MOST INTERESTING ESSAYS 12/4/25: THEORY & TRUTH, MEMORY & INTELLIGENCE, PSYCHIATRY, WRITING, EGYPT IN 2019, LIVE OR DIE, GARDEN OF EDEN, SOCIAL DYSFUNCTION, DEATH ROW, RIGHT & WRONG, FRANTZ FANON, TRUTHINESS, CONSPIRACY, LIBERALITY, LIFE IS LIQUID, BECOMING god-LIKE, TIPPING POINT, VANISHING WORLD
One will never listen to Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5 without thinking of Greenberg’s lecture that reflects on a troubled time in the world that bodes well for the future but awakens fears of the present.
Books of Interest Website: chetyarbrough.
Great Courses-How to Listen to and Understand Great Music, 3rd Edition (A Cultural History)
By: Robert Greenberg
Narrated By: Professor Greenberg
Robert Greenberg (Great Courses Professor, historian, composer, pianist, speaker, and author.)
This 25-hour audiobook is daunting and cannot be completed in one listen. It should not be rushed through because of its relevance to our 21st century world. Without doubt, Greenberg’s lectures give pride of place to Mozart as the greatest classical composer in history. This is not to diminish the huge contribution of other composers, but Greenberg seems particularly appreciative of Mozart. “How to Listen to and Understand Great Music” is an educational tour de force.
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791) Greenberg argues Mozart as one of the greatest composers of all time.
Greenberg’s analysis of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5 in C minor, Op. 67 reminds one of today’s American governance. This symphony was composed several years after the French revolution, but it is presented by Greenberg as a summation of the terrible times created by the revolution. Listening to Greenberg’s dissection of this masterpiece, one may see what is happening in America today is similar but not as violent as the political revolution of 1789. To this audiobook reviewer, Trump is a less intellectual Robespierre playing a role in a milder reification of the Reigh of Terror. Trump is a skilled orator but unprincipled and poorly suited for reinforcement of the ideals of the American Constitution.
Maximilien Robespierre (1758-1794) A key figure in the French Revolution of 1789.
Greenberg’s lectures about Beethoven’s Symphony No.5 gives one hope that these next four years will only be the beginning of the threatening opening motif of “da-da-da-daah” that is like a knock on the door to a scene of destruction. Greenberg’s analysis of Beethoven’s famous symphony reminds this listener of Trump’s actions that are disrupting American governance. America seems at a moment of profound change.
A generation from now, one suspects Trump will be remembered as the Robespierre of America.
One will never listen to Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5 without thinking of Greenberg’s lecture that reflects on a troubled time in the world that bodes well for the future but awakens fears of the present.
One wonders if Abdulrazak Gurnah is proffering an opinion about race relations in the world or just leaving a lifeline for those disappointed by relationship failures.
Books of Interest Website: chetyarbrough.blog
Admiring Silence
By: Abdulerazak Gurnah
Narrated By: Unnamed person from Zanzibar
Abdulerazak Gurnah (Author, Tanzanian-born British novelist and academic, moved to the UK in 1960.)
A little context for “Admiring Silence” will help understand Abdulerazak Gurnah’s interesting and troubling story. Gurnah received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2021. “Admiring Silence” is the latest book published by Gurnah in 2020. He had written four earlier books: Memory of Departure (1987), Paradise (1994), By the Sea (2001), and Desertion (2005).
“Admiring Silence” is not a biography but an interesting story about a long-term relationship of a Black emigrant and a white woman who meet in Zanzibar (an island archipelago off the coast of Tanzania) and move to London. The two had met in a Zanzibar’ restaurant where they both worked. The Black emigrant leaves his native country with his restaurant mate.
Gurnah describes the two as lovers who are struggling restaurant workers who wish to improve their lives through higher education. An opportunity to attend a university leads the two to decide to emigrate to London because of their similar academic ambition. The two are enrolled at a university and both become teachers in England. Gurnah sets a table for understanding what life is like for an unwed mixed-race couple in mid-twentieth century England.
Their life together is complicated by the birth of a daughter and the father’s decision to visit his homeland when he is in his forties.
No one in Zanzibar knows he has a teenage daughter with an unmarried white woman he lives with in England. His mother wishes to fix him up with a future Black Muslim wife. The interest one has grows with the circumstances of Gurnah’s imaginative story.
What is it like to be in a racially mixed marriage in 1960s England?
How does a mixed-race child feel about her life in a predominantly white country?
What does a Black family think about their son having a mixed-race family?
Having lived together for 20 years and had a child, why haven’t they married?
How does the relationship between different races affect the feelings of a couple that chooses not to marry but have a child born to them?
Is Gurnah’s story representative enough to give one the answers?
