AMERICAN IMMIGRATION

Chet Yarbrough (Book Reviewer and Critic)

As I near the age of 76, as a third generation American of Finnish grandparents, it is disappointing to see Americans’ attitude toward immigration.

America’s economic and social environment is among the best in the world. Of course, other countries have environments that are as conducive to a decent life as America. However, in 2023 world population data (noted by “Worldometer”) shows the median age of Americans is the same as China’s at 38.

With China’s repression of Uighurs and preferential treatment for Han ethnicity (91.6% of the population), Thomas Christiansen suggests China’s economic prosperity and hegemonic ambition are challenged.

“The China Challenge” by Thomas Christensen notes China is faced with a greater aggregate aging population than America.

Though the aggregate number of aging in America is less, America has its own challenge with its reluctance to admit refugees.

There are only four countries with populations nearer America’s that have a median age below 30. Those countries are India, Pakistan, Nigeria, and Mexico. Having been to some of those countries, none compare well with America’s economic and social environment. Young refugees are an American opportunity, not a burden. Refugees have always been an important part of American economic and social progress.

Thinking machines will undoubtedly change the labor needs of the world economy.

However, machines are unlikely to exhibit the empathy and care needed for an ageing human population. Much of that empathy and care can only come from younger and more fit workers.

These observations are not to presume all refugees will become laborers or care-workers, but the young are the raw material of humanity that makes nations great because they are striving to make a better life.

Americans sleeping on the street are not there because of immigration.

Some are out of work because of technology but many are there because of Covid’s interruption of their lives. The business community needs to come to grips with the needs of recovering pandemic survivors by re-training the unemployed for new jobs. Undoubtedly, some homeless are sleeping on the street because of drugs because it is their way of escaping a grim existence. That does not imply, they do not wish to escape that life. It means they need help.

The world is just beginning to recover from Covid. Recovery is a process that takes time. The loss of more than a million Americans means many are grieving over their loss of friends, families, and jobs.

America remains a land of opportunity. That is why America’s borders are being overwhelmed by refugees. Immigration is an opportunity, not a problem for America.

HINDSIGHT (G.W.’S LEGACY)

Audio-book Review
 By Chet Yarbrough

Blog: awalkingdelight)
 Website: chetyarbrough.blog

Landfall (A Novel)

By: Thomas Mallon

Narrated by: Robert Petkoff

Thomas Mallon (Author, novelist, essayist, and critic.)

Thomas Mallon’s book is a fictionalized account of George W. Bush’s administration. Mallon cleverly includes a fictional love story that adds some drama to his story. What one should be wary of is Mallon’s political bias and how it might color the story.

In listening to a book of fiction that uses the names of the known, it is difficult to separate fact from fiction.

Fictionalizing history-making characters is particularly difficult when it is written about events of the near past. What helps is the knowledge that all history books are partly fictionalized by choice of an author’s facts. Revisionist history is why past Presidents have both risen and fallen in the eyes of historians and the public.

George W. Bush makes some bad decisions as a young man, but more importantly and significantly, as a two-term President.

The son of former President H. W. Bush comes across as a decent and flawed human being. America’s consequence from Iraq and Afghanistan invasions and George W.s response to Katrina show American government hubris and failure. Mallon’s story shows American’s fallibility as a democratic government. Both Republican and Democratic parties in America have made good and bad domestic and international decisions; some of which have been reversed, others not.

Mallon writes of the difficulty of working through America’s deadly mistakes in Iraq.

Mallon chooses to write a fictional account of the bad decisions made by President George W. Bush. Some of us have short memories but Mallon reminds listeners of the last four years of George W.’s Presidency. Some in Bush’s administration reluctantly suggest America must withdraw from the mess America created by removing Iraq’s autocratic and brutal dictator, Saddam Hussein. Some of George W.’s leaders were misled (or lied to themselves) about Iraq’s threat of weapons of mass destruction (WMD). No one in George W.’s administration manages to persuade policy makers that American nation-building in foreign cultures is a fool’s errand.  

