Provocations, Editor’s Choice, Optimism
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Provocations, Editor’s Choice, Optimism
Links and recommendations
My book was selected as an Editor's Choice for Biographies and Memoirs by The Bookseller. They describe it as "trenchant and remarkable."
The latest Goodreads giveaway is still live—enter here for a chance to win an advance print copy of Troubled: A Memoir of Foster Care, Family, and Social Class.
From the archives:
Summarizing my productivity and output over the period of 2018-22. As I mention in this post, I continue to feel the impending sense that I have to make up for lost time.
Links and recommendations:
Applications at the University of Austin (UATX) are now officially open for prospective undergraduate students for the fall of 2024. Learn more here.
The Provocations of Camille Paglia by Emily Esfahani Smith
To Lead a Meaningful Life, Become Your Own Hero by Ben Rogers, Kurt Gray, Mike Christian
How American Colleges Gave Birth to Cancel Culture by Rikki Schlott and Greg Lukianoff
Why the young should go to the office by Janan Ganesh
The beauty of mid-range products by Rory Sutherland
The 80% Approach to Dating by Francesca Hogi
Follow me on Instagram here. The platform is less volatile and more chill than X/Twitter, so I post some spicier excerpts from my readings on my IG stories
Three interesting findings:
1. Children who lived in London during the Blitz and were sent away to the countryside for protection against German bombing fared worse than children who remained with their parents and endured nights in bomb shelters and frightening images of dead people. (source: The Body Keeps the Score by Bessel van der Kolk).
2. Men rated as less attractive earned 9% less than those with average looks; men who were rated as handsome earned 5% more than those considered to be average. For women, those rated as less attractive earned 5% less than women with average looks; women rated as attractive earned 4% more than average-looking women. (source).
3. Generally, young people in lower-income countries are more optimistic than young people in richer countries. Sixty-three percent of American youth are optimistic about the future of the world, compared to 88% in India. Forty-one percent of British youth are optimistic about future living conditions, compared to 85% in Mexico. (source).
Provocations, Editor’s Choice, Optimism
Scott Alexander reviewed van der Kolk's "The Body Keeps the Score" a few years ago, and was only middling complimentary. https://slatestarcodex.com/2019/11/12/book-review-the-body-keeps-the-score/ . His view is that we owe VDK a great deal for beating the drum in spite of long opposition about PTSD's mere existence, but that as he went on, he overclaimed more and more. Where the study he references fits into that I don't know. It is certainly plausible, even likely, that relationships and community support are the best treatment for trauma. I have heard it said in a Christian context "Healing mostly takes place in the context of community."
It is certainly traumatic for children to be ripped from their context, wondering whether their now-unseen parents are dead or alive, being comforted by strangers, however well-meaning. But look who is missing from the data: the children in London who were killed in the blitz.
Bravo on the editor’s choice!