Like the number 47 in “Guardians of the Galaxy”, the 27 books of the New Testament offer no answer to the meaning of life.
Books of Interest Website: chetyarbrough.blog
“The History of the Bible” (The Great Book Lectures)
By: Bart D. Ehrman
Narrated by: Bart D. Ehrman Lectures
Bart Denton Ehrman (American New Testament Scholar, Wheaton College BA, Princeton Theological Seminary received a Master of Divinity and PhD.)
Bart D. Ehrman’s lectures are a revelation to one who knows little about either the Bible or the New Testament. As a scholar, Ehrman views the New Testament as history, not a religious covenant. The New Testament, as differentiated from the Holy Bible (a covenant with Israel), is a later covenant with Jesus that extends religion to all humankind.
Ehrman’s lectures are not about religious belief but about the history of the New Testament.
Removing the ideas of religious belief from his lectures will undoubtedly offend many who believe in God’s and/or Jesus’s divinity. What Ehrman does is explain how the New Testament is a flawed recollection of historical figures. The flaws come from scribes who interpret three contemporaries of Jesus–Matthew’s, John’s, and Peter’s fragmentary writings of Jesus’ ministry and teachings.
The 27 books of the New Testament are written by scribes of later centuries that are interpretations of Matthew’s, John’s, and Peter’s interpretations of Jesus’s beliefs and history on earth.
Because scribes and contemporaries’ recollection of Jesus are human, truth is in the eye and limitations of its beholders. The inference from Ehrman’s lectures is that truth is distorted by interpretations of interpretations.
Ehrman systematically reveals how the story of Jesus’s life and beliefs change over the centuries.
He gives listeners a better understanding of the complexity and false interpretations of religion that accompany the many atrocities committed by believers who foolishly murder fellow human beings. These great historical conflicts are based on interpreters’ interpretations of interpretations.
God may or may not exist, but human beings insist on their beliefs to the detriment of humanity.
History unreservedly shows–believing in religion, without concern for society leads to discrimination, mayhem, and murder. That is as clear today in the Israeli/Palestinian conflict as in the history of the Jewish holocaust and pogroms of the past.
Like the number 47 in “Guardians of the Galaxy”, the 27 books of the New Testament offer no answer to the meaning of life.
“The Anxious Generation” is a much-needed warning to America and the world.
Books of Interest Website: chetyarbrough.blog
“The Anxious Generation” (How the Great Rewiring of Childhood is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness)
By: Jonathan Haidt
Narrated by: Sean Pratt & Jonathan Haidt
Jonathan Haidt (Author, American social psychologist, Professor of Ethical Leadership NY University Stern School of Business.)
“The Anxious Generation” is a well-documented and disturbing analysis of the impact of the internet on American children. It undoubtedly reflects a similar but undocumented impact on children with internet access around the world.
Anxiety is defined as apprehensive uneasiness or nervousness that exhibits itself either physically and/or mentally.
The internet is an information vehicle that can create anxiety in every human being, but Haidt shows its generational significance in the young, i.e., those of 18 years of age or younger. Haidt argues the internet is particularly harmful to girls but suggests it has significant social consequence for boys. Whether male or female, the formative years of children are significantly changed by the ubiquitous presence of cell phone’ internet access.
Haidt implies the role of girls in American society is particularly affected by the internet because of social inequities between the sexes. Physical appearance for women is weighted with more significance than other qualities of being human in America. The point is that rather than innate human capability, perceived beauty becomes a dominant desire of most young American girls.
Haidt notes the internet offers a constant reminder of how one looks to others.
Young American girls are bombarded with internet information about how they look and what others think of their looks. Heidt argues the barrage of information from mobile phone’ access to the internet creates extraordinary anxiety among girls. They become anxious about how others measure their appearance. Some become depressed. Some exhibit anorexic behavior. Some choose to cut themselves. Some withdraw from society. At an extreme, some commit suicide.
Additionally, Haidt notes the allure of internet sexual predation of young girls by men who use the internet to lure young girls and women into compromising pictorial positions by appealing to their desire to be recognized as desirable and beautiful. Added to this sexual predation is the power of the internet to demean, ridicule, and abuse young girls concerned about their place in the world.
