How Democracies Die

This 2018 book by Levitrsky and Ziblatt is a warning to Americans of what is currently happening to our "democracy" and where we may be headed. The book examines the fate of previous democracies on their path to authoritarian states from Europe in the 1930's, Latin America in the 1970's, and more recent authoritarian rulers. More often than not, "democratic breakdowns have been caused not by generals and soldiers but by elected governments themselves." The authors warn against the gradual breakdown of democratic norms and use the terms tolerance (acceptance) and forbearance (restraint) to describe how a democracy can be sustained. They describe authoritarian rule as rejecting the democratic rules, denying legitimacy of opponents, tolerating violence, and readiness to curtail civil liberties. The Republican party has made a pact with the devil by nominating a president that meets all four criteria. The authors point out that this erosion of democratic norms has been a gradual process that has accelerated since the late 90's. Republicans have been greatly influenced by big money groups, the Tea Party movement, focused media, and racial identity. The book ends with a chapter titled "Saving Democracy" and describes three possible futures for America. They have suggestions for both parties and provide hope that through elections and strengthening of the "guardrails" the democracy can be saved.

What does it take to have a successful Book Club?

A few weeks ago, PBS had a guy on the Newshour who stated 7 things he felt it took to make a successful male book club.

1. Pick a good name - He came up with "Literary Domination Society" to sound macho. We settled on no name.
2. Take turns picking the book - check
3. Pick new and interesting books - check...mostly
4. Everyone must read the books - check
5. Rate all the books - check...eventually
6. Keep records - check
7. Keep going - double check

We are about to complete our 20th year, even without a name. Way to go guys!

How to Change Your Mind

Eight months ago Dr. J had us read a difficult book called How Emotions are Made. This time we read an equally tough book on how to unmake the organized brain. The author teaches us everything we ever wanted to know about psychedelic drugs, provides a comprehensive history of their development, and takes us along for three trips on LSD, mushrooms, and smoking the toad. Pollan provides an argument in support of the benefits of psychedelics for providing end of life comfort, treating addictions, and dealing with depression and anxiety.  He also suggests that we may be once again moving towards accepting psychedelic drugs for recreation use and finding spirituality.
I enjoyed learning about familiar names of the psychedelic 60's from Abby Hoffman (discovered LSD) to Timothy Leary (Harvard professor and LSD for all). There was Ken Keasy, Marshall McLuhan, Cary Grant, Aldous Huxley, Allen Ginsberg, Eldrich Cleaver, Robert Kennedy, Ram Dash, and John Lennon. There was the interesting conservative character Al Hubbard providing support for the early development to the ultimate demise from the overreach of Timothy Leary. The book gave more meaning to the phases "far out", "acid test", "psychedelic", "peace and love", "be here now", and "tune in, turn on, drop out".
The author ends by praising the benefits of psychedelics for combating the over-active default mode network (DMN) brain. We live in a world with high depression, anxiety, OCD, and addiction, that can be treated by non-addictive drugs that increase entropy and thinking outside the box. He points out that many in Silicon Valley (ie. Jobs) have been taking micro doses to help their creative thinking. He argues that a pure psychedelic, taken in the proper amount, with a trained guide, can be a benefit to many people by quieting the ego and increasing ones spirituality.
The book left me thinking that I am not ready to book my trip, but I am more open to seeing the potential benefits. There will be tremendous resistance from the current social order, however who knows where it will eventually go?

Kids These Days: Human Capital and the Making of Millennials

This book was kind of a downer about Millennials written by an unhappy Millennial. The book defines the Millennial generation as the group of Americans born between 1980 and 2000 (now 28 to 38). Our book club consists of Baby Boomers (1946-1965) and late Silent Generation. The author, Malcolm Harris, is a self described communist and editor at The New Inquiry.
The book takes the reader through childhood, college, and work to describe the life and times of the generation. He addresses law enforcement, reward systems, and consequential generational behavior. Oddly the overall behavior of Millennials is better than one would expect given their age and prior generation roll models. Despite the dangers of social media and easy access to drugs and porn, drug and sexual abuse are down in the overall group (particularly when discounting for use of marijuana). He portrays the generation as victims suffering "intellectual degradation" that is overly "managed in the workplace."
The author has a point that the generation is inheriting significant problems of inequality, debt, and environmental damage. It will be up to his generation to tackle these critical issues and I hope there are individuals that will be up to the challenge. The author comes across as overtly cynical and his "seven signs of the bad future" paint a bleak picture. Hopefully a tactic including a combination of "buy it", "vote it", "give it", "protest it", and "put it down" will help guide the generation towards constructive change and positive solutions.

