DEFINING FREEDOM

Audio-book Review
 By Chet Yarbrough

Blog: awalkingdelight)
 Website: chetyarbrough.blog

The Rise and Fall of the Neoliberal Order (America and the World in the Free Market Era)

By: Gary Gerstle

Narrated by: Keith Sellon-Wright

Gary Gerstle (Author, Professor of American History and Fellow in History at Sidney Sussex College, University of Cambridge.)

Gary Gerstle’s history of the “…Neoliberal Order” is tiresome to listen to but gives weight to American belief and practice of freedom regardless of political affiliation or interest group association. Gerstle’s history is tiresome because of its labeling, not because of its historical accuracy. Whether one is a conservative, liberal, or neoliberal is superfluous.

Americans pride themselves on being beacons of freedom when in truth they are opinionated advocates of self-interest hiding behind political labels.

Gerstle’s history shows every President of the United States has been elected by the prevailing sentiment of the time. (To date, Presidents of the United States have always been men because of humanity’s history of misogyny.) The common thread of America’s leaders is their belief in freedom. In America, that freedom is limited by “rule of law” created by two branches of a popularly elected legislature. Sadly, as shown by Gerstle’s history, America’s “rule of law” has historically victimized the powerless and poor.

Belief in freedom has justified slavery, led to a civil war, given America the emancipation proclamation, voting rights for women, and created vituperative media manipulators like Rush Limbaugh, trolls like Alex Jones, and media conglomerates like Fox News.

The difficulty of American democracy is in knowing where to draw the line between freedom and rule of law that regulates excesses and treats all citizens equally. Guilt finally rose to the level for the emancipation proclamation to free slaves, and voting rights for women in 1920, but Black Americans and women are still seeking equal rights.

Gerstle accurately reveals America’s adaptation to the will of an ethnic majority to circumstances of different eras, whether it is enrichment of the rich, preparation for war, recovery from economic depression, or adjustment to the threat of global warming.

The strength of America democracy is its flexibility in dealing with societal change, with the caveat that government tends to protect the status quo.

Communal self-interest changes with the circumstances of its time. Self-interest is immutable in one sense and highly fungible in another. The power of money influences elections and government policy that aids the moneyed, often at the expense of the powerless and poor. Communal self-interest is reenforced by the right to vote but the economic advantage of government policy goes to the rich and middle class because that is where the money is that supports election campaigns.

Gerstle notes that in the 21st century, particularly with the ubiquity of media, the challenge for the public is to know the difference between propaganda, lies, and truth.

Gerstle infers history shows America takes the course of moneyed interests in elections whether it is one or the other of the three challenges to the public. Sadly, propaganda and lies are often believed by the public to be truth.

Gerstle recalls how the flood gate of media technology opens and its flood takes hold of America during the second term of the Clinton administration. Clinton chose to eliminate the Glass-Steagall Act that was designed in 1933 to prevent another Depression.

Clinton recognizes the world is at the precipice of the tech revolution. During the industrial revolution, banks were steered away from volatile equity markets by the Glass-Steagall Act. Clinton, with the help of Republicans like Newt Gingrich, wanted to loosen the chains of investment banks so the technology revolution could blossom. Neither Democratic nor Republic Presidents reversed that decision after the Clinton presidency.

In part, one might argue the near banking collapse in 2008 could have been avoided if the Glass-Stegall Act had been left in force.

Worse, in the 2008 financial debacle, stockholders in at risk banks were bailed out by the Obama government while overstretched homeowners were left with mortgages they could not pay. The rich were bailed out while the poor were bankrupted.

The three banks that failed in May and March of 2023 are arguably a consequence of the volatile investments made in technology companies, a second threat to the banking industry in the 21st century.

The choice of the government in 2023 is to replace depositors’ funds in excess of FDIC limits to avoid the loss of their businesses from the profligate investments by these three banks. The difference between the 2008 bailout and the 2023 government response is bank’ stockholders were not bailed out by the government while other banks took over their portfolios.

Gerstle’s history clearly shows American Democracy’s failures are non-partisan. Both Republican and Democratic leaders fail the poor and powerless populations of America.

That failure is not because of a failure of democracy but because of poorly regulated capitalism. Karl Marx explained democracy is a first step toward communism. One can disagree with that conclusion by noting self-interest is a part of life that makes the ideal of communism unattainable. What is attainable is a democracy that improves public education and mandates business legislation that ensures and enforces social equality and equal opportunity.

American Democracy needs to erase lobbyist, industry, and individual financial donors’ influence on government political campaigns.

Democracy is a work in progress, but it is the best form of government known today. Capitalism is the engine of economic growth that works in all forms of government. In today’s world, capitalism offers the greatest opportunity for humanity in any form of government, but particularly in Democracy.

In the 21st century, it seems democracy is evolving to meld the best of socialism with the self-interest of capitalism.

Democracy struggles with the principles of regulated freedom. Gerstle’s history shows democratic freedom, limited by rule of law, remains at the heart of what can truly make America Great. What gets in the way is the greed of moneyed interests that elect leaders who become dependent on a minority of American society.