Haidt argues boys are also deeply affected by the ubiquitous internet, but their anxiety is caused by growing isolation. Rather than making boyhood friends, participating in sports, attending parties, they become addicted users of the internet who are driven to improve their scores on Fortnite, Halo, or Call of Duty. At the same time, the availability of porn exacerbates misogyny and reinforces a distorted view of society. Their growing isolation in imagined worlds interrupts their psychological growth in the real world of success and failure. Computer gaming reduces social connection. Haidt speculates the availability of free porn decreases boy’s interest in risking the complications and potential of dating. Young boys have the risk of being turned down when asking a girl for a date. There is no risk of being turned down by a free porn site.
(One wonders if young boys associate success in gaming with success in life without understanding the importance of education and gainful employment for socially recognized identities. Without an education and employment, a spiral of homelessness and despair consumes young men’s lives. This is not a Haidt conclusion, but it seems plausible.)
Haidt suggests increases in suicides for young men is caused by the early life’ allure of the internet age.
Haidt explores the possibility of a loss of faith or spirituality as a consequence of internet addiction. Haidt speculates distraction of the internet replaces the camaraderie created by religious services. This seems reasonable in one way but too speculative in another. History shows religion has been as much a cause of social destruction as social benefit.
In the last chapters of Haidt’s book, he addresses constructive ways of dealing with cell phone ubiquity and the negative consequence of internet addiction.
The most reasonable suggestions are for cell phone programing to include internet restrictions based on the age of the user. He goes on to argue cell phones should be placed in lock bags or secured by school administrations during classes. The burden of age verification should be put on internet providers and phone manufacturers with penalties for failure to comply with mandated requirements.
A fundamental point of Haidt’s book is that free play time is an essential part of childhood development.
That play time should be for socialization, not internet exploration. A fundamental flaw in Haidt’s prescription is in the need for better parent supervision when many families are broken, or too burdened by gainful employment to reasonably care for their children. This is not to argue Haidt is incorrect in identifying what should and could be done to address the negative impact of cell phone addiction. “The Anxious Generation” is a much-needed warning to America and the world.
The question is–will humans or A.I. decide whether artificial intelligence is a tool or controller and regulator of society.
Books of Interest Website: chetyarbrough.blog
“Co-Intelligence”
By: Ethan Mollick
Narrated by: Ethan Mollick
Ethan Mollick (Author, Associate Professor–University of Pennsylvania who teaches innovation and entrepreneurship. Mollick received a PhD and MBA from MIT.)
“Co-Intelligence” is an eye-opening introduction to an understanding of artificial intelligence, i.e., its benefits and risks. Ethan Mollick offers an easily understandable introduction to what seems a discovery equivalent to the age of enlightenment. The ramification of A.I. on the future of society is immense. That may seem hyperbolic, but the world dramatically changed with the enlightenment and subsequent industrial revolution in ways that remind one of what A.I. is beginning today.
A.I. can as easily fabricate a lie as a truth because it draws on what others have written or spoken.
The risk of that A.I. capability is that its source of response can be as diverse as recall of “Mein Kamph” beliefs, a biblical texMORALITYt, or the written records of ancient and modern philosophers.
Additionally, Mollick notes that A.I. is capable of reproducing a person’s speech and appearance so that it is nearly impossible to note the differences between the real and artificial representation. It becomes possible for the leader of any country to be artificially created to order their subordinates or tell the world they are going to invade or decimate another country by any means necessary.
Mollick argues there are four possible futures for Artificial Intelligence.
Presuming A.I. does not evolve beyond its present capability, it could still supercharge human productivity. On the other hand, A.I. might become a more sophisticated “deep fake” tool that misleads humanity. A.I. may evolve to believe only in itself and act to disrupt or eliminate human society. A fourth possibility is that A.I. will become a tool of human beings to improve societal decisions that benefit humanity. It may offer practical solutions for global warming, species preservation, interstellar travel and habitation.
A.I. is not an oracle of truth. It has the memory of society at its beck and call. With that capability, humans have the opportunity to avoid mistakes of the past and pursue unknown opportunities for the future. On the other hand, humans may become complacent and allow A.I. to develop itself without human regulation. The question is–will humans or A.I. decide whether artificial intelligence is a tool or controller and regulator of society.
There are many ways of understanding Andrew Boryga’s book, “Victim”. It is an eye-opening examination of minority life in America.
Books of Interest Website: chetyarbrough.blog
“Victim”
By: Andrew Boryga
Narrated by: Anthony Rey Perez
Andrew Boryga (Author, Bronx resident, Cornell graduate, freelance writer for the NYT, The New Yorker, and The Atlantic.)
