SOCIETY – Page 2 – REVIEWS AND VIEWS OF LIFE

POWER

As Oscar Wilde’s dialogue between two people said in “The Picture of Dorian Gray”–“Young people, nowadays, imagine that money is everything.” The response is “Yes, and when they grow older they know it.” That was written in 1891. Baker infers not much has changed in the 21st century.

Books of Interest
Website: chetyarbrough.blog

How to Rule the World (An Education in Power at Stanford University.)

Author: Theo Baker

Narration by: Theo Baker

Theo Baker (Author, former student journalist for “The Stanford Daily”.)

Theo Baker wrote for “The Stanford Daily” newspaper at Stanford University and received the George Polk Award for his reporting. His writing contributed to the resignation of the Stanford University President, Marc Tessier-Lavigne. Theo Baker, as the son of two journalist (Peter Baker and Susan Glasser) appears to have learned something about research and newspaper reporting from his parents. Theo Baker enrolled at Stanford at the age of 17 in 2022 and graduated in 2026 with a degree in history. To have joined Stanford at 17 years of age says something about his intellect, and pre-college academic achievement.

The value of education.

Personally, as a graduate of no-name universities in America, the picture Baker creates of Stanford makes one envious of the opportunities offered by a highly regarded University. On the one hand, most young students interested in college cannot afford the tuitions of Ivy-plus schools and many may not have either the education, or privileges of wealth that good preparatory schools provide. The added benefit of being a Stanford student is its being located in Silicon Valley, the best area of the country for those who pursue programming skills. Though Baker is more tech savvy about programming than past generations, his chosen field of study is history.

Influence.

What Baker interestingly points out is that classroom learning is less important than networking and raising entrepreneurial capital at Stanford. What is a little off-putting in Baker’s story is it implies Stanford’s culture of entrepreneurship is more important than scholarship. The focus of students seems not on education but in the goal of becoming gob-smacking rich. Having recently read a book about the Founding Father’s of America, one wonders what would have become of America if the Founders had focused more on personal wealth than the future of the country. This is, of course, sour grapes of a book-reviewer because the reality is Ivy-plus Universities have trained many students who have become great contributors to American government and America’s way of life, without becoming gazillionaires.

Technology research.

Baker refers to student’ millionaires while at Stanford because of their inordinate wealth and early success in tech-fund raising and creative computer programing. He implies the student culture of Stanford measures achievement on entrepreneurial networking more than academic achievement. A startup founder who raises the most money is elevated above high academic achievement in Stanford’s student culture. Getting good academic grades is important but it takes a back seat to a student’s ability to raise start-up capital, sell their programming, and/or create stock market start-ups. Those who are good at raising capital become among the institutionally privileged at Stanford. Academic success is primarily important as it relates to an entrepreneurial end rather than an educational achievement. Baker is not saying Stanford academic success is not real, but it is overshadowed by social networking, entrepreneurship, and financial reward. It reminds one of a book about the history of Reddit’s early recruits and a skilled programmer who commits suicide. Aaron Schwatz went to Stanford in 2004. Ironically, he like Baker is only 17. However, he left after a year. He joined Reddit and became a millionaire, but his wealth seems to have meant little to him in regard to what he believed or what he hoped to achieve in life.

American universities.

In any case, the Stanford President resignation is only a part of Theo Baker’s book. Ivy-League and Ivy-plus schools in America are inferred to be networks of inherited privilege and social connection with Stanford student’s primary goal of becoming filthy rich more than broadly educated. Though no mention is made of Aaron Schwartz’s death, wealth seems a weakness rather than goal for either students or faculty at Stanford.

For a person to say they graduated from Harvard, Princeton, Yale, Columbia, Cornell, or the University of Chicago is highly regarded by the public. When an Ivy-plus University like Stanford makes networking and making money more important than public service or academic achievement, one becomes somewhat disillusioned.

Silicon Valley,

Stanford definitely has advantage over other Ivy League and Ivy-plus schools because of Silicon Valley. One suspects the power of networking is generally much greater in Ivy League universities because of the average wealth of families who live in well-funded school districts, can pay expensive tuitions, and have either funded or been educated themselves in Ivy League or Ivy-plus universities. Becoming wealthy is a genuine achievement in life but real value should (but does not) come from equal opportunity. Without equal opportunity, society becomes less civil and inclined to believe human value is based on wealth, not character. The power of wealth creates a land of the “haves” and “have nots”.

Marc Trevor Tessier-Lavigne (Canadian-American neuroscientist. President of Stanford 2016-2023.)