Gerstle’s recounts the history of the second Bush’s administration’s misguided and disastrous invasion of Iraq.

The bloody toll of America’s invasion and failed reconstruction of Iraq illustrates the hubris of American belief that democratic freedom works for all nations of the world.

The invasion and reconstruction of Iraq is shown to be an American failure by any measure of societal improvement.

Gerstle shows the election of Donald Trump is a triumph of the disaster of believing American Democratic elections are in the best interest of its citizens. Trump’s administration mocks the ideals of American Democratic government and freedom. Rule of law is a joke to Trump as evidenced by the many indictments and denials of America’s former President. Gerstle notes how unprepared Trump was to become President of the United States.

By any measure, Trump is shown by Gerstle to have damaged America’s image in the world.

Gerstle’s history shows Democracy needs to be regulated by rule of law. Self-interest is unlikely to disappear from human nature which puts all societies at risk. Any form of government can become autocratic but taking the influence of money out of elections leaves hope that citizens of Democratic nations will have a chance to live well, and in peace.

MYSTICISM

Audio-book Review
 By Chet Yarbrough

Blog: awalkingdelight)
 Website: chetyarbrough.blog

The Sentence

By: Louise Erdrich

Narrated by: Louise Erdrich

Louise Erdrich (American novelist and poet, member of the Chippewa Indians, a tribe of Ojibwe people.)

This is a review of a third novel of Louise Erdrich’s books. The three that are reviewed are about native American experience in the U.S.

Louise Erdrich who wrote “The Round House”, “The Night Watchman” and this book, “The Sentence”, grew up in Wahpeton, North Dakota. Erdrich’s parents, a Chippewa mother and German father, taught at the “Bureau of Indian Affairs” in Wahpeton.  She is a member of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians. (Erdrich’s husband was a professor and writer who was the first director of “Native American Studies” at Dartmouth. He died at the age of 52.)

Erdrich begins “The Sentence” with a bizarre story of an addled brained addict, (the heroine of the story) who is convinced by her roommate to pick up a dead body from a friend’s house.

The addict agrees to do it in return for $26,000 lottery win that had recently been received by her friend. At first, one thinks the dead body is really just a pet, but it is actually a human that was once the boyfriend of the lottery winner. Further, we find this seems to have occurred on an Indian reservation which introduces an element of understandability because of the complication of reservation law versus America’s national government law.

The heroine rents a refrigerated van, picks up the body, and the next thing we find is she is arrested on a cocaine drug running charge. The corpse had bags of cocaine taped to its armpits. The heroine is convicted and sentenced by the federal government to a long prison sentence for breaking a federal law for drug running. The sentence is shortened from 60 years when her arresting reservation officer gets witnesses to recant their testimony. The former accused drug runner is released and marries the reservation lawman who arrested her for the alleged crime.

Finally, “The Sentence” begins to settle down to a somewhat normal life story. The now married couple adopts a young Indian girl who rebels against her mother’s care and attention. This seems a rather common case of mother/daughter relationships that either mends itself in maturity or remains ambivalent for the remainder of their lives.

The adopted daughter appears at her mother’s doorstep unannounced, with a baby carriage her mother presumes is loaded with some inane material items she brought with her.

What the mother finds is that it is a weeks old baby recently born from the daughter’s union with a man her mother has not met. The mother is thrilled to see her new grandson but asks too many questions about the father and disrupts the tentative truce between mother and daughter. The daughter withdraws to a bedroom, slams the door, and the mother realizes what she perceives to be her fault for asking about the baby’s father and his responsibilities.

However, the now grandmother is ecstatic about her new grandson and regrets having angered her daughter, presumably for fear of losing a future relationship with the baby.

Not too much new here from anyone who came from a broken home. Erdrich’s story begins to lag at this point because this seems like a common story of many American families. Then, Erdrich begins to refine her story.

Erdrich turns to events of America’s 21st century world and the story reclaims a listener’s interest. A bookstore in which the heroine works after her release from prison is in Minnesota, the home of George Floyd’s senseless murder by the Minneapolis police.

The heroine’s husband, as a former reservation police officer, offers a whiff of irony to the story. As a police officer, he had looked at crime on a scale of threat to others rather than transgression of a written law. He gauged his action in arrest based on a scale of threat to others rather than violation of the letter of law.

Erdrich’s story encompasses Covid19. It is becoming a clear and present danger to the characters in her story. Businesses are beginning to suffer from the reality of a worldwide lock down. Bookstores are identified as essential services, but customers are reluctant to visit because of fear of public contact. The government offers loans to essential businesses that may be forgiven if they choose to weather the growing pandemic.

The world seems on the cliff edge of collapse with violence on the streets of Minneapolis and a virus that will consume humanity. A feeling from which many Americans are still adjusting.