Autocratic governments know little about what it means to be free, or at least free within the rule of law.

Mallon creates a story that implies there is a great deal of descension in the second term of George W.’s administration. This is particularly evident in the intellectual conflict between the Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld, and Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice. There is a growing recognition by leaders in the administration, that America could not re-build Iraq’s government. Rumsfeld may have suggested immediate withdrawal of American troops from Iraq with political spin that infers America’s job is done.  The President and Secretary of State Rice realize the Presidency and American resolve is tarnished by withdrawal, whether it is militarily or diplomatically accomplished. Mallon’s novel concludes G.W.’s legacy is the Iraq debacle and the mishandling of the Katrina disaster in Louisiana.

Katrina disaster in Louisiana

As time passes and history is rewritten, Mallon’s conclusions are likely to be repeated. Neither George W. Bush, Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld, nor Secretary Rice will be remembered as great leaders. It is not judgement about their patriotism or their desire to make America safer or better, but a consequence of political mistakes.

George W’s administration fails to understand nation-building is folly, and natural disasters are not about the dead but about quick and organized aid to survivors. Mallon’s book is a reminder of how difficult it is for any organization’s leader to become great in the eyes of history.

BRAVERY AND DELUSION

Audio-book Review
 By Chet Yarbrough

Blog: awalkingdelight)
 Website: chetyarbrough.blog

Defying Jihad: The Dramatic True Story of a Woman Who Volunteered to Kill Infidels-and Then Faced Death for Becoming One

By: Esther Ahmad, Craig Borlase

Narrated by: Julia Farhat

Craig Borlase (British ghost writer, former English teacher and author.)

One presumes there is no picture of Esther Ahmad because of risk to her family’s life.

Esther Ahmad is an evangelist dream who in her story reveals the myopia of religious belief. Like Voddie Baucham, Ms. Ahmad conflates living a decent life with religions’ dogma. There is no incontrovertible truth in the teachings of religious doctrinal literature. The Holy Bible, the Quran, the Vedas, the Tripitaka, and the Torah are filled with words that have interpretation contradictions that lead and mislead humanity.

There is little doubt that Esther Ahmad saved herself and some number of innocents by abandoning Jihadist religious beliefs.

Her story is of a very brave woman who defies her family and Jihadism in Pakistan, but her refuge in Christianity carries every organized religion’s contradictory teaching. Her journey from organized Islamic religion to organized Christian religion is trading one mythology for another.

The history of Christian religion is as violent, and conflict ridden as Jihadist Islam.

Depiction of the Eleventh Century Christian Crusades

Absolute belief cannot come from the written word because the written word is man’s interpretation of what may or may not be the word of God, Allah, Yahweh, or whatever name the Divine is given. Esther Ahmad’s journey is heroic. She lives in a culture of violence and overcomes its alure through a will-to-believe. She abandons Islam, marries a Christian, and flees her father’s Jihadism to eventually arrive in America.

What is disappointing is Ms. Ahmad trades one organized religion for another, both of which are based on a man’s interpretation of Holy books. Human interpretations do not prove the existence of Divinity.

Ms. Ahmad’s journey to Christianity is reinforced by what appear to be two miracles. Her mother is cured of heart disease and her brother’s infected leg are healed through prayer. A skeptic might argue they were not miracles because her mother never had medically diagnosed heart disease and her brother’s infected leg may have naturally healed. Organized religion and human belief neither prove nor disprove a Divinities’ existence.

Ms. Ahmad faces an inquisition by Muslim scholars in defending her belief in Christianity.

Depiction of a Christian Inquisition.

She is questioned on four different occasions in front of other Muslim believers. Her knowledge of the Koran trips up the first three inquisitors and the third offers her a bribe to return to the Muslim faith. Ms. Ahmad’s defense is ironic because she shows inconsistencies in the Koran that make Muslim clerics look foolish. The irony is that the Christian Bible is equally riddled with inconsistency, but the Muslim clerics choose only to defend the Koran without pointing to the inconsistencies in the Christian Bible. That is the weakness of the cleric’s inquisition because, like the Koran, the Bible is written and re-written by humans.

