HUMANITY – REVIEWS AND VIEWS OF LIFE

LIFE

Antisemitism, sexual, and racial discrimination seem like human conditions that cannot be eliminated in the world

Audio-book Review
By Chet Yarbrough

(Blog:awalkingdelight)
Website: chetyarbrough.blog

Motherland (A Feminist History of Modern Russia, from Revolution to Autocracy)

Author: Julia Ioffe

Narrated by: Julia Ioffe

Julia Ioffe (Soviet-born American journalist, author who has written for The New Yorker, Foreign Policy, The New Republic, Politico, and the Atlantic.)

Julia Ioffe has written a fascinating history of women in the “…History of Modern Russia…” She clearly seems to have researched women’s labor, family life, reproductive rights, and war service in Russia before and after the Leninist revolution. She brings the truth of women’s equality to men while recognizing real equality is unrealized in Russia, America, and undoubtedly, the world.

A reader/listener may be surprised by Ioffe’s recognition of three women who aided Lenin in successfully creating Russia’s communist revolution. Nadezhda Krupskaya, Lenin’s wife, who is an important organizer of the communist movement. Inessa Armad, Lenin’s lover, is a feminist revolutionary. Alexandra Kollontai is a social reformer who influences Lenin’s ideas on marriage, childcare, labor, divorce, and women’s aspirational desire for independence.

Kollontai arguably shapes Lenin’s view of women in society despite inequality that prevails.

Alexandra Kollontai raised women’s issues as part of Lenin’s revolutionary agenda. One wonders how true that is in view of the evidence in Ioffe’s history of Russia. Women are shown to have been dominated by Russia’s patriarchal leadership. The treatment of women as sexual objects is evident in many examples of Russian leaders’ abuse of women. From Stalin’s domination of his daughter to leaders like Lavrentiy Beria who personified arbitrary power in the Stalinist state and the way he treated women and what were alleged enemies of Stalin’s rule. Ioffe notes Beria’s reputation for abducting and sexually assaulting women.

Lavrentiy Beria (Soviet Secret Police Chief during Stalin’s reign.)

None of the examples Ioffe details of the treatment of women is a surprise because one hears and observes it in all countries of the world. Despite the role women played as Russian soldiers in WWII, Ioffe notes how poorly Stalin treated his wives and daughter. Stalin expected women to birth and bare the future of Russia’s diminished population while working at jobs to rebuild its devastated economy. Women were expected to work in Russian factories to rebuild the economy while raising their children. Certainly, some responsibility for childcare is undoubtedly taken by men but childbearing, family care, and economic employment were all assumed responsibilities of Russian women.

Soviet women pilots in WWII.

Ioffe tells the story of Svetlana Alliuyeva’s, Stalin’s daughter, which shows how women in Russia were treated. As a child, Svetlana is privileged but imprisoned by the life she lived under the shadow of her father. Her mother committed suicide which shows how marital relationship, even in a privileged economic circumstance, is no guarantee of women’s equal treatment. Stalin’s wife chose to end her own life with a self-inflicted bullet through her heart. The character of Stalin is well documented in the history of gulags and mass murders instituted by the government during his rule.

Svetlana Alliluyeva (1970, daughter of Joseph Stalin.)

It is surprising to find a resurgence of antisemitism policies in Russia during Gorbachev’s reforms. After the revelations of Germany’s murder of 6,000,000 Jews and the world’s recognition of its horror, one can hardly believe there would be a continuation of antisemitism in the world. Boris Yeltsin officially dismantled antisemitic policies in Russia, but antisemitism remains.

The Ioffe Jewish family emigrates to America, but the qualifications of the author’s mother are not recognized in the U.S. One hears from Ioffe of their immigration status as a great hardship for the family. Ioffe shows in her 3 year return to Russia the male dominance over women which seems a backhanded way of suggesting things are better in America. To one born and raised in America, sexual inequality remains an issue in America.

Putin’s decision to invade Ukraine.

None of the post WWII Russian president’s exhibit the same level of cruelty as Stalin; i.e., at least until the reincarnation of some of Stalin’s aggression by Vladimir Putin. Putin chooses to take back the Crimean Peninsula and invades Ukraine in what is a campaign that is slaughtering its civilian and military citizens.

To many, Ioffe’s history of Russia will be surprising.