Erdrich brings these events to the small world of one family. This family is every family with all the good and bad things that happen in life, but Erdrich implies bad things are more common in native American societies. The daughter is an alcoholic with an innocent baby born with an absent father. The daughter chooses to be in a pornographic movie to live a life she is able to afford. She expresses personal shame in a confession to her mother, a fact of her life of quiet desperation.

A layer of mysticism is added by the author that seems superfluous except that it is a reflection of native American’ belief in a spirit world.

The bookstore in which the heroine works is being haunted by the spirit of the woman who owned the bookstore, a woman that played an important role in the early life of the heroine. The haunting of the bookstore is related to the history of the deceased owner’s life. The bookstore owner lived a life dedicated to helping native Americans, believing she was born as an American Indian. Edrich recounts the discovery of a book by her husband that reveals a secret about the bookstore owner’s life. That secret becomes the focus of the story.

The storeowner’s spirit haunts the bookstore because of a book’s mysterious content.

The spirit will presumably continue to haunt the store as long as the book is missing. The heroine, without knowing the contents of the book, buries it in the hope that the storeowner’s spirit will leave the bookstore. Hiding the book doesn’t work. The storeowner continues to haunt the store and plans to possess the heroine’s body. The storeowner’s desire for possession of the heroine’s body is part of the mystery of the buried book.

The finale of Erdrich’s story is about life and death, love of family, reconciliation between mothers and daughters, and the fate of a storeowner’s spirit. The attraction of Edrich’s books is to know something more about native American culture. In a larger sense, “The Sentence” is about the broad meaning of poverty and discrimination in America and those who suffer from it. To appreciate much of what Erdrich offers in “The Sentence”, a listener needs to be patient.

FICTIONS WONDER

Audio-book Review
 By Chet Yarbrough

Blog: awalkingdelight)
 Website: chetyarbrough.blog

Oliver Twist

By: Charles Dickens

Narrated by: Jonathan Pryce

Charles Dickens (British Author, 1812-1870, died at age 58.)
Sir Jonathan Pryce (British Actor @ Age of 76)

“Oliver Twist” recreates the London of Dickens’ time with detail created by a genius of storytelling, observation, and wordsmithing.

Charles Dickens is considered by some to be the greatest novelist of the Victorian era. Though Dickens stories offer magnificent glimpses of the Victorian era, he is only one of a number of literary giants of his time. There are the Bronte sisters, George Eliot, Thomas Hardy and Rudyard Kipling. Though not having recently read Kipling, Charlotte Bronte’s “Jane Eyre” and George Eliot’s “The Mill on the Floss” recall visions of a past that are as large in imagination, revelation, and erudition as Dickens’ “Oliver Twist”.

What is interesting about audio books is that actors who narrate some of these great books add a dimension to their stories that are missed when read. “Oliver Twist” “Jane Eyre” and Elison’s “The Invisible Man” are three examples of how actors add an intimate dimension to great authors’ books.

A dimension of antisemitism slaps listeners in the face when Pryce says “The Jew” as Dickens’ primary appellation for a criminal named Fagin. Narration of Dicken’s story conjures an image of every nation’s tendency to identify minorities as the “other”, i.e., whomever is not one of “us”.

Pryce’s verbalization of “The Jew” raises remembrance of Hitler’s antisemitism, WWII’s holocaust, and more recently, the Pittsburgh synagogue shooting trial, its convicted perpetrator, and the repellent idea of racial and ethnic discrimination.

Listening to Pryce’s narration of Dicken’s description of Victorian London, a listener reminds oneself that the past is always present. Discrimination is as old as time. Diminishment, abuse, and women’s discrimination remain today. “Oliver Twist” is an example of a great writer who paints a spectacular picture of his time. The squaller of London, the hateful treatment of women, poverty’s existence, ethnic discrimination, and other failures of society are artfully and unforgettably illustrated in “Oliver Twist”.

Discrimination is an irradicable fact of life reinforced by great and forgettable writers.

This complicated story of lucky happenstance, evil doing, and rewarded goodness is artfully written by Dickens and beautifully rendered by Jonathan Price. Price gives weight to the horrible truth of historic antisemitism and how it insidiously permeates the human condition. This is not a condemnation of Dickens but a geniuses’ representation of a sad truth of life and the faults of human society.

COVID19’S LESSONS

Business competition and innovation create winners and losers but if the field of play is level, society benefits.

Audio-book Review
 By Chet Yarbrough

Blog: awalkingdelight)
 Website: chetyarbrough.blog

Post Corona (From Crises to Opportunity)

By: Scott Galloway

Narrated by: Scott Galloway

Scott Galloway (Author, Professor of Marketing at NYU Stem School of Business, founder of several businesses.)

Scott Galloway is a professor of Marketing at NYU’s business school. He uses his experience and education to explain what happened in America during the Covid19 crises and what it revealed about 21st century capitalism. Galloway briefly writes of his boyhood raised by a divorced mother who profoundly influences his life.

Galloway is a self-professed introvert who is both an entrepreneur and business consultant who believes there is a need for government to revise its relationship with business.