The first question is largely unanswered. The last question is impossible to answer but the other four imply Gurnah’s opinion. Marriage is always a work in progress whether it is of a mixed-race couple or not. However, there is a distinction based on race when it comes to a man’s and woman’s personal relationship because of the dimension of racism. Every couple chooses to work through differences and become more or less committed to staying together but two people of different races face discrimination associated with racism, unequal treatment, and economic inequality existing in a country’s dominant racial profile.
Gurnah does not address how a mixed-race child deals with life in a predominantly white country, but one can imagine it depends in part on how distinctive a difference is in the color of their skin in relation to the dominate racial profile.
In terms of the daughter’s relationship with her parents, one presumes it is likely the same parent/child conflicts of all families. Some fathers are more distant than others just as some mothers range from helicopter to equally distant parents.
That these two lovers who have been together for so long without getting married, after their daughter is born, seems like a flashing yellow light, a cautionary notice of something is about to change.
When the father’s mother writes from Zanzibar to have him visit after being away for so long, flashes a yellow light that eventually turns red. He returns for a visit to Zanzibar at the encouragement of his partner. The partner’s encouragement seems disingenuous, i.e. more like a desire for a relationship break than a supportive gesture. The last chapters confirm that suspicion. A break-up occurs soon after the father returns. There is a brief father/daughter reconciliation, but the daughter also decides to separate from her father.
An interesting point is made by Gurnah about a Muslim Black person leaving a poverty-stricken country of his birth to a country of wealth and a different culture.
It is the wish of his Zanzibar’ family for the father to return to help with the disarray and economic disparity of his home country; as well as marry a local Black Muslim girl who wishes to become a doctor. The presumption is that if one leaves their poor country to become prosperous in a wealthy country, they have some magical power to help their poverty-stricken home-countries. It is of little concern to the family about his committed relationship to another but more about what his life is like in his newly adopted country and what he can offer to his homeland from what he has learned. The Muslim girl the mother wishes him to marry is twenty years old. Her son is in his 40s. Tt appears the primary reason for such a marriage is to help the young woman become a doctor. In the end, the son recognizes this is not practical but clearly understandable considering the poverty in Zanzibar.
Gurnah cleverly injects a conversation with a Nigerian Muslim woman on his plane ride back to London before his white lover’s rejection of their relationship.
The Nigerian woman has been divorced from her English husband for several years. It was an emotionally difficult divorce for her. A mix-up on a missing passport allows the father to find contact information for the divorcee. One wonders if Gurnah is proffering an opinion about race relations in the world or just leaving a lifeline for those disappointed by relationship failures.
Muslim Palestinians, like the Indians of America and the Jews of Israel, believe they have the same rights to the lands of their ancestors. In history, that seems to have never been true for any indigenous or displaced culture.
Books of Interest Website: chetyarbrough.blog
One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This
By: Omar El Akkad
Narrated By: Omar El Akkad
Omar El Akkad (Author, lives in Oregon, winner of the 2021 Giller Prize. Became a Egyptian Canadian citizen and now lives in Oregon.)
Omar El Akkad expresses the frustration of being an American citizen of an ethnicity and race that has little power as a minority in today’s world. He writes of life being out of one’s control. Akkad’s story is partly about his family’s life as they leave Egypt for Canada, and then America. However, his primary purpose is to write of the atrocity of the Palestinian/Israeli war. On the one hand it is a terrifying example of the domestic trials of his father and family in moving from Egypt to America. On the other, it is a heartbreaking review of slaughtered innocents in Gaza.
Ironically, the phrase “from God’s mouth to our ears” comes from a Jewish and Arabic religious expression.
Contrary to Omar El Akkad’s book title, the history of white society suggests the belief that “One Day Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This” will likely never come. The title of Akkad’s book is about how leadership in America and Israel has failed. As Lord Acton said in the 19th century “Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely”. President Trump, former President Biden, and Benjamin Netanyahu are proving Acton’s observation.
Social and cultural differences have always roiled world history.
Jews believe they have the right to live in peace in Israel because of their culture and the history of their settlement in the land of their forefathers. Muslim Palestinians, like the Indians of America and the Jews of Israel, believe they have the same rights to the lands of their ancestors. In history, that seems to have never been true for any indigenous or displaced culture.
THOMAS JEFFERSON AND SLAVERY
The slaughter of Indians, enslavement of minorities by white America, and the slaughter of innocent Muslims by Netanyahu and his followers are all reprehensible examples of the misuse of government power. This is not to say Hamas is not guilty of crimes against humanity, but their evil acts do not warrant evil reactions. The power of Israel is being used for evil, not the return of peace.
