MOST INTERESTING ESSAYS 2/5/26: THEORY & TRUTH, MEMORY & INTELLIGENCE, PSYCHIATRY, WRITING, EGYPT IN 2019, LIVE OR DIE, GARDEN OF EDEN, SOCIAL DYSFUNCTION, DEATH ROW, RIGHT & WRONG, FRANTZ FANON, TRUTHINESS, CONSPIRACY, LIBERALITY, LIFE IS LIQUID, BECOMING god-LIKE, TIPPING POINT, VANISHING WORLD, JESUS SAYS
Author: chet8757
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.
The Civil War: A Narrative, Vol. 2, Fredericksburg to Meridian
Written by: Shelby Foote
Narrated by: Grover Gardner
“America’s Civil War”
SHELBY FOOTE (AUTHOR AND HISTORIAN)
Shelby Foote’s history of America’s Civil War is a classic for all who wish to understand the culture and strength of American democracy. America, like most nations, is a diverse country. Societal differences make the United States both strong and weak. Strength comes from limited freedom within a government of checks and balances. Weakness comes from the nature of human beings who violate moral and ethical standards defined by society.
ROY MOORE (DEFEATED IN RECENT ALABAMA ELECTION BASED ON ALLEGATIONS OF SEXUAL MISCONDUCT.) The norms of society are shaped by human experience. Religion, money, power, and prestige drive Americans to achieve fame and success; as well as infamy and failure.
Foote recounts the interplay between civilian and military leaders in America’s civil war who show how these drives shape American society. The evil of slavery tangles itself into the Civil War’s human experience. Slavery is reviled by some; while fully endorsed by others.
Generals, political leaders, and soldier/citizens on both sides of the Civil War demonstrate various levels of good and bad behavior. Some vie for the money, power, and prestige of command. Some fight for the glory of God whom they feel is on their side. Some fight because they are paid to fight. Some fight because they can exercise power over another. Some fight for the spoils of war. Some fight to win the accolade of those who follow their lead. Others vie for nothing more than the desire to win against an opposing force.
There are heroes and villains in this Civil War. Foote tells the story of America’s Civil War from his voluminous research and personal perspective.
Foote offers facts that show both sides of the conflict have honorable and flawed leaders. He, like all human beings, does not escape his own prejudices. There seem hints of Southern sympathy and ethnic prejudice. Even the best historians are human; neither omnipresent or omniscient.
The listener/reader judges for themselves based on their own beliefs and experience. Lincoln, Davis, Stanton, Halleck, McClellan, Mead, Rosencrans, Lee, Grant, Sherman, Longstreet, and Stonewall Jackson are heroes with flaws. Each chose their path which leaves them to historian’s and reader/listener’s judgement.
All of us are shaped by heritage and experience. All desire a degree of money, power, and/or prestige.
Data and Goliath: The Hidden Battles to Capture Your Data and Control Your World
Written by: Bruce Schneier
Narrated by: Dan John Miller
BRUCE SCHNEIER (AMERICAN AUTHOR, FELLOW AT THE BERKMAN CENTER FOR INTERNET & SOCIETY AT HARVARD LAW SCHOOL)
Bruce Schneier’s book is about the battles with government and the open market for personal privacy and freedom in the information age.
The seriousness of the subject is diminished by millions who revel in the knowledge, accessibility, and convenience of the internet. However, Schneier explains how our appreciation and use of the internet threatens privacy and freedom. What is needed is a perfect balance between personal privacy and public utility.
Perfect as an adjective for balance between private use and public utility is oxymoronic. All human beings are emotionally and intellectually imperfect. The general public conducts their lives within normative social boundaries. They are generally not criminal, sexually perverted, or psychologically impaired. However, all human beings transgress some social boundaries.
Most individuals feel appropriately guilty for their transgression; suffer the personal and societal consequence, and then get on with their lives.
Like a forest of pine trees being attacked by borer beetles, the internet infects the public; not with malicious intent, but with a hunger for money, power, and prestige.
This loose definition is a fair description of all human beings. However, Schneier argues that the internet categorizes, spindles, and mutilates human lives in a more public and destructive way than ever before in history.
The borer beetles of the internet are well-known; e.g. Apple, Microsoft, Facebook, Google, Amazon, the Federal Government, and a host of smaller species. Some borer beetles can kill a forest, while others benefit nature’s ecology by getting rid of weakened trees to regenerate healthy trees. Schneier suggests America is at a crossroad where captured data from the general public will either grow into a society’ killer or a humanized friend.
Facebook is in the news today because it is being investigated as a monopoly for predatory acquisition of potential competitors. To some, Facebook is a borer beetle of a diminishing forest of internet companies.
Schneier suggests or implies government, eleemosynary, and private entities continually gather personal information and mine it for public and private purposes. The government’s objective is to protect American citizens from crime and terrorism. Churches, charities, and private industry mine private data, not to commit crime or terror, but to increase donations in the first case and profitability in the second.
On some level, Schneier suggests there is no harm; no foul. On another level he argues, surveillance, big data collection, and unregulated invasion of privacy attacks the foundation of democracy. Though the right to privacy is not explicitly protected by America’s founding documents, Schneier suggests the internet encroaches on the 4th 5th and 9th articles of the Constitution.