There are many ways of understanding Andrew Boryga’s book, “Victim”. It is an eye-opening examination of minority life in America. Being poor, whether a minority or a white American, is a struggle for identity. A white person in America has immense advantage, but Boryga’s story shows how much greater the challenge is for a person of color.
The main characters of Boryga’s story are Latinos named Javier Perez, Gio and Lena. Some may argue only Javier and Gio are the most relevant but Lena, Javier’s romantic partner, is at the heart of a question of who is right in lives of inequality.
There are many reasons to appreciate Boryga’s insightful story. It gives credit to committed teachers who struggle to raise the sights of students who are challenged by poverty and hardship. Javier is a character with ambition to be more than a street hustler trying to get by in a low-income neighborhood in the Bronx. It is with the help of a single mother and a dedicated teacher that Javier pursues a better life. His father was a drug dealer, murdered in Puerto Rico. Being raised in New York by his mother, Javier visits his father when he is murdered. That experience, the strict upbringing of his mother, and a teacher at his school offer lessons of life and opportunity to Javier. With the help of his teacher, Javier becomes a college-educated’ writer who struggles to become a literary and financial success.
It seems the window of opportunity for Javier depends on his intelligence, the help of his teacher, and retrospectively, his friend, Gio.
At first reading of “Victim”, Gio appears to offer an alternative life like that which Javier’s father followed. Obviously, what happened to Javier’s father influences Javier’s choices in life. Javier tries to influence Gio to abandon the drug-mule’ road he is following. Javier fails Gio, himself, Lena, and the Latino students he teaches in his neighborhood.
Javier meets Lena in college.
Lena is Latino but comes from a more financially secure family in the Bronx with a strict father and loving mother. In contrast, Javier is being raised by his widowed mother who is barely making enough money to keep a roof over their head and food on the table. Lena is a social activist for Latino rights. Javier and Lena become lovers but from quite different economic and family backgrounds. They move in together, but their place of cohabitation is the old neighborhood in which Javier is a teacher and struggling writer.
Lena pursues her activist career with little pay and a difficult adjustment in an unsafe neighborhood in the Bronx.
She grows to feel isolated and unfulfilled in her pursuit of equal rights, both as a Latino and woman. Javier understands the neighborhood in which they live but to Lena it is too dangerous, and her job does not offer enough personal satisfaction and income for her and Javier to improve their lives. Javier ignores her concern because he understands life in the neighborhood and feels comfortable in dealing with its risks.
Javier and Lena are at a crossroads in their lives. Javier decides their crossroad has a meaning that is worthy of a story that could be published in the paper for which he works part time while teaching at the local school.
His story disingenuously describes the conflict between Lena and himself. Javier believes and writes that he would be abandoning the fight for Latino rights by leaving his neighborhood for a safer community that Lena desires. Javier does not take into consideration their common goals or the difference between a woman and a man when living in a tough neighborhood. The story he writes about their relationship and its breakup makes him famous. He is offered a higher paying job as a full-time writer. He quits teaching but the break-up is irreversible. The reason for its irreversibility is substance of the story. His story distorts the truth of why Lena leaves Javier and the neighborhood.
While Javier strives for success as a writer, Gio is arrested for drug dealing and sentenced to prison. Javier loses touch with Gio because of their different life decisions.
Earlier, Javier tries to rescue his friend Gio from the gang life of the neighborhood. Ironically, Gio saves Javier from a false understanding of what happened in his life. The mistake Javier makes with Gio is similar to the mistake he makes with Lena. Gio’s and Lena’s lives are only their own. Javier fails to appreciate their personal experiences and how they made them who they became. Gio’s life is changed by his gang and later prison experience. Lena’s life is formed by the influence of her parents and life as a middleclass woman who wishes to help her race succeed in a prejudiced world. Javier sacrifices his relationship with both Gio and Lena by not understanding their personal identities and reasons for being who they become.
Javier makes the mistake of using Lena and Gio as subjects of his stories that do not represent who they are from their personal life experiences.
However, Javier’s stories are so well written that he becomes a coveted writer by his newspaper and a book agent who wishes to represent him. The problem is that his stories are made of facts that are not truthful representations of either Lena’s or Gio’s evolved lives.