Netanyahu’s refusal to settle with Hamas over unjustly murdered, imprisoned, and abused hostages does not justify the killing of Palestinian innocents in Gaza. The power of Netanyahu’s military actions and Trump’s support for taking Gaza land from the Palestinians is evil and unjust. That evil and injustice must be replaced with a negotiated settlement that releases Hamas’ hostages and returns Gaza to the Palestinian people. Humanity cannot wait until “…Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This”. Power lies in the hands of Israel’s leaders to negotiate a settlement.
The common denominator of the war in Gaza is the power being held by white people who refuse to believe all human beings are equal. It is partly a religious issue, but it is a human issue aggravated by religious difference and the self-interests of people of different races and cultures. The white world hegemon needs to come to its senses because at some point in the future, “being white” will not be where the power rests. Power will shift to other races and cultures just as Mesopotamians, Egyptians, Mongols, Chinese Dynasties, and Islamic Caliphates once changed the course of history.
Omar El Akkad pleads for peace and human equality in One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This. From El Akkad’s words, the white hegemon should hear and obey.
The Autobiography of Benvenuto Cellini is not a great piece of writing, but it is an interesting perspective on the progeny of Florence, the violence of the 16th century, and the great art that came out of the Medici era.
Books of Interest Website: chetyarbrough.blog
The Autobiography of Benvenuto Cellini
By: Benvenuto Cellini
Benvenuto Cellini (Author, Italian goldsmith, sculptor, and contemporary of Michelangelo, died at age 71.)
This autobiography is alleged to have been dictated to a teenager by Cellini in the 16th century. The book is a mess but oddly interesting because of the volatile life of its author. The dictation is believed to have occurred when Cellini was in his fifties. He was born in 1500 and lived until 1571 with his death at the age of 70. Considering his volatile life and the average age of death as 30 or 40, Cellini lived a long life. Of course, the average age at death is skewed by high infant mortality, but Cellini’s autobiography shows him to be a resilient survivor.
Michelangelo, a Florence native. (1475-1564, died at the age of 88.)
Cellini tells of surviving the plague, escaping assassination, being imprisoned, escaping, and, participating in several battles as a soldier where he was wounded but recovered. However, Cellini was also an amazing artist from the same city as Michelangelo. In contrast to Michelangelo, Cellini seems to have been quite boisterous; however, like Michelangelo he was strong willed and resistant to authority. The two men new each other. They shared experience as patrons of the powerful Medici family. Cellini appears to admire and like Michelangelo in his biographic recollection. They both did work for Pope Clement VII and Cosimo I de’ Medici.
DetailDetailDetail
Cellini appears to have traveled as much as Michelangelo because of his life as a soldier as well as artist. Two of his greatest artistic accomplishments are the “Salt Cellar” and “Nymph of Fontainebleau” done for King Francis I of France. However, he also completed “Perseus with the Head of Medusa” for Cosimo I de’ Medici in Italy.
As a soldier, Cellini tells of the attack of Rome by troops of Charles V, the Holy Roman Emperor. The leader of the attack forces, the Constable of Bourbon, was shot by Cellini according to Cellini’s autobiography. Though Cellini seems never to have been wounded in battle, he tells of several violent encounters that could have ended his life.
Statue of Cellini in Florence.
The Autobiography of Benvenuto Cellini is not a great piece of writing, but it is an interesting perspective on the progeny of Florence, the violence of the 16th century, and the great art that came out of the Medici era.
One may question William’s characterization of Facebook’s “Careless People” as more like calculating self-interested managers than careless employees.
Books of Interest Website: chetyarbrough.blog
Careless People (A Cautionary of Power, Greed, and Lost Idealism)
By: Sarah Wynn-Williams
Narrated By: Sarah Wynn-Williams
Sarah Wynn-Williams (Author, Ex-Meta executive, presently barred from criticism of Meta, formally known as Facebook.)
As noted in the sub-title of “Careless People”, Meta (formerly known as Facebook) is criticized as an international influencer of society that has lost its sense of ethics, i.e. the ability to see the difference between right and wrong. Facebook originally intended to be a forum for the connection of people interested in sharing ideas, communicating with others, and building positive social connection. Instead, the author’s experience as a Facebook’ executive found that expansion, profit, and political influence became an unethical pursuit by the major shareholders (particularly Mark Zukerberg) and managers of the corporation. She argues leadership of Facebook recklessly pursued income, expansion, and political influence around the world with little ethical oversight.
New Zealand (The birthplace of Sarah Wynn-Williams)
Ms. Williams was born in New Zealand but went to work for Facebook and became a U.S. citizen. Her work at Facebook led to a promotion that made her the Director of Global Public Policy which provided opportunity to travel the world soliciting business for Facebook in other countries. Her experience informs listeners of what Meta’s corporate goal: “give people the power to build community and bring the world closer together” became something less as a result of careless management oversight.
Williams begins with a story of a harrowing trip to Myanmar, presumably after their revolution in 2021.
