SOCIETY – REVIEWS AND VIEWS OF LIFE

ALIENS AMONG US

Tyson’s “Take Me to Your Leader” is an interesting exploration of alien beings but there seems little solace for we who are not blessed with his scientific, insightful but flawed political view of history and human life.

Books of Interest
Website: chetyarbrough.blog

Take Me to Your Leader (Perspectives on Your First Alien Encounter)

Author: Neil deGrasse Tyson

Narration by: Neil deGrasse Tyson

Neil deGrasse Tyson (Author, astrophysicist.)

Neil deGrasse Tyson’s scientific knowledge and experience is well represented in his book about extraterrestrial life. Interestingly, he suggests it is likely that there is life in the universe beyond our own understanding. The sheer number of galaxies, their stars and planets, make it likely that sentient life exists somewhere beyond earth. He argues it is unlikely to be humanoid because of the radical differences in the environment in which an extraterrestrial might evolve. If an extraterrestrial were to arrive on earth before humans are able to physically explore other universes, they are likely to be more intelligent and scientifically advanced. Tyson suggests they are more likely to understand us than we would be able or inclined to understand them.

Knowledge of science is not enough to deal with an extraterrestrial’s arrival on earth.

The reason Tyson believes there is alien life is because Earth is not the only place that elements of life, whether different or the same, might evolve. Life may evolve differently depending on raw materials and chemical combinations in a different world of sentient beings. Science history suggests the serendipitous creation of life on earth is not unique. The science proven phenomenon of evolution is likely to occur in other environments whether the elements of creation are different or alike. Water, organic molecules, amino acids and other potential elements of combinatory life exist throughout the universe. Tyson implies the vastness of the universe is beyond imagining and likely will create some form of alien life. Our own knowledge of human evolution shows intelligent life is a process that can take place in other parts of this universe or universes beyond our observation. Tyson reminds listener/readers that humans have only existed in the last 300,000 years on a planet that is 13.8 billion years old.

Nothing keeps another form of life from coming into existence in a process either similar or different from our own.

Tyson does not believe aliens have visited Earth. However, when and if it happens, human history suggests people will likely feel threatened but not surprised. The many claims of aliens on earth, though found to be false, have set the table for most human’s belief in alien life. The points Tyson makes are that the universe we know is immense and that chemistry is universal. It is as likely for an alien culture to grow and evolve as a sentient life form as it was for human beings from the combination of water, amino acids, and various elements of life on earth.

A surprise in Tyson’s reasoning is that aliens will be no threat to humanity because of their superior intelligence and technology.

Tyson believes the difference between us and an alien will be like the difference between a chimp and a human on earth. This argument is not comforting. Chimp’s bite humans when they feel threatened. How many human beings will shoot an alien because of fear and ignorance? How would an alien respond to unwarranted violence? Intellect and superiority are no assurance for considered response by a more intelligent life form. A table might be set for elimination of our ignorant life forms because of our fear and instinctive reactions. The danger will always be misinterpretation whether by a superior life form or dumber humans.

REAPING WHAT WE SOW

The point Butler brutally makes is that every human being should have the hope and opportunity to adapt to their circumstances of life as long as they do no harm to others.

Books of Interest
Website: chetyarbrough.blog

Parable of the Sower

Author: Octavia E. Butler

Narration by: Lynne Thigpen

Octavia E. Butler (Author, American speculative fiction writer. The first science fiction writer to receive a MacArthur Fellowship.)

“Parable of the Sower” is a dystopian novel about the future of civilization. One wonders if the author’s view of the future is influenced by personal experience of the many who are different from the majority of those in any nation-state. Ms. Butler writes about the future of society based on aspects of human nature experienced in today’s world. Her story is so relentlessly pessimistic it becomes difficult to complete. Butler writes of the consequences of fear, greed, distrust, empathy, and violence, with a sliver of hope for the future of society. Negative human traits lead to societal self-destruction. Positive human traits hold hope for improvement in human nature. The only hope Butler infers is in human beings’ ability to adapt to circumstances with recreation of empathy for others who choose human equality over ethnic, or racial inequality.

Adaptation based on age.

Adaptation based on Race.

Adaptation based on ethnicity.