“Motherland” shows Ioffe’s deep research of Russian history and the personal experience of the writer’s life in America and today’s Russia. On the other hand, it seems some of Ioffe’s objectivity is lost. The fact that women were enlisted to fight in war and encouraged to become well educated suggests some recognition of women’s rights, if not their equality in Russia. On the other hand, Putin’s autocratic behavior has reinstated Stalin’s demand for women to repopulate the USSR after WWII by encouraging, if not demanding, Russian women to bare more children. What more evidence does one need to understand how leaders of the world ignore women’s equality; not to mention, the threat of overpopulation on earth?

“Motherland” cannot escape the author’s personal views and experience of unequal treatment. Much of what she uncovers in Russia’s history is enlightening and rings true to those who believe in the equality of all human beings. Antisemitism, sexual, and racial discrimination seem like human conditions that cannot be eliminated in the world.

HEALTH CARE

“The Cost of Care’ recommends insurance companies, medical services, and government administrations focus on creating a policy of “Medicare-for-all” that treats all elder and/or ill American citizens equally.

Audio-book Review
By Chet Yarbrough

(Blog:awalkingdelight)
Website: chetyarbrough.blog

The Cost of Care (How Four Nurses Put Patients First in a Profit-Driven System)

Author: Theresa Brown

Narrated by: Donna Jay Fulks

Theresa Brown (PhD, BSN, Rn, Author, American clinical nurse.)

“The Cost of Care” is a somewhat frustrating book to review because it notes human faults that seem to dumb-down the profession of medical care in the United States. Like all products and services in America, cost is rising. Of course, a difference is that medical service is often a necessity rather than a choice. However, like all service organizations, some are managed well; others not.

Childbirth.

The first half of Brown’s book deals with childbirth and the costs and care for young families that choose to have children. Surprisingly, she finds Midwife birthing centers provide better care for pregnant mothers than most hospitals. She highlights Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and Portland, Oregon Midwife centers. She notes the counseling and care from “Midwife” birthing centers are less expensive, equally effective, and more comforting for both mothers and newborn than major hospitals. Brown criticizes hospital treatment of pregnancy as emotionally sterile, less patient centered, and less likely to offer the best care for mothers and the newborn. This is an observation by Brown who is educated and licensed as a registered nurse.

A major criticism is Brown’s recognition of what one might call hospital clericalization of health care.

There is a sense of medical treatment becoming a mechanical job by caregivers, including doctors and nursing professionals who show little empathy or expressed concern for their patients. Many who have been treated by doctors, nurses, or hospital admissions employees will recognize some of her criticism. Large organizations, like hospitals, are highly regulated by the States in which they exist. Standardization of service in hospitals is required to mitigate possible mistakes in medical treatment. However, Brown notes that standardization works against the care, comfort, and safe infant delivery offered by mid-wife operations.

The right to choose.

However, what the author ignores is the volitional control a patient or pregnant mother has in choosing a physician. Human beings, whether doctors, nurses, midwifes, or pregnant mothers vary in their attitudes, habits, and beliefs. Both patients and those who provide medical services are human. The best any person can do as a physician, nurse, midwife, or patient is influenced by their education and the life they have lived. A pregnant woman’s choice of service is up to her. Brown argues mid-wife’ deliveries show lower C-section rates, fewer induced births and episiotomies, and higher rates of vaginal births with infant outcomes that are equal or better than hospitals.

Brown suggests care for expectant mothers is diminished by hospitalization.

Few service organizations and their employees perfectly serve the public. If one is not satisfied with a particular physician or medical service, a patient’s options are to choose a different service, live with or self-cure their malady, or try to find another medical treatment service. If the medical facility is the only one in town and has rude or unresponsive employees, a patient’s options are to complain about the medical service to supervisors or owners of the facility. Complaints may or may not change anything but failure to register a complaint will only reinforce poor services of the company.

Aged American citizens.

Brown goes on to discuss medical services for aged American citizens. The majority of Americans cannot afford full-service retirement communities that cover all natural aging maladies of those over 65. Qualification for complete care retirement communities often exceed a net worth requirement of $1,500,000 while most aged Americans’ have net worths of less than $250,000. This economic reality makes ageing in place a necessity rather than a choice for most Americans.

As is true of all humans, medical professionals and businesses can be seduced by the desire for money, power, and prestige at the expense and disadvantage of those who need health services like elder care.

Brown ends “The Cost of Care” with a practical, though ideologically idealized, idea of how to improve medical care in America. She argues for caregivers, particularly nurses, be trained to base their care on human relationship. Brown suggests focusing on a health care change in America. She argues for health care to be reorganized. Her book recommends insurance companies, medical services, and government administrations focus on creating a policy of “Medicare-for-all” that treats all elder and/or ill American citizens equally.