The strength of Ms. Ahmad’s story is in her will to resist a patriarchal organization, and her own father who is prepared to murder her for blasphemy.

The weakness of Ms. Ahmad’s story is reliance on Christian dogma that comes from the word of man, not a Divinity.

One can believe in Divinity without believing in organized religion, particularly with the force-of-will demonstrated by Esther Ahmad. “Defying Jihad” is, without question, a story of bravery but also a story of organized religions’ delusions. Ms. Ahmad’s story is a false flag for belief in any organized religion, rather than belief or disbelief in Divinity.

This is a remarkable story of an extraordinary woman, but it fails to move one who has read many histories that show how organized religion has misled people by lying, abusing, robbing, and murdering innocents on their way through life.

TO BE A WRITER

Audio-book Review
 By Chet Yarbrough

Blog: awalkingdelight)
 Website: chetyarbrough.blog

Transit

By: Rachel Cusk

Narrated by: Kate Reading

Rachel Cusk (British author, novelist.)

In “Transit”, Rachel Cusk offers a master class for people who wish to be writers. Cusk creates a picture of a writer’s life, i.e., the places they go, conversations they have, and work they do in writing a story. Cusk explains what it is like to be a writer. Whether writing about oneself, an incident, an acquaintance,  or an important “other”, the art of writing is in the details and how they are arranged to stimulate readers’ or listeners’ interest.

Cusk cleverly begins her story in her search to purchase a flat in London. A realtor tells her to find one in a good neighborhood that is underpriced because of its dilapidated condition.

The realtor advises a good neighborhood is where the greatest value is when purchasing a home. The idea is that reconstruction will increase value beyond cost of repair if the flat is in a good neighborhood. As a part time professor, Cusk’s heroine is in the business of reconstructing writers, like a homebuyer reconstructs a home.

The neighborhoods for writing are fiction and non-fiction. Cusks counsel to writers is to reconstruct their writing if a story is not up to its neighborhood’s standards. As any reader/listener knows, books have been published with both richly and poorly written stories.

Cusk describes a young woman writer who is divorced, has two young boys, lives in London and makes a living as a writer and adjunct professor for “wanabe” writers. Cusk takes reader/listeners on a journey to a writer’s book club meeting. Writers attend distant book club meetings to tell their stories and sell their books. In the telling at one of these meetings, one hears of admiration and love/hate relationships between authors. At the same time, one learns of the tediousness of travel from one book club to another while learning how writers think and talk about their books.

Cusk’s heroine talks to aspiring writers and what they wish to write about. In her story, a listener/reader finds what makes research and facts important in writing a book. Writing must put research and facts together in a way that makes a story interesting and relatable to its audience.

Research and details are important but putting words together to mean something to many reader/listeners is the difference between mediocrity and genius.

Cusk’s story may or may not be about herself, but “Transit” offers valuable insight to anyone who is interested in becoming a writer. Cusk’s heroine is both relatable and informative while telling a story through the lens of a writer’s lived life which, like all lives, is in “Transit”.

THE BUSHY TREE OF LIFE

Audio-book Review
 By Chet Yarbrough

Blog: awalkingdelight)
 Website: chetyarbrough.blog

The Story of Evolution in 25 Discoveries

By: Donald R. Prothero

Narrated by: Tom Parks

Donald Prothero (Author, Amerivcan geologist, paleongologist,)

Donald Prothero provides a mountain of evidence informing the skeptical of the truth of evolution. Prothero explains evolution is a random and bushy process requiring time, heat, and a few basic chemicals to produce life. On the one hand, that makes life probable somewhere else in the universe. On the other hand, it implies human beings may be as ephemeral as dinosaurs, and dodo birds.