Galloway notes the great power of capitalism is based on freedom to innovate and compete in the world of business. Business produces product and service for the public in return for the cost of doing business and the hope for profit. Galloway’s primary focus is on technology companies that grew from an entrepreneur’s idea to marketplace behemoths. Galloway’s education and experience suggest American government needs to redirect publicly held businesses to change their corporate focus from protecting stockholders to protecting workers.

Galloway argues covid19 accelerated restructuring of the business world.

Business has evolved from face-to-face transaction to internet ordering and delivery. Retail and services industries were gob-smacked by loss of customers who changed their social and purchasing habits because of the contact threat from exposure to the Corona virus that killed over 1,000,000 Americans.

Storied companies like J.C. Penney filed for bankruptcy because they could not adjust to changed social and business environment caused by Covid19. The world is still adjusting to the consequences of the pandemic.

The commercial real estate industry is undoubtedly the next crises for the economy. Having an office or a business away from home became less important with the advent of technology. The internet reduces the requirement of human presence in a central location.

Businesses traditionally driven by touch and feel relationships were made less safe by covid19. With the internet of things and people, it became more convenient for customers to buy product on the internet and work from home. As the threat of covid19 diminished, service industries revived, particularly restaurant and entertainment industries, but on-site retail sales continued to struggle. Exceptions are box stores that offer lower prices or retailers that have mastered the art of internet sales and delivery.

Galloway goes on to note the gap between rich and poor that diminishes human value while increasing wealth of stockholders at the expense of workers.

The median annual income of white families in America in 2019 was $188,200, Black families $24,100 and Hispanic families $36,100. Galloway suggests this unconscionable gap is caused by the failure of government to protect workers rather than stockholders as the business environment changed. Galloway suggests inept regulation by government politicians of the free enterprise economy accelerated the gap between rich and poor.

The election process is unfairly weighted away from public interest toward special interests that contribute huge amounts of money to get people elected that are beholden to their financial supporters.

Government lobbyists paid by energy producers, internet scions, automobile manufacturers, and banks were bailed out with government protection of stockholders with little help for workers who became unemployed.

Covid19 benefited tech companies that have changed the face of business commerce in America. Galloway addresses the technological revolution that was accelerated by covid19. Their stock value accelerated at a faster rate than businesses of the industrial revolution. The tech revolution’s change in commerce was equivalent, if not greater than the agricultural and industrial revolutions of the past. The rate of change for business has been greater and more accelerated by covid19.

Amazon, Google, Facebook, Microsoft, and to a lesser extent, Tesla, Netflix, and Twitter (at least prior to Elon Musk’s acquisition) hugely benefited from social isolation caused by covid19.

Galloway optimistically suggests the high cost of education can be reduced by technology. (Maybe, but one wonders about the effectiveness of home schooling during the pandemic. Students fell behind during the pandemic.)

Galloway’s two highlighted potentials of the technology revolution that are not fully realized are education and business. Galloway argues remote learning will improve, and the cost of education will become more competitive and available to the general public. Businesses will become better managed and responsive to the needs of society as better government regulation of the tech age is realized.

The fundamental point made by Galloway is that government needs to change its focus to protection of workers rather than stockholders to realign the gap between rich and poor in the world.

Re-education classes for the unemployed.

Stockholders deserve their fate whether they win or lose the value of their investments, but workers are the driver of business success. Without protection of workers, the American economy will decline, and the influence of democratic capitalism will be diminished. Galloway infers free enterprise in a capitalist society will not regulate itself, but it will improve with prudent government regulation that serves workers first.

Galloway suggests the benefits of socialism will be best served by prudent government regulation of capitalism. Competition and innovation remain the blood and bone of improved economic equality, but workers are undervalued cells of that business foundation.

Galloway acknowledges the benefits of socialism but insists capitalism is the avenue for realization of the best socialism can offer a nation’s citizens. The conjunction of the pandemic and growth of technology have reduced social contact and created harmful media networks that distort truth, attack cultural difference, and exacerbate division and social conflict.

Business competition and innovation create winners and losers but if the field of play is level, society benefits. Moving fast and breaking things is the mantra of the tech world. It is up to government to regulate business to level the playing field. Galloway argues protection of workers, eliminating money’s influence on elections, and allowing stockholders to lose their investment when businesses fail are keys to improving American capitalism.

CHOICE

Audio-book Review
 By Chet Yarbrough

Blog: awalkingdelight)
 Website: chetyarbrough.blog

What Are You Going Through

By: Sigrid Nunez

Narrated by: Hillary Huber

Sigrid Nunez (American Author, novelist, editorial assistant at The New York Review of Books.)

Sigrid Nunez’s “What Are You Going Through” resonates with many who are dealing with terminal illness or the infirmity of old age. Nunez creates a story of a friend dealing with the debilitating effects of cancer treatment. The treatment is prolonging her life but at a cost her friend is increasingly unwilling to bare. Her friend has a plan to quit the treatments and either let nature take its course or swallow a pill to end her suffering.