Waking up White

Bob's book was an interesting choice of a woman's take on the very sensitive issue of racism. Wikipedia states that "racism" has evolved from a believe in the unique differences in races of humans (ie. genetics) to a modern definition of the practice of racial discrimination. A recent poll asked if our president was a racist and 49 percent said yes and 46 percent said no, mostly along party lines. The truth is we are probably all racist to a certain degree. On the other hand, the current administration practices and supports white supremacy and empowers racial discrimination.
The female author is more sensitive to the nuances of racism than us typical males. She points out that women use webs instead of ladders and are better collaborating than competing. She states that a bullying situation has a bully, a victim, and bystanders. The bystanders have an important role in curbing the bad behavior. She expresses that we need to go beyond tolerance to engagement and solidarity.
Although she lost me a few times by being a touch over-sensitive, she expresses a view that is currently underrepresented in America today.

The Invention of Nature...Hooray for Humboldt!

Alexander Von Humboldt lived nearly 90 years from 1769 to 1859. He was considered by many to be the most famous man of his time, following possibly Napoleon Bonaparte. According to the author, more places, plants, and animals on earth are named after him than any other person.
Above is a document from his 6,000 mile travel through South America documenting the plants and topography 1799-1804. In his 60's he traveled over 10,000 miles through Russia by horse drawn carriage between May and November 1829. He climbed many peeks, crossed many rivers, traversed  valleys and plains, while all the time carefully documenting his findings and adding to the human understanding of the natural world.
Wikipedia refers to Humboldt as an influential proponent of Romantic philosophy and science for his glorification of nature. On the one hand he worked for the king of Prussia and on the other he was critical of authoritative rule and slavery. He was an adviser to Thomas Jefferson, lived in Paris in the Napoleon years, comrade to Bolivar, was friends with Goethe, and mentored numerous young scientists with his open sharing of information and seminars.
I see Humboldt as the first great environmentalist. He had an early understanding of the dangers to the environment from the Industrial age including climate change from CO2 emissions, deforestation, and threats to biodiversity.
Humboldt provided the foundation and inspiration for great thinkers for generations to come including Darwin, Thoreau, Marsh, Muir, and Haeckel. His Naturgemalde drawing above, Views of Nature, and comprehensive Cosmos series provided a treasurer trove of information for others to build from. Nonetheless, he has been largely forgotten in America, probably because of being Prussian and the pursuing world wars.

Who we are and how we got here

I finished the book and it was a tough one. I must say, I liked it more than I thought I would and I took away several nuggets from reading it.
How old are modern humans? There was a major migration out of Africa about 50,000 years ago, but there are remains of early humans from earlier migrations dating 100,000 to 150,000 years ago in remote corners of the world. Early settlers in the Americas were thought to be only 10,000 years ago, but now they have found remains from much earlier. Much has happened in Eurasia, India, and China in the past 4,000 years, but there are many secrets in the ancient past including numerous ghosts in the genome. What is our individual heritage? Europe had early hunter gatherers, farmers from Iran, and hunter gatherers from the Russian steppe (not to mention a touch of Neanderthal). China had the Han dynasties, Taiwanese settled islands from Madagascar to Indonesia, and how did the early humans get to Australia? Apparently all modern humans originated in Africa at some point in time, in one wave or another.
Interesting how mutations in the genome can be traced for health concerns and are a problem with isolated populations. Also interesting how aggressive males like Genghis Khan can spread their Y chromosomes across a wide area. There are ethical issues to be addressed in this emerging field and we must guard against the evils of racism and nationalism and focus on understanding and embracing our diversity. "In this field, the pursuit of truth for its own sake has overwhelmingly had the effect of exploding stereotypes, undercutting prejudice, and highlighting the connections among peoples not previously known to be related."