The military coup that ousted the democratically elected government appears to have just begun when Williams had an audience to pitch the Facebook platform to its military government. Just getting to the building where the meeting was to be held was a trial but her position as a representative of Facebook ended with her arrival at a headquarters building of the new regime. It is an interesting story because it shows the power of Facebook association in a country that just had a coup d’état that ended civilian rule. Millions of Myanmar citizens were displaced by widespread human rights abuses with civilian arrests and violence. One wonders what “giving people the power to build community” means in what became a military totalitarian state. (When visiting the Baltics last year, our guide expressed a love for Myanmar’s citizens and the country but was told by Myanmar friends it is unsafe to visit since the coup.)
Williams worked directly with Sheryl Sandberg, the COO of Facebook.
Later, Williams explains a meeting with a Japanese official where Sandberg and Williams go to promote interest in Facebook which had not been a part of the Japanese media environment. The involvement of Williams was primarily to support Sandberg’s pitch. Williams indicates Sandberg was quite complementary of Williams’ assistance after the meeting which gives context to their relationship. A subsequent description of Sandberg’s strong, sometimes harsh, personality and influence on Facebook employees is given by Williams. The Japan’ meeting was successful because Facebook entered the market in 2010. Its popularity is said to have declined with Instagram and LINE being the dominant platforms, but Facebook maintains a presence in the country.
Societies interconnectedness is a boon and bane for 21st century society.
The pandering of Zukerberg, Bezos, Musk, Cook, and Pichai to world governments is made suspect by William’s experience as an employee of Facebook. Media companies have become too big to fail and too ungovernable to manage. Even though the internet more intimately connects the world, the platforms of today’s giants of information create a forum for control and conflict rather than a place to encourage social comity.
Robert Kaplan (Author of “Waste Land”.)
As noted by Robert Kaplan in “Waste Land”, the growing decline of Russia’s, China’s and America’s governments has been increased with world interconnectedness. It appears from William’s experience at Facebook, there is some truth in Kaplan’s observation. Kaplan’s solution is to dismantle these giants and encourage competition to defray their principal stockholder’s influence.
As the Turkish saying goes, “a fish rots from the head down”. Williams frequent contact with Mark Zuckerberg gives weight to her view of Facebook culture. Mr. Zuckerberg seems to carelessly lead Meta into the arena of politics by promoting Facebook’s media clout to political parties because it raises revenues with political advertising and influences government policy on media’ regulation. Frighteningly, Williams notes Zuckerberg considers running for President with the power of Meta to support his candidacy. One may question William’s characterization of Facebook’s “Careless People” as more like calculating self-interested managers than careless employees.
Robert Kaplan’s inference is that all nation-state governments are being challenged by an increasingly polarized society. The question is whether Trump is a symptom or cure for the decline of America.
Books of Interest Website: chetyarbrough.blog
Waste Land (A World of Permanent Crises)
By: Robert Kaplan
Narrated By: Robert Petkoff
Robert D. Kaplan (Author, writer for The Atlantic, Washinton Post, New York Times, The New Republic, Foreign Affairs, and the Wall Street Journal)
Robert Kaplan’s book makes one pessimistic about the future of democratic government. The wars in Gaza and Ukraine, along with the re-election of Donald Trump, and the economic retrenchment of Xi in China reinforce some of the themes of Kaplan’s “Waste Land”. One who reads or hears national news understands why Kaplan argues there is a growing decline in Russia’s, China’s and America’s governments. He argues the cause of that decline is increased world interconnectedness, and rising government instability. His biggest concern is what he believes is a nascent parallel to the rise of Naziism.
The advent of the internet has been a mixed blessing because it is used to spread false information as well as the truth.
The consequence has been to make societies more polarized. An example is a widespread opinion by Trump appointees that the rise in the number of government employees is wasting taxpayer dollars for public education, science research, foreign aid, veterans’ affairs, the national park service and the IRS. (For example, an estimated 76,000 employees–16% of the work force has been discharged from Veterans Affairs. The VA provides healthcare services for eligible veterans, handles disability compensation, pensions, education assistance, like the GI bill, and home loans to citizens who have honorably served America.) These reductions in workforce are not based on any analysis of work performance but solely to reduce the cost of government. Trump, like Xi and Putin, believe Thucydides’ observation that “The strong do what they can and the weak suffer what they must”.
Trump’s firings are being done by an appointed agent of the President who decimated the work force of Twitter in the same way he is arbitrarily discharging American government employees.