Schneier acknowledges the benefits of the internet; e.g. educational opportunity, communication timeliness, shopping convenience, banking access, and interconnectedness. Every article written in this blog is benefited by information available on the internet. Convenient purchase of consumer goods requires no trips to a local vendor. The bank writes checks with a few taps at a computer terminal. A personal Ipad, Iphone, and laptop communicate with each other via Bluetooth with input only required once; on one device. A wonderful life with no harm, no foul—right?
Schneier notes there is a price paid for these benefits. Unquestionably, the internet is a great source of valuable information and convenience. However, it is also a vehicle for illicit activity. The internet reveals personal information about users that embarrass, bully, and sometimes ruin lives. It disseminates bigotry that recruits like-minded miscreants. It provides access to bank accounts, credit cards, and other financial instruments for fraudulent use.
Every purchase made on the internet becomes a factoid in the history of a purchaser. All of these factoids are accumulated and used by privately owned search-engine companies (like Google, AOL, and Amazon) to profile personal habits and preferences. That information is sold to retailers for a fee. Private retailers use that information to customize their sales pitches to consumers. The retailer adjusts prices according to buyer’ purchasing and income profile. The search engine owner sells the retailer a first position on internet searches. That first position increases probability that the profiled consumer will purchase from that retailer who has enough information to estimate how much you are willing to pay. The public is being manipulated by retailers that know where you are, what you buy, and what you are willing to pay, or capable of paying. Retailers who purchase data from search engine owners can estimate (if not know) your net worth, sexual orientation, educational achievement, and personal preferences.
The internet is a money machine for search-engine owners. First, the search-engine owner raises revenue by selling personal information and then increases income by selling positions on search-engine advertising web pages. The retailer benefits by having personal consumer information and a primary position on web-page searches. It increases the retailer’s odds of being seen on a search and the consumer’s likelihood of purchase.
The internet is a three-headed dog guarding the entrance to Sartre’s “No Exit” hell.
Schneier implies the consumer is being controlled by Goliath’s data collection. The David in this hidden battle is the consumer with only hope and a sling shot to defend themselves.
The internet is a supersonic communications vehicle. There is no waiting for the mail. Instant messaging and the twitterverse are part of the spindling and mutilating process of the age. Thinking before one speaks is yesterday’s reality. Today, even in the race for President of the United States, speaking without thought is commonplace.
Internet access provides a forum to convince people of the corruption of society. With the click of a mouse, fiction competes with truth to lead and mislead the public. Publicly shared television news programs created by professionals are now created by anyone with access to the internet. There is no incentive or structure to fact-check reports posted on the internet.
The internet is a worldwide recruiting vehicle for the extremes of society; some of which fly airplanes into skyscrapers.
Schneier suggests government intrusion into private lives has gone too far as a result of 9/11 and other terrorist events around the world. Schneier implies that Edward Snowden is a hero; not a traitor.
Snowden exposed the covert surveillance of the NSA (National Security Administration) in gathering information about private citizens without their knowledge; and without probable cause, or judicial consent. Schneier argues that big data surveillance, by private enterprise and the government, have colluded to compromise freedom and control of the individual.
EDWARD SNOWDEN IS A FORMER CIA EMPLOYEE THAT RELEASED CLASSIFIED INFORMATION ON GOVERNMENT SURVEILLANCE OF THE AMERICAN PUBLIC.
Schneier suggests that promulgation of fear, exacerbated by public access to the internet, causes the government to overreact. He notes how the Prime Minister of Great Britain, David Cameron, stated that he did not want to be accused of not protecting British citizens because of lax surveillance of private citizens.
This climate of fear pervades the politics of our time. It is not the first time American abandoned the principles of privacy and freedom. Schneier notes examples:
the “Alien and Sedition Act” passed by Congress and signed by President John Adams,
the incarceration of American Japanese during President Roosevelt’s administration, and the McCarthy witch-hunt for communists in the 1950 s.
He suggests those were mistakes made then and the same mistakes are being made now.
Schneier offers solutions. He acknowledges the necessity of surveillance but believes government oversight should be strengthened. Government regulation should require judicial warrants for spying on an individual. He argues that mass data collection is an unwarranted invasion of privacy that has little value in defeating terrorism.
GOVERNMENT REGULATION OF THE INTERNET AND ITS DIFFICULTIES
Only after the fact, did mass surveillance reveal the Boston marathon bombing perpetrators. He suggests the same is true for the shoe bomber and the terrorist attack of the disability hospital in California. Schneier suggests that consumers should know who in the private sector is accumulating their personal information. Private citizens should have a right to opt out of private sector data collection by any internet user. He believes a set of rules should be established for government to follow when seeking specific surveillance. Schneier suggests those rules should be designed for transparency; legislatively adopted, and justified by legislators to their constituency.
Schneier suggests there is credible benefit in accumulating data about medical history of individuals but that this data should be encrypted in ways that limit access to those authorized by the individual. In general, Schneier is a proponent of encryption to secure the privacy of individuals.
Schneier’s book aptly describes the threats and benefits of big data. Terrorism is real but its threat cannot become an excuse for denying the privacy and freedom of the individual. Terrorism is just one of many risks in life.
The Courage to Act: A Memoir of a Crisis and Its Aftermath
Written by: Ben S. Bernanke
Narrated by: Grover Gardner
Ben Bernanke (Author, Former Chairman of the Federal Reserve.)
