognition conflicts with the right to privacy. McCarten shows how important and harmful right to privacy’s loss can become.
McCarten offers a clever story that reveals the danger of unrestricted access to citizen’ information. A highly profitable private tech company offers $3,000,000 to any one of ten pre-selected contestants that can be undetected by a software company’s private surveillance program. A private tech company gains the cooperation of the federal government to use their data base and surveillance technology to help find these ten contestants within a 30-day period. The tech company’s software can mine government’ data and use government’ surveillance equipment to track private citizens. The program is called “Going Zero”. The purported reason for cooperation of the government is to protect citizens from society’s bad actors. The tech company’s interest is in getting a muti-billion-dollar contract for their proprietary software.
Added to McCarten’s fine story is the mystery of a disappeared but unacknowledged agent of the C.I.A. The one person that successfully beats the “Going Zero” contest is the agent’s wife. She only enters the contest to expose the government’s information about her husband.
Both government and business believe they use personal information to serve the public. Government and big business subtlety influence society to believe private information is public information. Government argues knowledge of private information protects society. Big business argues collection and use of private information offers material, social, and/or psychological rewards to the public.
Capitalism is not the problem in America. It is the failure of the S.E.C., the FBI, C.I.A., the President, and congressional legislators to do their job.
A contrary argument is that government and big business would be able to program society by using private information to reward citizens like Palov’s dogs. The questions one may ask oneself: Can bad actors really be identified before they rob, steal, rape, and murder? What are the ramifications of a business that uses private information to tap into subliminal desires of the public? “Going Zero” offers an example of how private information collected by government and big business are a threat to society.
Anthony McCarten’s story shows how important it is to protect personal privacy.
The flaws of society are only magnified by the surreptitious use of private information. McCarten shows human self-interest is unlikely to change in a surveillance driven society. As long as human self-interest revolves around money, power, and prestige, private information should be protected. If there is a counter argument, I would like to hear it.
Smith shows how Democracy struggles with a capitalist system that is meant to provide economic opportunity for all without victimizing those who cannot cope with the nature of human competition. England, like America, has not found a solution.
Audio-book Review By Chet Yarbrough
Blog: awalkingdelight Website: chetyarbrough.blog
English History Made Brief, Irreverent, and Pleasurable
By:Lacy Baldwin Smith
Narrated by:Peter Noble
Lacey Baldwin Smith (American Author, Former Princeton, MIT, and Northwestern University Professor, specializing in 16th-century England, died in 2013 @ age 90.)
Smith’s book lives up to its title, “English History Made Brief”. His book is a brief (considering the centuries he covers), irreverent, and entertaining opinion of England’s leaders from this island nation’s beginning through the reign of Elizabeth II. It seems prudent to recognize this history is an opinion because it is written by an American. Not that a British writer could have written a more accurate book, but that history is always colored by prejudices, fact selectivity, and source documentation of leaders’ actions and beliefs.
England began as a series of 7 main Anglo-Saxon kingdoms in the 5th and 6th centuries. Before that, the island was ruled by the Roman Empire. However, the Romans were actually late comers to England. Human remains date back over 40,000 years. During the Iron Age, around 600 to 1,200 B.C., the Celts self-identified as Britons. The Celts were farmers who lived in Europe from 1200 B.C. to around 43 A.D.
Somewhere in the 9th century, the Vikings invaded England and ruled through the 11th century with the exception of one Anglo-Saxon ruler named Alfred the Great who won the Battle of Edington in 878 which divided England between Anglo-Saxon and Viking territories.
Alfred is known for bringing Christianity to the island, along with administrative and military reforms. The Vikings continued to hold territory, but the beginning of the end is in 952 when the Viking, Erik Bloodaxe, is expelled and killed. Some Viking ancestors are said to have settled in eastern Britain and Ireland.
ALFRED THE GREATCNUT THE GREAT
The Anglo-Saxons are a Germanic people that have a long history in English leadership. Alfred the Great and his successors, like Cnut the Great, dominated England until the Norman Conquest in 1066. Interestingly, the leader of the Norman Conquest, a French speaking culture that settled in Normandy, were descendants of the Vikings. In that sense, the Vikings return to control of England in the Norman Conquest.
The Norman Conquest is led by William the Conqueror who secured England by building castles and moats throughout the countryside. The Tower of London is constructed by William.