Kaplan argues today’s political atmosphere in America, Russia, and China are similar to the societal condition of Germany before the rise of Hitler. He points to the fragility of authoritarians and the rise of societal polarization in today’s world. He compares economic instability, social discontent, and political extremism of the Weimar Republic to what he implies is a growing condition in both Western democracies and Eastern autocracies. The last chapters of Kaplan’s book focus on urbanization of the world and its consequent polarization of society that is deconstructed governance in a way that reminds him of the Weimar Republic’s deterioration. He infers Trump’s re-election, the dismantling of the American government, and America’s social disruption is similar to what happened in Germany in the early 1930s.
An example of the disruption of which Kaplan writes is the Venezuela immigrants who were flown to El Salvador and frog-walked to an El Salvador prison without adjudication by America’s judicial system.
Kaplan’s argument is that President Trump is destabilizing the American government by violating the Constitution of the United States.
A federal judge ordered a plane full of alleged immigrants (identified as gang members) to be returned to the United States. The plane was in the air when the President in apparent defiance of a direct court order chose to not have the plane turned around. The deported were filmed as they were frog-walked into a foreign jail while being denied any hearing or adjudication of their alleged criminality. The President of the United States appears to have ignored a Federal Court, the Third Branch of American government, designed to balance arbitrary actions of either a President or Congress for denying due process of law.
America re-elected Trump despite his conviction on 34 counts of falsifying business records for paying “hush money” to Stormy Daniels when first elected in 2016.
Though Trump’s conviction does not rise to the level of Hitler’s high treason in the failed Beer Hall Putsch, willingness to lie under oath is a troubling characteristic for a President, let alone, any citizen of the United States. According to news reports, Trump says he did not know he had been asked to turn the plane around by a Federal Judge. One might ask why should America believe what he says?
Trump is challenging the authority of Congress and the Judiciary by taking actions without consideration of the Constitution of the United States.
This reminds one of human rights violations in the early days of Hitler’s rise in Germany. Hitler gathered sympathizers from disillusioned veterans, business leaders, the middle class, the German youth, and Far-Right Nationalists. Trump appears to have had similar support in his re-election. Trump decides to pardon all January 6, 2021, U.S. Capitol attackers. Those pardons are a diminishment of American democracy akin to Hitler’s support of Nazi sympathizers.
Attack on the Capitol on January 6, 2021–Trump pardons all attackers on 1/20/25, after being re-elected as President of the United States.
Deng led a transformative change in China’s economy after Mao’s death. With a pragmatic judgement that “It doesn’t matter whether a cat is black or white as long as it catches mice”
In the last third of Kaplan’s book, the incredible success of China under Deng Xiaoping is addressed. Kaplan explains Deng became the leader of China between 1978 and 1989. Though Deng was a contemporary leader during the Mao administration, Deng led a transformative change in China’s economy after Mao’s death. With a pragmatic judgement that “It doesn’t matter whether a cat is black or white as long as it catches mice” he opened China to the pursuit of personal, and individual citizen’ prosperity. The result of Deng’s pragmatism was the unprecedented economic growth and wealth of China. Much of what Deng started has been reversed by the Xi administration. In Kaplan’s opinion, the resurgence of the communist party has led to a reversal of economic growth in China. Kaplan infers a return to collectivism is a reflection of societal interconnectedness with a government-controlled internet that denies freedom of thought and action by China’s citizens.
Kaplan refers to Jane Jacobs (1916-2006) and the urbanization of America. He notes Oswald Spengler (1929-1936) recognized the implication of urbanization is government deterioration as a part of the natural lifecycle of every civilization. The point Kaplan makes is that nation-states have become like the early cities Jacobs refers to but with an interconnectedness that accelerates and shortens government lifecycles. Robert Kaplan’s inference is that all nation-state governments are being challenged by an increasingly polarized society caused by internet connectedness. The question is whether Trump is a symptom or cure for the decline of America.
Trump’s effort to make peace is important. Putin will gain a pyrrhic victory, and many Ukrainians will suffer the same consequence as the Baltic citizens who were victimized by Stalin. It is likely that the price of peace is going to be the lives of Ukrainians who come under Putin’s rule. The only solace is that Putin, like Stalin, is near the end of his rule.
Books of Interest Website: chetyarbrough.blog
The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich (A History of Nazi Germany)
By: William L. Shirer
Narrated By: Grover Gardener
In thinking about Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, it seems prudent to revisit William Shirer’s studied history of Nazi Germany and the beginnings of WWII.
DostoevskyTolstoyGoetheFRIEDRICH WILHELM NIETZSCHE (1844-1900 DIED AT AGE 55)
Reviewing the literature and history of Russia and Germany, one wonders if there are parallels between Hitler’s invasion of Poland and Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. Literature suggests few cultural parallels. Having read Dostoevsky and Tolstoy, one can hardly compare their themes of societal suffering and redemption to Kant and Nietzsche’s themes of individualism or Mein Kamph’s iteration of survival of the fittest. In the history of the Czars of Russia, society and class were of the greatest importance while in Germany, Goethe’s Faust and Hesse’s Siddhartha–the focus was on individualism–not the general condition of society.
