Wars don't just happen at the front lines. They don't just happen at policy level with Kings and Presidents and Generals in the back office.
They also take place on the home-front.
Glass examines the home-front through the eyes of people who were out of place -- in Paris.
Through an exhaustive look at the world of Paris as lived by Americans during and just before the Nazi occupation, we get a different sense of the war than I have ever been presented. It is in depth, and we see how several Americans lived and survived the unique challenges. Some rose to the challenge, others did their best to survive. Their stories are here. They are many, and the lens of focus moves around so at times it is difficult to recenter the thread of the narrative. However the book unfolds in chronological time, so if you have a background of the history, it is easy to keep track of the temporal aspect. The book is interesting and novel, but maybe not necessary. Perhaps there are too many 'stars'. Perhaps there are too few.
November 2, 2011
October 28, 2011
Hedgehogs Unite
I was a precocious child. I was very confident with myself. I used to do this thing to emphasize my point. On every syllable of whatever I was talking about, I would take my right forefinger and point it into my left palm for emphasis. If I was certain at that point that David Bowie was born in Wisconsin, I would say Dav-POKE-id-POKE-Bow-POKE-ie-POKE-was-POKE-from-Wis-POKE-con-POKE-sin.
That is not to say that David Bowie was actually born in Wisconsin, but that I was sure that he was. In Gardner's terms, I was fox. My previous self wasn't to be trusted. I understand. That kid who was me was often wrong. The problem was that he was too sure of himself, which often led him to be wrong.
It is far better, in the context of this book, to be the proverbial hedgehog. While the fox knows one big thing and focuses all his or her explanations in the context of that big thing, the hedgehog...hedges. There are multiple layers which lead to complexity in forecasting the future events.
The problem, in Gardner's view and as a society, is that the fox is more often wrong. But the fox is often more often of one note, allowing his predictions to be strong and easily explainable. He is often more likely to be spectacularly wrong. But that appears what we want. Sometimes someone who will examine everything is locked out as a pundit because it takes more than a minute and a half or 500 words to make a cogent and balanced point. Hedgehogs have no voice.
Gardner brings in example after example to show western society's [reference for foxes, and their objective lack of ability in predicting the future from past events. He shows that "Experts" are most likely to be wrong about the future in fields that they have extensively studied.
His work is compelling and interesting; my only worry is that the metaphor he borrows to explain the world can overtake him. The theory of the hedgehog and the fox may become his fox so that whatever he sees reinforces his thesis. I may be wrong. I have tried to become a hedgehog from the fox I was once. I can only hope I don't fall in the same traps.
That is not to say that David Bowie was actually born in Wisconsin, but that I was sure that he was. In Gardner's terms, I was fox. My previous self wasn't to be trusted. I understand. That kid who was me was often wrong. The problem was that he was too sure of himself, which often led him to be wrong.
It is far better, in the context of this book, to be the proverbial hedgehog. While the fox knows one big thing and focuses all his or her explanations in the context of that big thing, the hedgehog...hedges. There are multiple layers which lead to complexity in forecasting the future events.
The problem, in Gardner's view and as a society, is that the fox is more often wrong. But the fox is often more often of one note, allowing his predictions to be strong and easily explainable. He is often more likely to be spectacularly wrong. But that appears what we want. Sometimes someone who will examine everything is locked out as a pundit because it takes more than a minute and a half or 500 words to make a cogent and balanced point. Hedgehogs have no voice.
Gardner brings in example after example to show western society's [reference for foxes, and their objective lack of ability in predicting the future from past events. He shows that "Experts" are most likely to be wrong about the future in fields that they have extensively studied.
His work is compelling and interesting; my only worry is that the metaphor he borrows to explain the world can overtake him. The theory of the hedgehog and the fox may become his fox so that whatever he sees reinforces his thesis. I may be wrong. I have tried to become a hedgehog from the fox I was once. I can only hope I don't fall in the same traps.
September 28, 2011
In Cheap We Trust
The book shouts from the cover the word in big letters: CHEAP.