Politics and administration is a marriage of necessity. Ben Bernanke writes a “nuts and bolts version” of the role of the Federal Reserve in the United States during the economic crises of 2007. Bernanke is the chairman of the Federal Reserve during the near collapse of the world economy. The story Bernanke tells is consistent with most details revealed by Tim Geithner and Henry Paulson (the former Department of the Treasury Secretaries) during the worst part of America’s 2007-2008 global financial crises.
BREAD LINES IN NEW YORK 1933
What Bernanke adds to Geithner’s and Paulson’s version of events is a more transparent understanding of how American politics and administration dealt with the greatest economic crises since 1929. These three managers, along with elected officials and other public administrators, cussed, discussed, agreed, and disagreed on actions taken to stabilize the American economy. Without a level of cooperation between politics and public administration, it is entirely possible America would be in the middle of a second great depression.
The mortgage crises of 2007 is a “Black Swan” event in American history. A “Black Swan” is a metaphor for an event that is generally unforeseen that changes the direction of history.
The packaging of real estate and home mortgages of varying levels of security leads to the mistaken belief that housing and commercial land prices will always increase as the economy expands. This false belief led to sales throughout the world of figurative IEDs (Improvised Explosive Devices”) that bankrupted individuals, corporations, and Nation-State economies. The shock waves of these instruments of economic mass destruction continue to impact the world economy.
QUANTS–COMPUTER TECHNICIANS WHO CREATED MORTGAGE BACKED DERIVATIVES.
With the advent of computer technology, the added assets in derivative instruments became so complex that individual human judgement of value is clouded.
With each individual asset added to a conglomeration of houses, property, and/or stocks–value changes. The change is meant to spread risk and increase the financial stability of combined assets. However, as similarity of combined assets accumulate, the created aggregate becomes more (rather than less) vulnerable to market change.
The rising risk of these combined securities is compounded by “independent” rating agencies. If vulnerabilities are not clearly understood, sellers of these security conglomerations rely on ratings from analysts that underestimate volatility. That misunderstanding is harmful, because both sellers and buyers are incentivised to buy and sell a security that is not clearly understood.
When one of the derivative assets begins to lose value; particularly if the asset is related (like land and vertical construction), all assets in the packaged security are infected by loss of value.
Further, rating companies lose their objectivity. They may be incentivized by the same companies they are evaluating; or they may be paid for their review productivity rather than the quality of their investigation. Greed takes over both buyer and seller.
Though this explanation of derivatives is undoubtedly too simply described in this review, it is shown in Bernanke’s, Paulson’s, and Geithner’s books to have been a proximate cause for the loss of trillions of dollars in the world economy.
What makes Bernanke’s book interesting is his explanation of how politics and public administration worked together to right America’s sinking economy. Even today, recovery is not complete but the ship-of-state did not sink. “Working together” is a qualified description of what happened based on Bernanke’s view. There were bitter disagreements among elected and administrative agents that could only be resolved with an appreciation and exercise of politics.
Politics have become synonymous with lying and misrepresentation in the modern world. Some say President Trump exemplifies that belief.
Democrats were not listening to middle class America. Politics represent the will of people who are being governed. Without politics, the best intentions of administration devolve into ineffective and autocratic actions that fail to serve the needs of a country’s citizens.
Not to defend Trump, but his election is a consequence of ignoring the importance of politics in determining what is right or wrong in America’s democracy.
On many occasions, Bernanke shows how elected officials remind administrators of the real-world impact of their policy actions. The give and take of politics is the bridge between a bureaucratic idea and citizen impact.
The Affordable Care Act is not perfect because of politics but modifications made are the result of political input from the constituents of American Democracy.
Those constituents are companies, professions, and individual citizens represented by elected officials who work with government agencies responsible for administration. It is a messy process, but politics is a bridge between thought and deed that can only be replaced by autocratic dictatorship; i.e. a dictatorship that inevitably has unintended consequences; that ignores politics, and dictates what is good.
Parenthetically, the crises of 2007 is repeatable. Today’s political climate is to deregulate the economy. The political intent of deregulation is to unleash capitalism. However, deregulation gives reign to both good and bad qualities of human nature. As Mark Twain noted, history does not repeat, but it does rhyme.
The Federal Reserve, the Departments of Treasury, and America’s elected officials successfully saved America from a second Great Depression.
It is politics; i.e., the political interface between President Bush, President Obama, Treasury Secretaries Paulson and Geithner, Federal Reserve Chairman Bernanke, Senators and Representatives of Congress, and the Supreme Court saved America.
Malala Yousafzai may be narrowly identified as a symbol of women’s rights. That categorization is certainly earned but one is left wondering what will become of this young woman.
Malala lives the life of an old soul–advocating for equal rights at eleven years old and being nearly murdered at 15. Malala will be 23 years old this July, 2020.
As most know, Malala is shot in the head by two young Taliban who attacked her school bus in the Swat Valley of Pakistan. We know they were Taliban because they acknowledged responsibility soon after the attack.
Miraculously, the bullet did not penetrate Malala’s brain but bone fragments from the shock of impact severed a facial nerve and temporarily paralyzed most of her motor functions.
Dr. John J. Medina explains how unbelievably versatile the human brain is by recounting experiences of people who have been severely injured.
Some recover many of the functions formally managed by parts of the brain that have been damaged. John Medina notes that eyes do not see; i.e. the brain is the functional source of sight. He explains the miraculous feats of the brain that manipulate the scenes of life.