Javier is publicly exposed for his distorted stores about what it is like, and what it means to be a Latino American in a white-biased culture.
Javier’s wish to become a renowned writer is halted by a you-tube interview by an investigative reporter. He is fired by the paper who employs him. Gio tells Javier to quit feeling sorry for himself and tells him to get on with his life. Gio has overcome the trials of his imprisonment and is on the way to becoming a positive contribution to society even though it continues to be biased against his success. Javier begins to understand the importance of factual accuracy and understanding of others when writing a story purported to be the truth. One wonders if that is why the author chooses to identify “Victim” as a novel and not a report of his or anyone else’s life.
The story of “Victim” is that inequality is a fact of life but not an insurmountable obstacle to peace and prosperity for determined individuals.
America cannot pass essential legislation that fairly addresses the burden and potential benefit of immigration.
Books of Interest Website: chetyarbrough.blog
“A Map of Future Ruins” (On Borders and Belonging)
By: Lauren Markham
Narrated by: Gilli Messer
Lauren Markham (Author, reporter on issues about migration and human rights.)
Immigration is a hot subject around the world.
Lauren Markham writes a somewhat disjointed book about immigration to a Greek island between Turkey and Greece.
Lauren Markham offers a report of a fire in a Lesbos refugee camp in the small town of Moria on September 9, 2010. There were no deaths from the fire but the conditions of the encampment and the government’s response to the crises tell of unfair and inadequate treatment of refugees–reminiscent of other countries dealings with unwanted immigrants.
The camp was designed to hold 3,000 people but grew to nearly 13,000. Seventy percent of the migrants were from Afghanistan. A fire of unknown origin destroyed the immigrant’s shelter that gave notice to the world of the inadequate care offered refugees fleeing crime, poverty, and displacement in their home countries.
Turkey and Greece have a storied history of conflict that is reminiscent of the Afghanis flight from Afghanistan. Turkey’s most revered leader, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, ordered Greeks to leave Turkey in a mass exodus during his reign. Ethnic and religious differences between the Ottoman Empire and Greece came to a boil in 1923. Those differences are reminiscent of the escape of Afghanis from the restrictive life of the Taliban in Afghanistan. Afghanis chose a route from Afghanistan through Iran to Turkey to the Greek Island of Lesbos to escape the Taliban.
Markham shows the initial response of the Greeks was to aid the Afghanis in their flight but as the number of refugees grew, the burden became too great. The conditions of the encampment deteriorated, and the anger of the Greek government escalated. A fire of unknown origin began in the camp. Six Afghanis, two of which were minors under 18 years of age, were arrested and found guilty of setting the fire. Markham shows the evidence for conviction had nothing to do with truth but was manufactured by the Greek Court to find a verdict of guilt.
“Dallas, Texas, United States – May 1, 2010 a large group of demonstrators carry banners and wave flags during a pro-immigration march on May Day.”
The inference from Markam’s report is that America’s border state conflicts will, and undoubtedly have, resulted in unjust treatment of emigrants. The irony is that America needs emigrants to meet the needs of its economic future. America seems to be doing as poor a job of addressing immigration as the story of the Afghanis in Moria. America cannot pass essential legislation that fairly addresses the burden and potential benefit of immigration.
Marie Arana clearly argues the color of one’s skin has given great advantage to white citizens of the world.
Books of Interest Website: chetyarbrough.blog
“LatinoLand” (A Portrait of America’s Largest and Least Understood Minority)
By: Marie Arana
Narrated by: Cynthia Farrell
Marie Arana (Author, graduate of Northwestern University of Hong Kong with a BA in Russian Language and Literature and an MA in Linguistics.)
“LatinoLand” begins shakily with what seems an exaggeration of international Latino cultural influence in the world. However, as Marie Arana continues her report a listener/reader appreciates her knowledge of American Latino history. Her argument is that Americans have little understanding of the largest and least understood minority in the continental United States. If one continues the book beyond the first chapters, her argument about Latino culture in America becomes clear and compelling.
MarieArana was born in Peru.
Presuming from Arana’s education in Hong Kong, she speaks and understands several languages. From her book, it appears she was born into an upper-class Peruvian family who could afford a superior education for their children. Her father was a successful civil engineer who married an American from Kansas. She moved with her parents to Summit, New Jersey when she was nine years old. Arana earned two college degrees from the Northwestern University of Hong Kong.