Enlightenment Now

TMI! Either this was a really difficult read or I am not very enlightened.

This was like a "Short History of Nearly Everything" with underlying explanations. A comprehensive review of history, philosophy, political science, religious studies, and science as well as some Sam Harris like reasoning thrown in.

Although I finished the book, I feel I could read it again and come away with much more. I like the idea of the Monty Python saying "always look as the bright side of life" and the hope that the world will continue on a road of "progress". I do worry about mankind's impact on the environment and lack some of Pinker's faith in humanism. However, I do believe an expanded enlightenment and humanism is our best hope against Romantics, fascism, and theocracies.

Origin

I really enjoyed Dan Brown's latest book. It was again a travel log book with an exciting plot with lots of twists and turns. It brought back lots of visual images from our trip to Spain in 2008. I love Barcelona and the rest of Spain and above are pictures from Barcelona, the Spanish countryside, a very large church in Girona, and the Cathedral outside the Palace in Madrid. I like everything Gaudi, Winston Churchill is a hero of mine, and Sam Harris is one of my favorite authors. Brown addresses the challenges of current religions, technology, as well as the concept of Singularity...what's not to like.

John H pointed out the major question from the book, "Would you rather live without technology, or in a world without religion? Would you rather live without medicine, electricity, transportation, and antibiotics, or without zealots waging war over fictional tales and imaginary spirits?" Will "The dark religions...depart so sweet science can reign." Or, as Father Bena sees it, there is a place for an enlightened Christianity that becomes a "spiritual partner of science" to "help humanity build a moral framework and ensure that the coming technologies will unify, illuminate, and raise us up...rather than destroy us."

How Emotions are Made

This is the first book that I needed to take notes throughout in order to better understand. There are recurring themes throughout, including emotions are constructed and not essential to each one of us. We make our own predictions and are ultimately in control and responsible for our actions. We create our own affective realism, concepts, and social reality.
The book made me think of other books including The Gene, The Social Animal, Younger Next Year, and Waking Up. I thought of the TV show Bull in the legal chapter. It made me think about the concepts of evolution, religion, spirituality, biology, and culture. I also thought about the use of language and other short cuts to aid in making faster and better predictions (like the CRSPR technique in genetic sequencing).
Nevertheless, this was a really hard book and I am finished with my book report.

When English Fall

It has been a little while since I finished Bob's latest book about the Amish people in an apocalyptic world. I really enjoyed it and it raises many interesting questions concerning living a simple life, our dependence on modern technology, the role of faith, law and order, and the complexity of the world we live in.
I admire the Amish people and I doubt that anyone of us could live life the way they do. God and faith are not enough to deal with the threat of the outside world (just look at Las Vegas). On the other hand they deserve to be left alone.

Fourth Industrial Revolution

Interesting observations and projections packed in a short read with a really big appendix. Felt to me a little like a text book that I may be quizzed on later. Overall a positive take on technology solving our future challenges like the book Abundance. On the other hand, it does address the responsibility of leadership to protect the earth, make the technological advances accessible to the masses, and warns of the potential threats. The Fourth Industrial Revolution feels to me more like a continuation of the Third (Computer/Data/Internet) on steroids.
The two email links sent out by Dave M and Bill were timely takes on the potential treat of monopolies in our future https://pocket.co/xMn8wE?cta=1&src=ph and the state of our current corporate environment https://charlierose.com/videos/30816. I am in agreement with Grantham in the importance of the climate change issue.

My kind of book. What is the future of the human race? What is our individual environmental legacy? 102 tons of waste? I hope not.
So many indirect references to other books including Upsizing, Abundance, Collapse, even Inferno. Are we in a decadence stage and is that a bad thing? Should we not be transitioning from extravagance to frugality? Can we transition from conspicuous consumption..i.e. large houses, SUV's, bottle water, obesity and substance abuse...to less waste.
Half of the world does not even practice waste disposal, what happens when they start generating our level of trash? Much of the waste problem is rooted in plastics, can we break our addition?
There are many sites dedicated to the cause of reducing waste including Zeri.org, zerowastehome.com (Bea Johnson), Wastelessliving.com (Christine), and Surfrider.org to name a few. What can each of us do, or, more importantly, what are we willing to do?