Malala is rushed to a hospital in Pakistan and is saved from immediate danger by a competent Pakistani neurosurgeon. The world is apprised of the attempted assassination and sends messages of support for Malala’s recovery. In “I Am Malala”, a listener finds that after-care in Pakistan nearly ends Malala’s chance for survival.
MALALA (SHOT AND HOSPITALIZED)
Somewhat ironically, Great Britain comes to Malala’s aid. The irony is in the long history of Great Britain’s colonization of Malala’s homeland. There is historical justification for India/Pakistani’ ambivalence toward the West. “I Am Malala” touches on that ambivalence. However, Malala recognizes how important Great Britain’s assistance was in saving her life.
Malala reminds listeners of the lost lives of her countryman from American drone strikes and the invasion of Pakistani air space; including military action to kill Osama bin Laden.
On the one hand, Malala shows embarrassment over bin Laden’s successful sanctuary in Pakistan; on the other, she implies America should have worked with the Pakistani government to capture the world’s most notorious terrorist. There is a whiff of resentment in Malala’s depiction of the West’s treatment of her country but it is ameliorated by her principled stand for education, equal opportunity, and Pakistan’ sovereignty.
MALALA YOUSAFZAI (NOBEL PRIZE, SAKHAROVE PRIZE, SIMONE de BEAUVOIR PRIZE, NATIONAL YOUTH PRIZE WINNER)
“I Am Malala” shows a young girl with great resilience and ambition. One is left with the impression that Malala will return to Pakistan. She will attempt to become a leader in her home country.
The message one gets from her book is that Pakistan is a great and beautiful country that can be a partner with the West as an independent and Islamic nation. Malala is a politician in waiting. One hopes for her success.
Black Edge: Inside Information, Dirty Money, and the Quest to Bring Down the Most Wanted Man on Wall Street
Written by: Sheelah Kolhatkar
Narrated by: Kaleo Griffith
SHEELAH KOLHATKAR (Author,Staff writter at The New Yorker, covers Wall Street, Silcon Valley, and politics)
In “Black Edge” Sheelah Kolhatkar masterfully recounts the dark side of capitalism. The American stock market is a tremendous source of energy (private money) for entrepreneurial capitalism. At the same time, a poorly regulated stock market pollutes the capitalist ideal.
An obvious example is the stock market Ponzi scheme (a false enterprise offering high returns that really come from later investors) built by Bernard Madoff. He victimizes thousands of people around the world.
After many years of high living, Madoff is caught and presently serves a 150 year prison sentence.
Kolhatkar explains the meaning of black edge information. She shows how the American stock market becomes a breeding ground for greed. In the stock market, black edge information is personal notice to private investors of events that effect stock prices. The information is proprietary and unknown to the public. The private investor chooses to buy or sell stock before the public knows of an event that will affect stock prices.
STEVEN A. COHEN (AMERICAN INVESTOR, HEDGE FUND MANAGER, BILLIONAIRE)
Steven A. Cohen develops an organization, SAC Capital, that revolves around gathering proprietary information before it is known by the public. Cohen becomes one of the richest men in the world by using that information. He parleyed that wealth to purchase the New York Mets baseball franchise.
In one sense, this seems a “no harm, no foul” entrepreneurial benefit in capitalist society. What Kolhatkar infers is that there is harm, and it is foul. It breeds an organizational philosophy of abuse. Cohen creates a “dog eat dog” organization that hires and fires people based on revenue made or lost on investment. Individual traders are compelled to violate the law because they fear losing their high paying jobs. They see their chance of preserving their employment by soliciting black edge information that is not available to the public. The only criteria for success is money; not family, not friendship, and not society.
One may argue, so what? Cohen becomes a rich man and is known as a benefactor to charities of his choice based on his accumulated wealth. Similar arguments can be made for the Koch brothers and their charitable contributions.
Where is the harm? Where is the foul?
The harm is somewhat inchoate in Kolhatkar’s story of Cohen’s view of life, but lack of care for others seems a part of the harm.
Capitalism is an economic and political system for trade and industry that allows individuals rather than a collective determine one’s future. The capitalist ideal’s upside is that people have more freedom. The downside is unrestricted human nature becomes brutish and unfair. Some form of governance is needed to provide rule-of-law. Without rule-of-law, society devolves into an anarchy of individual interests.
THE KOCH BROTHERS DAVID (NOW DECEASED) ON THE LEFT AND CHARLES ON THE RIGHT ARE CORPORATE LEADERS WHO SUPPORT THE PRINCIPLE OF LESS GOVERNMENT REGULATION.
Capitalism is not the problem in America. It is the failure of government agencies, the President, and congress to protect the Health, Education, and Welfare of the people. The simple argument of less government is not the answer.
Lives were ruined by Cohen; i.e. some of his closest associates are abandoned, traders operating as information gophers break the law. Cohen focuses on making money because it offers power and prestige. The gap between rich and poor widens because of Cohen’s philosophy of life. In the end, Cohen is not found guilty of insider trading, but many of his employees lives are ruined.
The story of Steven Cohen is the story of a Trump presidency in the United States. America loses its way when capitalism is only seen through the prism of wealth. The “Get out of my way” philosophy of Cohen and Trump are cut from the same cloth. The difference is–one is more financially successful than the other.
The purpose of the American government is to protect the public through rule-of-law.
Every day, we see a President denying immigrants the chance for becoming a part of an American Dream that made America great. We see an Education Secretary intent on dismantling our public education system. We see a congressional and departmental effort to dismantle health care and welfare. We see Americans being discriminated against because of their sex, race, and religion.