BRAIN CONDITIONING

Damasio’s theory may explain why history is filled with so much human tragedy. If emotion is the source of human evolution and knowledge, one doubts humans will ever achieve broad societal peace

Audio-book Review
By Chet Yarbrough

(Blog:awalkingdelight)
Website: chetyarbrough.blog

Natural Intelligence & the Logic of Consciousness

Author: Antonio Damasio

Narrated by: Julian Morris

Antonio Damasio (Portuguese neuroscientist, Professor of Psychology, Philosophy, and Neurology at the University of Southern California.)

This is an abstruse book to read or listen to because of the writer’s complex theory of emotions in human evolution. Professor Damasio’s research, education, and thought leads him to believe that consciousness comes from the emotions of human life. He argues that Descartes’ belief that “I think. therefore, I am” is wrong. Damasio suggests the correct phrase should be “I feel. therefore, I am”.

In contrast to Descartes, Damasio believes emotion, alone, made humans who they are.

René Descartes (A French philosopher 1596-1650.) believed thought, alone, made humans who they are.

To Damasio, feelings precede and determine human life’s reasoning abilities. He argues our biological being comes from feeling (not mind or thought) that conditions human belief and bodily existence. Damasio argues temperature change, blood glucose levels, blood pressure, and blood pH are thermostats of a human being’s bodily existence. He argues changes in emotion affect the thermostats of life that inform and educate the brain to remember and act as human beings.

Why do humans get angry? Why do we love? Why do we hate? Why are we sad or happy? (Damasio argues emotions change the thermostats of being)

“The Secrets of Consciousness” looks at the brain as a storer of information without revealing what conscousness means.

To reinforce Damasio’s argument, he writes of a patient who retains his reasoning ability and IQ but is unable to decide to act because of a lack of emotional feeling. Like Artificial Intelligence, without emotional input, a brain may understand facts but fail to use them without emotional context. Damasio argues human evolution began with emotions that trained the mind in ways that changed the thermostats of the living; i.e., whether humans, elephants, apes, dogs, or cats.

B. F. Skinner, Harvard Psychologist and founder of the Operant Conditioning movement seems to have believed something similar to Damasio’s theory.

Damasio argues that consciousness and feeling evolve based on a life’s ability to regulate their “thermostats”. A newborn possesses feelings from the moment of birth and begins learning about life from emotions that garner responses of others and affect the thermostats of an infant’s body and mind. One may ask oneself, how is that different from A.I. that creates operational decisions based on remembered facts and historical results without emotional stimulation. If one accepts the author’s theory, A.I. only presents a false flag because mere facts have no emotional content. The irony of Damasio’s theory is that A.I. decisions are as likely to be as wrong or right as one informed by human emotion. The point is that wrong or right decisions are possible whether informed by historical facts or human emotions. That is not to deny Damasio’s theory of evolution through emotion but seems to make the end result of human or animal decisions as easily good or bad for advancing life.

The easy part of consciousness is observed cause and effect. The hard part is knowing where the change comes from and why it sustains itself or disappears.

One comes away from Damasio’s theory about the critical importance of emotion with as much skepticism as one has of A.I. as the savior or end of humankind. Of course, that is not the importance of the author’s theory. His theory simply makes one wonder whether emotion was and is the driver of human evolution, and our reasoning, decision-making, and consciousness.

It seems his theory shows more of a threat than benefit to humanity. Damasio’s theory may explain why history is filled with so much human tragedy. If emotion is the source of human evolution and knowledge, one doubts humans will ever achieve broad societal peace.

WORLD COMITY

John Sedgwick gives a glimmer of hope for world comity in his history of American Southwest railroad construction. It may be just a matter of time as long as humans do not destroy the world.

Audio-book Review
By Chet Yarbrough

(Blog:awalkingdelight)
Website: chetyarbrough.blog

From the River to the Sea (The Untold Story of the Railroad War That Made the West )

Author: John Sedgwick

Narrated by: John Bedford Lloyd

John Sedgwick (Author, American writer and historian who died at the age of 72 in 2o26.)

John Sedgwick’s history of the growth of railroads in America is well written and entertaining. The impact of his history reminds one of the advances of A.I. in America and around the world. His history recounts the movers and shakers of the 19th century that created a rail system that transported physical goods and connected American citizens of the Southwest to the United States.