Plot against America...when should America go to war?

According to fivethirtyeight.com today, in May of 1940, 62% of Americans in a national poll said the US should stay out of supporting the allies in the conflict in Europe, even if Hitler was about to be victorious. What if Roosevelt was not reelected?

Zanzibar Chest referred to the value of one American to the number of Israelis and Africans. What about Bosnia, Somalia, Darfur...Syria? 

Should the decision be based on national security, national interests, war crimes, genocide?

Is there ever a good time to use force? Now that we are cutting back on international aid and diplomacy (state department). What is next?

I haven't quite finished the current book, but it does not look good for the alternative universe.

Link to The No Name Book Club Book on Blurb

The completed book is now publicly available through www.blurb.com/bookstore. You can search the book on the Blurb site by title or author. The paperbacks are $25.49 and the hard copies are $40.49. It is also available free as a download on Kindle. Thank you all for your great contribution.

Significant Numbers verses Alternative Facts

Dave's current selection of Strangers in there own land talked of the deep story and the great paradox. It got me thinking about what I thought I knew verses what many others believe. The author outlines a few things in Appendix C (Fact-Checking Common Impressions) that inspired me to look up a few facts for myself. Luckily there are some great government sponsored sights for fact checking that are still operating.
1. usgovernmentspending.com - Good site for checking the total government spending (7 trillion) by category.
2. usdebtclock.org - This is a great up to the second sight for monitoring the budget deficit (592 billion) and the national debt (20 trillion).
3. census.gov/popclock - This is a fascinating sight monitoring population growth (7.35 billion).
4. earthtimeline.com - This is a fun sight to check the ages of the earth (4.54 billion years).
5. climate.nasa.gov/evidence - Good site for climate change facts (15 of the 16 years since 2001 are the warmest on record).
Although the recent wave of alternative facts is very concerning, I believe there eventually will be a reality check for the deep stories.

Paul's favorites

When Bill and I dreamed up the book club idea over 18 years ago I was looking for a way to gather a bunch of men (no women) to read and discuss books to expand our knowledge. The early books were often short and non-fiction and my particular favorites were books that taught me something. 

Given the fact that I am currently the only member still regularly working, I found the writing assignment difficult to narrow down to just five books, but here goes:

1. Martian - This might be my favorite. It is an exciting adventure story that the author makes technologically feasible.

2. Lexus and the Olive Tree - This was the first of many excellent business related books by one of our favorite authors, Thomas Friedman. Still a great explanation of Globalization.

3. Abundance - This books gives hope to entrepreneurs using technology to solve the problems of the world.

4. The World Without Us - The sobering environmental tale of what can happen.

5. Freakonomics - Unique yet rational way of looking at the world.

Other books deserving mention include novels The Art of Racing in the Rain, The DaVinci Code, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, The Perfect Storm, Slaughterhouse 5, and the Art Forger. Some of my other non-fiction favorites include Henrietta Lacks, The Man Who Killed Pluto, The Presidents Club, The Things They Carried, The Last Lecture, Moneyball, and Younger Next Year.

Dave M's favorites

My 8 favorite books from years past area in no particular order:

Bob Proctor’s, Empire of the Summer Moon is really a shocking book. An early scene depicting a group of Plains Indians roasting their settler captives on an open fire, repeated raids on settlements with men women and children massacred or made slaves. It shows me that there were negative human traits on both sides of the settlement movement with the settlers equally brutal.

Paul LaCombe’s, The Lexus and the Olive Tree introduced me to globalization and it’s incredible scope. I had no idea of its influence on trade and culture. Combined with the internet it led directly to China’s rise, as well as influencing ISIS, Brexit, and other phenomena. There”s no going back.

Bill Lockwood’s, Tortilla Curtain is a very entertaining and well written book that was further enhanced for me by my meeting T.C. Boyle at my 50th High School reunion in upstate New York, of all places.