The author’s story is about societal adaptability built on inequality reinforced by society and parental influence. Our ability to have empathy for others is key to creating social consciousness based on clarity, solidarity and refusal to dehumanize those who are different. Societal order comes from human empathy and understanding. Without empathy, social cohesion is lost when “I” becomes more important than “we”. Butler creates a future “dog eat dog” world based on parental influence, social belief, and the teaching and practice of human inequality.

Butler shows an evolution of cities into silos of cultural difference rather than communities of common interest.

Butler reduces human interest to protection from violence, shelter security, and the predictability of life. She implies belief for a nation with shared purpose and mutual protection but tells a story of society heading in the wrong direction. Loss of belief in something greater than oneself turns humans into tribes of interest rather than people with common interests and purpose. The desire for control “by the one” whether it is a father, mother, government agency, or political leader breeds rigid belief systems that create an “us” versus “them” world of conflicting interests. In a world of self-interest, Butler infers adaptation becomes more important than learning. Finding what is right or wrong assures human life’s equality. Too often, leaders pursue means to their own ends, rather than what is in the best interest of all.

The point Butler brutally makes is that every human being should have the hope and opportunity to adapt to their circumstances of life as long as they do no harm to others.

HUMAN FOLLY

The weakness in Goldfarb’s idea of beaver management is that human society has never been good at “managing” animal behavior. The laws of unintended consequences seem to always get in the way.

Books of Interest
Website: chetyarbrough.blog

Eager (The Surprising, Secret Life of Beavers and Why They Matter)

Author: Ben Goldfarb

Narration by: William Damron

Ben Goldfarb (Author, environmental writer, journalist based in Colorado.)

Goldfarb has written a book about beavers, a nocturnal, thick furred, waterproof coated animal with teeth powerful enough to fell trees, strip bark, build natural dams, and carve channels through wood. His history of beavers is a mixture of positives and negativities about an animal that is both ecologically beneficial and destructive. Goldfarb clearly comes down on the side of ecological value for society to endorse beaver preservation and growth.

Beaver species.

A fairly balanced history of beavers is given by Goldfarb but those who take the time to listen/read his book are likely to be skeptical. Beavers naturally create wetland habitats that store water, filter pollutants, and create habitats for fish, birds, amphibians, and insects. Beavers are natural hydrological engineers that slow water erosion, restore groundwater, and mitigate drought. The ponds and wetlands they naturally create become fire safety breaks. Beavers create ponds that store carbon, buffer heat, and aid human climate-adaptation. On the other hand, beavers cause flooding of roads, basements, and farmland fields. They destroy trees, flood crops, and interfere with irrigation systems. They naturally propagate themselves to aggravate negative impacts on human farming and habitation.

Wetland management.

Goldfarb suggests the negative impact of beavers can be mitigated by human management of their behavior in natural habitats. To prevent flooding, he notes human actions can be taken to control water levels with flow regulation. Goldfarb notes beaver deception devices have been created by humans that effectively prevent flooding by deceiving beaver’s natural building habits that raise water levels. Goldfarb notes beavers natural dam building can continue with human oversight to control water levels with culvert diversions. Particular trees can be fenced or protected by wire mesh from being destroyed. The population of beavers can be managed by moving species to other sites or by limiting their areas of colonization. The advantage of beaver management is that beaver productivity would benefit society at less cost than human engineering and building of water management systems.

Natural beaver habitat?

With proper management by society, natural beaver habitats can improve water storage, buffer for fire damage, create natural fisheries, and restore the benefits of wetlands to the environment. Beavers could become the engineers and laborers needed to create an improved natural environment.

Mackenzie Wolf Alaskan Tundra Wolf or Canadian Timber Wolf Canis lupus occidentalis wolves in the snow

However, history shows humans have overfished habitats of Atlantic cod, Bluefin tuna, and salmon which has been exacerbated by poor hatchery management and dam construction. Predator eradication by humans wiped out wolves across Europe and North America causing explosions in deer and elk populations that overgrazed forests and caused excessive river erosion. Bison killed by human hunters nearly disappeared on the Great Plains in the 19th century. Their eradication is partly responsible for prairie ecosystem deterioration from invasive grasses, soil carbon depletion, and increasing dust storms. Mass poisoning campaigns of rats and mice led to their resistance to poisons and indirectly killed owls, hawks, and foxes.