In one sense, “LatinoLand” is about America’s greatest 21st century challenge, immigration.
More importantly, it is about human discrimination, ignorance, and inequality. Discrimination begins with perceived difference. The greatness visible marker of difference is the color of one’s skin. Arana argues discrimination begins with skin color. She explains how inequality grows from discrimination, and cultural ignorance. (Though not mentioned, human self-interest plays a role in the creation of inequality.) A mixture of ignorance and not caring for others creates fear and potential for violence.
Mosaic of children from around the world, including, Kayapo, Indian, Native American, Inuit, Balinese, Polynesian, Yanomamo, Cuban, Tsaatan, Moroccan, Mongolian, Karo, Malagasy, and Pakistani.
Arana notes how the color of one’s skin is one of the most prominent features of difference among humans. Skin color differences, lack of caring, self-interest, and ignorance breed economic inequality. Arana implies the American Constitution ameliorates some human failings but does not achieve its ideals. She suggests American democratic ideals have been used by some political leaders as a Trojan horse for authoritarianism. She particularly points to the difference between what Fidel Castro said about creating a Cuban democracy when he overthrew Batista, i.e., he claimed to want a democratic haven for its people. However, under Castro, Arana notes Cuba became an authoritarian dictatorship that victimized its citizens by taking their assets and using their value to create and maintain a government-controlled economy.
Arana recounts the history of Cuba, Haiti, and Puerto Rico as examples of countries that preached democratic ideals but became authoritarian dictatorships that eschewed freedom and impoverished its citizens.
Many Cubans, Haitians, and Puerto Ricans fled to the U.S. to escape authoritarian victimization. What many found was American discrimination made it difficult, if not impossible, to achieve the American ideal of freedom and independence. Immigrants could not escape poverty because of the color of their skin, their language difference, and a lack of caring by white Americans pursuing their own dreams.
She goes on to explain the first Latino becomes part of President Reagan’s cabinet as the Secretary of Education in 1988. Of course, Arana acknowledges many Latinos have succeeded in America. From sports stars to musicians to military heroes to Supreme Court justices, America has benefited from the Latino diaspora. But Arana suggests many more Latinos have not achieved the American dream because of the color of their skin.
Arana notes the Nixon Administration is the first President to recognize a separate and distinct ethnic group labeled Hispanic.
Arana suggests the labeling of ethnic groups is a chimera, a fabrication of the mind. People are a mixture of different ethnicities. She implies no one is a pure anything because of the nature of humankind. The inference is that all humans are just humans, and the only difference is in their respective cultures. Cultural differences are relevant but the color of one’s skin is the mark that bodes ill for societies’ future.
In her review of history, Arana notes how a Latino child was discriminated against by having to play in different playgrounds than white children. Only with the advance of Brown v. Board of Education in 1954 did that wrong get righted.
The proximate and initial cause of discrimination always seems to be the color of one’s skin. Interestingly, Arana notes that white skin makes a difference in many cultures, including her native culture in Peru where white skin was highly coveted and sought through marriages with white skinned relations.
Arana points to the great contributions that have been made and continue to be made by Latinos to American growth and prosperity.
Discrimination has always been a struggle because of inherent human self-interest, regardless of the ideals of the American Constitution. Arana notes the hurdles that immigrants face in getting to America, let alone becoming free and independent. Many Americans, from Presidents to Congressman to individual American citizens fight newcomers who are struggling to find a better life, employment, security, and peace.
Arana notes more Latinos are coming to America, but from other countries than Mexico. It is surprising to find more Mexican citizens are choosing to leave than come to America. This is not changing the struggle, but it clarifies Arana’s many reasons for writing her book. The ideals of the American Constitution and America’s economic wealth offer hope to immigrants.
In the 21st century, Arana notes that today more Mexicans are returning to Mexico than emigrating to the U.S.
Marie Arana clearly argues the color of one’s skin has given great advantage to white citizens of the world.
One suspects Musk is at a crossroad. He will either sell X at a loss or figure out how the forum can provide a service to the public for which it is willing to pay.
Books of Interest Website: chetyarbrough.blog
“Extremely Hardcore” (Inside Elon Musk’s Twitter)
By: Zoë Schiffer
Narrated by: Jame Lamchick
Zoë Schiffer (Author, senior reporter at “The Verge”, freelance journalist, experience as a tech content manager.)