John Staff’s, The World is Hot Flat and Crowded provides further stories of globalization and more importantly the population explosion worldwide with its effect on our ability to manage food supply, disease epidemics, and the economies of high population areas. The case for population control is laid out here.

John Higgins', Unbroken is an unbelievable story of courage, struggle, and redemption of the amazing Louie Zamperini! Another great Laura Hillenbrand book.

Stan Pine’s, In Art Forger I learned more about the art world than I thought I ever wanted to know.  They had an art auction on recent cruise and I kept wondering how many of the works were forgeries, and by the looks of them, a lot.

Dave Jones’, Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is a well written mystery. I read it through almost in one sitting, I couldn’t put it down.

My favorite is Cloudsplitter. It had everything a novel should have from familial love, violence, sin, and redemption on a huge stage.

I know this is eight pick’s, but I wanted to include everybody’s efforts. I think picking the right book is the hardest part.

Bill's Favorites

Thank you for this project.  It caused me to revisit all our books and remember wonderful discussions with each and all of you while breaking bread together – okay, and a bit of vino as well.  We are fortunate indeed to have this strong and unusual fellowship.  I am grateful, thank you!

The End of Faith by Sam Harris

Admittedly, Harris presented ideas that fit my worldview – so this book was easy for me to like.  I have often recommended this book to others with: “Harris describes why the collective we cannot have a conversation without using science and its basic laws”.  He pointed out that moderates can & often will subordinate their dogma to common sense (science) and that fundamentalists cannot.  Hence the additional appropriate scrutiny on whichever religion is demonstrating the more fundamentalist views at any given time (Post 9/11 Islam in this case).  As I write this just after the 2016 election, and as an moderate independent who voted democratic in this election, I find having any conversation with “the opposition” difficult at best.  So finding common ground is, and will continue to be, a challenge and a goal. 

Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom

This relationship between an older dying mentor and his younger protege caused us to talk about mentors and other relationships in our lives in general that influenced us.  From this discussion I made a goal to have more meaningful conversations with those close to me.  I still have much work to do but I am appreciative of the influence.  As Bob Proctor wrote: “The book set the tone for freewheeling discussions that often take us places well beyond the book itself”. Many of our books that seem to have generated the most emotion and sharing have been about the inevitability of death - which tends to help us focus much more on making the most of “this moment” of our lives. 

The Kite Runner by Khalid Hosseini

I loved the story of boyhood friendship and the subsequent challenges of 2 boys from different religions and classes.  We were treated to the good and not-so-good side of relationships: fathers and sons; humans and their gods; men & their countries – in a beautifully written story from Afghanistan. 

The Help by Kathryn Stockett

I felt like I lived The Help in some small way.  I moved from the first American melting pot (military dependent housing and schooling) on an army base in Germany – to Columbus, Georgia in 1958 – 4 years before the time period of this book.  I had played, studied, and shared meals with blacks and all other ethnic & religious groups and knew them as friends and neighbors.  Then I went to separate water fountains, bathrooms and schools.   Black fathers had to look away from whites and show subservience – in front of their families – or ….!  I find I am angry still. This book helps me think we have made some progress away from man’s inhumanity to man.  I found it heartwarming, humorous and an accurate depiction of the time & place. 

The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien

This was our war when we were young.  I chose to join the national guard to avoid the draft when I dropped out of college with a low lottery number.  I was exposed to a few of the men who went to Vietnam in my 8 weeks of basic training which amounted to living in one large room with fifty 18 to 24 year old “boys” from all walks of life.  Most were from lower socioeconomic backgrounds but not all.  There were a few college grads, dropouts like me, and many who were given the choice of the army or jail.  Some were clearly afraid but still said things like: “I’m going to kill me some gooks”.  In 1971, the year after my boot camp, a fellow worker at a lumber company who had just returned from a tour in Nam said: “sometimes we would mow down water buffalo”.  I avoided him thereafter but feel like I understand him a bit better after having read this book.  I very much like the writing – just not the subject matter.  But sometimes we learn more from what is not so easy.