The weakness in Goldfarb’s idea of beaver management is that human society has never been good at “managing” animal behavior. The laws of unintended consequences seem to always get in the way.

Türkiye

As a tourist to Turkey, one does not see an authoritarian’s impact on their society. Hansen lives in Istanbul for ten years to offer her insight to Erdoğan’s reorganization of Turkish society. Her experience reminds one of Trump’s authoritarianisms and its potential reaction to public discontent.

Books of Interest
Website: chetyarbrough.blog

From Life Itself (Turkey, Istanbul, and a Neighborhood in the Age of Erdoğan)

Author: Suzy Hansen

Narration by: Suzy Hansen

Suzy Hansen (American journalist and author.)

Suzy Hansen was born in New Jersey and earned a B.A. from the University of Pennsylvania. She became a journalist and moved to Istanbul in 2007 for ten years. The move is motivated by receiving a fellowship from the Institute of Current World Affairs. She is offered the fellowship to study and write about a two-year cultural immersion in a foreign society. “From Life Itself” is a compilation of her research and experiences in Istanbul that enlighten those who have visited Turkey but only as a tourist, not as an educated journalist.

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan of Turkey.

Hansen’s book is revelatory in explaining Turkey’s more recent history and the rise of its Prime Minister and current President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan who has been in office since 2003. The growth and reconstruction of Istanbul is part of Hansen’s history of Turkey. She interestingly explains her view of Erdogan’s rise to power and how the political system of Turkey’s capital has been shaped by history and the rise of Erdoğan.

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Donald Trump are authoritarians.

Erdoğan is characterized by Hansen as a powerful authoritarian. That authority, in Hansen’s opinion, has led to corruption, questionable elections, and a reshaping of public institutions, public life, and the personal lives of Turkish citizens. Hansen suggests Erdoğan’s rule fits within the long history of Turkish autocracy. She reflects on Turkey’s political history of discrimination against non-Turkish residents from different cultures like Syria and other middle eastern countries.

Muhtar influence by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.

Hansen notes how village leaders, called muhtars, become sources of both cohesion and disruption of Turkish communities. They are elected by local villages or urban neighborhoods. These muhtars are information sources for newly arrived immigrants who transform communities. Muhtars aid newcomers to understand differences from their cultures and historic Turkish traditions. As immigration increases, tensions rise, immigrants are rounded up, abused, sometimes murdered, and forced to move to other neighborhoods or countries. Erdoğan’s authoritarianism reinforces a kind of fascism that rises from local Turkish citizens. Hansen argues local leadership corruption, questionable elections, and institutional leadership change are methods used by Erdoğan in his authoritarian rule.

Authoritarinism.

Reflecting on Turkey’s history, its Ottoman Empire precursors, and world history Hansen argues Erdoğan fits in with Turkey’s long experience of autocracy. The broader point made by Hansen is that authoritarianism is growing around the world. What Turkey’s citizens are experiencing today are happening in many parts of the world; i.e., including the United States. Her observations carry weight in light of changing immigration policy in America and the election of Donald Trump. Everyday life is changing in Turkey, just as it is in America. Democracy seems to be waning in the face of authoritarianism.

Public Health Agencies in America.

Hansen explains how local service organizations in Turkey are being politized or shut down by elimination or placement of government loyalists that control government and non-government institutions. (This seems similar to President Trump’s appointments at OAS, NSB, Dept. of Defense, Dept. of Education and various public health agency organizations in America.) These new appointments and reorganizations exacerbate social division. Newly appointed leaders by an authoritarian change original institutional purpose. Hansen argues Erdoğan is demographically reengineering Turkish society. Democracy is undermined by authoritarianism. Life becomes less free.

Hansen notes an attempted coup in Turkey in 2016 and the reaction of Erdoğan. Her experience reminds a life-long resident of America of Trump’s authoritarianism and its potential reaction to citizen discontent.

AN ACCOMPLISHED WOMAN

“A Woman in Arabia” is a compilation of Gertrude Bell’s writing and involvement in the Middle East in the early 20th century. Her experience and ability to influence the course of events in the Middle East is concrete evidence of the mistaken view of sexual inequality.

Books of Interest
Website: chetyarbrough.blog

A Woman in Arabia (Gertrude Bell–The Writings of the Queen of the Desert)

Author: Bret Baier

Edited by: George Howell

Narrated by: Sian Thomas & 2 More

Gertrude Margaret Lowthian Bell (British archaeologist, explorer, political officer, and writer.)