Prothero’s name makes one think of the Greek god, Prometheus, the creator of fire and mortals.

From the primordial soup of four or five billion years ago, the chemicals of life combine to create a self-reproducing cell. Within that cell, the genetic material of life is formed. As time passes, these cells combine to form life that adapts to its environment. This adaptation is the definition of evolution.

Prothero explains evolutionary adaptation both resists change, and commands change.

He gives the example of Giraffes that grow long necks but retain a nerve fiber that is longer and poorly located for its purpose. In battles for female attention, the evolutionary change of longer necks increases dominance of an evolved Giraffe over other male Giraffes with shorter necks. Though neck length improves procreation potential, the adaptive failure of the nerve fiber makes a long-necked Giraffe more vulnerable to injury. In a sense, evolution is an arbitrary process that often leaves useless remnants of body parts that do not serve a purpose and may hasten extinction.

What comes to mind as one listens to Prothero is that human beings are still evolving. Whether evolution will ensure survival or hasten extinction is unknown.

How are the human brain and body evolving? This is particularly important with a growing understanding of DNA and sciences’ ability to change DNA in a human subject. Is knowledge of DNA modification a function of evolution or revolution? Evolution has historically been a long-term process that may be less long term in the modern age.

What about Artificial Intelligence? Will A.I. become a part of human evolution? Is A.I. the next stage of human evolution or its replacement?

Prothero notes evolution is a bushy process meaning that variations of living organisms remain alive at the same time. Like whales, elephants, giraffes, and humans there are different evolutionary examples within species. Will there be humans that become a part of A.I. existence and others who will be exclusively human? Will one form of human become dominant? Prothero’s point is that evolution is not a linear process. There is no missing link that shows man evolving from apes. There is only one tree of life showing bushy branches with similar genetic material. Prothero notes 99.99 percent of human’s genetic make-up is the same. Chimpanzees are 98.8 percent similar, cats 90%, and honeybees 44%.

The close association of human DNA with chimpanzees shows who’s bushy tree to which we belong.

As Prothero notes, nature’s evolutionary change is not moral. Evolution is change based on nature’s random selection. Prothero suggests natural selection is a two-way street. Humans may have come from the sea, but whales are likely to have come from the land.

Homo Sapien image 100,000 years ago.

Prothero suggests humans have not changed much in the last thousand years. Memes have changed but little physical changes are evident. When human genetic manipulation takes control, morality becomes a human decision. With A.I., who knows where or how moral decisions will be made?

LIES AND TRUTH

Audio-book Review
 By Chet Yarbrough

Blog: awalkingdelight)
 Website: chetyarbrough.blog

Words of Radiance

By: Brandon Sanderson

Narrated by: Michael Kramer, Kate Reading

Brandon Sanderson (Author, fantasy and science fiction novelist, former BYU student majoring in biochemistry.)

“Words of Radiance” carries the same fantastical experience a reader/listener envisions when listening to “Eye of the World”. Brandon Sanderson’s “Words of Radiance” illustrates why he was chosen to finish Robert Jordan’s posthumous work. Sanderson’s book is long and may take many chapters for one to become engrossed in its story.

Brandon Sanderson finished Robert Jordan’s “Eye of the World” after Jordan’s death. “Eye of the World” is a story of imagination about the experience of a young boy in a fantasy world imagined by Jordan.

There are a great many characters in Sanderson’s story. The characters represent disparate cultures that have different societies that seem destined to compete until the end of time. Each culture is hierarchal with kings, armies, citizens, and slaves. A singular king believes all these cultures must come together for peace, and tranquility because a storm, an Armageddon like event, is coming. The goal of unity seems unlikely as the story develops. Interestingly, this king is far from perfect despite his prescient vision. He is drunk near the end of the story when all appears to be lost.

Characters in Sanderson’s story are not just kings but people who have supernatural abilities. One former prisoner in this world has those abilities which he is only beginning to understand. Sanderson adds a third principal character, a 17-year-old seer who is also only beginning to understand her powers.