General William Jackson Palmer, William Barstow Strong, and Jay Gould built railroad empires. Palmer built the railroad through the Rockies into the Southwest. Strong built the Santa Fe Railway that moved the rails westward from Kansas. Later, the wealth of Jay Gould raises the stakes and competition between Palmer and Strong. In effect, these men became nation builders who integrated the Southwest into the United States. They shaped rail routes that connected and integrated the Southwest to the economy of America.

Michael Wooldridge, in his Brief History of A.I., explains A.I. also had a roller-coaster history of highs and lows with new highs in this century.

Today, it is not railroads but A.I. and the internet that is connecting not only Americans but the entire world’s citizens, both economically and socially. A.I. and the internet spread ideas and information rather than physical goods, but the end result is economic and societal change. A.I.’s effect is to connect citizens of the world, like railroad rails connected citizens of the Southwest to the United States with product availability, cultural understanding, and sadly, many differences and misunderstandings that are evident throughout the world today.

A.I. and the internet.

Business models grew from singular entrepreneurs’ prerogative to build railroads to improve trade opportunities among America’s States. Just as entrepreneurs of the railroad industry created connections and trade in America’s early history, companies like Amazon in America, and the Alibaba Group in China have created connections and trade in the world. As A.I. and the internet grows–world markets, human knowledge, and decision-making became a possibility for the world in the same way railroad growth connects the Southwest to the United States.

The railroad expansion noted by Sedgwick shows how railroad construction hubs might be compared to today’s scramble for A.I. data centers.

The fiber networks of today are like railroad construction hubs sought by entrepreneurs of the 19th century. For China there is China Mobile, China Telecom, and China Unicom. For America, there is AT&T, Verizon, Comcast, and others. These internet models resemble the hubs of early railroad conglomerates. The similarities of rail construction that changed America is like today’s internet that is connecting the world.

Railroads unified American States in a similar way that a worldwide web connects cultures of the world.

Specialization, science research, and coordination of new discoveries have greater potential with the interconnectedness of A.I. systems in ways that remind one of railroad connections of 19th century Southwestern American States. Interconnectedness is shown by Sedgwick’s history of railroads to have hugely benefited American society. The growth of railroads in America is not a perfect story of progress because of the grasping nature of human beings which reminds one of the leaders of all nations that seek power and influence. All of the movers and shakers of the railroad business pass into history but their legacy remains.

One hopes world interconnectedness from A.I. and the worldwide web will, like America’s rail expansion, become the seeds for worldwide improvement.

Sedgwick’s excellent history of railroads in Southwestern America offers insight to technology’s potential for world comity and greater economic prosperity for citizens of the world. The story of railroad construction as the glue that makes the Southwest part of America suggests A.I. and the world wide web may have a long way to go but world unity is at least conceivable if not guaranteed.

John Sedgwick shows how human nature gets in the way of national unity, let alone, international unity. Sedgwick gives a glimmer of hope for world comity in his history of American Southwest railroad construction. It may be just a matter of time as long as humans do not destroy the world.

TECH FASCISM

Audio-book Review
By Chet Yarbrough

(Blog:awalkingdelight)
Website: chetyarbrough.blog

The Nerd Reich (Silicon Valley Fascism and the War on Democracy)

Author: Gil Duran

Narrated by: Vincent Price & 1 more

Gil Duran (Author, American journalist based in San Francisco.)

Duran has written a provocative book suggesting there is a cabal of tech entrepreneurs like Peter Thiel, Elon Musk and others who are engineering a potential master control system that will influence and eventually dominate society. He argues this system of control and influence is creating a “…Nerd Reich” in the sense of Hitler’s Third Reich that initiated WWII.

Leaders of a “Nerd Reich”?

The weakness of Duran’s argument is that most, if not all, human beings have self-interests that are different in ways that are great and small. Theil has strong opinions about what society gets wrong and seeks tech solutions to change societal belief. In contrast, Musk focuses on specific goals, like exploration of space, rocketry, and driverless cars. On the other hand, both show a desire to control humanity’s future like the biblical belief in God’s infallibility. Thiel pursues independent human thought by entrepreneurs not constrained by formal education. Musk pursues civilization-scale engineering based on technological education of the work force. The point is that these two entrepreneurs, like every human being, looks at life differently and emphasizes their personal biases in achieving their goals. Thiel looks for ways to change society by creating entrepreneurs while Musk looks to build things that do not exist with public/private education of workers. The point is that there is no entrepreneurial Tech cabal. There are Tech individuals looking for ways to change the world but in different ways.

Einstein is among a select group of extraordinary human beings.