It seems Putin is not like Hitler in his aim to acquire other countries. Putin is interested in expanding Russia’s territory to return to a Stalinist style of communism. Both Hitler and Putin are deluded but in different ways. William Shirer characterizes Hitler as ambitious, and fanatic but focused on gaining personal power through German conquest of other countries. Putin’s invasion of Ukraine is to return Russia to a Stalinist U.S.S.R., a nationalist power. Both are set on invading other countries, but Shirer shows Hitler’s desire is for personal power while Putin is more interested in nation-state power.
One must ask oneself, if there is a motivational difference, so what? The consequences to countries being invaded is the same.
Yes, the consequence to an invaded country is the same regardless of the motivation of the invader. Hearing the atrocity of Russian oppression is as though it happened yesterday when one visits the Baltic countries and talks to people who survived Stalin’s control of their countries. There is a palpable fear one hears from Baltic citizens when the invasion of Ukraine by Russia is discussed. The fear is in the possibility of the Baltics being next.
President Trump is attempting to quell the war between Russia and Ukraine, but the cost of peace looks like it will require appeasement at the expense of Ukrainian citizens.
The question is–will appeasement stop further encroachment by Russia on other former U.S.S.R. countries? Putin is 72 years old. Hitler was 45 years old when he became the Führer of Germany. It seems unlikely that the next leader of Russia will follow Putin’s lead in view of Russia’s atrocities in Ukraine and the history of former citizens, like those of the Baltics in Stalin’s U.S.S.R.
The invasion of Ukraine is not like Hitler’s invasion of Poland except in the tragedy of death of innocents.
There is little reason to believe Ukraine is a domino, as was the mistaken American belief in Vietnam by the Kennedy Administration. As all who have read this blog, I am not a fan of Donald Trump. However, in this realpolitik world, Trump’s effort to make peace is important. Putin will gain a pyrrhic victory, and many Ukrainians will suffer the same consequence as the Baltic citizens who were victimized by Stalin. It is likely that the price of peace is going to be the lives of Ukrainians who come under Putin’s rule. The only solace is that Putin, like Stalin, is near the end of his rule.
Listening to the examples of Professor Greenberg’s views on music make this audiobook an immense pleasure. It is a long audiobook but one who takes long walks will be highly entertained by the Professor’s insight to music of the world.
Books of Interest Website: chetyarbrough.
Great Courses-How to Listen to and Understand Great Music, 3rd Edition (A Cultural History)
By: Robert Greenberg
Narrated By: Professor Greenberg
Robert Greenberg (Great Courses Professor, historian, composer, pianist, speaker, and author.)
This is a history of Great Music by a remarkable professor who fully utilizes the value of audiobooks in his teaching. Though this is a long audiobook, every lecture is a pleasure for a listener who knows little about the history or styles of music. Professor Greenberg’s enthusiasm and pointed opinions about music and its evolution are informative, clearly explained, and fabulously entertaining, particularly for non-musicians.
The professor’s storytelling is highly entertaining. He reviews the history of music anecdotally, interspersed with musical examples (some of which are his own piano playing) and precise definitions of words used in music that offer clarity and entertainment to his audience.
The span of history which Greenberg covers is from ancient music traditions to the progressive development of Western music. He helps one understand what to listen for when attending musical presentations. He spans Renaissance, Baroque, Classical, Romantic, and 20th-century music. From Bach’s Baroque musical production to Shostakovich’s politically tinged symphonies, one learns how music is exemplified and amplified by history.
Greenberg begins with ancient Greek and Roman music.
He explains the role of music in Greek tragedies and offers examples of Gregorian chant and medieval polyphony (two or more independent melodies that are interconnected). He notes Bach’s fugues as polyphonic hallmarks of Western classical music that rose in the Renaissance and Baroque periods.
Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750, German composer and musician of the late Baroque period.)
Greenberg provides examples of a fugue and concerto. A fugue is a musical composition with a theme that is interwoven with overlapping voices. He offers the example of Bach’s music.
Antonio Vivaldi (1678-1741. Italian composer, virtuoso violinist of Baroque music.)
In contrast, concerto is a solo instrument (or a group of soloists) offering an orchestral presentation infused with dialogue. The Four Seasons by Vivaldi would be an example but the fascinating point is that the dialogue is in music, i.e. no words, but a clear representation of the seasons in an abstract way. You hear the sounds of spring, summer, fall, and winter.
Greenberg offers definitions of musical terms.
Greenberg also defines a number of musical concepts and terms:
Melody: A sequence of musical notes that are perceived as a single entity, often referred to as the “tune.”