Sanderson creates a white clothed antagonist with supernatural ability who is killing leaders of this fantasy world.

The most interesting innovation by Sanderson is the invention of “spren”; i.e., spren are “ideas” who accompany characters in his story. Spren show themselves as symbols, figures, or lights. They offer guidance to the characters they follow. Spren guidance comes from their ability to slyly spy, modify their form, unlock doors, and inform their companions. There are spren who accompany both sides of the pending battle for the future of the world. The spren recognize life is driven by lies and truth, concluding both can have ethical value. Ethical value comes from lies that mislead miscreants and truths that help the helpless.

God is dead in Sanderson’s story. How or why God dies is undisclosed. The only remainder of God’s existence is a spren (the idea of God) which chooses a hero to defeat the Armageddon that is coming. The spren’s choice of heroes and heroines manages to defeat the coming storm and offers hope for world unity in the future.

The devil is called Odium.

After the storm passes, God’s spren suggests if God can be killed, so can the devil. Odium’s possible death is “hope” for those remaining after the storm.

Loss of species are noted in Sanderson’s world because of overhunting and ignorance, a reminder of today’s culture with degrading water and land environments.

There are storms in Sanderson’s story that remind one of the cataclysmic age in which we live. Great winds, lightning, and flooding threaten nations.

At the end of Sanderson’s story, a listener recognizes this fantasy is a mythical representation of this world, i.e., good and bad leaders, poverty, environmental degradation, and ethnic inequality.

THE INTERNECINE RUSSIA/UKRAINIAN WAR

Sanderson leaves listeners with a laugh by resurrecting a character who is thought to be dead, i.e., not a God or warrior, but a seer. There remains some hope in Sanderson’s imagined world, but it is cloaked in hardship and toil.

CARL SAGAN

Audio-book Review
 By Chet Yarbrough

Blog: awalkingdelight)
 Website: chetyarbrough.blog

The Dragons of Eden

By: Carl Sagan

Narrated by: JD Jackson, Ann Druyan

Carl Sagan (1934-1996, Author, University of Chicago entry at 16 years of age, received a Master of Science and Doctor of Philosophy in astronomy and astrophysics in 1960.)

Carl Sagan died from a bone-marrow disease at the relatively young age of 62 in 1996. One generally associates Sagan with his Cosmos series, but his education went far beyond the study of astronomy. His book reflects as much on the philosophy of life as the future of society, science, and technology.

“Women’s Right to Choose”
“Right to Life”

Today’s controversial abortion question is forthrightly addressed by Sagan. He suggests “Right to Life” and a “Women’s Right to Choose” are politically and philosophically extreme ends of a rational argument on abortion. “Right to Life” followers insist all life is precious even though humans kill animals for sport and consumption. “Women’s Right to Choose” followers insist birth of a baby in utero is the sole decision of women because their body and life are only theirs to control.

Sagan suggests a baby in utero in the first trimester may be tested for brain activity and if none is found, no personhood is formed. With no brain activity of a baby in utero, the right of a woman to choose is an equal rights decision. However, to Sagan if brain activity is present, life is present, and abortion is murder. Sagan infers a science based national law could be created that avoids the extremist positions of the “Right to Life” and “Women’s Right to Choose” movements.

Though Sagan may have overemphasized the difference between left brain and right brain function, he notes the advances that have occurred in how specific areas of the brain compete and can be electrically stimulated to elicit thought and action.

Sagan notes how computer gaming opens doors to the advance of computer capability and utility.

Nearly 50 years ago, Sagan’s book suggests much of what has happened in the science of brain function and technology. It seems a shorter step from Sagan’s ideas about computer function to what is presently called artificial intelligence. His view of brain and computer function might lead to a machine/brain confluence. It may be that Sagan’s belief in other forms of terrestrial life are secondary rather than primary interests of our human future.

In 1978, Sagan receives the Nobel Prize for nonfiction with “The Dragons of Eden”. In retrospect, it seems a wise decision by the Nobel panel of judges.