The friend approaches close friends to ask them to live with her for the time she has left with the understanding that she will take the pill at some point during their time together. Her close friends decline but Nunez’s main character, who is a more distant acquaintance, agrees to stay with her until the end.

The author’s subject is about life and choices humans may or may not have a right to make.

Nunez writes a story that leaves the sole choice of living or dying in the hands of women, more particularly a woman who has terminal cancer. It doesn’t seem a coincidence that a woman is the writer, and her subject is a woman’s choice of living or dying. An inference one might draw is that the choice of life is more a woman’s than a man’s decision. Of course, that raises questions beyond “right to die“.

In the main character’s agreement to live with the cancer patient, the author implies those suffering from a fatal illness do have a right to take their own life.

Euthanasia is currently illegal in all 50 states of the United States, but 10 jurisdictions, including Washington D.C., California, Colorado, Oregon, Vermont, New Mexico, Maine, New Jersey, Hawaii, and Washington allow assisted suicide. Presumably, Nunez’s character is in one of the 10 jurisdictions that allow assisted suicide.

Of course, the question left unanswered is assisted suicide a choice that should be left in the hands of an individual.

Obviously, not everyone agrees because most American states do not authorize assisted suicide. Nunez offers no definitive opinion. Her main character is helping a friend make a choice about a cancer patient’s own life, but the author leaves the choice unmade at the end of her story.

At best, Nunez’s story leaves reader/listener’s on their own about a person’s right to take their own life. Maybe that is her point, but it leaves this critic unsatisfied.

HERES TO LIFE

Kieran Setiva’s book may be one of the best of 2022 but like the hope he describes in the last chapter, it’s a mixed blessing.

Audio-book Review
 By Chet Yarbrough

Blog: awalkingdelight)
 Website: chetyarbrough.blog

Title: Life Is Hard (How Philosophy Can Help Us Find Our Way)

Author Kieran Setiya

Narrated by: Kieran Setiya

Kieran Setiya (British Author, Professor of philosophy at MIT.)

In the beginning of Kieran Setiva’s book something seems awry. It is written by a PhD graduate of Princeton who is working as a professor at MIT. What does a philosopher who is admittedly happily married (with one child), working as a professor at a prestigious university know about life being hard? Stick with it, and by the end of the book, Setiva’s point becomes clear and worth more than one listen. The “Economist” calls Setiva’s book one of the best of 2022. Being an acolyte of the magazine, it seems prudent to review “Life is Hard”.

Every life has an individual story. Life is hard for every human being whether rich or poor, educated or illiterate, wise or foolish.

The only difference is some die young, others live to be old, but each find life is hard. Setiva explains he is stricken at 27 with an undiagnosed malady that deprives him of sleep because of recurrent pelvic pain. He learns how to cope with the pain and get on with life. In that learning and his personal education in philosophy, Setiva offers insight to what it means to live life.

Hardship is an equal opportunity malady that strikes every human life.

It just comes in different forms, either physical and/or mental. No sentient human escapes the hardship of life. Each person deals with hardship in different ways and with varying degrees of success. Setiva chooses to get on with his life by tolerating and adapting to his pain. He pursues personal goals, presumably with the hope of growing old.

Setiva tells the fable of Pandora’s box. In the Greek legend, Pandora was created by the gods and given gifts by each of them. One of the gifts is a box which she is told never to open. From curiosity, the box is opened and all the maladies of life escape, save one, i.e., hope. Like the biblical fable of Eve’s apple and the tree of knowledge, life’s hardship becomes a part of human life. (Sadly, these are fables of ancient history and biblical tales that set the table for world misogyny.) The idea of hope is a mixed blessing that helps one cope with life but with a price paid for its failure to eliminate hardship.

Hope is the insight Setiva reveals to one who is faced with hardship in life.

Whether one is a university professor, wealthy industrialist, penniless beggar, or cloistered saint, hardship is a part of their life. Hoping to grow old is all that remains, and its value seems circumspect if not useless. Setiva’s book may be one of the best of 2022 but like the hope he describes in the last chapter, it’s a mixed blessing.

POLITICAL EVOLUTION

The evolution of political governance offers a kernel of hope for world peace.

Audio-book Review
 By Chet Yarbrough

Blog: awalkingdelight)
 Website: chetyarbrough.blog

The Long Game: China’s Grand Strategy to Displace American Order

By: Rush Doshi

Narrated by: Kyle Tait

Rush Doshi (Author, founding director of the Brookings China Strategy Initiative and a fellow in Brookings Foreign Policy, fellow at Yale’s Paul Tsai China Center.

Rush Doshi’s review of China’s history in “The Long Game” is enlightening. One cannot deny the truth and logic of Doshi’s explanation of China’s commitment and success in returning to international prominence. Doshi’s proficiency in Mandarin Chinese and his thorough review of China’s history give credibility and gravitas to his assessment.

Doshi explains China’s socialist belief is grounded in Leninist communist theory. Lenin believed in the Marxist principles of history and society that show materialism leads to human exploitation.

