by Grania Spingies
There are some interesting-looking books in the Sunday Book Review in the New York Times which are going onto to my Wish List.
So You’ve Been Publicly Shamed by Jon Ronson
I’ve long come to think of the Internet as the thing that has turned our planet into a village. With all the benefits that it brings, it also has turned the lives of some ordinary people into living nightmares once their sometimes small and sometimes imagined transgressions go viral on social media. I’m interested to see what Ronson has to say on the subject, and what solutions he suggests; although I fear that once the damage is done it is not easily undone.
Galileo’s Middle Finger by Alice Dreger
This book looks like it has a bit of everything in it, but is essentially about empiricism vs activism, based on among other things, her own experiences on both sides of activism: an activist herself as well as a target of activists. It is a somewhat sobering thought; that something could be suppressed for social or political reasons. I remember Dan Dennett thoughtfully talking about this himself in the Four Horseman chat, about whether he could ever see himself deliberately suppressing knowledge that he thought would be harmful if it became public knowledge. He said he hoped not. Indeed. (The discussion is here if you want to see it).
However, as the reviewer notes:
When a motivated group with a playbook of ugly tactics spots a scientific finding they don’t like, they can often dominate public discussion in a way that replaces a factual story with a false one. Only scientists of Galilean character can weather the storm. And even they, like Galileo, might be effectively exiled.
That is pretty disconcerting. I’m definitely looking forward to reading this one.
Please feel free to add your own reading recommendations as well.
Picked up Galileo’s Middle Finger yesterday!
What Jon Ronson has to say is interesting. Some folks like to take part in public shaming even though they know that the target isn’t as “evil” as they are made out to be.
I think that people just like to be mean, and that they get off on those righteous feelings. It is a form of bullying, but it is socially acceptable as it is done for “righteous” reasons. Why feel bad about the target of your hate if they deserve it anyway and are more privileged than you?
I picked up Ronson’s book at a certain giant book retailer and was hooked. i love his self-deprecation, humor, and intelligent writing. I will suggest, however, that anyone who hasn’t read him ought to start with Them or The Psychopath Test. He did a great documentary on David Icke which was fascinating.
That is perilously close to a contradiction in terms.
great as in well-made. perhaps a better descriptor would be a disturbingly amusing documentary. likewise the one he did about Ruby Ridge.
I liked Them and The Men Who Stare At Goats. Wasn’t able to get into Psychopath and stopped reading it early on. Will have to give it another try.
Overall, yep I agree he does a great job at writing intelligently on oddball subjects, and I expect I’ll pick this one up before long.
I’m reading it now and Jerry is quoted in it calling Jonah Lehrer a sociopath. In the context of the book it doesn’t come off super well but I thought it was funny given that I just bought it because of this post.
Might be worth reminding him of that with respect to his “the only type of ‘Free Will’ worth wanting” exhortations.
There are certainly times when it becomes much easier to imagine suppressing knowledge. Think of, for example, a simple recipe for creating a deadly plague that you could cook up in your kitchen in an afternoon with stuff you’ve probably already got in the house. That’s the sort of thing where you probably don’t even want it known that such is possible, let alone any hints about how to do it.
…and, at the same time, you probably would want the CDC to know about it so they could get to work on treatments, cures, and vaccines for when somebody else inevitably does figure it out.
The computer world has struggled with this sort of thing for quite some time, with something of an uneasy truce emerging and the concept of “responsible disclosure.” The idea is that, if you figure out a security hole in a vendor’s product, you have a moral obligation to both alert them to the fact and to remain silent about your discovery…but only for a limited (and specified) amount of time, after which, if no fix has been forthcoming from the vendor, you publish it to the whole world. The vendor, in turn, gives credit to the discoverer when they publish the fix in a timely manner.
The vendor has everything they need to fix the bug — generally simply from the fact that it exists, but usually the discoverer will include a proof of concept and perhaps even instructions on how to fix the problem. The vendor also has an incentive to actually implement the fix: egg on their face if they don’t. Hopefully, nobody else has independently discovered the flaw and is secretly exploiting it…but there’s not that much that can be done about that other than to fix it as quickly as possible.
It really is a complicated question, as it turns out….
b&
My immediate thought about Dennett was his “Little People” argument in relation to free will etc too.
Not that I would apply this to someone as smart as Dennett, but I’m starting to wonder if most of those who use that argument really understand the whole concept of Determinism.
Two good examples, Ben, which help clarify the moral issues involved. If censorship is ideally classified as immoral, ie, harmful to the public good, but at the same time a piece of information would likely lead to specific public harm, then we are forced to weigh the outcomes and choose the less harmful course.
The problem arises, however, when the likely outcomes are not so clearcut. For example, I was generally in favor of Snowden’s release of classified material, but what if it did indeed endanger some people’s lives?
Oh, Snowden was perfectly justified. First, his revelations are of literal “death of the Republic” stuff. We now have a secret police agency with its own secret courts that puts the Stasi and the Star Chamber and all the rest to shame; the only thing they’re doing is not getting particularly exuberant with people domestically.
And the only ones who might be at risk of physical harm (as opposed to political or career damage) are people who signed up for that sort of thing and who’re acting in gross violation of local laws. And, as Snowden has made plain, many of them have done far worse to others than what they potentially face. I can’t condone any harm that might come to them, but I can’t at all imagine how concern for their fate could possible weigh against the need for revelation.
b&
There was an episode of the Outer Limits that dealt with exactly that problem. A university student had invented a cold fusion bomb, and was horrified by the implications. As he explained, the materials were so commonplace that it explained why we hadn’t detected intelligent life elsewhere in the universe – they reach our level of technology and then blow themselves up since there is no way of stopping anyone from making such a weapon.