Gertrude Bell was educated at Queen’s College and received a first-class degree in modern history from Oxford in 1888 at the age if 19. She was the first woman to earn a first-class degree at Oxford. Women were not awarded graduation degrees at Oxford at that time, but her intellectual capability compelled the institution to recognize her accomplished study in modern history. (Oxford did not award general college degrees to women until 1920.)

Bell is born into a wealthy family that gave her advantage, but it is her work ethic, adventurousness, and intelligence that demonstrated more than her privileges.

What “A Woman in Arabia” reveals is Bell’s intelligence, erudition, desire for adventure, and research experience. She became a competent field archaeologist who learned Persian and Arabic while traveling through and living in the Middle East. She was a remarkable linguist who could speak a number of languages. Bell is born into a wealthy family that gave her advantage, but it is her work ethic and intelligence that demonstrated more than her privileges. She became recognized in the world as a person who helped shape the modern state of Iraq by supporting installation of King Faisal I as its ruler in 1921. She helped define Iraq’s borders after the collapse of the Ottoman Empire.

Mesopotamia became territories recognized as Syria, Palestine, Arabia, Israel, and Asia Minor.

Bell spent years mapping and exploring Mesopotamia after leaving England and living in the Middle East. She became intimately familiar with Mesopotamia, which became territories recognized as Syria, Palestine, Arabia, Israel, and Asia Minor. She participated in major archaeological digs and founded the Iraq Museum in Baghdad. Her numerous writings are compiled in “A Woman in Arabia”. A compilation of her writings explores her critical role in the creation of an independent Middle Eastern’ nation known as Iraq.

For anyone who doubts equality of the sexes, Bell represents the truth of a false belief perpetuated by the illusion of male superiority.

Bell shows herself as an accomplished human being, respected by governments, Kings, and the general public in the same way as the greatest men of her or our time. Bell is a woman of substance who reveals her love of two men (one an adulterous married veteran of WWI and another whom her father refuses to countenance because of his alleged unsavory character). Bell never marries. She grows to maturity to council governments and rulers about the value of Middle Eastern countries and their desire and capability to rule as independent nations. This is during a tumultuous time when the Ottoman empire is trying to take, by force of arms, as much Middle Eastern territory as they can.

Sir Percy Cox (The British High Commissioner for Mesopotamia.)

Bell counsels and significantly influences several powerful and well-known “great men” of her time. Great Britain is a major player in the Middle Eastern resistance to Ottoman control of the territories that became Syria, Iraq, Turkey, Iran, Kuwait, and Jordan. The High Commissioner for Mesopotamia (the name assigned before Middle Eastern nations’ formation) is Sir Percy Cox. Bell’s correspondence shows she is highly esteemed and trusted by Cox who had appointed her as his Oriental Secretary and adviser on tribal politics of what became the nation of Iraq.

Sir Arnold Wilson (Acting Civil Commissioner in Mesopotamia.)

Sir Arnold Wilson was the Acting Civil Commissioner in Mesopotamia before Sir Percy Cox is appointed The High Commission. Bell served under Wilson as his eyes and ears in Mesopotamia during World War 1. Her familiarity with leaders in the Middle East led to the choice of King Faisal I as the Hashemite monarch in 1921. Bell became a close friend and adviser to Faisal in the governance of Iraq which aided in peace between factions of Iraq’s Sunni, Shi’a and Kurdish peoples. Bell worked closely with T. E. Lawrence (the famed “Lawrence of Arabia”) in what became the Arab Bureau that dealt with Middle Eastern nationalism and statecraft.

Lawrence of Arabia.

URBANIZATION

Books of Interest
Website: chetyarbrough.blog

Devil in the White City (Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair That Changed America)

Author: Eric Larson

Narration by: Scott Brick

Eric Larson (Author, American journalist, graduate of University of Pennsylvania summa cum laude in 1976.)

Eric Larson’s “Devil in the White City” is a well written history of the famous Chicago World’s fair in 1893. Chicago became an international big city competitor with the creation of the World Columbian Exposition. At the same time, he writes of an evil human being born in America. Larson contrasts good and evil in middle America that reflects on the extremes of human nature that exist not only in America but everywhere in the world.