Human nature is not self-regulating.
Unregulated human nature is brutish. The checks and balances of the American government are founded on that truth. When the American government fails to exercise its mandate for the health, education, and welfare of the nation, it diminishes capitalism. It diminishes a way of life cherished by most Americans. People like Steven Cohen and Donald Trump are guilty of being human and unruled.
Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future
Written by: Ashlee Vance
Narrated by: Fred Sanders
ASHLEE VANCE (AUTHOR, JOURNALIST)
Ashlee Vance writes about launching dragons in a biography of Elon Musk. Like the mythical fire breathing beast that destroys civilizations, Musk’s fire-breathing ambition levels two of the most powerful organizations in the world; e.g. the auto industry and government bureaucracy.
TESLA AND SOLAR CITY (ELON MUSK)
Tesla Motors is the first automobile manufacturer to receive a unanimous vote as the best car of the year. SpaceX is the first private rocket manufacturer to successfully transport satellites and cargo into space. The principal behind these extraordinary feats is Elon Musk, a combination of the fictional Tony Stark and a real Thomas Edison. Not since the 1920s has anyone successfully launched a new automobile manufacturer. Never in history has a private company launched rockets into space to service the international space station.
TESLA’S SpaceX RE-LAUNCH ROCKET
Vance shows that Musk has an optimistic vision of the future of America and the world. His willingness to risk everything for alternative energy sources, and reduction of carbon-based energy consumption are astounding in the recurrent era of capitalist greed. Musk’s focus is on transition from traditional industrial methods of production to technological innovation. His methodology is a combination of traditional cost-based negotiation, vertical business integration, and hard work. The methods are not new but Musk’s extraordinary intelligence and his personal commitment are reminiscent of great inventor/innovators in history.
ELON MUSK ROLLS THE DICE AGAIN BY PURCHASING SOLAR CITY, THE LARGEST SOLAR CONVERSION COMPANY IN THE U.S.
Vance clearly illustrates that Musk is not perfect but his story will eventually, if not now, be recorded as historically important. Musk exposes the lie of Trump’s vilification of immigrants. Musk is born as a South African who comes to America through Canada. He becomes an American job producer and manufacturer when both are sorely needed to revivify the, largely mythical, American dream. Musk gives America hope.
Musk faces many obstacles in his life; just as all humans do. One advantage for Musk is in being white; oh, and being blessed with a prodigious memory, extraordinary cognitive ability, and an immense drive to succeed. Musk relentlessly pursues what he believes in. Fortunately, Musk’s natural advantages work toward the best interests of humanity; i.e. a cleaner environment and exploration for colonization of other worlds.
Trump’s withdrawal from the Paris Climate Accords is reminiscent of ignorant industrial luddites. Innovators like Musk pursue an opportune future while Trump and others pursue the mythology of the past. Both Musk’s and Trump’s errors are human, but their consequences are hugely different. Vance’s biography of Musk shows releasing dragons can benefit society. Trump’s dragons are only likely to harm society. In history, Musk will be remembered fondly; Trump will be recalled sadly.
Time is a mystery. Alan Burdick speculates on a definition of time in “Why Time Flies”. In some respects, Burdick’s story is enlightening; in others, time escapes his and an audience’s understanding.
Time appears to be a construct of mind and consciousness, both of which are equally mysterious. No one really knows what mind and consciousness are but recent experiments suggest they are a state of being that offers versions of reality; i.e. not objective truth but subjective understanding. Experiments show that the mind deconstructs what we see and reassembles it to have meaning in an individual’s consciousness.
MIND DECONSTRUCTION AND RECONSTRUCTION OF EVENTS
TIME SEEMS TO SLOW DOWN IN A CAR CRASH
Burdick shows, through recounted experiments, that time does not slow down when we experience traumatic events like a car crash or a bungee jump. What our mind does is reconstruct an accident or bungee jump through a consciousness that makes it seem time slows down. Our consciousness remembers or manufactures events as though they occurred in slow motion; i.e. we remember seeing our car flipping over, the top being crushed, and our effort to use a seat belt to steady our movements. All of this happens within a minute but we remember it in detail as though a slow-motion camera records the accident.
TIME FLOWS IN ONE DIRECTION (You cannot un-break an egg.)
Burdick notes that time only flows in one direction. As common experience tells us, we cannot un-break an egg. Life begins young and grows older. Through manipulation of images, we can reverse time but we know it is an illusion.
Various experiments show that time can be slowed down as speculated by Einstein, and later proved by others. The slowing of time is due to the speed of objects in relation to the unchanging and constant speed of light. Because a human in space is traveling at a faster speed ( in relation to the unchanging speed of light), he/she ages less than a person on earth. But even in Einstein’s theory, time is never shown to go backward. That is why time travel to the past is considered impossible.
Burdick notes that time is always now. It has no past. It has no future. Time is “in the moment”. Burdick’s recognition is not helpful in understanding time. Time is never clearly identifiable because it is either becoming a history or a future. How does one define a moment? It seems to be something between history and future but what is time’s physical marker? Maybe its consciousness but no one knows what consciousness is and every person’s consciousness is personal and subjective; not universal.
At best, Burdick’s story only deepens the mystery of time.
French’s “The Trespasser” offers a glimpse of what it must be like to be a woman in a man’s world.