Funny you should ask. Just today, in the “Daily Dose” I receive every day from Powell’s Books, the featured book is Foodopoly: The Battle Over the Future of Food and Farming in America by Wenonah Hauter.
It’s going on my list to read, but I’m temporizing (reading some essays) as the next non-fiction book I’m planning to read, Faith Versus Fact: Why Science and Religion Are Incompatible by a certain Professor Jerry Coyne, is coming out on May 19.
One month from today!
b&
I just ran into this, published in October, written by an ex-muslim atheist: Why There Is No God: Simple Responses to 20 Common Arguments for the Existence of God by Armin Navabi.
Has anyone read this? If so, is it worthwhile?
My “to read” pile has snow on it’s upper slopes and is thinking about glaciers.
[SELF : Runs, Hides]
Oh, that’s nothing. Gravitational infall has raised the temperature of the lowest depths of my pile such that I’m worried about the imminent possibility of nuclear ignition….
b&
You two sound like pikers to me…
Well, I do admit to feeling proud that I’ve so far managed to keep Mr. Schwarzschild at bay….
b&
I have many shelves of books, and I have read many of those books maybe 1/2 to 3/4 of the way through before they must be set aside for one reason or another. I rarely ever back to them.
Books only go onto the shelves once read (or for some reference books, once scanned through so I know approximately what is where).
I am reading “The Long Shadow – The Great War and the Twentieth Century ” by David Reynolds. This is a quite brilliant book on how the First World War still has a huge significance upon the world, 100 years after its start. He discusses how the perceptions of that war has changed, especially in Britain where is is now studied in schools, to a large extent, as a literally rather than a historical event.
A book that I would really recommend…
I just started Child 44. I don’t know if I’m going to be able to handle a dark story but this is how it starts:
And the author is English and no one does dark or apocalyptic better than the English.
Man…that really sounds depressing. Not sure that’s something I’d be into right now…there’s a lot to be said for mindless fluffy exciting escapist entertainment, too….
b&
This book is based on a true and interesting story. There’s also a movie with a different title based on the book, which I liked much better than the book.
I see there’s also a movie out with the same title now. The book was short-listed for the Booker Prize, but, not to be a wet blanket, I didn’t think it was particularly well-written at all. I’ll be curious to know your response when you’ve finished it.
I’ll probably review it on Goodreads. I finished reading Horns and I liked it all through until the end which ruined the whole story for me.
What’s Horns?
This is Horns – Joe Hill is Stephen King’s son. What is funny is I looked at his picture on the back of the book & thought that he had a certain creepiness to him. Then I remembered that I thought the same thing about Stephen King and what do you know – they are father and son.
Yeah, that movie got banned in Russia, which means it’s probably pretty good so I want to read the book then see the movie.
“There are no criminals in Russia.”
I am only about half way through a new book called God’s Bankers, A History of Money and Power at the Vatican. It is very much a history book and not a religious one and is very detailed about the banking and finances of the Catholic church. With 181 pages of Bibliography and notes it is well documented and researched. It says allot about what you can get away with behind the cover of religious exemption. How this organization maintains its hold over millions of people is beyond me.
It also reminds us of what much of religion is really about and that is money.
Religion has always been about money or the acquisition of goods ever since some crafty grifters a few thousand years ago found it was better to be priests in communication with the tribal deity than work for a living as the “lay people” had to. The religions of the world have never gotten beyond this simple but highly effective graft.
“When a motivated group with a playbook of ugly tactics spots a scientific finding they don’t like, they can often dominate public discussion in a way that replaces a factual story with a false one.” – GreenPeace comes instantly to mind.
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I really enjoyed The Men Who Stare At Goats and The Psychopath Test, so getting the new Jon Ronson is a no-brainer.
Galileo’s Middle Finger was not on my radar, but I’ll be sure to pick it up, Sounds interesting!
Loved the Clooney movie of Men Who Stare at Goats!
If they just had cut the last scene (not sure what the producers were thinking there), the movie would have been great.
i’ve forgotten what thelast scene was. All the goats being set loose??
It was something like a diatribe about the virtues of magical thinking followed by Ewen McGregor successfully running through the wall.
Yeah, now I remember – kinda hokey. I loved George Clooney as a hippie and Jeff Bridges, too.
I enjoyed Jimmy Carter’s White House Diary very much – an inside summary of history I remember.
And now I’m reading his more recent A Call To Action: Women, Religion, Violence and Power. It’s an interesting read on how the Carter Center has involved itself in all these issues. It’s an interesting perspective since they work toward change within religious frameworks, but at least there’s not a sense of one religion being right.
Curious if anyone else has read it.
Saw GMF at Chapter’s when I was last there. Almost got it on the title alone.
Got a bunch of other things, including _Enlightment 2.0_: too capitalist, good take down of Haidt and others.
Some Epictetus: neat stuff, though very theistic in that weird stoic way. Materialist theists are like that.
This year, I plan to read Sam Harris’s book “Waking Up: A Guide to Spirituality Without Religion”.
It’s an old book now, but I just finished reading Jennifer Michael Hecht’s Doubt: A History which was a wonderful exploration of history’s greatest intellectual badasses. It’s amazing especially what people in the ancient and medieval world were able to say without the benefit of modern science!
I’m reading Nikolaas Rupke’s Richard Owen – Biology without Darwin which got an enthusiastic mention on John Hutchinson’s What’s in John’s Freezer?.
So far… meh. Still not a fan of Owen, and the book – as a revised and condensed edition – seems a bit clunky in structure and writing.
Thanks–it’s as important to know what NOT to read as it is to know what TO read.