John Wellborn Root (1850-1891, Concept designer of “The White City”.)

Daniel H. Burnham is a famous Chicago architect who is asked to be Director of Works for the World Columbian Exposition. His partner, John Wellborn Root, is the visionary who designs an original conceptual and aesthetic model of a neighborhood in a prosperous city. However, Root dies in 1891, two years before the beginning of construction. As the design concept takes form, Frederick Law Olmsted, the famous designer of Central Park in New York City, is recruited by Burnham to become a part of the development. These three designers create what Larson identifies as the “White City”, a tribute to the architectural appearance and fame of the eleventh World’s Fair, 7 miles from the second largest city in America, Chicago, Illinois.

Larson juxtaposes this remarkable Chicago accomplishment with the fraud, deception, and predation of H. H. Holmes (aka Herman Mudgett), a handsome, charismatic murderer who moves to Chicago to begin a career in the medical profession. The idealism and success of Chicago’s world fair is a prime example of American urbanization with people who move to the city from small town America.

H. H. Holmes aka Herman Webster Mudgett (1861-1896, is the “Devil in the White City”.)

Holmes is a poster child for the dark side of urbanism. Urbanism is the congregation of people in self-perpetuating communities that grow with rising populations. Holmes move to the Chicago area leads to the murders of Benjamin Pitezel and his three children. Holmes urbane good looks and powers of persuasion set the table for a scheme to commit insurance fraud. Before their murder, Holmes conducts real estate boondoggles, pharmacy scams, forgery, bigamy, theft, and embezzlement. Though not legally proven, it is strongly suspected he killed five or more women for reasons ranging from theft to pure venality. Though living in an urban environment is not a cause of evil, it is a petri dish for human behavior that can be good or evil.

Education, like money, is only a tool of human beings, not a measure of human value.

Holmes early education is in Gilmanton, New Hampshire where he gains early interest in medicine and human anatomy. He enrolls at the University of Vermont in 1879 but leaves to enroll in the University of Michigan Medical School. He graduates from U of M with a medical degree in 1884. It is interesting to note that Holmes is formally educated just as the architects who gathered for the building designs of the 1893 Chicago world’s fair. Larson shows Holmes is motivated to exploit society in any way that only serves his self-interests. The world’s fair’ architects equally wish to serve their self-interest but within the boundaries of societal norms, i.e., not by bilking the public or murdering citizens.

Frederick Law Olmsted (1822-1903, American landscape architect, journalist, social critic, and public administrator.)

The three main characters in this story of American urbanization are Daniel Burnham, Frederick Olmstead, and H. H. Holmes. Burnham and Olmstead are exemplars of success that make a contribution to America while Holmes is a villain of self-interest and evil. All three symbols of the power, value, and risk of urbanization. Burnham and the older Olmstead represent the best in American life with their skills and ability as visionaries and managers who get things done through others that benefit society. Holmes represents the worst of human nature as a singularly self-interested fraudster and murderer who cares nothing about others.

Six hundred acres of swampy, undeveloped land is turned into the Chicago World’s Fair in the 19th century. Fourteen major buildings, canals, and lagoons are built into a neoclassical “city”. The Chicago World’s Fair is 7 miles south of the downtown Chicago Loop. The site is called Jackson Park, bordered by Hyde Park and Woodlawn neighborhoods. Despite labor strikes, Chicago weather, political infighting, and the death of its visionary (John Root), Burnham manages the development of 200 low-rise (1 to 3 stories) buildings designed by famous east coast architects and the largest operating Ferris wheel in the world to complete the “…White City” in 26 months.

The City of Chicago today.

The point of Larson’s history of the Chicago World Fair is that urbanization is two edged. One edge improves societies’ economic, cultural, and technological values. The other amplifies inequality based on citizen’ power, wealth, race, gender, and ethnicity rather than innate human value. Contrasting the great accomplishments of Burnham, Root, and Olmstead with the evil of Holmes is an exemplar of human nature that can either benefit or destroy societies.

Holmes is convicted and sentenced to death. He is hung on May 7, 1896, at the age of 34. Burnham goes on to build his reputation with Union Station in Washington D.C., the Flatiron Building in New York, and what became the Museum of Science and Industry in “The White City” of Chicago. Burnham dies in 1912 at age 65. Olmsted dies in 1903 at age 81.