Brilliant minds do not pursue the same goals. Revelation comes from different pursuits by those interested in different things. Some look for universal truths of science like Einstein while others look for truth about morality like Friedrich Nietzsche. Technologists will pursue both fields of study. They may agree on one avenue of exploration and not the other. There is no single cabal of interest by technologists, there are many different interest groups. Science and philosophical revelation generally come from an individual, not a consortium of people whether technologists, or scientists, or one person. Franklin Roosevelt and Adolph Hitler were leaders with immense power, but their power came from the people they led. The same is as true today as in the times of Roosevelt and Hitler. It is up to society to decide which path, which leader, we will follow.

Peter Thiel and Elon Musk.

The “Nerd Reich” is an exaggerated view of human revelation, discovery, creation, and execution. It does not give a complete picture but only a sliver of life, a period of temporary societal success or temporary failure. There will be and surely are tech cabals today, but that is and always will be the nature of human association or what is called society. Human beings associate with each other because of common interests and pursuits. Revelation always comes from the individual with hangers on that may have played a role in new discoveries, but social change comes from the “many”; not the “one”.

“Reich” is a harsh word to use in respect to people who have a common interest in technology.

Technology is a widely held interest of millions of citizens of every country in the world. However, it is only one discipline among many. Tech association within society is not a singular controller of action or outcome.

Truth or truthiness?

General human judgments are often based on “confirmation bias”. The nature of thought and belief of human beings is often based on evidence that others say is true without personally investigating the basis for their judgement. In addition, we tend to understand information based on things that are compatible with views we already believe. We also have selective memory and tend to forget contradictory evidence. We often fail to consider alternative explanations because of preconceived beliefs that comport with what is being stated as fact or fiction. Further, many are not willing to clearly look at the evidence that supports or denies drawn conclusions.

Reviewing the “Nerd Reich”, one must ask themselves what they have seen that suggests there is a “Nerd Reich”. Does Musk’s actions as an American government employee who fires Department heads and employees at the general direction of President Trump make him a member of the “Nerd Reich”. I think not, in view of his position of Trump’s Presidential appointment and Trump’s ordered direction. President Trump is not, by any stretch of imagination, a “Nerd…”. Trump is simply an autocrat who has risen to the level of his incompetence.

The world will have driverless cars, robotically produced merchandise, and cultures based on A.I.’ service to others in the future.

The rise of Artificial Intelligence is a concern of both politicians and the “Nerd…” generation. One doubts the American government will endorse or succumb to a “Nerd Reich” despite the threat of AI in the wrong hands. At least to those of us who believe AI is a tool of humanity, not a superior form of intelligence.

HUMAN RELATIONS

Celibacy, marriage, infidelity, and the experiences of education, financial security, and life make human relationships unpredictable. Watson’s story shows how unpredictable life can be.

Audio-book Review
By Chet Yarbrough

(Blog:awalkingdelight)
Website: chetyarbrough.blog

Before I Go to Sleep (A Novel)

By: S. J. Watson

Narrated by: Orlagh Cassidy

S. J. Watson (English author, writer, audiologist.)

“Before I Go to Sleep” is a terrifying novel about human relationship. On the one hand, it is a story about memory and identity, trust and deception, power and control. On the other, it is about the immense harm that may come from a psychotic episode of one who has lost control of their temper and behavior. Watson writes a story about a wife, Christine, who is married to Ben. They go through a rough patch in their marriage and Christine has an affair with a man named Mike whom she meets at a coffee pub. Through several meetings and conversations, Christine is seduced and chooses to have an affair with Mike.

Relationship building.

Christine chooses to end the affair, but Mike reacts to her rejection by beating her into unconsciousness. She loses her memory from the brutalization, and in a mysterious way, Christine reconnects with Mike who takes care of her during a long and extended recovery. Her husband, Ben, seems both absent and present during Catherine’s recovery. Mike assumes the role of Ben as Christine’s husband when Ben is not present. Because of Christine’s lack of memory, she remembers neither the faces nor behaviors of what are essentially caregivers in her life. Mike takes Ben’s place by living with and caring for Christine when the real Ben is not present. Mike chooses to become Ben and changes the story of Christine’s brutalization from his attack to an automobile accident as the cause of her injuries. Mike purposefully misleads Catherine about events in her life. He re-establishes an intimate relationship with Catherine as her husband named Ben.

Threats to relationships in life.

Mike’s deception becomes threatened when an interested psychiatrist named Nash wishes to help her recover her memory. Dr. Nash is interested because of the unusual nature of Christine’s memory loss. In one sense, this heightens the mysteriousness of the author’s story because a reader/listener wonders why Nash involves himself in Christine’s life. Presumably, Nash knows something about what really happened to Christine and advises her not to say anything to Mike about his aid because he believes she is not being told the truth about what happened to her. He advises Christine to keep a secret journal of everything that happens in her life to aid recovery of her memory.