Baker’s reporting is central to Tessier-Lavigne’s resignation from Stanford. Discovered irregularities of Tessier-Lavigne’s research on an Alzheimer’s cure reported by Baker in the Stanford paper led the Stanford Board of Trustees to launch an investigation into their President. The Board concluded Tessier-Lavigne’s research papers were flawed by manipulated data that induced Genetech to recruit him in 2003 when he was then President of Rockefeller University and later Stanford. In the end, the President of Stanford is not found guilty of any crime because the research manipulations were considered oversight failures that were retracted before any harm to the public. After his resignation, Tessier-Lavigne went on to become co-founder and chair of Xaira Therapeutics, an AI-biotech company.

Past and present generations.

Putting aside Baker’s good fortune in entering Stanford and working for the Stanford paper, he reveals the motivation of many young Americans today. The fate of Stanford’s President, Tessier-Lavigne, introduces a part of the theme of Baker’s book. Tessier-Lavigne is compelled to resign, in part, because of research and writing by this 17-year-old student in Stanford’s local paper. It is a story of the power of truth and the deleterious effects of seeing position or wealth as a measure of one’s value in society. Whether President of the United States, a newspaper journalist, or President of an Ivy-plus university, real power is ultimately in the truth.

AMERICA

Despite President Trump’s words and deeds, America is and always will be a haven for those who seek freedom and equality of opportunity.

Books of Interest
Website: chetyarbrough.blog

First Principles (What America’s Founders Learned from the Greeks and Romans and How That Shaped Our Country.)

Author: Thomas E Ricks

Narration by: James Lurie

Thomas Edwin Ricks (Author, American journalist. Pulitzer Prize winner for National Reporting for the WSJ and Washington Post.)

Thomas Ricks has written an enlightening view of the founders of America’s government. In his opinion, the founders established a republic ruled by an American government based on ancient Greek and Roman political ideas. He argues the self-taught education of George Washington, and college educations of John Adams, Thomas Jefferson and James Madison were steeped in knowledge of Greek and Roman beliefs reinforced by Scottish intellects who studied the classical ideas of Greek and Roman society. Ricks notes Roman and Greek writings about virtue, law, deliberation, political structure, and social restraint are important sources of America’s government organization.

Ricks argues Greece’s Aristotle, Plato, Epicurus, Xenophon, and Homer were read by important framers of the American Constitution. Particularly, Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, and James Madison were influenced by Greek writers and famous Romans like Cicero, Plutarch, Polybius, Cato the younger, Cataline, and Caesar. Even the unschooled George Washington read the works of Cicero, Cato the Younger, and Plutarch. Ricks writes that the Greek and Roman authors were the curriculum basis of the Scottish enlightenment of the 17th century.

Cato the Younger (95 BC-46BC, Roman senator.)

Jefferson absorbed the beliefs of Scottish writers like Francis Hutcheson, Thomas Reid, and Adam Smith to form a moral philosophy and belief in the natural rights of humanity. Adams adopted the civic virtues propagated by Scottish intellectuals like Hutcheson, Hume, and Smith. He admired the moral vocabulary of virtue and grasped a realistic view of human nature with a belief in mixed government that required checks and balances; i.e., not a pure unconstrained democracy. Madison relies on the Scottish Hume, and Smith to understand how human nature requires administrative regulation to mitigate factionalism in a government based on separation of powers. Madison became the synthesizer of enlightenment beliefs promulgated by Scottish intellectuals.

George Washington (1732-1799.)

George Washington is not characterized as a deep thinker about philosophy, but Ricks suggests he had read Plutarch’s Lives and revered the lives of Cato and Cincinnatus who were known for civic virtue, sacrifice, and public duty. Cato the Younger is noted for stoic discipline and moral seriousness while Cincinnatus voluntarily relinquishes his power after successfully defending and saving the Roman Republic from the Aequi (a militant mountain tribe living near Rome). Cincinnatus defeated the Aequi in a 16-day defensive war for the Roman Republic. He could have crowned himself as King as a result of his success.

Cato the Younger, as a Roman statesman became famous for his emotional restraint, moral rigor, personal austerity, and commitment to virtue. Washington emulated Cincinnatus’s actions after America’s revolutionary war when he could have used his fame to take command of a fractured continental congress. He exhibited Cato the Younger’s statesmanship throughout his career as leader of the American miliary and later as the first popularly elected President of the United States. The soon to be summoned military commander returned to his farm in Virginia after the end of America’s war with Great Britain.

