Coming
back to the house immediately exposes me to a rich serendipity of texts many of
which have lain there for years. Or
which demand - and repay - rereading.
This
past week has therefore been a bit of a reading week for me and I would like to
share some of the gems I’ve come across not only in each of those two categories - but in a third one which is becoming
more significant these days – the “virtual” one.
“The
Righteous Mind – why good people are divided by politics and religion” by
Jonathan Haidt (2012) has lain undisturbed on my shelves since it arrived 4
years ago – but is one of the best psychological treatments of political issues
I have read. And that includes Leo Abse’s dissection of leading politicians - “Private
Member” (1973) which was bettered only by Alaister Mant’s strangely neglected “Leaders
we Deserve”.
Psychologists
were, of course, in the van of the reaction (which started a decade or so ago) against
the overly rationalistic explanations of events - Thinking
Fast and Slow; Daniel Kahneman (2012) is probably the best known of these - although it's too technical and dense for me. He may have won a Nobel prize but I gave up after a few pages - and had the same reaction just now when I pulled it down from another shelfGeorge Lakoff is a psychologist - and much more readable - who has been exploring this terrain - and that of "framing" (see recommended reading) - for more than two decades eg “Moral Politics – how Liberals and Politics Think” (1996); and The Political Mind – a cognitive scientist’s guide to your brain and its politics (2008).
Haidt’s treatment, however, shines for three reasons – first, it takes us beyond the narrow scope of a specialist and brings in, to illustrate his points, the wisdom of such writers as social philosopher David Hume and sociologist Emile Durkheim. Indeed Hume’s quip about “passion being the servant of reason” serves as the trigger for the text
The
core of the book, secondly, rests on what he identifies as six moral
foundations of society viz the care/harm;
fairness/cheating; loyalty/betrayal; authority/subversion; sanctity/degradation;
and liberty/oppression dichotomies. He then uses this classification to suggest that the strength
of the political right is their understanding of the importance of this entire range – whereas the
left tend to emphasise only half of the range of values…
The final
strength of the book is the way it’s structured – with the 5-6 key points of each chapter being clearly laid out and summarized.
I’m an impatient reader (there are too many other interesting books waiting) and
this made it much easier to skim…
It
also uses the occasional diagram (something I always appreciate) one of which classifies
people according to the extent to which they express EMPATHY (or “feeling for others” axis one) or SYSTEMISATION (or “classifying things or concepts” - axis two). Jeremy Bentham and Immanuel Kant both figure in the bottom right quadrant
(sociable Kant less so than the almost autistic father of utilitarianism).
But the diagram made me realise that I too fall into that same bottom right quadrant!
I may be a Leo but of the more retiring sort - as I learned when I took the Belbin test expecting to be confirmed as a Leader but was exposed as a "resource person".
I was always more of a networker – if one with a strong penchant for books and typologies
But the diagram made me realise that I too fall into that same bottom right quadrant!
I may be a Leo but of the more retiring sort - as I learned when I took the Belbin test expecting to be confirmed as a Leader but was exposed as a "resource person".
I was always more of a networker – if one with a strong penchant for books and typologies
Recommended Reading/viewing
The whole issue of "framing" (story-telling) is quite fascinating and is becoming a major issue as we increasingly understand the scale of both government and corporate leaders' manipulation of us all over the past century
https://nomadron.blogspot.com/2014/07/stories-we-tell.html
The whole issue of "framing" (story-telling) is quite fascinating and is becoming a major issue as we increasingly understand the scale of both government and corporate leaders' manipulation of us all over the past century
https://nomadron.blogspot.com/2014/07/stories-we-tell.html
Monoculture
– how one story is changing everything by FS Michaels (2011)
Finding Frames (2011)
Warm Words – how the climate story is evolving (IPPE 2011)
Finding Frames (2011)
Warm Words – how the climate story is evolving (IPPE 2011)
Storytelling - bewitching the modern mind; Christian Salmon (2010) an epub which needs conversion to pdf
The Common Cause Handbook (2010)
Wicked Problems and Clumsy Solutions;
“Don’t Think of an Elephant – know your values and frame the debate”; George Lakoff (2004)
The Common Cause Handbook (2010)
Wicked Problems and Clumsy Solutions;
“Don’t Think of an Elephant – know your values and frame the debate”; George Lakoff (2004)