Zoë Schiffer’s “Extremely Hardcore” is a send-up of Elon Musk’s takeover of Twitter. Elon Musk believes in freedom of speech with a commitment that results in the dismantling of Twitter. What Schiffer makes clear to some who listen to her book is that the failure of Twitter is not because of Musk but because of the ideal of free speech.
Musk made an error in trying to shift Twitters’ income source from advertising to users. Only with advertiser revenues could Twitter pursue the ideal of free speech.
Musk’s task should not have been to do what has not been possible because of the nature of human beings. Free speech is a laudable but unachievable goal because human beings are influenced by the way they are raised and the experience of living. Advertisers want to know that the media on which they advertise is not going to offend its customers. Musk is unquestionably a genius and a credit to human progress but creating a forum for free speech is an unachievable goal.
Jack Dorsey (American internet entrepreneur, philanthropist, and programmer.)
The co-founder of Twitter, Jack Dorsey, was no better at creating a free-speech forum than Elon Musk. Dorsey was liberated from the struggle to achieve the unachievable by Musk when Twitter was sold. The only chance for X’s survival is for Musk to offer a service that goes beyond the ideal of free speech to a forum that acknowledges some free speech is harmful and that X’s media forum can serve the public in some other way.
Twitter appeared to be a bloated organization that was organized to do the impossible. Monitoring and regulating free speech bureaucratized Twitter in ways that made profitability difficult, if not impossible. On the other hand, Twitter offered a free service to a public that craves attention and recognition. X cannot survive as a free speech forum because it cannot survive its debt service based on people who are only seeking attention and recognition.
Musk’s choice to change Twitter to an organization called X is only going to succeed if he manages to either return it to a monitored public forum or a service beyond the unachievable principle of free speech.
The history of Reddit and its successful public stock offer earlier this week shows that a monitored public forum can be successful. One wonders if Musk will take the hint and emulate Reddit’s success. His mistaken belief about freedom of speech suggests he will not invest in re-bureaucratization of what is now called X.
One suspects Musk is at a crossroad. He will either sell X at a loss or figure out how the forum can provide a service to the public for which it is willing to pay.
Nolan clearly illustrates how important political power is in balancing corporate owner/managers’ disproportionate incomes and privileges with labor.
Books of Interest Website: chetyarbrough.blog
“The Hammer” (Power, Inequality, and the Struggle for the Soul of Labor)
By: Hamilton Nolan
Narrated by: Franklin Pierson
Hamilton Nolan (Author and free-lance Journalist)
“The Hammer” is a paean to unionization. Unions lost much of their political power in the early 1970s. Political power of labor was diminished by State governments, poor labor union management, and a diminishing number of labor union members. Nolan’s argument is workers have to reestablish political power to change their unfair and inequitable relationship with business.
The widening gap between rich and poor is traced to the era of President Reagan when the first deep cuts in corporate taxes occur.
Reagan fought unionization by firing air traffic controllers that sought better wages. Reagan’s supporters believed government social programs were out of control and their cost diminished the power of free enterprise. Much of the American public either agreed or were apathetic. However, as the gap between rich and poor accelerated, Americans began to complain about inequality. With extraordinary income increases for business owners and CEOs, and repressed wages for workers, the need for unionized political power became self-evident. Nolan introduces his book about unionization with a brief biography of Sara Nelson.
Sara Nelson (AFA president of the Association of Flight Attendants.)
Nolan writes about Sara Nelson who became a union member when she worked for United Airlines as a stewardess. Nelson was born and lived in Corvallis, Oregon. She applies for a job with United Airlines in St. Louis. She gets the job but her first paycheck is late. She couldn’t pay her rent. A check is given to her by a union employee to tide her over until her first check is delivered. From that day forward, according to Nolan, Nelson became a supporter of unions. Eventually Nelson becomes the president of the Association of Flight Attendants (AFA).
Liz Shuler (President of the AFL-CIO since 8/5/21.)
Ironically, the first woman President of the AFL-CIO is also from Oregon. Liz Shuler received a bachelor’s degree in journalism from U of O in Eugene, Oregon. She became a union activist after college and worked to organize clerical workers at Portland General Electric. She is elected as the President of the AFL-CIO in 2021 after serving as the first woman Secretary-Treasurer of the organization.