As the Marxist/Leninist argument goes, exploitation (materialist self-interest) will alienate the majority of society which will revolt against a capitalist ruling class. The belief is that a different form of leadership will rise from the ashes of a revolution that will more fairly distribute the riches of life. In China’s history, Mao is the leader of that revolution. The key to Mao’s, and now President Xi’s belief, is top-down leadership by an enlightened ruling class will raise China’s role in the world. Doshi infers President Xi and his 20th century predecessors believe a communist party’s domination will be the basis upon which a fair distribution of life’s riches can be achieved.

Doshi implies the fundamental conflict between China and the U.S. is political.

China believes in Leninist communism. America believes in democracy. The irony is that human self-interest defeats the idealist intent of both political beliefs. Top-down management of a communist party is potentially as damaging to the public as a democratically elected representative government because of self-interest. No communist or democratic government in the history of the world has resisted the lure of money, power, and prestige that accompanies political leadership. This is not to diminish the relevance and importance of Doshi’s book but to disabuse listeners of an undeserved idealization of any form of government.

Doshi gives a clear explanation of why China is suspicious and wary of American power and influence in the world.

Doshi identifies a trifecta of world events in the twentieth century that influence China/American relations; making it unlikely they will ever become allies. The trifecta is the Tiananmen Square massacre, the collapse of the U.S.S.R., and the invasion of Iraq.

Tiananmen Square is widely condemned by the western world and nowhere more loudly than by the American public.

Deng Xiaoping was the Chairman of the Central Military Commission at the time. A secret mission by Brent Scowcroft, President George H.W. Bush’s National Security Advisor, made an effort to calm China/American relations but Doshi explains it failed. China objected to America’s interference and public rebuke of China in their response to the Tiananmen square demonstration.

The second blow to America’s relationship with China is the collapse of the U.S.S.R.

Doshi notes that China and America secretly cooperated in America’s U.S.S.R.’ containment policy that was recommended by American diplomat George Kennan in 1947. When the U.S.S.R. collapsed in 1991, China reassessed their relationship with America. Without a common enemy, China perceived America’s intent is to be hegemon of the world, not just the West. Doshi explains, China’s view of America becomes an imminent threat to its sphere of influence.

With President George W. Bush’s defeat of Saddam Hussein’s army in less than a month and a half, China recognizes how far they were from being the hegemon they wished to be. Doshi suggests this became the third blow of the trifecta that China perceived as an imminent threat to China’s position as hegemon of Asia, if not sole hegemon, of the world.

The irony of Doshi’s history is that no form of government has been found that fairly mitigates self-interest inherent in human beings.

Just as American leaders who have put their personal interest above the interests of their country, Chinese communist leaders have been found to be corrupt and more concerned about themselves than the lives of their country’s people. Both China and America have a history of discrimination and unfair treatment of their citizens.

History has many examples of the graft and corruption that exists in both communist and democratic forms of government.

China’s history and society is unique and much older than America’s. However, each country is struggling with their governments to be better stewards of their citizens. What all national governments of the world forget is that we live on one space ship. Without better international relations, the ship is headed for oblivion. Governments can continue to argue and fight over who is captaining the ship but no government seems to know how to steer.

Sadly, Doshi ends his scholarly work with details of how America can use the same methods as China to block its hegemonic ambition. Perceived self-interest, once again, chooses opposition over cooperation to achieve comity, not peace.

The evolution of political governance offers a kernel of hope for world peace. Until a form of government equitably manages human self-interest, periodic wars and social unrest will continue. Neither China nor America have found an answer. The answer is neither “Big Brother” nor unregulated freedom.

A FORENSIC’S LIFE

Forensic science is a valuable tool in the search for truth, and hopefully, justice.

Audio-book Review
 By Chet Yarbrough

Blog: awalkingdelight)
 Website: chetyarbrough.blog

The Nature of Life and Death

By: Patricia Wiltshire

Narrated by: Patricia Wiltshire

Patricia Wiltshire (Welsh Author, forensic ecologist, botanist and palynologist.)

Patricia Wiltshire details the magic of forensic analysis while revealing the history of her life. Wiltshire bluntly and forthrightly reveals as much about her life as she does about the details of victims of crime. Her forensic analysis aids law enforcement in indicting and arresting murderers and rapists. Wiltshire explains her forensic evidence often leads to admissions of guilt or, at least, a trail of evidence for courts to judge.

Wiltshire’s gathering of evidence is gruesome and will be off-putting to some but, as she notes, the body is a chemical construct that lives, dies, and returns to the earth from which it came.

Wiltshire’s belief is that there is no heaven or hell but only being and nothingness for a life that is either well or poorly lived. Wiltshire intersperses facts of her life that help one understand why she became a scientist who eschews God but appreciates life. The implied view Wiltshire has is that society is comprised of humans who think and act rationally and irrationally, with good and bad intent.