TANA FRENCH (NOVELIST, ACTRESS BORN IN VERMONT, LIVING IN DUBLIN)
Tana French shows that evidence is the fundamental proof of guilt or innocence. French’s “The Trespasser” offers a glimpse of what it must be like to be a woman in a man’s world. To be a female detective on a murder squad is a perfect venue for exploring the perfidy of men in power positions.
French’s story shows how power distorts the relationship between the sexes. In a culture that reinforces male dominance, women use the same tools as men to acquire power; however, with a substantive difference. Intellect, sex, and prejudice demean women while men reap reward and praise for the same qualities.
BRAGGING ABOUT SEXUAL ASSAULT
BILL COSBY TRIAL
In modern times, the currency of society’s male domination is apparent in the trial of Bill Cosby. Regardless of the accuracy of Cosby’s only eligible accuser, 40 other women have independently accused him of sexual impropriety. Though testimony of these 40 women is not admissible as evidence, their testimony strongly smells of Cosby’s guilt. If guilty, Cosby represents the guilt of society. An innocent verdict is no absolution for Cosby but it is a measure of American society’s acceptance of a President’s locker room talk on a bus and behavior in a women’s dressing room.
FEMALE POLICE DETECTIVE (In French’s story Conway presumes every male in her squad, and at one point even Moran, plot against her success. This presumption is reinforced by Conway’s experience as a police officer and detective.)
French creates a mystery solved by Detective Antoinette Conway with the help of her partner, Stephen Moran. Conway presumes every male in her squad, and at one point even Moran, plot against her success. This presumption is reinforced by Conway’s experience as a police officer and detective. Her gathered prejudice against all men (or at least those in her squad) nearly derails her dogged search for the murderer of a young woman. French reveals how Conway overcomes her personal prejudice by accepting the truth that men and women are equally good and bad.
A father abandons his wife and daughter. The abandoned wife seeks answers to the whereabouts of her husband. The Missing-Persons’ department of the police is asked to investigate. The father is reported as having died, after living many years with another woman. The mother dies. The daughter is obsessed with the investigating officer of the Missing Persons’ department because of his ambiguous relationship with her mother. The daughter plans an elaborate ruse to meet the investigating officer and find out more about her father. The daughter becomes entangled in a web of relationships; i.e. the Missing-Persons’ officer (who is now the head of a murder department), a close female friend, and a possible new boyfriend. The daughter is murdered. Conway’s task is to find the murderer.
In French’s story, the search for suspects, and resolution of the case, are introduced to Conway’s investigation of the murder. The substance of the story shows women as intellectually strong, and mentally tough as men. Of course, history, as well as this fictional story, shows many women are as intellectually strong and mentally tough as men; e.g. Cleopatra, Sojourner Truth, Indira Gandhi, Golda Meir, Benazir Bhutto, Malala Yousafzai, and others.
FAMOUS WOMEN IN HISTORY (History, as well as this fictional story, shows many women are as intellectually strong and mentally tough as men; e.g. Cleopatra, Sojourner Truth, Indira Gandhi, Golda Meir, Benazir Bhutto, Malala Yousafzai, and others.
French’s story brings the inequality of human life into the day-to-day life of today’s women. Conway is characterized as an intelligent, determined, and independent murder detective. Conway is not perfect. She carries her own prejudices, but she focuses on evidence to prove her murder cases.
Jack Holland (Irish writer, Born 1947, Died 2004.)
This quarters’ “Foreign Affairs” argues misogyny is rising in the world with newly elected autocrats. It cites rising misogyny in Brazil, India, Poland, Honduras, Mexico, Turkey, and the U.S. in a lean toward authoritarian and antidemocratic policies. “Foreign Affairs” leading article suggests “…women’s political and economic empowerment is now stalling or declining around the world”.
Undoubtedly, sexual depredation began before recorded time, but misogyny became institutionalized with the written word.
The mystery is what has taken so long for American misogyny to be recognized. The mystery is explained in Jack Holland’s “Misogyny, The World’s Oldest Prejudice”. Misogyny appears when history is first recorded. Misogyny is perpetuated by religion, society, and government.
From men who are Presidents to business moguls to famous newscasters, misogyny grows like a cancer.
(Past accusers of President Trump.)
E. Jean Carroll–Latest accuser of President Trump’s past behavior.Ms. Carroll’s case is decided on May 9, 2023. Mr. Trump is found guilty of sexual abuse and defamation with an award of $5 million to Ms. Carroll.
A woman’s rights have been a moving target since the beginning of time; or at least since the beginning of recorded “history”. Jack Holland tracks “The World’s Oldest Prejudice”, misogyny.
Holland’s conflation of Nazism with societal misogyny seems misplaced except in comparison to Nazism’s institutionalization of discrimination. The evidence and truth of women’s domination, abuse, and murder by men is solid. Holland recounts government practices, religious doctrines, philosophical treatises, science errors, and corroborated historical events that confirm institutionalization of misogyny.
Misogyny is in the news today with accusations against Presidents, several newscasters, aspiring and existing politicians, film producers, and business leaders.