Harmony: The combination of different musical notes played or sung simultaneously to produce a pleasing sound.
Polyphony: Multiple independent melodies played or sung simultaneously, creating a complex and interwoven texture.
Sonata Form: A musical structure commonly used in the first movements of symphonies and sonatas, typically consisting of an exposition, development, and recapitulation.
The Professor notes the fundamental difference between German and Italian classical music.
The Italians created opera to illustrate the emotions of life through operatic story telling. Germans highlight intellectual depth and structural complexity. Greenberg notes Italians celebrate the melodic beauty and operatic flair of music. This difference is exemplified by the Catholic church’s sale of indulgences.
Martin Luther (1483-1546)
Greenberg recounts the history of the Reformation. He notes the impact of Martin Luther (1483-1546), the key German figure in the Protestant Reformation who posted the 95 Thesis that criticizes the Catholic Church’s practice of selling indulgences for sinners to get into heaven. The 95 Thesis was a direct challenge to the authority of the Pope to use indulgences to raise money for the Catholic Chruch. Luther believed only faith, an emotionally grounded intellectual belief, could pave one’s way to heaven.
German OperaItalian Opera
Rather than an Italian Rossini or Puccini opera, German operas have complex narratives with composers like Wagner and Straus who are exploring ideas like destiny, heroism, and the human condition. Both German and Italian operas engage emotions, but German operas tend to explore philosophical, mythological, or psychological themes while Italians focus on heart-wrenching human emotions.
Listening to the examples of Professor Greenberg’s views on music make this audiobook an immense pleasure. It is a long audiobook but one who takes long walks will be highly entertained by the Professor’s insight to music of the world.
From Fukuyama’s intellectual musing to our eyes and ears, one hopes he is correct about America’s future in the technological age.
Books of Interest Website: chetyarbrough.blog
The Great Disruption (Human Nature and the Reconstitution of Social Order)
By: Francis Fukuyama
Francis Fukuyama (Author, political scientist, political economist, international relations scholar.)
Francis Fukuyama argues America is at the threshold of a social reconstitution. Fukuyama believes we are at Gladwell’s “Tipping Point” that is changing social norms and rebuilding America’s social order. He argues the innovation of technology, like the industrial revolution, is deconstructing social relationships and economics while reconstructing capitalist democracy.
The immense power of big technology companies like Amazon, Google, and Facebook have outsized influence on American society. They change the tone of social interaction through their ability to disseminate both accurate and misleading information. They erode privacy and create algorithms tailored to disparate interest groups that polarize society. The media giant’s objective is to increase clicks on their platforms to attract more advertisers who pay for public exposure of their service, merchandise, and brand.
To reduce outsize influence of big tech companies, Fukuyama suggests more technology has an answer.
There should be more antitrust measures instituted by the government to break monopolistic practices and encourage competition with large technology companies. Algorithms created by oversight government organizations can ensure transparency and reduce harmful content to reduce big tech companies influence on society. (One doubts expansion of government agencies is a likely scenario in today’s government.)
On the one hand, technology has improved convenience, communication, and a wider distribution of information.
On the other, technology has flooded society with misinformation, invaded privacy, and polarized society. Technology has created new jobs while increasing loss of traditional industry jobs with automation. Trying to return to past labor-intensive manufacturing companies is a fool’s errand in the age of technology.
Luddites during the Industrial Revolution.
Like the industrial revolution, the tech revolution’s social impact is mixed with a potential for greater social isolation, and job displacement with the addition of wide distribution of misinformation. The positives of new technology are improvements in healthcare product and services, renewable energy, and climate understanding with potential for improved control.
Face-to-face interactions become less and less necessary. Children’s access to technology impacts parental supervision and relationship. Fukuyama suggests setting boundaries for technology use needs to be a priority in American families. Technology can open the door to better education, but it also becomes a source of misinformation that can come from the internet of things. Employers have the opportunity to help with work-life balance by encouraging flexible hours and remote work. (Oddly, that suggestion is being undermined by the current government administration and many American companies.)
Economic growth, access to information, and global connectivity have been positively impacted by technology. However, the concentration of power, misinformation, and surveillance of social media has diminished privacy and eroded individual freedom. There are concerns about technology and how it is good and bad for democratic capitalism.
The good lies in increased efficiency, innovation and creation of new markets, through globalization. However, today’s American government shows how tariffs are a destroyer of globalization. Fukuyama implies A.I. and automation is displacing workers and aggravating economic inequality because it is being misunderstood for its true potential and also being misused. Personal data is used to manipulate consumers in ways that challenge the balance between corporations and consumers.
Fukuyama argues private parties will grow in America to create software that will filter and customize online services.