Violence against women.

Violence against women by men is a tragic truth that is magnified in patriarchal societies. Of course, women can also be violent, but their history is less often physical, and more often verbal and/or psychological abuse. The author creates a story that draws one into an engrossing thriller about male physical assault that makes a listener/reader want to find out how Christine recovers her memory of what really happened. Christine is lovingly cared for by the man who had brutalized her. This imaginative social relationship gives a tension to the writing that keeps one engrossed in Watson’s story.

Human nature.

What Watson reminds reader/listeners of is the nature and development of human beings. Relationships between people who care for each other are complicated by genetic inheritance, learned experiences, physical characteristics, and emotional stability. Celibacy, marriage, infidelity, and the experiences of education, financial security, and life make human relationships unpredictable. Watson’s story shows how unpredictable life can be.

Patriarchs/Matriarchs

Men and women are different just as races and cultures are different. The key to human progress is equality of opportunity, regardless of gender, race, or culture.

Audio-book Review
By Chet Yarbrough

(Blog:awalkingdelight)
Website: chetyarbrough.blog

The Patriarchs (The Origins of Inequality)

By: Angela Saini

Narrated by: Sohm Sohm Kapila

Angela Saini (Author, British science journalist, reporter for the BBC, written articles for The Guardian, New Scientist, and Wired UK.)

Angela Saini’s book challenges while clarifying the argument that male dominance is grounded in the history of human society. She illustrates how cultures varied in their belief and practice of sexual hierarchy but generally were more patriarchal than matriarchal. Archeological evidence suggests gender relations varied. The fact that such evidence is based on fragmentary archeological evidence and the vagueness of interpretation weaken arguments of either sexes’ superiority. Nevertheless, Saini’s research shows most societies have patriarchal tendencies rather than either equal or matriarchal societies. Her history is well documented, but it is a bit tiresome. Because of her research, and the length of her book, one gets the feeling she narrows her thinking to evidence that only supports a preconceived opinion.

Male or female superiority is not the issue. Equality of opportunity is the gold standard of an equitable human society.

Saini notes cultures in northeast India, an area of China, and the North American’ Iroquois and Shoshone seem to show patriarchy takes a backseat to women’s preeminent role in society. She also notes evidence of bonobo primates that are female that show dominance of their species despite strength differences between the genders. This is credible research that suggests gender strength is not the determinate factor in superiority.

Saini goes on to show strength differences between the sexes is growingly less important with the advance of society.

Women were found as capable of tending to the farm as men during the agricultural revolution; particularly as mechanization became the hallmark of production. In general, Saini’s book fails to recognize belief in superiority is not the cause of gender discrimination. Power structures in communities and nations whether capitalist or communist are not determined by gender differences. Male or female superiority is not a matter of gender equality, but opportunity inequality. Even though male superiority is obviously false, opportunity inequality shows most societies make it appear true.

It is absurd to think that 49.7% of the world population may be treated less equally than men.

Male and female are complementary sexes that are different in their own ways. Both sexes have the capability of being either workers or leaders or whatever a nation needs as long as each has an equal opportunity to be what they choose to be.

Equality of opportunity, whether it is about race or gender, is the gold standard of human equality and achievement. Historians who identify the ills of society based on gender miss the fundamental point of life which is, as the U.S. Army’ slogan once said, “Be All That You Can Be”. Social organizations that get in the way of that goal diminishes human value and interferes with human progress. Men and women are different just as races and cultures are different. The key to human progress is equality of opportunity, regardless of gender, race, or culture.

MORALITY

“The Road” is a brilliant story about educating society about caring for others.

Audio-book Review
By Chet Yarbrough

(Blog:awalkingdelight)
Website: chetyarbrough.blog

The Road

By: Cormac McCarthy

Narrated by: Tom Stechschulte

Cormac McCarthy (American author.)

There is never any explanation of the cause for an apocalypse in the chilling story by Cormac McCarthy’s in “The Road”. The apocalypse could have been anything from a nuclear war to a cataclysmic event that turns the world environment into a perpetual winter or, in today’s concern, a boiling planet. Either from human action or ignorance human morality, spirit, and society may collapse.

Despite our current American president’s reversal of environmental regulations, global warming is a clear and present danger to the world.