(COMBO): This combination of pictures created on October 13, 2017 shows US producer Harvey Weinstein (L) taken on March 10, 2015; (1st row from L) US actress Rose McGowan taken on April 3, 2016, US actress Angelina Jolie taken on September 13, 2017 in New York City, Italian actress Asia Argento taken on May 17, 2017, US actress Gwyneth Paltrow taken on May 6, 2017, US actress Ashley Judd taken on July 25, 2017, (2nd row fromL) French actress Lea Seydoux taken on May 19, 2016, US actress Mira Sorvino taken on December 7, 2015, US actress Rosanna Arquette taken on February 25, 2017, US actress Louisette Geiss taken on October 10, 2017, British actress Kate Beckinsale taken on on August 7, 2017, (3rd row fromL) Television reporter Lauren Sivan taken on July 26, 2014, US actress Jessica Barth taken on June 21, 2012, US producer Elizabeth Karlsen taken on January 4, 2016, French actress Emma De Caunes taken on October 17, 2016, and French actress Judith Godreche taken on October 19, 2015. An avalanche of claims of sexual harassment, assault and rape by hugely influential Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein have surfaced since the publication last week of an explosive New York Times report alleging a history of abusive behavior dating back decades. / AFP PHOTO / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA AND AFP PHOTO / STAFF
As far back as the oldest laws of government written by a Sumerian King in 2,050 BC, women have been singled out with human rights’ violations. An example is the King’s law that particularly applies to women who speak insolently. They are to have their mouths scoured with salt; i.e. a law applying only to women slaves. Of course the law begs the question of why women are slaves.
All major religions are patriarchal. Each has a history of misogyny that lives through to today.
Beginning with the book of Genesis in the Christian Bible, women come from man; not as a singular human being but as an adjunct of man, a mere rib. In Genesis 3:16, women are burdened and subservient to men from the beginning. “Unto the woman He said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children; and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee”.
In the Ten Commandments, wives are treated as property to men. Holland cites Apostle Paul as a harbinger of doom for women. His doctrinal preaching perpetuates misogyny. Apostle Paul implies women are seductresses because of men’s earthly desires.
Men are advised to focus on the spiritual to avoid sin and assure their passage to heaven. By separating humanity and spirituality, Holland argues Apostle Paul implies women and bodily pleasure are a principal source of sin. Female genital mutilation is condoned in this view of human sin.
FEMALE GENITAL CUTTING IN MODERN TIMES
Holland notes that in the Torah (Jewish doctrine), women are unclean twice as long for birthing daughters rather than sons. Further, the Torah explains that women who are raped in the city should be stoned to death, and if raped in the country, required to marry their rapist. The fault for being raped is assigned to women rather than men. Some conservative Jewish sects pray to God that they are not given daughters; additionally, they thank God for not being born a woman.
THE TORAH
(Exodus 21:3-4 Says that if a male slave is given a wife by his master (regardless of how long they are wed, how much they love each other or if they have kids) he can not leave servanthood with his wife or children. The woman and children are merely property of the master and their personal happiness or sanctity of family doesn’t matter.)
In the Qur’an (Islam’s holy book), women are less valuable and inferior to men. In paragraph 4:34 “Men are in charge of women, because Allah hath made the one of them to excel the other.” In Islam’s Sharia law, women are generally guilty of their own rape and are to be stoned to death or immolated. There are exceptions but proof is an onerous exercise in futility. As witnesses to rape, Holland notes a victim must find 4 men to corroborate a woman’s testimony or she is considered untruthful, guilty, and subject to punishment or death.
THE QURAN
Holland argues that Sharia law denies women the right to an education. (Islamic scholars disagree.) If true, just as the American south feared education of slaves, the Islamic religion fears the education of women. With education, women are bound to seek a better life with more freedom and less domination.
Holland reaches back to ancient Greek philosophers to note that both Plato and Aristotle believe women are afflicted with natural defectiveness. To Plato, that defect is implied in “The Republic” when children are to be taken from their mothers to be educated by the state; independent of a mother’s influence. To Aristotle, women’s defect is in his concept of forms. Women either have no soul or essence that allows for perfect form. Women are mere vessels for the birth of children that come from an essence provided by the sperm of men. Aristotle argues women are subject to men and are, at best, “deformed males”.
ARTHUR SCHOEPENHAUER (1788-1860 DIED AT 72)
Holland notes later philosophers like Schopenhauer and Nietzsche carry misogyny forward. Schopenhauer argues that women have meager reasoning ability. To Schopenhauer, women’s lack of reason and abundant sensuality cause chaos and disruption. Nietzsche has a similar view of women. Nietzsche views women as vixens that need to be controlled; not helpmates, independent humans, or equals to men.
SIGMUND FREUD (1856-1939)
Science luminaries also feed the misogynist credo. Darwin suggests women are not as fully evolved as men. Freud creates myths of penis envy and mental dysfunction from normal female physiological conditions. Holland also addresses the misconception of the “blank slate” in science as noted by Stephen Pinker, a modern-day psychologist.
As Pinker notes, fifty percent of who we are, male or female, is determined by genetics. We are not blank slates. There are common genetic inheritances that interact with the environment as we mature. However, each human reacts to incidents in the world in their own unique way. Human beings, whether male or female, react differently to the same incidents based, in part, on their genetic inheritance.
Women and men are different but equal based on a combination of nature and nurture. A truth in science is that the energy producers of life (mitochondrial DNA which produces ATP) come solely from mothers, not fathers. This is quite a contrast to Aristotle’s theory of women as mere vessels of birth. It is a surprise that there are not more misandrists than misogynists.