WAR

Audio-book Review
 By Chet Yarbrough

Blog: awalkingdelight)
 Website: chetyarbrough.blog

48 Laws of Power

By: Robert Greene

Narrated by: Richard Poe

Robert Greene (Author, B.A. in classical studies.)

Robert Greene’s “48 Laws of Power” is an interesting journey through the history of leadership, and war. It is an interesting contrast to what some authors have written about Machiavelli’s “Prince”.

Russian Soldier’s death in Ukraine.
American war in Iraq
Vietnam & Afghanistan American Evacuations

Greene’s history is timely in respect to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and America’s Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan failures. Though these events were for ideologically different reasons, Greene’s 48 laws are relevant.

Greene offers so many anecdotes, this review focuses on Wu Zetian, Mao Zedong, Charles-Maurice de Talleyrand-Perigord (aka Talleyrand), and Henry Kissinger. These are four among many accomplished leaders Greene reviews from the 7th to the 21st century. Each exercise some variation of Greene’s “48 Laws of Power”. The story of Wu Zetian is the most amazing of the four.

Wu Zetian (624 CE to 705 CE, died at age 81, Empress from 649-683, Emperor 690-704 CE)

One presumes this a mature rendering of Wu, not the young concubine who attracted Emperor Taizong.

Wu Zetian is the only female emperor in 2000 years of China’s imperial rule. She is alleged to have indirectly and directly ruled the Tang Dynasty from 649 to 704CE. She became the concubine of emperor Taizong but was exiled to a nunnery by the wife of Taizong’s son. Wu returned to marry Taizong’s son. According to Greene, Wu strangled her daughter and accused Gaozong’s wife. Upon conviction, Gaozong’s wife is executed. This paved Wu’s way to become first wife of Gaozong. Gaozong became the putative emperor from 649-683 CE.

Greene explains Wu was the power behind Gaozong’s rule. When Gaozong died in 683, Wu formally proclaimed herself emperor in 690 CE and died in 705 CE at the age of 81. Whether precisely true or not, Greene gives this as evidence of steely determination and willingness “to do whatever it takes” to gain power. Ruthless leadership is one of the “48 Laws of Power”.

When Mao gathered a force to overthrow China’s government, he and his recruits were defeated in battle and scattered to the country by Chiang Kai-shek. (Mao in 1943 when Chiang Kai-shek was exiled to Taiwan.)

Chiang Kai-shek failed to eliminate Mao when he had the chance. (Official portrait of China’s leader in 1943.)

Mao gathers more followers and returns to force Chiang Kai-shek into exile in Taiwan. An opposing army’s leader must be eliminated to ensure security of an existing government. Greene explains this is another of the “48 Laws of Power” required to maintain leadership.

Tallyrand served France from 1789 to 1834 under Napoleon Bonaparte, Louis XVIII, and Louis Philippe I. Tallyrand’s skill in keeping his plans to himself allows him to remain a power behind the thrown throughout his adult life.

Charles-Maurice de Talleyrand-Perigord (1754-1838).

Greene notes Tallyrand’s reputation was to never talk about himself while talking to others. This is at the heart of his rise to power. Tallyrand’s purpose for talking to others is to gather information to know how to use information to accomplish his personal objectives. Greene suggests Tallyrand lured Napoleon out of his banishment in Elba because he knew Napoleon would be defeated and no longer a threat to France’s leadership. Greene notes keeping one’s own council secret is one of the “48 Laws of Power”.

In modern times, Greene implies Henry Kissinger is a master of the “48 Laws of Power”. Greene notes Kissinger acted as a power behind the throne of Presidents of the United States.

Greene is not arguing Nixon was not the leader of America during his time as President but that much of what is accomplished in his administration is traced to the power of Henry Kissinger. Kissinger, like Tallyrand, kept his own thoughts and ambitions to himself. When necessary, he publicly praised his superiors to assure his place of power and influence. His intellectual curiosity involved him so many government’ policies beyond his role as Secretary of State that he became an indispensable source of information and counsel.