Today’s concerns are global warming, fear of nuclear war, and now–Artificial Intelligence which is capable of creating a technological or medical virus that could destroy humanity. “The Road” is an intimate portrait of a wasteland where the only trust that exists is between a father and his son. Their peripatetic wandering is through an environmental wasteland in search of food and warmth to sustain their fragile lives. The only bond they have is to each other and it is nearing an end. The age and deteriorating health of the father is advancing as Cormac’s story evolves.

A father’s love for a son.

What makes Cormac’s story compelling is the intimate relationship of a father’s love for his son. It is the meticulous building of that relationship that mesmerizes a reader/listener; keeping them in the story. The dire condition of humanity is balanced against the love of a father trying to educate his son about what is important about living a moral life even in the face of societal despair and certain death.

Living a moral life.

One gathers from Cormac’s story that in the face of calamity, whether it is world environmental collapse or the loss of the most important person in your life, the only hope for human beings is to remind oneself of the lessons they learn about being moral and acting morally. The only chance for humanities survival, when civilization is at risk, is for human goodness to survive. The young boy’s father focuses on teaching his son how to be a good and decent human being. Without caring for others and oneself, society will not survive. The foundation of society is in how humans treat each other.

Something more than religion.

Some may argue this is simply a Christian belief, but Cormac is showing it goes beyond religion and is based on human-to-human relationship. Of course, Cormac’s story is about the relationship of father to son, but the fundamental lesson is that every person is related to others as a member of the human race. We are all responsible to and for each other. “The Road” is a brilliant story about educating society about caring for others.

SEXUAL IDENTITY

Simone de Beauvoir’s argument for women’s equality may be broadened to argue that every human being should have an equal opportunity to achieve social equality and economic independence.

Books of Interest
Website: chetyarbrough.blog

“The Second Sex”

Author: Simone de Beauvoir & 2 more

Narration by: Ellen Archer & 1 more

Simone de Beauvoir (French existential philosopher, writer, social theorist, and feminist activist.)

Because “The Second Sex” is a translation, there are two translators who interpret the writing of this brilliant French author. Simone de Beauvoir’s social, cultural, and historical analysis of women’s societal inequality forcibly reinforces the need for human equality in the world. Despite that truth, women and minorities throughout history have been treated unequally.

It is absurd to think that 49.7% of the world population may be treated less equally than men.

Simone de Beauvoir’s history shows women are not afforded the equal opportunity of men despite baring children who sustain the human race. In the early days of human existence de Beauvoir notes difference in strength between men and women may have led to a mistaken belief that the sexes are unequal. As the centuries pass, de Beauvoir argues strength difference undoubtedly influenced the perceived role of women in the world. In the industrial age, with the advance of machine power, strength became less and less a distinction between the sexes. Machine power should have led to a better understanding of human equality. However, de Beauvoir suggests experience and history of past lives seems to have set a societal belief in sexual inequality that is, at best, only slowly being reversed.

Sweden begins to rectify inequality in the early 20th century but even it fails to change entrenched belief in sexual inequality.

The rise of communism in 1917 became a frontline movement for sexual equality. The role of women in Russia changes in both war and peace with women assuming roles of combatant, worker, as well as child bearer. Ms. de Beauvoir believes neither communism nor Sweden’s policies eliminate sexual inequality. Socialism and communism helped but patriarchy is not eliminated by equal economic opportunity or alleged women’s liberation. Despite Sweden’s formalization of legal equalization of the sexes, the cultural expectations about femininity, motherhood, and men’s domination have been accepted in most, if not all, nations of the world. Neither socialism nor communism fully remove the learned behaviors of human history. Simone de Beauvoir’s point is that laws and economic systems have not erased generations of human history but rather assumed or endorsed sexual discrimination.

The conclusion de Beauvoir has is that no form of government by itself has successfully eliminated discrimination based on sexual identity.

The interpretation of natural bodily functions in women’s lives like menstruation is noted by de Beauvoir as interpreted by men and accepted by society as a biological “otherness” that is (at least in 1949) viewed as impure and pathological. Menstruation is viewed as a symptom of women that makes them less than fully human. This natural cleansing of a female reproductive system is viewed as a time of emotional instability that makes women unclean and an example of their being less equal to men. Menstruation is something that identifies women as the “other” rather than the equal of human beings. (The truth only changes beliefs slowly.)

Simone de Beauvoir’s argument for women’s equality is expandable in that every human being should have an equal opportunity to achieve social equality and economic independence. The designers of the American Constitution understood this principle but, like the rest of the world’s population, fail to practice it. Social inequality remains a problem for democracy and all known forms of government.