Wiltshire reflects on a tumultuous relationship with her mother, the care of her grandmother, and the philandering nature of her father. Her remembrances give weight to why she became a scientist and why she views life as a journey filled with both hardship and satisfaction, if not necessarily joy.

Wiltshire eventually reconciles with her mother and notes, before her mother’s death, that her mother loves and respects her accomplishment. Wiltshire reflects on the hardship of her deceased grandmother and how much of an influence both had on her chosen profession.

The evidence gathered by a competent forensic scientist from a dead and discarded body are precisely explained by Wiltshire. Because of her education as a palynologist (one who studies pollen grains and other spores), Wiltshire shows that human hair, a nasal swab, and the remains of intestine, gut, and internal organs can lead to the location, cause, and details of a victim’s death. With that evidence, the law may be led to the perpetrator of the crime.

A cautionary point made by Wiltshire is that law enforcement must not bias their search for evidence to corroborate presumed guilt. The objective of forensic investigations is to reveal truth, not to confirm preconceived notions of guilt.

The collection of evidence from a deceased human requires an objectivity and dissociation that makes Wiltshire’s book enlightening but brutal.

Wilshire’s biographic notes help explain how she is able to cope with life and an important profession. Her story may not be every book-listener’s cup of tea, but it clearly explains how forensic science is a valuable tool in the search for truth, and hopefully, justice.

COMPANY BUILDING

Audio-book Review
 By Chet Yarbrough

Blog: awalkingdelight)
 Website: chetyarbrough.blog

Scaling People (Tactics for Management and Company Building

By: Claire Hughes Johnson

Narrated by: Claire Hughes Johnson

Claire Hughes Johnson (Author, former chief operating officer of Stripe, lecturer on management of companies, former technology and operations manager.)

In “Scaling People”, Claire Hughes Johnson offers an insightful and actionable skill-set for both creators and managers of eleemosynary, government, and business organizations. She explains how large and small organizations can become more effective in executing their plans for development.

Johnson suggests every successful organization must have a clear statement of mission. “Mission” statements are the beginning of an entrepreneur’s creation of a company, a non-profits’ purpose, or a government’s departmental objective.

Every effective manager within an organization begins with a clear understanding of mission. Small and large organizations become successful when managers understand their organizations’ mission. The only difference is an entrepreneur’s mission is to prosper and grow a business, a minister’s mission is to ameliorate sin and grow a congregation, a charities mission is to grow and do good for others, and a government agency is to provide public service and grow as needed for those who cannot help themselves.

Johnson explains a manager’s success begins with self-understanding.

Johnson notes the ancient saying inscribed on the Oracle of Delphi in ancient Greece, “know thyself”. Knowing oneself is being aware of one’s nature and limitations. Johnson infers every good manager is a leader because, by definition, managers and leaders lead people.

Johnson works in the high growth industry of technology but her book applies to all organizations whether staid and maintenance driven or growth oriented.

When addressing growth companies, Johnson explains high performers fall into two categories. She classifies the first as “pushers” and the second as “pullers”.

Both are valuable employees but Johnson notes pushers want more money and power while pullers are subject to burn-out. Though their reasons are different, both may leave the organization. The potential cure Johnson suggests is a biannual review, designed in different ways, to motivate them to stay. The pushers should be counseled on what they can do within the company that trains them to take on more responsibility in return for more pay and power. Johnson’s counsel to pullers is to acknowledge their contribution and offer a new challenge that benefits the company and their skill without taxing their life/work balance. Johnson notes this does not always work but it directly confronts, and tries to serve the needs of employees and the organization.

Once a mission is understood by a manger, organizational missions are accomplished with the help of others.

A large part of Johnson’s book is how to make organization’ managers effective leaders of their respective management teams. Johnson explains teams are organized to achieve goals to meet an organization’s mission as a sin quo non of success. Johnson’s book about organizational management is based on her challenging experience as a manager for Google and as the Chief Operating Officer for a successful tech company called Stripe.

Johnson addresses work horses of organizations that at times are low performance employees. Johnson argues their biannual reviews require recognition of measured performance deficiencies with constructive conversation about how they can improve. Johnson suggests it is important to recognize their longevity as employees and their cultural value as longer-term employees. However, if performance does not improve by the next review, a performance plan is written that offers what may be a final opportunity for a low performance employee. If that fails, the employee may be discharged. (Second chances are in the best interest of organizations because of the investment they make in hiring and training employees, let alone continued employment for the worker.)

“Scaling people…”, is about measuring yourself as a manager and others that are a part of a companies’ team. The first step is scaling yourself and your own strengths and weaknesses. That is Johnson’s insight to her own organizational effectiveness. Good managers and leaders build on their strengths. That is why Johnson explains how important it is to know yourself. To Johnson “knowing yourself” is the source of an effective manager’s productivity. By knowing yourself, one can overcome personal weaknesses with people who have complementary skills. The key to success is in team building that achieves an organization’s defined mission.