George Washington’s Farm near Fredericksburg, Virginia.

Washington had no college education and limited formal education. He had learned to read and write but relied on self-education through practical experience. He joined the Virginia militia at age 21 as a major. He entered the military service during the French and Indian War with orders to convince the French to leave the Ohio valley. However, he failed. He is defeated by the French in 1754. What he learned is that overconfidence, poor preparation, and logistic mistakes could only be overcome with discipline and clarity.

British General Baraddock.

Washinghton went on to serve under British General Braddock in 1755 and learned the importance of discipline, and military organization while fulfilling his duties in battle. Washington found the British underestimated Indian tribes that parlayed and fought together against America’s colonists taking of Tribal lands. Washington shows his personal courage in a battle in which two horses are shot from under him while a bullet passes through his coat. His commander, General Braddock, is killed. Washington learns discipline, order, and humility while in the military. He matures to recognize the importance of reputation in leading others.

Thomas Jefferson.

Jefferson is in someways shown to be a bon-vivant who seduces other men’s wives. However, Ricks shows Jefferson to be a brilliant omnivorous consumer of political philosophy. His beliefs are shaped by a blend of Greek, Roman, and Scottish Enlightenment ideas. His studies of the Greek philosophy of Epicurus and Aristotle fed his belief in agrarian republicanism reinforced by reading Cicero and Virgil. His reading of Scottish writers like Hutcheson, Reid, and Smith make him a philosopher-statesman who understood the principles required for government organization. He owned slaves and held a tortured, contradictory, and harmful view of slavery. He knew slavery was morally wrong and noted it in writing. However, he viewed slavery as an indispensable practice, believing Black people were inferior. He feared emancipation more than slavery. In regard to slavery, Ricks writes Jefferson is a moral philosopher who fails morally. Slavery is recognized by Washington, Jefferson, Adams, and Madison as a societal fault that would lead to civil unrest and probable war.

John Adams (Second President of the United States.)

Ricks argues John Adams’ government beliefs revealed solid connections between American government creation and Roman and Greek thought. Adams spent much of his time reading Greek and Roman classics. However, Ricks characterizes Adams as thin-skinned, irritable, self-righteous, and prone to hurt or hostile feelings. Despite these character flaws, Ricks shows Adams to be the intellectual heavyweight of the Founding fathers of the Constitution. His reading of Plato and Aristotle gave him a clear understanding of the importance of virtue, education, and the inherent instability of pure democracy. In reading Polybius, he recognized the importance of mixed government. With Cicero, he understood the importance of rule of law. His research in Roman history gave him an appreciation of the risk of corruption, factionalism and its potential for government harm. Ricks notes Adams’ character could lead to excessive moralizing and hectoring of his subordinates which often made him temperamentally unsuitable for the give and take of politics. Adams’ pessimism is noted to have come from Plato’s warnings about demagoguery that led to the collapse of Rome. On balance, Ricks seems to find Adams to be a tragic intellectual unsuited for the Presidency despite his contribution to the founding of America’s government.

James Madison (the 4th President of the United States is considered the “Father of the Constitution”, author of the Bill of Rights, and co-author of the Federalist Papers.)

Ricks assessment of James Madison is the most positive of the Founding fathers of American government. Madison coalesced the many elements of classical and Scottish thinkers of the past to create the American Constitution. He seems the least charismatic but most effective of the Founding fathers of the Constitution. His introversion made him highly intellectual but not a natural leader. He neither had Washington’s gravitas, Jeffeson’s elegance, or Adams’ fire but he had the mind for institutional design. Madison understood power and a Republic’s risks of corruption, factionalism, and its potential for failure and collapse. His realistic grasp of human nature turned classical theories of the ancients into a flexible and durable democratic government. America has survived despite John Adams Alien and Sedition Acts, Andrew Jackson’s defiance of the Supreme Court, Abraham Lincoln’s suspension of habeas corpus, Woodrow Wilson’s 1918 Sedition Act, Nixon’s Watergate, George W. Bush’s use of torture and warrantless surveillance, and the first 4 years of the Trump administration.

In American democracy, freedom is the holy grail of its success.

Thomas Ricks reminds Americans of how far we have come and how imperfect American Democracy has been. Many Presidents have challenged America’s Constitution without fundamentally changing the republic’s self-government. America’s rule of law, government checks and balances, freedom of Speech and Press, its peaceful transfers of power, and citizens’ drive for civic equality, are part of America’s past, present, and foreseeable future. Despite President Trump’s words and deeds, America is and always will be a haven for those who seek freedom and equality of opportunity. America owes a great deal to its Founders of the Constitution and their study of the ancients and Scottish teachings in the 17th century.