Simone de Beauvoir explains women’s natural reproductive system differences are interpreted by society as a measure of human inequality.

One listens to de Beauvoir’s book and realizes what she has written about sexual inequality as a person who has experienced it. Inequality has diminished in 21st century America with increases in women’s opportunities without marrying or committing to a relationship with a male. Though de Beauvoir published her book in 1949, the difference today is in degree because economic independence remains a greater struggle for women than men in America. Too many young women are working for wages that require help from a relationship with men to meet their cost-of-living for a decent life. Being able to make a decent living is true of all poor Americans, but it is more widely experienced by women because they are half the human race.

Because the author’s focus is on women, she argues every woman should have control over their reproductive rights, be treated equally in the culture in which they live and be able to transform false beliefs of inferiority based on accomplishment, not on false societal beliefs. In some ways, today’s America is regressing as is evidenced by 21st century policies on reproductive rights. Simone de Beauvoir goes on to give many examples of how differences between men and women reinforce the false belief of sexual inequality.

GUILT

Boyne writes an enlightening story about human judgement and feelings and how one may respond to memories of horrific events in one’s life.

Books of Interest
Website: chetyarbrough.blog

“All the Broken Places” (A Novel)

Author:John Boyne

Narration by: Kristin Atherton & 1 more

John Boyne (Irish novelist and writer.)

“All the Broken Places” is a creative story about guilt, memory, responsibility, and redemption. It jumps back and forth in time with too many characters. However, it reflects on the terrible consequences of WWII and its survivors who are victims of Nazi Germany’s holocaust. It is about one woman’s long life who is a child when her father is a German Commandant and a mother, who is aware, if not complicit, of holocaust’ crimes at Auschwitz.

Photo of victims taken in a 2024 trip to Auschwitz.

There seems an injustice to punishing a 12-year old’s growth to adulthood for the crimes of her father, despite his horrific acts as a commandant at Auschwitz. The pain of those who lost their loved ones from WWII and the atrocities of Germany in death camps is unimaginable to most who are alive in the 21st century. The injustice of the main character’s punishment from those who lost loved ones is equally unimaginable, but John Boyne writes a fictional story of Gretel who is a young girl punished by WWII allied survivors when she and her mother move to Paris.

Teenager on the cusp of sexual awakening.

Gretel is at the age of development that has enough understanding of guilt to feel it for what her father did during the war. She is also at the age of sexual awakening. The story is about Gretel from the age of 12 to 91 when she is living in London near the end of her life. At the age of 12, she is aware of her father’s role as a commandant at Auschwitz. A reader/listener is put in the position of asking oneself if that makes Gretel complicit in the horror of the holocaust? Because her mother relies on her husband for their financial well-being, is she guilty of the crimes her husband is perpetrating at the order of the Nazi government? Can one think a 12-year-old is complicit?

Can one be guilty of events for which they have no control over, or responsibility.

The life of Gretel is an exploration of one’s guilt, memory, and responsibility for the holocaust and deaths from WWII. Gretel keeps her childhood connection to Nazi Germany secret throughout her adult life. She is the older sister of Bruno, her brother, who dies as a child during the war. His death occurs at Auschwitz in circumstances that reinforce the horror of the camp. Elsa is Gretel’s mother who searches for a husband to take care of them in their move to Paris. As Gretel matures, her guilt about her father’s role in Nazi Germany rises.

As Gretel’s mother finds a match for a husband, Gretel is experiencing the teenage years of maturity where sexuality increasingly occupies her thoughts.

Gretel becomes obsessed with a handsome young boy whose father owns a small business in Paris. She puts herself forward to the boy as a possible companion for her sexual awakening. Ironically, this young boy becomes an accomplice to a punishment organized by the community to attack Gretel and her mother for being associated with the Auschwitz’ commandant. Gretel and her mother are attacked and brutally scalped by an organized mob of local residents.

Hanging post shown at Auschwitz site in Poland.

The author recounts Gretel’s years of life and travels that take her from France to Australia and a retirement home in London. She never escapes her feelings of guilt and memories of a life unhappily lived. To complicate her life, she sees one of the German officers who worked for her father when she lives in Australia. Kurt Kozel, whose name is actually Kurt Kotler, has survived the war, hidden his war identity, is married, and has a young son. What happens next draws one further into the theme of the author’s story about guilt and how it can affect one’s behavior.

Boyne writes an enlightening story about human judgement and feelings and how one may respond to memories of horrific events in one’s life.

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