Nolan’s book addresses State conflicts with unionizers and family-income for low-income workers. The first states he addresses are South Carolina and California. Nolan notes South Carolina has become a haven for businesses wishing to avoid unions. South Carolina’ State laws discourage unionization which appeals to businesses wishing to relocate. Nolan notes South Carolina attracts businesses looking to improve profits by reducing labor costs. The consequence of business’s lower labor cost is to reduce South Carolina workers’ standard of living. South Carolina’s workers are among the lowest (19th out of 50 States) paid workers in the U.S. Nolan implies South Carolina’s income inequality is a consequence of the State’s policy of discouraging unionization.
California has the fourth largest income inequality in the U.S.
Nolan notes the cascading negative of unfair compensation for domestic labor. Though California now allows childcare servers to be unionized, their unionization efforts are discouraged by government regulation, as well as the fragmentation of its poorly compensated workers. The consequence of State government regulation keeps wages low and discourages entrepreneurs from starting childcare’ businesses. A compounding negative is created when users of childcare’ service, women in particular, are unable to work in regular work-day jobs. Workers are compelled to stay home to take care of their children, reducing family income and further impoverishing low-income childcare’ workers. It becomes a vicious cycle, hurting entrepreneurs trying to start a childcare service, employees wishing to increase family income, and employers needing more workers.
Nolan expands his argument by noting how service industries in Las Vegas, the State of Florida, New Orleans, and Mississippi are benefited by unionization.
Vacation and gambling meccas like Las Vegas, Florida, New Orleans and Mississippi need service industry employees. These vacation and gambling meccas depend on service quality for visiting tourists. Lack of representation for service employees diminishes employee’ standards of living which indirectly damages the reputation of the entertainment and vacation industry.
In Las Vegas, where Nolan lived for twenty years, the service industry is protected by the Culinary Union.
Nolan notes how strong the Culinary Union has become in Las Vegas and disparages casino owners like the Fertitta’s who have fought unionization. Numerous examples are given to show how union actions have improved the lives of Casino workers, many of which are immigrants from other countries.
Nolan’s argument for the value of unionization is compelling but his encomium for the union movement ignores America’s immigration crises.
The vast need for immigration reform is not being forcefully addressed by unions. Compensation inequity is a noble fight carried out by unionization, but it needs to broaden its role in immigration. Unions need to use their power and influence to change immigration policies to equitably treat a labor force that is sorely needed in America. Unions need to help educate and house legal immigrants, so they do not become a part of America’s growing homelessness. Additionally, unions could use their recruiting expertise to get Americans off the street by providing job training services and gainful employment.
Public perception of unions could be monumentally improved with a program to recruit and indoctrinate the homeless with training for jobs in the 21st century.
There is so much that unions could do to far exceed the minimalist goal noted in Liz Shuler’s plan to add a million union members over the next 10 years. Nolan pitches for Sara Nelson as a more dynamic leader for the union movement. Maybe Nelson would be better than Shuler, but growth, value, and public perception of union members could be monumentally improved with a program to recruit and indoctrinate the homeless with training and jobs for the 21st century.
Whomever the leaders of unionization may be in the future, Nolan clearly illustrates how important political power is in balancing corporate owner/managers’ disproportionate incomes and privileges with labor.
America and every nation must believe in themselves until, like all changes in society, the proof of an energy’s value becomes self-evident
Books of Interest Website: chetyarbrough.blog
“Energy” (A Human History)
By: Richard Rhodes
Narrated by: Jacques Roy
Richard Rhodes (American journalist, historian, and author.)
Richard Rhodes explains the many forms of “Energy” that have changed the course of history. The one constant is human ingenuity. The source of energy evolves over centuries of civilization. The source of energy has changed from human hands to fuel burning machines to atomic fission to fusion to information. The back and forth of human thought and action have used sources of energy to remake the world. Rhodes’ history shows progress is not always forward. Change is often resisted until results outweigh failures.
Having just gone through the first chapters of Rhode’s excellent history of energy, this review was prematurely completed because of the TikTok controversy noted in the news.
It is important to complete Rhodes’ history to have some understanding of why information is the energy of modern times. Citizens of the world are facing many of the same obstacles Rhodes wrote about in his book. That energy is information may seem incongruous to some but, Rhodes’ history about wood, coal, oil, electricity, nuclear power, and the current state of renewables is like the energy crises of information today. Rhodes does not consider what some argue is tomorrow’s energy source. Tomorrow’s energy source is information. The many trials, the fits and starts, of the energy sources Rhodes explains are the same trials facing today’s world with information as the most current iteration of “Energy”.