With that effort control of the influence of big tech companies will be diminished. With decentralization of big tech power and influence, society will theoretically become less polarized and more consensus oriented. The capitalist opportunity for tech savvy startups that diminish influence of big tech companies will re-create diversification like that which the matured industrial revolution gave to new manufacturers. Like Standard Oil and other conglomerates of the industrial revolution, businesses like Amazon, Google, and Facebook will have competition that diminishes their power and influence.
American Government will grow to regulate the internet of things just as it has grown to regulate banks, industries, and social services.
Josephine Baker passed away in 1975 from a cerebral hemorrhage. Baker shows herself to have been an entertainment phenom, a war hero, a civil rights activist, and a believer in the equality of all human beings.
Books of Interest Website: chetyarbrough.blog
Fearless and Free: A Memoir
By: Josephine Baker
Translation by Anam Zafar with a Forword by Ljeoma Oluo
Narrated By: Anam Zafar, Sophie R. Lewis, Ljeoma Oluo, Jade Wheeler, Quentin Bruno.
Josephine Baker’s real name was Freda Josephine McDonald, born in St. Louis, Missouri in 1906. She died at the age of 68 in 1975.
“Fearless and Free” is a vignette of an incredibly brave and beautiful American woman who became a world-renowned performer, humanitarian, and spy for France during WWII. At the age of 19, Baker sailed to France on her own. She was looking for freedom and opportunities that were unavailable in racially segregated America. She was hired as a dancer for La Revue Negre at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées in Paris. She became famous in France for her provocative dance movements and growth as a singer and versatile entertainer.
Baker became famous as a result of wearing a skirt made of artificial bananas in a dance that had elements of jazz and African-inspired movements.
Baker’s memoir shows what “force of nature” means when referring to a human being. Willingness to travel alone to another country for any person at age 19, with no understanding of the language and no job prospects, is an act of incredible fearlessness. Baker’s memoir is a lesson to every person who feels trapped and wishes to become more than what their current circumstance in life offers.
Baker was a French secret agent and entertainer during WWII. She smuggled information written in invisible ink on her sheet music.
Baker is alleged to have had affairs with both men and women. She was married four times and is alleged to have had affairs with two famous women, i.e., Frida Kahlo, a Mexican artist, and Sidonie-Gabrille Colette, a French novelist.
Frida Kahlo with BakerSidonie-Gabrille Colette
Baker’s life shows how adaptive humans can be in changing environments. Baker spoke no French when she left America but became fluent in her adopted countries language. When Paris is occupied by the Nazis, Baker is recruited by the French secret service because of her fame and travel around the world despite the war. She secreted messages to anti-Nazi agents in her travels and received the Croix de Guerre, the Rosette of the Resistance, and one of France’s highest distinctions, the Chevalier of the Legion of Honour.
Amazingly, Baker earned a pilot’s license in 1935, one of the few women to have a pilot’s license at that time. She is said to have transported supplies for the Red Cross during WWII.
Baker adopted 12 children from different racial and cultural backgrounds calling them her “Rainbow Tribe” to show the unity of all peoples of the world. She advocated for civil rights and refused to perform in segregated events. She supported the American civil rights movement and was the only woman to speak at the 1963 “March on Washington” alongside Martin Luther King in 1963.
Akio – From Japan.
Jarry – From Finland.
Luis – From Colombia.
Jean-Claude – From Canada.
Moïse – From Israel.
Brahim – From Algeria.
Marianne – From France.
Noël – From Belgium.
Koffi – From Côte d’Ivoire.
Mara – From Venezuela.
Stellina – From Morocco.
Janot – From Korea.
Baker, with her 4th husband Jo Bouillion (a musician and conductor), adopted the twelve when they were in their 40s. Stellina was the youngest at 11 years of age when Baker died. Baker marries Bouillion at the end of WWII. They are a French contingent in Germany that entertains the troops in 1945. The destruction of German cities is noted by Baker as horrendous. She reinforces the feelings of most Americans after the reveal of the Holocaust’ slaughter and the economic damage of war.
Baker was an advocate for unity of all peoples of the world.
Baker revisited America after the war. The last chapter of her book shows how little had changed in regard to Black and ethnic discrimination in America. She visited Harlem to find Jewish landlords and property owners who victimized Black Americans who were as badly discriminated against as they were in the south. She and her white husband were ejected from New York hotels because of the color of her skin. She visited her family in the south to find nothing had changed. Her fame and success in France made her more French than American. It is a truly despicable picture she paints of how little progress in equal rights had been made in America when many Black, Jewish, and white Americans had died for the right to be free of repression.
Josephine Baker passed away in 1975 from a cerebral hemorrhage. Jo Bouillion died in 1984. Baker shows herself to have been an entertainment phenom, a war hero, a civil rights activist, and a believer in the equality of all human beings.
REVIEWS AND VIEWS OF LIFE 