The first king of England that is of consequence after the Norman conquest is actually born an Englishman (1239-1307, reign from 1272-1307). He is Edward I.
Edward I of England is born in London, just as his father. However, his mother was French and was considered by some to be the woman behind the throne of Edward I’s father, an ineffectual English King. She was known for her beauty and intelligence while playing an active role in English politics. Edward I solidifies the authority of Parliament in England while conducting a brutal campaign against Scotland. Edward I, an unusually tall King, attained the sobriquet “Hammer of the Scots” in his rule. Edward I’s grandson becomes King Edward III who achieves several victories against France in the Hundred Years’ War.
In the 15th century, France and England vie for greater control of Europe. Henry V (reign 1413-1422) of England leads the campaign against France. Born in Wales, Henry V is also a castle and moat builder like William the Conqueror. Henry is known for his military campaigns in Wales and Scotland and for the creation of England’s legal reforms.
King Henry VIII (reign 1509-1547) breaks with the Roman Catholic church in 1534 and confiscates church property throughout England which makes the crown rich. Henry VIII is the most well-known of England’s kings because of his many marriages, the machinations of his divorces, and his sire of Queen Elizabeth I.
The studied countenance of Elizabeth I (reign 1558-1603) , Henry VIII’s daughter by Anne Boleyn, reigns with the skill of her father.
Though much of the wealth of the country is gone, Elizabeth uses her intelligence and political skill to endear herself to the people. Smith characterizes her as a great actress and intelligent ruler who learns her lines before speaking to the public. The Spanish Armada, a much larger military force, is defeated by her military leaders, Lord Charles Howard and Sir Francis Drake in 1588. Though there were elements of luck (like weather), the planning, ship design, and skill of the English military leaders defeat a much larger force that raises the national pride of England and endears Elizabeth to her people.
Though Queen Victoria has a long reign, (1837-1901), the greatest contribution she makes to England, in Smith’s opinion, is the wealth she leaves remaining monarchs.
Of course, Queen Elizabeth II, as the daughter of King George the VI and Queen Elizabeth, becomes Queen of England in 1952, with her coronation in 1953. Little is commented on by the author except to suggest that the monarchy became rather boring, except for the marriage of Diana to Prince Charles and its subsequent notoriety.
Technological change, the industrial revolution, and England’s colonization made it the richest leader of the western world. England becomes a parliamentary democracy rather than monarchy, while preserving the traditions of monarchy.
In general, Smith notes today’s English political leaders enact public policies that both aid and harm democratic capitalism, a struggle that is evident in all western democracies.
On the one hand, Smith acknowledges the great wealth and power England achieved with leaders who promoted capitalism. On the other, Smith notes the trials of workers that are too young to be working and identifies a working poor that cannot afford to live without hunger and deprivation. Education is underfunded and public health care is overburdened. England’s leadership position falls in the world. There is a lesson here for everyone who believes in democratic ideals but struggles with capitalism and its penchant for beggaring the poor and creating inequality among its people.
Smith shows how Democracy struggles with a capitalist system that is meant to provide economic opportunity for all without victimizing those who cannot cope with the nature of human competition. England, like America, has not found a solution.
Niall Williams (Irish author and playwriter born in Dublin.)
There is poetry in Niall Williams’ story of a young boy’s life in Ireland in the 1950s. William’s hero is a young boy, nearing manhood, who grows close to a 60 something adult. At an earlier time of the 60-year-old’s life, he jilts a woman on their wedding day. The 60-year-old’ wishes for forgiveness from the jilted woman who marries a pharmacist who dies some years after their marriage.
Whether idyllic or real, “This is Happiness” reminds listeners of the difference between life as it is, life as remembered, and life as it ends.
The young hero thinks the older friend wants to rekindle the relationship but finds his older friend is principally looking for forgiveness. Compounding the hero’s confusion is the older woman’s reluctance to either acknowledge the event or countenance any forgiveness for her jilting fiancé.
The hero works on the electrification of Ireland. He works with the jilting groom to negotiate with Ireland’s landowners on the physical placement of electrical poles to be installed across the country. Ireland’s leadership negotiates with Finland to buy 1,000,000 trees.