But that's only half the story. If I remember correctly, she states somewhere that the real thesis of the book is not about cheapness, but about thriftiness and frugality. The problem is, would you pick up a book that shouted from the cover in big letters: FRUGALITY?
I probably wouldn't, but that is why we have marketers. When I have to think of the central word, I think not of a consumer too hard to part from their money; I instead think of a bargain that doesn't last, the dime-store clown shoes whose vinyl cracks on the first wear. Only in passing do I think of a tightwad.
What this book is is a history of that characteristic that we have so many words for; the dead opposite of a fool and his money. What Weber reviews is the history of the popularity of thriftiness, and not surprisingly it follows the business and political cycles. One day everyone is eating sawdust and the next people are lighting cigars with currency, as long as it isn't German. What she does very well is dispel the notion that Thrift is some bedrock American value that we are forever getting away from. (It is part of "Kids these days" syndrome, where everything was better back then). It is a fashion that cycles with the times.
She transitions from the history and looks at the current state of thriftiness. The most interesting for me is her extended look at people that consider themselves Freegans or are honest with themselves and call themselves dumpster divers. This is a group of people who have tried to remove themselves as far as possible from the consumptive society. While these people are interesting, I was missing one thing. The biggest critique of such a movement to me, is that they are parasitical in a way I don't mean to be derogatory. They opt out of buying things, but their lifestyle depends on others buying and discarding the consumer goods and foods that they then can appropriate. It works as a fringe movement, but it doesn't scale up.
For me, that seems to reflect my ultimate issue with Cheapness as a movement, even the 'Ethical Cheapness" Weber calls for. It feels like a first world issue that we can wear at our choosing and still splurge. It hides the real effects of poverty and the degradation of the planet that capitalism imposes to all of the riders. As long as cheapness and thrift are choices we can look at them as idiosyncrasies. The problem is that thrift is a necessity for billions, but that we can ignore in the first world. I enjoyed the book, and I kept wanting more, I just wish that issue would have been looked at more in depth, especially as she moved from history and into personalizing the experience later in the book.
But that's only half the story. If I remember correctly, she states somewhere that the real thesis of the book is not about cheapness, but about thriftiness and frugality. The problem is, would you pick up a book that shouted from the cover in big letters: FRUGALITY?
I probably wouldn't, but that is why we have marketers. When I have to think of the central word, I think not of a consumer too hard to part from their money; I instead think of a bargain that doesn't last, the dime-store clown shoes whose vinyl cracks on the first wear. Only in passing do I think of a tightwad.
What this book is is a history of that characteristic that we have so many words for; the dead opposite of a fool and his money. What Weber reviews is the history of the popularity of thriftiness, and not surprisingly it follows the business and political cycles. One day everyone is eating sawdust and the next people are lighting cigars with currency, as long as it isn't German. What she does very well is dispel the notion that Thrift is some bedrock American value that we are forever getting away from. (It is part of "Kids these days" syndrome, where everything was better back then). It is a fashion that cycles with the times.
She transitions from the history and looks at the current state of thriftiness. The most interesting for me is her extended look at people that consider themselves Freegans or are honest with themselves and call themselves dumpster divers. This is a group of people who have tried to remove themselves as far as possible from the consumptive society. While these people are interesting, I was missing one thing. The biggest critique of such a movement to me, is that they are parasitical in a way I don't mean to be derogatory. They opt out of buying things, but their lifestyle depends on others buying and discarding the consumer goods and foods that they then can appropriate. It works as a fringe movement, but it doesn't scale up.
For me, that seems to reflect my ultimate issue with Cheapness as a movement, even the 'Ethical Cheapness" Weber calls for. It feels like a first world issue that we can wear at our choosing and still splurge. It hides the real effects of poverty and the degradation of the planet that capitalism imposes to all of the riders. As long as cheapness and thrift are choices we can look at them as idiosyncrasies. The problem is that thrift is a necessity for billions, but that we can ignore in the first world. I enjoyed the book, and I kept wanting more, I just wish that issue would have been looked at more in depth, especially as she moved from history and into personalizing the experience later in the book.
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