Greene notes Kissinger insured his ascendence in American government by courting both candidates for the Presidency when the war in Vietnam is raging. Kissinger would work for either a Democratic or Republican President as long as he could achieve his personal and undisclosed objectives. As noted in the biography of Kissinger by Niall Ferguson, Kissinger is closer to Nelson Rockefeller than to Nixon as he pursues his personal ambition.

As one listens to “48 Laws of Power” and Greene’s anecdotes, one realizes the Russian/Ukrainian war is unlikely to end soon. The leaders of both countries exercise their respective “…Laws of Power” at the expense of their citizen’s lives. The same seems applicable to America’s mistakes in Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan.

FEAR AND TREMBLING

Audio-book Review
 By Chet Yarbrough

Blog: awalkingdelight)
 Website: chetyarbrough.blog

River out of Eden

By: Richard Dawkins

Narrated by: Richard Dawkins, Lalla Ward

RICHARD DAWKINS (ENGLISH ETHOLOGIST AND EVOLUTIONARY BIOLOGIST WHO INFERS A GENE MAY BE THE SOURCE OF CONSCIOUSNESS.)

As Dawkins’ clever title infers, “River out of Eden” is a scientist’s explanation of how life began and proliferates whether God exists or not. One can argue it is neither a refutation nor affirmation of God, only that God has nothing to do with life’s persistence. Dawkins’ explanation is based on Darwinian evolution and what he characterizes as the immortal gene. A human gene’s immortality is being tested by earth’s environmental degradation. On the other hand, immortal genes may adapt to earth’s degradation.

One cannot help but think of the potential of artificial intelligence and the future of human beings as they may evolve.

The discovery of DNA by Francis and Crick may change the course of human evolution. With the discovery of CRSPR, the medical community acquired tools that can modify genes. With those discoveries, it became possible to rid humanity of disease and hasten human evolution. Some argue these discoveries will improve human life; others suggest it will end it.

The discovery of the double helix. Erwin Chargaff (1951): Rule of Base pairing. Rosalind Franklin & Maurice Wilkins (1953): X-ray diffraction pattern of DNA. James Watson & Francis Crick (1953): Molecular structure of DNA.

Dawkins offers numerous examples of species that have evolved over millenniums of earth’s existence. He argues that survival is a result of an innate characteristic of genetic material that has the sole purpose of self-preservation. Genes are reproducing engines of life based on the environment in which they exist. Dawkins argues genetic materials’ ability to modify and replicate themselves are the essence of life’s continuation.

Evidence of Dawkins belief began with Darwin and is reinforced by numerous science experiments showing generations of birds, bees, and other forms of life that have inherited behaviors through generations of existence. His argument is that life is a matter of genetic predilection and preservation, more than learning.

The unexplored consequence of Dawkins’ belief is–what nature has provided to evolution, may soon be controlled by human beings. Genetic manipulation will no longer be determined by nature’s circumstances but by humankind’s limited knowledge. Considering human decisions that have murdered millions, earth’s ecological crisis, and human nature’s innate desire for money, power, and prestige, humanity should sense what Kierkegaard called fear and trembling.

THE LOUVRE

Audio-book Review
 By Chet Yarbrough

Blog: awalkingdelight)
 Website: chetyarbrough.blog

The Louvre (The Many Lives of the World’s Most Famous Museum)

By: James Gardner

Narrated by: Graham Halstead

James Gardner (Author, art and literary critic.)

James Gardner is an art and literary critic based in New York and Buenos Aires. His writing has appeared in publications including the “New York Times”, the “Wall Street Journal”, and the “New Republic”.  

View from the top of Louvre Museum in a beautiful sunrise over Paris

Having visited the Louvre a few years ago, it seems worth listening to James Gardner’s book about one of the world’s greatest museums. It is a surprise to find the Louvre dates to the 12th century. It began as a walled fort to protect Paris but was expanded when King Philippe Auguste decided to build a castle at the wall next to the Seine River.