CHOICE

The surprising message in “The Glass Castle” is homelessness may be a choice. One wonders if that is the fault of American society or the nature of human beings.

Books of Interest
Website: chetyarbrough.blog

The Glass Castle (A Memoir)

Author: Jeannette Walls

Narration by: Jeannette Walls

Jeanette Walls (Author, American journalist, former gossip columnist for MSNBC.)

“The Glass Castle” is Jeanette Walls remembrance of her nomadic family and the way she is raised in America. With 3 siblings, an alcoholic father who knows something about electrical and mechanical engineering, a mother qualified as a schoolteacher who is an aspiring artist, Jeanette Wall’s parents choose to roam America.

The Walls Family.

“The Glass Castle” is a memoir of Jeanette Walls upbringing in America. Her story is enlightening if not entirely believable. Walls writes about her chaotic peripatetic life in America, mentions two personal marriages, and a life she lives with a father who loves her and a mother who holds the family together. Jeanette Walls is the second child of the family. She has an older sister, Lori, a younger brother named Brian, and a younger sister named Maureen. She and her brother are characterized with above average intelligence. In the beginning of her story, she notes living on Park Avenue and seeing her homeless mother rummaging through a dumpster in New York city. She confronts her mother, Rose Mary, who walks away saying Americans are wasteful and throw away perfectly useful, sometimes beautiful, things. This shocking introduction is about Jeanette Walls’ and her family’s life in America.

Arizona and West Virginia.

Listener/readers are introduced to Wall’s grandparents who came from two different economic backgrounds with Jeanettes mother’s family being middle class living in Arizona and her father’s parents being poor and living in West Virginia. Both grandparent families are matriarchal with mothers being rulers of the roost. The grandmother in Arizona dies and leaves two houses and Arizona land with some money to Jenette’s mother that offers, for a short time, some economic stability to the family’s life in America. However, Jennett’s family decides to move on to pursue their peripatetic life. They visit her father’s parents in West Virginia. Her dad’s father is an alcoholic with a wife that sternly rules the house. That sternness causes Jeanette Walls and her family to leave for New York City.

“The Glass Castle” is a story about how children are raised in America.

There is no particular standard for those who grow up in America or, for that matter, anywhere in the world. Living life anywhere can be romantically identified as perfect but that is a universal fiction. There is no safety net whether in America or anywhere in the world. There are “haves’ and “have nots” in every society. Children growing to adulthood, whether wealthy or poor, are faced with the trials of life that begin with their birth, extend through family relationships and the exigencies of making their way in the culture in which they live. Children live and are raised in a “…Glass Castle” that hides little from the world and can be shattered by the random circumstances of life. “The Glass Castle” shows experiences of childhood are universal and are either constructive or destructive in ways that mold a child’s character.

Children are influenced by their parents in both good and bad ways.

Alcoholism in a parent may lead to a child’s following or rejecting its influence in their life. Seeing the consequence of a parent’s experience can turn one toward their parents or steer one’s life in an opposite direction. America purports to be a land of opportunity but like every culture in the world there is inequality, instability, risk, and reward that change a child’s direction in life.

The surprising message in “The Glass Castle” is homelessness may be a choice. One wonders if that is the fault of American society or the nature of human beings.

WHAT’S NEW?

Belief in God is a work in progress for every human being. The proof of God will be peace on earth, a human accomplishment that may only be possible with a belief in something greater than us.

Books of Interest
Website: chetyarbrough.blog

The God Delusion

Author: Richard Dawkins

Narration by: Richard Dawkins & Sara Jill “Lalla” Ward

Richard Dawkins on the left is a British author, evolutionary biologist, ethologist, and science communicator. Sarah Jill “Lalla” Ward is an English actress, voice author, and actor on the former TV series “Doctor Who”. (A woman’s narration seems solely to represent a non-gender based argument for God as a “…Delusion.”)

Richard Dawkins is a formally educated Zoology and Philosophy graduate from the University of Oxford. He became the first Simonyi Professor for the Public Understanding of Science at Oxford University. “The God Delusion” is a daunting book that argues God is a fiction created by authoritarian faiths. In light of the history of human violence in the name of different God’ beliefs, Dawkins offers a compelling argument for God as a delusion.