The jilting groom is working for the company that is to install the poles, but his primary motive is to meet with the woman he left at the altar. They meet but no mention is made of their past acquaintance and his disreputable behavior. When the young boy hears the story from his older friend, he grows to believe he has some obligation to reconcile the two. His friend had married and divorced while the jilted bride marries a pharmacist whom she marries after her fiancé stands her up. The young boy believes neither his friend nor the jilted bride will be happy without forgiveness.
An accident occurs when a pole falls on the young boy and he is taken to a doctor who has three daughters near the young boy’s age.
As he comes to his senses in the medical treatment room, he sees one of the older daughters whom he thinks he loves. The boy’s infatuation grows with the first daughter he meets but later he is surprisingly asked by a younger sister to go to the movies. The younger sister introduces the hero to kissing at the local theater. He begins to think of this younger daughter as something more than a friend. A third daughter is introduced, and the boy concludes he is in love with all three of the doctor’s daughters.
A young boy’s confusion about life’s happiness is his first inkling of love for one and then all three of the physician’s young daughters. Obviously, this is not love but youthful infatuation.
Williams cleverly ties his story together with Ireland’s electrification and power line connections that have to be installed throughout the country. The story of electrification is complicated. There are religious differences, private property, and social concerns of its citizens.
The complication of tying the nation together with a power system is like the complications of building and maintaining human relationships.
The hero works on the electrification of Ireland, works through his dalliance with one of the doctor’s daughters, sadly loses his mother to illness, and chooses a life in the church. He cares for the woman left at the altar with respect for her failing life from old age and an undisclosed illness. The young man learns how one should care for one nearing death. One sees in the dying a sense of acceptance but a wish of the dying to control what remains in their power to control. The care giver needs to respect the dying’s limited power and help only where help is asked or needed.
At last, the jilted bride and errant groom begin to talk about what happened on the date of their unconsummated wedding.
The explanation by the groom may be a lie or an Irishman’s tale, but the jilted bride tells him there is no need for forgiveness. She implies there is nothing that can be done to change the past. In the end, she forgives the errant groom, enjoys his company and the stories he has to tell. She dies with knowledge of the love and care of the people she knows.
Niall William’s story is about growing to manhood, dying, and old age. In William’s mythical Irish town of Faha, everyone knows everyone.
The mythical town of Faha, Ireland is a community where knowing is accompanied by responsibility for care of the living, dying, and dead. There are no secrets. Happiness is within the person who chooses to be happy, regardless of life’ events and circumstances.
Conscious management of deleterious and harmful content by news media is the hope of humanity’s future. That is the message one may find in Lagorio-Chafkin’s history of Reddit.
Audio-book Review By Chet Yarbrough
Blog: awalkingdelight Website: chetyarbrough.blog
We Are the Nerds (The Birth and Tumultuous Life of Reddit, the Internet’s Culture Laboratory)
By:Christine Lagorio-Chafkin
Narrated by:Chloe Cannon
Christine Lagorio-Chafkin (Author, reporter, senior writer for “Inc” magazine.)
Christine Lagorio-Chafkin offers a detailed history of the internet forum known as Reddit. Founded by Steve Huffman and Alexis Ohanian, with coding help from Aaron Swartz in 2005, Reddit has grown from an idea to a user-based internet newspaper estimated at 57 million daily readers and users as of December 2022. Huffman and Ohanian were roommates and students at the University of Virginia. These two founders are helped by Aaron Swartz, a nerd coding extraordinaire, with coding expertise. These are early days of a yet to be named web site.
With the help of start-up idea’ consultant Paul Graham, these three young men parlayed their idea into an asset that is purchased in 2006 by Conde-Nast to make the founders millionaires in their early 20s.
In 2018, Advance Publications, the parent company of Conde-Nast, values Reddit at $6 billion. Advance raises $250 million in funding in 2021. From Conde-Nast’s original purchase price of $10 million, one gains some idea of Reddit’s value despite having not made a profit since its inception. Chafkin suggests they are almost there in her book.
Steve HuffmanAlexis OhanianAaron Schultz
Lagorio-Chafkin’ story of these three young men offers insight to a generation that is reminiscent but different from the movers and shakers of the industrial revolution. The industrial revolution might be broken into two periods. The first began in the 17th century when Samuel Slater introduces British industrialization into the textile industry of America. The second occurs after the American Civil War with machine inventions like Eli Whitney’s cotton gin, and du Pont’s improvements in chemistry and gunpowder needed for the War of 1812.