WITCH BURNED AT THE STAKE
Holland recounts several horrific misogynistic events from history and modern times. A major event in the 15th to 18th century were the witch trials. Tens of thousands of accused witches were tortured and burned at the stake in Europe. The most famous in America were the witch trials in Salem, Massachusetts. An estimated 80 women were tried in New England with 20 executed and 5 who die in prison.
A NYT’s headline on 3.17.21 shows a Turkish woman battered by her husband. Misogyny is not unique to any country, culture, or religion. Misogyny is a world-wide heart rending tragedy.
Though witch trials and executions are in the past, modern-day Middle East and Eastern countries, and the West have trials for women that are raped, tortured, or mutilated for failing to follow religious or cultural norms established by male dominated governments.
SHARIA LAW VIOLATORS’ PUNISHMENT
Holland delves into the rise of Nazism and suggests the idea of the super race are contributors to misogynist beliefs. To some extent that may be true but Hitler’s primary objective is to create a straw man for the ills of Germany. The straw man became the Jews; i.e. the alleged source of all that is wrong with the world. Nazism had much less to do with belief that women are the inferior of men. As Holland points out, Hitler was widely supported by German women.
Hitler’s asexual revolution had little to do with the degradation of women but more to do with the myth of the “other” that is meant to roil and consolidate the masses in defense of a new order. Sexual allure and male domination of women is the least of Hitler’s interests. Experiments on women in concentration camps is a predilection of demented interests of Nazi doctors; not because of belief in misogyny, but belief in a final solution that will create a super race.
WWII KZ SACHSENHAUSEN CONCENTRATION CAMP
Hitler’s relevance to the subject of misogyny is in the creation of an “other”. To a misogynist, the “other” is women by men who succumb to the fiction of male superiority. To the misogynist, women become the source of men’s problems rather than their helpmates or equals.
Misogyny is a cancer in the world’s body politic. Regulated freedom and equal opportunity are its cure. The diversity of human life demands equal opportunity for all. This does not mean everyone is equal but that each should be able to achieve what they are capable of achieving. Regulated freedom is a necessity because all human beings are motivated by money, power, and prestige; each of which can lead to greed, corruption, and hubris. All human beings are subject to the same vices. All men and women should have an equal right to say yes or no to greed, corruption, and hubris. Holland’s point is that women do not have the same rights as men because of centuries of cultural bias.
John A. Farell (Author, former White House correspondent and Washington editor for The Boston Globe.).
“So different and so alike” is what comes to mind in listening to John Farrell’s biography of Richard Nixon. President Nixon is characterized as thin-skinned, vindictive, and dissembling; a description echoed by today’s President. Both make comments reflecting ethnic racism with reprehensible private comments. Both attack news publishers; particularly the Washington Post and New York Times.
However, Farrell shows Nixon to be clearly unlike Trump. Nixon understands political reality while Trump clings to a skewed personal reality.
Nixon and Trump appear both misogynistic, and anti-intellectual. Both viscerally react to perceived slights. Both have morally corrupt views of society.
One uses the FBI and former CIA spies to discredit political’ opposition; the other demands loyalty more than truth from national security agencies.
Nixon avoids unfavorable publicity while Trump manufactures it. Nixon exemplifies international, geo-political, and professional foreign policy while Trump follows an amateurish parochial isolationist foreign policy. Nixon operates from a perspective of power-hungry self-interest, while Trump operates from a “monied” self-interest.
Trump bullies the President of Montenegro.
Nixon is surreptitiously thuggish, while Trump is outwardly thuggish.
Farrell recounts Nixon’s early years of overt and benign support of McCarthyism. Nixon justifies his penchant for exposing communist sympathizers with his successful prosecution of Alger Hiss. (Ironically, Hiss is convicted for a cover-up rather than espionage; just as Nixon is impeached for a cover-up rather than a burglary.)
HENRY KISSINGER (FORMER SECRETARY OF STATE & NAT. SECURITY ADVISER FOR NIXON AND FORD, WINNER OF THE NOBEL PEACE PRIZE)
Nixon and Trump have little respect for experts. Nixon demeans Henry Kissinger, a Harvard educated intellectual, who became Nixon’s Secretary of State and a principal in the negotiation for the first SALT agreement with Russia and the opening of Communist China.
Nixon fires a special prosecutor investigating the Watergate burglary. Trump, according to the Mueller report, orders the same action regarding Robert Mueller.
The only difference appears to have been–members of Trump’s administration refuse to follow orders.
Front page of the Mueller report-text following:
Trump demeans the scientific community by denying global warming and removing America from the Paris Climate Accord.
On balance, Nixon is shown by Farrell to be much more presidential than Trump but the perspective of history weighs heavily on that assessment.
Ending Vietnam at the expense of South Vietnamese is a mixed blessing but Nixon stopped the carnage. Opening China to the world is a great American accomplishment which history fairly attributes to Nixon and Kissinger.
Nixon, like all human beings, is flawed. He is not the first President to lie. He is not the first President to kill innocents. Only time will tell if Trump is more than what he seems.
Trump’s withdrawal from the Paris Climate Accords is reminiscent of ignorant industrial luddites. Innovators like Musk pursue an opportune future while Trump and others pursue the mythology of the past. Both Musk’s and Trump’s errors are human, but their consequences are hugely different. Vance’s biography of Musk shows releasing dragons can benefit society. Trump’s dragons are only likely to harm society. In history, Musk will be remembered fondly; Trump will be recalled sadly.
REVIEWS AND VIEWS OF LIFE 