The Louvre was originally planned as a fortress to protect Paris.

The origin of the name Louvre is a mystery. Gardner notes some thought it came from an association with a wolf hunting den; others thought it came from a Saxon word for watchtower (lauer) but no one knows for sure. The Louvre was neglected for several years after Louis XIV moved to Versailles. Some work was done, but King Louis’s architect spent most of his time on the new Versailles residence.  

Gardner explains the remains of King Auguste’s castle foundation can still be seen today.

The Louvre became the home of King Francois I in 1528.

In 1550, the sculptor Jean Goujon created the caryatids (sculpted female figures as column supports) inside Francois I’s Louvre Palace.

The Louvre remained a royal residence until 1682 when Louis XIV moved to Versailles.

Gardner notes, it is after the French Revolution that the Louvre becomes classified as a museum.

The National Assembly of the nascent government republic opened the eight-acre site as a museum in 1793 with a collection of 537 paintings. Most of these paintings were from royal residences or church-property’ confiscations. Famous paintings like the Mona Lisa were not exhibited until 1797, just as Napoleon rises to power.

It is not until Napoleon Bonaparte’s 1799 coup d’état that a serious renovation of the Louvre is undertaken.

Bonaparte makes the Louvre his royal residence in Paris. Vivant Denon became the first director of the Louvre. He was a diplomat under the bourbon kings, Louis XV and Louis XVI, and then appointed director of the Louvre by Napoleon after his Egyptian campaign (1798-1801). Denon had been with Napoleon in Egypt. Denon was displaced during the Bourbon Restoration because of his association with Napoleon. Not much was done on the Louvre during the Bourbon Restoration.

Vivant Denon (1747-1825. artist, writer, diplomat, author, and archaeologist.)

Napoleon III (1852-1870 reign, first president of France, became last emperor of France–deposed in exile. Nephew of Napoleon Bonaparte.)

Napoleon III undertakes a grand renovation of the Louvre with the building of its two major wings. The “Pavilion Denon” is dedicated at the Louvre by Napoleon III in the 1850s. Napoleon III employs Louis Visconti to design the Louvre renovation but he dies in 1853. The Visconti plan is executed by Hector Lefuel. It connects the old Louvre Palace around the Cour Carree with the Tuileries Palace to the west. The two major wings and their galleries and pavilions are completed during Napoleon III’s reign.

Francois Mitterrand (President of France 1981-1995)

WWII may have been the death nell of the Louve if it had not been for the cleverness of the French and the tacit cooperation of a German officer. The final chapters address today’s view of the Louvre and the renovations made by French President, Francois Mitterrand. Mitterrand carries the torch of French freedom and appreciation of art in the most elaborate Louvre addition since Napoleon III’s grand renovation. Mitterrand hires I.M. Pei to design the Louvre addition.

I.M. Pei (1917-2019, world renown American architect.)

It is known as the Grand Louvre Modernization project which is most noticeable because of the glass pyramid that becomes the primary Louvre entry. The pyramid seems incongruous to this tourist but is reminiscent of the Napoleonic history of France. Napoleon is more than a conqueror of countries. His political ambition entails more than power, though power is certainly a large part of his hegemonic ambition.

Gardner notes Napoleon’s inspired interest in other nation’s traditions, history, and art. His ambition in Egypt entails a consuming passion for understanding its historic rise to power and hegemonic power’s correlation with prominence in the world.

I.M. Pei’s decision is to create a symbol of the power and permanence of Egypt with a pyramid. The Louvre’s entrance is representative of Egyptian and French ambition in the world. As history shows, Egypt and France were hegemons of the world at different times.

Gardner’s book, “The Louvre”, should be on every tourist’s list before visiting the center of Paris. Gardner shows how much there is to see and how little one will understand without spending more than a day, let alone a few hours, at the Louvre.