Just as the industrial revolution’s pioneers, the tech revolution pioneers are obsessed with their work.
Their motivations were similar, ranging from fascination with their work to interest in being financially successful. The difference is the work of the industrialist focuses on material productivity while the technologist focuses on idea productivity. Both benefit society but the industrialist looks at material results while the technologist focuses on ideas, and knowledge that can be put to productive use. Both benefit society but from different starting points. The industrial economy is weighted heavily toward material productivity while the tech economy is more heavily weighted toward social and service influence.
Reddit went through several generations of CEOs. Each made changes to the direction of the company. Yishan Wong, a former Facebook employee, began Reddit’s transition from scandal sheet to newsworthiness. His success is limited because of Reddit’s drive for profitability and his manufactured controversy over relocation of its headquarters. Since inception, Reddit has gone through 5 CEOs.
Steve Huffman (2005-2009, 2015-present) (born 1983) 1986 for Swartz and 1983 for Ohanian
Ellen Pao (2014-2015)
Yishan Wong (2012-2014)
Erik Martin (2010-2014)
Jay Adelson (2005-2009)
Ellen Pao’s tenure as CEO of Reddit is brief but consequential. Pao implemented several changes to the site’s policies, including banning revenge porn and unauthorized nude photos. Pao’s resignation came after a week of intense criticism and harassment from some members of the Reddit community.
Ellen Pao resigned from her position as CEO of Reddit in July 2015. Her leadership was met with controversy and criticism, and she faced backlash from some members of the Reddit community over her policies and decisions. Some users felt her changes were too restrictive and infringed on their freedom of speech. Yes, Ellen Pao filed a gender discrimination lawsuit against her former employer, Kleiner Perkins, in 2012. The case went to trial in 2015 and Pao lost the suit. After leaving Kleiner Perkins, Pao became the CEO of Reddit in 2014, but resigned her position in July 2015.
The principals of Reddit are Steve Huffman and Alexis Ohanian who begin as friends and become estranged as the company grows. In time, they reconcile with Huffman becoming CEO of the company.
Both contribute to the success of Reddit, but Huffman becomes the guiding light for its future as a publicly designed profit-making internet newspaper. Ohanian becomes particularly famous for the woman whom he marries.
Serena Williams and Alexis Ohanian marry in November 2017
The tragic story of Aaron Swartz’s important contribution in the early days of Reddit explains an underlying purpose of a public paper. Swartz is vilified by the American government for downloading private information to the public without corporate or government authorization.
Aaron Schwartz commits suicide. Chafkin notes Swartz’e father argues his son believed in a “right-of-the-public” to know everything there is to know about society. To Swartz’s father, Aaron did not commit suicide but was murdered by the American government as a result of its relentless prosecution.
Fundamentally, “We Are the Nerds” is about an internet generation concerned with greater social self-realization, if not comity. Reddit is a social news aggregation and rating website that offers a forum to the public that broadcasts user’ beliefs and understanding of the 21st century world. It is not about industrial productivity but about people’s social perceptions and beliefs ranging from facts to fiction about the material world.
The purpose of Reddit is not to produce “all the news that’s fit to print” but to reveal all the news that reflects the beliefs of a flawed society.
Reddit, while counseling moderation, allows extreme views of a diverse and self-interested user base. As a public forum, it interviewed the President of the United States (Barrack Obama). On the other hand, Reddit provided a forum for trolls like Michael Brutsch, who broadcasted images of scantily clad underage girls, porn, gore, misogyny, incest, and other societal images of human depravity. There is little social comity in that scenario, but it is a part of human society. Troll behavior is the bane of click-bate oriented internet platforms. Reddit, since the return of Huffman, focuses on eliminating hate-speech and dysfunctional societal contributors to its public forum. Chafkin notes Reddit’s exposure of Russian interference in the election of Donald Trump. It offers evidence of Reddit’s effort to clean-up misleading information and fake news that is the bread and butter of click-bate’ media sites.
To use the oft quoted Star War’s meme–Reddit is trying to follow a “this is the way” principle to give legitimacy to News’ purveyors of the future.