GENERATIONAL DYSFUNCTION

“Yesteryear” is a hard book to complete because it reveals the many mistakes’ human beings make in their lives that repeat themselves in future generations

Books of Interest
Website: chetyarbrough.blog

Yesteryear (A Novel)

Author: Caro Claire Burke

Narration by: Rebecca Lowman

Caro Claire Burke (Author, social media influencer, co-host of politics and culture podcast.)

“Yesteryear” is a book about human society. One may see Caro Burke’s story as a picture of society from a woman’s perspective. She shows how life can fall off the rails in America or any culture. In identifying the prejudices of gender, Burke shows how an educated, intelligent woman can become psychologically unhinged by memories of her life experiences.

Gender inequality is a worldwide phenomenon.

Gender inequality is highly destructive in all societies. Burke is not suggesting all people are equal. Every human being is equal in the sense of being human. A person may be born rich, poor, and become formally educated, or remain uneducated. Some are highly intelligent; others not, but as a living person we are all human. Human beings have potential to bare hardship and grow to challenge, succumb, or overcome bad experiences and memories. Of course, hardship is greater for some because of their gender and/or color of their skin. Burke addresses the first form of a harder life rather than the second.

A story of a family.

“Yesteryear” is the story of an Idaho family and a young woman named Natalie Mills. Natalie is described as an attractive young woman of modest means who is doing well in college. She meets a handsome fellow student who comes from a rich family. They “fall in love” and marry. Her husband to be is Caleb Mills whose father is running for President while a member of the United States Senate. Burke’s story is of the relationship of Caleb and Natalie and how it changes from being two college students who become a married couple to what seems an irreconcilable marriage.

Wealth.

The Mill’s families’ wealth, political status, and family structure influence their son to believe marriage is a way of perpetuating his family’s future. Caleb’s father instills that belief in his son and makes a bargain with Natalie to ensure her role as a bearer of babies to perpetuate the family name. The bargain she and Caleb’s father strike is in funding the purchase of a farm in return for having more children. The name of the farm becomes “Yesteryear” and is meant to give Caleb an opportunity to thrive as an independent farmer.

Caleb and Natalie are two young college students who learn more about each other after they become married.

Natalie’s family background is different. Her mother has a quiet coldness that is non-protective toward her two daughters with no fear of loss of the family name. Natalie is blessed with intelligence and a desire to become better educated. Natalie’s sister is married and has children from an abusive husband whom she plans to divorce without a means of financial support once she divorces. Their mother seems oblivious to the consequences of her daughter’s divorce. Natalie sees her sister’s life as an imminent financial disaster. As the story progresses, one sees Natalie exhibit the same coldness and non-protectiveness toward her own children from memories of the way her mother raised her family.

The inheritance patterns of life; some of which are genetic while others are learned experiences that become our memories.

What Caleb and Natalie learn about their relationship comes from memories of experiences they have had in their respective families. Caleb is a young man trying to find his way in life. Natalie is a young woman who chooses to marry someone who offers a way of life much grander than her own. Caleb is characterized as a poor lover with no particular goal in life. As Natalie realizes Caleb’s directionlessness, she searches for a way to instill ambition in her husband and stability to their marriage. Natalie convinces Caleb’s father to invest $5,000,000 into a farm that could be made prosperous by the hard work of the newly married couple. For Natalie to convince her father-in-law to make the investment, she agrees to Caleb’s father’s demand for more children in her marriage to his son. Intimacy becomes a means to an end of having children to meet the demands of Caleb’s father’s bargain with Natalie.

Twenty first century farming is not for the faint of heart or uneducated.

The trouble with this arrangement is that Caleb seems unsuitable for a life of farming and Natalie is a failure as a nurturing mother of her children. The farming experience magnifies Caleb’s and Natalie’s weaknesses. Caleb cheats on his wife with a farm employee and becomes abusive toward his wife. Natalie injures herself, fails to nurture her children, receives little support from her family or Caleb’s father, and falls into a life of despair. Caleb compounds negative aspects of their marriage by becoming physically and mentally abusive toward Natalie. Their match made in college becomes a horror story of memories that diminish the joys of marriage, having children, or living life with either purpose or joy.

“Yesteryear” is a hard book to complete because it reveals the many mistakes’ human beings make in their lives that repeat themselves in future generations.

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.

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