Religion and Science.

Religious belief has rarely, if ever, been the primary cause of war in history but millions of deaths from The Crusades to the Holocaust to the present day have fueled wars in the name of different concepts of God. Judaism preaches that there is one, indivisible God. Christianity believes one God exists in three forms; i.e. God the Father, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit”. Islam believes in the oneness of God with no partners, no intermediaries, no incarnation, and no images. Hinduism believes in many gods, one God, or God beyond form, depending on respective sects of the Hindu faith. Buddhism is non-theistic and believes there is no creator, or divine judge. Buddhists believe understanding reality is the source of enlightenment. Sikhism believes in one God that is formless, without gender, and beyond religion. Sikhs blend belief in one God with emphasis on equality. The Chinese traditions of Taoism, Confucianism believe in a natural order of the universe based on ethical behavior and social harmony.

Dr. Jay Lombard agues God is real because His existence is proven by evolution and human consciousness.

The point is God means something “other” in different cultures. That difference in belief has caused an uncountable number of deaths. To a believer and non-believer in God, those deaths are an appalling loss to humanity. Is a different belief in God, worth a human’s death? Dawkins argues God is a delusion because He or It cannot be proven. The weakness of that argument is there are many discoveries that have been found to be wrong with further scientific exploration. Science progress cuts both ways; i.e. it proves and disproves what seems right but turns out to be wrong as further experiments prove.

Girl at War (a novel about the war in Croatia).

The patent differences in religious beliefs in God shows that dogmatism replaces further exploration for God’s existence. There are religious scholars who have challenged dogmatic arguments for God’s existence. At the very least, Dawkins makes one think about the horrible consequence of authoritarian beliefs in God and the slaughter of innocents from those beliefs. We are seeing that slaughter today in Iran and Lebanon from attacks by America and Israel. Of course, there are reasons beyond religion for those attacks but is murder of innocents an answer or just collateral death and destruction for desired results?

Belief in God is a work in progress for every human being. The proof of God will be peace on earth, a human accomplishment that may only be possible with a belief in something greater than us.

HISTORY LESSON

There is an irony in Higginbotham’s “Midnight in Chernobyl”. It is ironic to see what is happening in the 21st century with the revisionism of Presidents Trump and Putin. Their ideas of openness (glasnost) and system reform (perestroika) are a return to the past rather than the future.

Books of Interest
Website: chetyarbrough.blog

Midnight in Chernobyl (The Story of the World’s Greatest Nuclear Disaster)

Author: Adam Higginbotham

Narration by: Jacques Roy

Adam Higginbotham (Author, British journalist, contributing writer for The New Yorker, Wired, and The New York Times.)

Adam Higginbotham reminds reader/listeners of the terrifying consequences of nuclear power mistakes in “Midnight in Chernobyl”. Over 400,000 people are evacuated from the area of Pripyat, a carefully planned Soviet city of 50,000 people, near four nuclear reactors. One of four reactors explodes on April 26, 1986, at 1.23 A.M. There were actually two explosions. The first was a massive steam explosion while a second explosion blew a 1,000-ton concrete lid into the air. The core of the reactor is destroyed. The building surrounding the reactor blew apart and radioactive fuel and graphite filled the early morning night sky. Fires were ignited on the roof and surrounding structures.

Higginbotham explains the explosion occurs because of a safety test that is botched by the operators of the plant. The nuclear reactor is set into a low-power state that disables an automatic shutdown system. By setting the reactor into a low-power state, control rods lowered into the reactor cause cooling water displacement and a spike in radioactive activity. This is noted as a design flaw that Higgenbotham argues is known by Soviet leaders before the disaster. In less than a second, the reactor surges to more than 100 times its normal power level. This massive energy surge generates runaway fission that destroys the reactor in two explosions. Chernobyl becomes a highly radioactive death trap for workers and residents of the surrounding area.

The total number of people affected by the Chernobyl accident may never be known because of Soviet obfuscation and historical indeterminacies, but Higgenbotham suggests it reaches 5 to 8.4 million people living in Belarus, Ukraine, and Russia. According to archival records, all residents of Pripyat are evacuated and an additional 300,000 are resettled. Twenty-eight people die within three months of the accident, 134 develop acute radiation syndrome. The estimate of cleanup workers is 600,000 made up of firefighters, soldiers, engineers, and volunteers.