Reddit, like past and present newspaper and television stations are subject to their owner’s conservative, liberal, or independent biases. Owners of media sites like The New York Times, Fox News, CBS, NBC, ABC, CNN, Facebook, Google search, Microsoft search, X, and Amazon have their biases. Conscious management of deleterious and harmful content by news media is the hope of humanity’s future. That is the message one may find in Lagorio-Chafkin’s history of Reddit.
One can choose the life of Buddha, Muhammed, Jesus Christ, Zoroaster, Rishabhanatha, Maimonides, Saint Francis of Assisi, Confucious or some other spiritual figure but it is one’s individual memories and our ability in “letting go” that will give one peace of mind and happiness in life.
Audio-book Review By Chet Yarbrough
Blog: awalkingdelight Website: chetyarbrough.blog
The Untethered Soul (The Journey Beyond Yourself)
By:Michael A. Singer
Narrated by:Peter Berkrot
Michael Alan Singer (American Author, journalist, motivational speaker, software developer.)
Michael Alan Singer’s audiobook is a reification of “Letting Go” written by David Hawkins. Hawkins, a medical practitioner, and Singer, a successful tech entrepreneur, come to similar conclusions about how to live life. Singer offers a more spiritual and ritualistic approach in working through remembered, and often suppressed, experiences of life by confronting them and letting them go.
Dr. David Hawkins posits the idea of a cosmic mind that can be tapped into by one’s thoughts to mitigate negative feelings. Singer’s approach is more direct and based on actual experience revealed by conscious thought and conscious rejection.
Singer believes every experience in one’s life is recorded by the mind, either correctly or falsely.
Singer suggests, through meditation, harmful or distorted memories can be revealed and discarded as inconsequential by the process of “letting go”. This is the same “letting go” referred to by Hawkins but located in a cosmic mind (the totality of human thought) rather than the individual mind argued by Singer.
Singer’s idea for treatment seems more therapeutically practical than Hawkins.
Both writers offer a solution to many human problems, but Singer suggests a therapeutic process exercisable by the individual, without the mysticism of a cosmic mind.
Singer introduces the idea that every experience in an individual’s life is consciously or subconsciously recorded in one’s mind.
Singer’s suggestion is that all negative feelings from life experience can be eradicated by letting them go. By “letting go” of accurate or inaccurate memory, Singer suggests one’s peace of mind, energy, and happiness improves.
One can choose the life of Buddha, Muhammed, Jesus Christ, Zoroaster, Rishabhanatha, Maimonides, Saint Francis of Assisi, Confucious or some other spiritual figure but it is one’s individual memories and our ability in “letting go” that will give one peace of mind and happiness in life.
Detroit manages to restructure their debt with the help of its citizens. Greece is caught in the grips of E.U.’ and IMF’ bureaucracy that only increases its debt.
Audio-book Review By Chet Yarbrough
Blog: awalkingdelight Website: chetyarbrough.blog
Adults in the Room (My Battle with the European and American Deep Establishment)
By:Yanis Varoufakis
Narrated by:Leighton Pugh
Yanis Varoufakis (Author, Greek economist and politician, Minister of Finance of Greece for 7 months in 2015, launched Diem25, the “Democracy in Europe Movement 2025” in February 2016.)
Yanis Varoufakis gives listeners a glimpse of decisions made when a national government is compelled to declare a national debt crisis. To fairly understand “Adults in the Room”, one will struggle with Varoufakis long story. His story is about restructuring rather than refinancing the debt owed the E.U. and IMF for a national debt crisis. Restructuring debt changes terms of repayment based on an original debt, while refinancing increases the debtor’s burden.
It is helpful to have listened to a book about Detroit’s bankruptcy. Detroit’s harrowing experience gives some idea of how difficult it is for a government entity to repay creditors for profligate government economic management. Detroit manages to restructure their debt with the help of its citizens. Greece is caught in the grips of E.U.’ and IMF’ bureaucracy that only increases its debt.
Varoufakis’ argument for understanding the plight of society’s poor is highly relevant in this era of democracies’ homelessness and economic inequality.
Varoufakis acknowledges socialist beliefs while inferring a negative opinion about capitalism. Varoufakis professes strong belief in democracy with a pronounced lean toward socialism, i.e., a belief similar to America’s Bernie Sanders who is mentioned in “Adults in the Room”.
Varoufakis notes that Greek, like American society, is unequal with rich and poor being disproportionately benefited by intended and unintended government and economic policy.