The hard part of Johnson’s insight is in having self understanding. It is made harder by a willingness to reveal it to others. In that willingness, team cohesion is formed. Team members experience self-understanding’s value by fulfilling an organization’s mission.

Only with self-realization, does one focus on mission with the energy and will needed for organizational success. Achieving an organization’s defined mission requires team work.

A manager/leader needs to focus on strengths and weaknesses of teams in the same way he/she understands their own strengths and weaknesses.

Johnson notes self-understanding is only a beginning. “Scaling people…” requires measurement of performance against goal. Teams have to be monitored, measured, and adjusted to more effectively achieve the organization’s defined mission. Johnson offers a number of tools that can be used to monitor, measure, and adjust a team’s effectiveness.

“Scaling people…” is a great addition to the literature of organizational management. “Scaling people…” is an excellent tool for forward thinking organizations interested in growing and improving their performance.

FOSSIL FUELS

Audio-book Review
 By Chet Yarbrough

Blog: awalkingdelight)
 Website: chetyarbrough.blog

Windfall (How the New Energy Abundance Upends Global Politics and Strengthens American Power.)

By: Meghan L. O’Sullivan

Narrated by: Eliza Foss

Meghan L. O’Sullivan (Author, Harvard professor, Former deputy national security adviser on Iraq and Afghanistan, worked in the George Bush administration.)

Meghan O’Sullivan offers an intelligent but flawed view of today’s world. It is true that energy is critical for economic growth and improved human life. It is also true that energy need and development cause international conflicts in the post-industrial world. O’Sullivan does a masterful job explaining the role of energy, noting its cost while explaining fossil fuels are at a turning point in history.

Fossil fuel prices fluctuated dramatically in the 20th century but O’Sullivan suggests the trend in the 21st century, despite the rise between 2000 and 2008, will trend downward for three reasons.

One is the recognition of energy’s environmental consequence and conservationists’ political response; two, energy’s extraction is becoming less costly for most fossil fuels. And three, technological advancement offers alternative sources of energy.

What O’Sullivan correctly notes is that energy will remain a driving force behind international relations.

However, her argument is flawed by suggesting governmental restrictions on discovery and growth of fossil fuels should be weakened. Even in the few years since publication of O’Sullivan’s book, the science of fossil fuel pollution is showing accelerating global warming with potential for a “no-return” human’ consequence. Global warming seems self-evident. That evidence does not change O’Sullivan’s insight to the outsize role energy plays in the real-politic world of today, yesterday, and tomorrow.

O’Sullivan loses a bet with a colleague that Russia would challenge world peace within five years of 2013. She was right, but it took a couple years longer for Russia’s re-invasion of Ukraine.

O’Sullivan correctly foretold Putin’s kleptocratic government’s intent to re-establish Russia’s place in the world by using its fossil fuel abundance to lure Europe and Asia with their need for energy. Putin’s drive to offer oil and/or gas pipelines to Germany, China, and Turkiye are meant to assuage their opposition to Ukraine’s invasion. Though China is somewhat supportive of Putin, it has little to do with its energy need but more to do with China’s opposition to U.S. involvement in their sphere of influence. In response to the Ukraine invasion, Germany found alternative sources for Putin’s pipelined energy with imported LNG (liquified natural gas). To some extent, Putin’s energy ploy worked. China, India, and Turkiye continue to buy oil from Russia despite its invasion of Ukraine. Their national interests outweigh their concern about Russia’s invasion, just as Putin undoubtedly calculated.

Energy’s role in the modern world is well documented by O’Sullivan. She notes the history and future of energy and how it will continue to roil international relations.

The cost of energy influences world leaders to exploit the environment despite its harm to society.

Exxon Valdez Oil Spill.

Coal continues to be burned for energy around the world because it is the least expensive.

Malaysia coal fire plant.

Technological innovation is decreasing natural gas costs which, though less environmental damaging than oil or coal, is becoming more widely used. Natural gas remains a pollutant. It is estimated to be 50-60 percent less polluting than coal and 20-30 percent less polluting than oil. (A caveat to the less pollution from natural gas is that it is being used in newer and more efficient energy producing facilities.) This argument does not change O’Sullivan’s flawed argument that restrictions should be removed, weakened, or moderated for further fossil fuel technological development and extraction.

Weather around the world, forest fires, and northern arctic warming are dramatic 21st century proof of continuing global warming. Science and nature tells us the world is warming. That warming is, at the least, greater because of fossil fuel use.

O’Sullivan remains correct in noting how energy is key to peace in the world. The vast natural gas find by Israel, called the Leviathan Reservoir, makes Israel’s influence in the Middle East much greater. Israelis use their natural gas’ find to improve their relationship with Middle East powers. On the other hand, it seems to give license to Israel to repress dislocated Palestinians as irreconcilable enemies.

Energy is both a weapon and tool of peace.

Where O’Sullivan’s book is less convincing is in its inference that the energy industry should be given free rein to continue developing fossil fuels. Even if energy is critical to the sovereign right of every country in the world, degradation of today’s environment makes fools of us all.