Bob's Favorites

This was an impossible task to pick only five books from the over 200 we have read. I finally went through each page of listed books and tried to gauge the one’s that had stayed in my memory over the years. For those that had remained in my head, the reasons were a mixture of the writer’s craft, the story told, the knowledge gained, my personal connection and how the book helped us become closer together over the years.

The books are listed by the order they were read and not their standing in my memory.

1. Tuesday with Morrie, (Bill Lockwood): This short book was about a young journalist and his dying mentor. Their conversations and reflections stimulated our new group to talk about mentors in our own lives. We got to know each other better as each of us drew on own personal history of mentors in our lives. The book set the tone for freewheeling discussions that often take us places well beyond the book itself.
2. The Night of the Avenging Blowfish, (John Staff): Cleverly funny story of a young OC guy and his travel to a tropical island where the native’s outhouse is a lovely beach where they enjoy communal conversations while dumping to begin each day. I still laugh when I remember parts of this book.
3. The Control of Nature, John McPhee (David Moritz): I had seen articles by John McPhee in the New Yorker and always liked his skill of exploring the world with wonderful attention to detail. Here McPhee checked out how folks in Iceland stopped a volcano flow before it could destroy their town. Then he went to New Orleans (before Katrina) to write how the Army Corp of Engineers tried to tame the mighty Mississippi. Then (to my surprise) McPhee came to our own San Gabriel Mountains. with the story about how we foolishly built homes in the path of runoff from the very steep slopes. Every time I hike past a debris !! basin, I think of John McPhee.
4.The Life of Pi, Martel Yann (me): Yann imagined an incredible tale about boy and tiger lost at sea, sharing a lifeboat. His writing was so compelling, I bought into the story. In the end the reader was given a choice to believe the tiger really existed or was a metaphor the boy had created. I chose that the tiger was real.
5. The End of Faith, Sam Harris (David Jones): I had left my Catholic upbringing in college, but was having trouble deciding what my relationship with a god should be. Harris convinced me it was OK to accept to being an atheist.
6. The World is Flat, Tom Friedman (Stan Pine): All of Friedman’s books are great for learning more about the realities of our world. We almost never get a true understanding from our political leaders. It was wonderful to have a very readable Tom Friedman to try to make sense of the globalization all around us.
7. The Limits of Power, Andrew Bracevich (me): When I read Bracevich, I feel he has just slapped me in the face to get my attention. If we could harness our claimed “exceptualism” to the economic realities and willingness to sacrifice, we would realize the use of military might is not the best answer to dealing with the world.
8. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Stieg Larson (David Jones). Larson created the toughest young woman ever. It was so good, there were 2 movies made. I liked the US version where Rooney Mara brought the slim wisp of a super girl to life.
9. Unbroken, Laura Hillenbrand. Hillenbrand told the extraordinary story of Louie Zamperini. Born and raised in nearby Torrance, where he was a juvenile delinquent who became a disciplined Olympic runner. But his life crashed along with the Air Force plane as he fought in the Pacific. His survival at sea only to be rescued by the Japanese to spent his days being tortured by a sadistic camp leader. He survived to return home with PTSD. The then unknown and untreated psychological condition, almost did him in but again he survived. Hillenbrand was lucky that he was still alive when she wrote the book.
10. The Boys in the Boat. Daniel Brown, (David Moritz). Brown introduced us to a group of Washington University students from poor to middle class homes who became heroes of the rowing world and won their event in the Olympics. Each of their stories told about their grit and determination. Unlike the rowers from the East Coast, they had to earn money while they studied and practiced to become the best. There was a wonderful English character, who made their boats from native cedar. While in Seattle visiting grandchildren, I went to wooden boat restoration place on Lake Union. One of his boats still hangs from their ceiling.
11. Quiet, Susan Cain (David Jones). Susan Cain, an introvert, wrote this explanation about those among us who are introverts and how they have been unappreciated. My granddaughter, Hailey, is a full fledged member of the introvert world. Until this book, Uli and I fretted about her lack of friends and aloof nature. She was always happiest at home reading a book rather than on the phone or engaging with others. The book showed me, that I too am somewhat of an introvert. Now we can embrace Hailey, who plays violin in the school string orchestra and gets all A’s. It turned out at our book club meeting that most of us confessed to being introverted.