Greek government’s effort to compensate for inequality seems couched in an economic system meant to equalize citizen inequity with a pension system designed to compensate the poor for economic inequality. A poorly managed national economy and a weakly enforced tax collection system compounds Greek government failure to live within its means.
When Greece declares a sovereign debt crisis, the European Union and the IMF (International Monetary Fund) provide a credit lifeline of $9.5 billion to avoid a default on a previous bailout.
This so-called lifeline is contrary to what is requested by Varoufakis who becomes the Minister of Finance for Greece. The benefit of restructuring the debt provides liquidity to the Greek banking system without theoretically damaging credit worthiness of either the E.U. or IMF. On its face, it seems a win-win solution for Greece’s debtors and Greece’s citizens. However, the E.U. sees it as a dangerous alternative that fails to address the root causes of Greece’s profligate behavior. The E.U. demands control of all economic expenditures of the Greek government in return for a bail-out of past debt with a larger tranche of new debt. Financial control of Greece’s use of the new funds is to be exercised by a triumvirate representing the debt holders.
Varoufakis asks that Greece’s original bailout debt be restructured as a long-term bond with reduced payments over a long period of time, with payment size largely determined by Greece’s liquidity in a recovering economy.
In contrast, the demands of the E.U. and IMF are that salaries and pensions be cut, government employees’ pensions frozen, and retirement age raised. Those measures disproportionately hit the poor, destroy jobs, do nothing to improve tax receipts, and make it more difficult for Greece to pay its debt; not to mention the strict control of all expenditures by an external triumvirate of debt holders.
With these draconian rules, Varoufakis notes unemployment improves. However, the economy is estimated to be 25% smaller; not to mention the impact of the external triumvirates’ control reduces living standards, pensions, and salaries of the working poor.
The point of Varoufakis’ story is that the E.U. and I.M.F.’s mandated terms victimizes the most vulnerable Greek citizens trying to make a living.
Varoufakis resigns after 7 months in office after unsuccessfully fighting the onerous and inequitable demands of the E.U. and IMF. In some listener’s opinion, some may suggest Varoufakis abandons the poor, but his story suggests the decision of the controlling triumvirate of the E.U. and IMF rendered his continued role as Minister of Finance a virtual joke. Varoufakis is unable to change the E.U. and IMF board’s inflexible rules. Greece’s Minister of Finance cannot achieve a delay in their demand for restructuring the Greek’s debt to correct a poorly managed tax system and weak economy that victimizes the most vulnerable citizens of Greece.
For listeners of “Adults in the Room”, one wonders where wealthy Greek citizens were when Varoufakis tries to pull Greece out of its financial ditch.
Unlike the book about Detroit’s bankruptcy, there seems no appeal to rich citizens of Greece and a method for using Greece’s historical art and artifacts to collateralize a more equitable bail out for its people. Where were the Greeks who could afford to pay their taxes? Where were the art and antiquity foundations that could have aided in the negotiations with the E.U. and the I.M.F.? The historic art and monuments of Greece are an international treasure, particularly for western culture.
In retrospect, Varoufakis’s idea of restructuring the debt seems brilliant but there seems no time is allowed for Varoufakis to organize a response that could change the mindset of the members of the E.U. and IMF decision makers. As a “Monday morning quarterback”, Varoufakis’s idea would have carried more weight if he had gathered support from wealthy Greek merchants and art foundation entities that could have created a repayment sweetener to seal his loan restructuring idea. However, it appears there was not enough time for Varoufakis to gather enough support to make a case for debt restructuring. The triumvirate controlling the purse strings of the bailout would not wait.
Listeners owe a debt to writers like Varoufakis who are willing to tell their stories, whether right or wrong. In fairness to Varoufakis, it is easy to retrospectively review his actions to save the Greek economy.
At best, one concludes, restructuring Greece’s debt was a great idea that could have achieved a decent compromise for its lenders. On the other hand, one wonders what the leaders of Greece were doing when the repayment crises first began to show itself.
There were undoubtedly some powerful and rich Greek leaders who could have come to the aid of their country in this 21st century “time of need”. One is reminded of the heroic defense of Greek citizens in Crete when Nazis invaded their strategically located island. Where were the descendants of the many great Greek heroes of antiquity?
REVIEWS AND VIEWS OF LIFE 