As Higgenbotham ends his history, he notes a Russian worker’s death in the 21st century from leukemia. Was his death a consequence of the Chernobyl disaster in 1986? Who knows? The point is representative of the consequence of uncountable deaths that may be related to erasure of truth in any country.

The Chernobyl accident reaches 5 to 8.4 million people living in Belarus, Ukraine, and Russia.

Higginbotham argues Chernobyl is a proximate cause of the unraveling of the Soviet Union. He suggests it accelerates the collapse of Soviet authority. This is an interesting supposition. He argues that Soviet leadership believes their system of government had a level of technological and administrative capability that illustrates a level of competence and achievement that is superior to all other forms of governance. The Chernobyl disaster challenges that self-perception. Hierarchal state control fails to train and manage the complicated nuclear industry. A rigid managerial hierarchy hides incompetence. It also breeds corruption and bureaucratic paralysis with top-down management because of information obfuscation and concealment at lower management levels. Fear of criticism by leadership leads to distortion of the truth at lower levels of government. Higgenbotham’s interviews of Russian investigators of the disaster reveals the incompetent training of lower-level employees who operated the facility. Their inclination is to cover-up mistakes rather than reveal them to their direct reports.

The economic cost of the Chernobyl disaster exposes the USSR’s Communist Party’s failure as a system of government.

Presidents Gorbachev and Reagan signing the nuclear non-proliferation agreement.

Higgenbotham notes environmental movements, and Russian anti-nuclear activists grew to express anger with Moscow and its leaders. The disaster undermined Soviet scientific and technological belief in Russia’s superiority. In 1986 and 1987 speeches Gorbachev notes in a Politburo address that the Chernobyl meltdown is a harbinger of the Soviet Union’s need to change. In a 2006 speech Gorbachev speaks of the need for apparatchiks to tell truth to power, to reduce soviet secrecy, and accept glasnost and perestroika as solutions for improvement of Russian leadership.

DIVORCE

Books of Interest
Website: chetyarbrough.blog

Strangers (A Memoir of Marriage)

Author: Belle Burden

Narration by: Belle Burden

Belle Burden (Author, former attorney, urban planner, socilite, and descendant of the Vanderbilts.)

In some respects, “Strangers” is an unrelatable example of the trauma of divorce. In other ways, it is a testament to divorces’ hardship for women and societies’ inequality. The unrelatable parts are in the difference between divorce for those who are wealthy and those who are not. What is brilliantly revealed is the trauma of divorce and its disproportionate effect on wives and mothers.

Having been married for 20 years and facing divorce is a traumatic experience whether one is rich or poor.

However, women who are not rich face a different experience when their husbands leave a marriage. In most cases, the burden of coping with divorce is more impactful for children and a wife than a husband. Often, as in the case of Belle Burden, a mother faces having to return to a work environment that discriminates against women in ways that diminish their value in society. Women often retire from the workforce when they become pregnant because of the consuming responsibility of raising a child.

As a woman, regardless of wealth, job prospects are challenged by sexual discrimination.

It is worse for women who are poor and less educated than Ms. Burden. The point that Burden makes clear (regardless of her wealth and education) is women sacrifice much of their lives raising their children while husbands are freer to explore economic success. The wealth of Ms. Burden and her education exempt her from the trials of most women in the world. Burden clearly explains the emotional impact of divorce whether one is wealthy or not. Her wealth does little to reduce feelings of betrayal and failure.

Belle Burden exemplifies the emotional toll of divorce.

Twenty years of marriage creates a bond never completely broken. For husbands the reliance they have on a wife’s care of children makes it difficult to offer the care and understanding that children need from both parents. Husbands are often inadequately prepared for relationship building that a mother has with their children. The consequence is a father’s failure to understand how to help their children deal with their parent’s separation. Those who share raising their children are less likely to have that problem, but social convention leaves most American men in the dark about how to take parental responsibility.

Divorce rates in America may be in decline but the emotional impact on parents and their children is the same.

Burden clearly explains the emotional impact of divorce in America, but her wealth diminishes the scope and reality of divorce to the majority of women who have children and are left by their partners. That is not a criticism of Burden’s book but of sexual inequality that exists in most countries of the world.

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