Energy is fuel for doing work. Its early forms are those noted in Rhodes’ history. Earlier forms of energy are still relevant, but their utility is being challenged by the immense growth of information and how information drives the future.
There are lessons to be learned about the challenges of information as energy from the experiences noted in Rhodes’ history. This is a bumpy time that shares the trials and tribulations of wood, coal, oil, electricity, nuclear power, and renewable energy of the past. Each energy source has improved the lives of its users but not without trial and error. The world is in the midst of a transition from the industrial age just as the industrial age transitioned from the agricultural age. The world is entering the information age.
The energy change today is information, most recently multiplied by artificial intelligence.
The paranoia of today is that foreign governments will use information to disrupt the progress of nations that have their own forms of government. The controversy of TikTok is a case in point. On the one hand TikTok is being used by small entrepreneurs in America to conduct their businesses. On the other, TikTok’ popularity is spreading the equivalent of porn to the public, distorting the perception and education of children. There is the added threat of influencing the public to overthrow governments. The question is would TikTok be any less a threat if it were owned and restricted to one country or another? Facebook offers the same potential as TikTok. Facebook, Google, and Amazon are energy sources for distorting truth and influencing the public in the same way as TikTok. Domestic ownership does not cure the negative potential of information distortion or abhorrent political influence.
Is TikTok going to change democratic capitalism or is it going to change Chinese communism? One suspects, it will change both. The information highway cannot be blocked. Information energy, like water, will find its own way through cracks in its environment.
The fundamental point made in the last two chapters of Rhode’s excellent history is that the world, and America, need to increase the number of nuclear energy plants based on the need to curb environmental pollution. His argument is based on learning from the nuclear accidents that have occurred, and designing nuclear power plants to mitigate the consequence of failure. He notes no energy source in the world has succeeded without learning from producer’s mistakes. Our mistakes at Chernobyl, 3-Mile Island, and Fukushima are correctable. Environmental degradation is the crises of the 21st century that threatens human existence.
America and every nation must believe in themselves until, like all changes in society, the proof of an energy’s value becomes self-evident.
Rooney’s story is not a comforting tale but a reflection of social dysfunction that threatens humanity.
Books of Interest Website: chetyarbrough.blog
“Normal People” (A Novel)
By: Sally Rooney
Narrated by: Aoife McMahon
Sally Rooney (Irish author and screenwriter.)
Sally Rooney infers high school is a testing ground for one’s conduct and place in society. High school is a highly formative period because of its social influences. It is a testing ground for leaders and followers. However, students do not arrive as blank slates. Every person has a genetic inheritance and family relationships, some come from wealth, some from poverty, some from close families, others from broken homes with emotionally close or distant parents. Rooney reveals how high school students bring learned experiences that test one’s social and intellectual abilities. Rooney’s main characters, Marianne and Connell come from different socioeconomic backgrounds who become intimately close but socially isolated.
Mariane comes from a wealthy Irish family, Connell from a poor Irish single parent family. Both are gifted with high intelligence and low self-esteem. Mariane’s self-esteem is largely caused by her mother’s and sibling’s ridicule. Connell’s low self-esteem seems to come from poverty while being raised by a single supportive mother. Mariane and Connell become lovers in high school. It is Mariane’s first sexual experience and Connell’s first meaningful relationship.
That tragic event of a young friend’s suicide makes Mariane and Connell re-evaluate their lives. Despair over their non-committal lives reaches a crisis reflected in the statistics noted above.
Rooney explores Mariane’s and Connell’s on and off again romance through their college years and later adult lives. Their relationship remains close, but both choose other lovers in their post HS’ years. Mariane’s hook-ups are with self-absorbed, abusive men, while Connell’s appear casual, not deep or lasting. Near the end of the story Mariane and Connell are brought together by the tragic loss of a friend who commits suicide. A listener realizes they are both on a path that could either be self-destructive or redemptive.
In the last chapters, Rooney leaves listeners wondering whether Mariane and Connell will have a life together or revert to their former desperate lives.
Their relationship mends and the potential for self-destruction seems ameliorated but separation looms over their lives. Apart, they may revert to the damaged personalities of their earlier lives. Rooney’s story is not a comforting tale but a reflection of social dysfunction that threatens humanity.
REVIEWS AND VIEWS OF LIFE 