Review: Outraged: Why We Fight About Morality and Politics and How to Find Common Ground

Outraged: Why We Fight About Morality and Politics and How to Find Common Ground by Kurt Gray
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This was a disappointment. I am reasonably confident that we can all see (and feel) the social/moral outrage currently dividing much of America and I was really hoping this work my provide some understanding and potentially a way to mitigate it. Yeah … probably not a realistic expectation; however, even worse, significant parts were completely undermined by my own experience and understanding of the human psyche and social mind. After a reasonable start, the author tries to make the case that humans didn’t evolve as apex predators (completely ignoring the actual definition of apex predator) arguing that if we go back in time far enough, we were obviously not predators … news flash … take ANY predatory organism on the planet and go back far enough and you will find an ancestor that was not a predator, so that is a pretty silly hill to die on … but the need here is because his entire premise is based upon the idea that evolution only accretes and never eliminates (a theory of evolution that is not supported). Okay … so ever worse … if humans are not apex predators … we much be prey? Yeah … No … Not really. But it only gets worse … because “as prey” we must have obviously adopted survival strategies common To prey … such as social groups designed to “dilute” the zone so that predators are over whelmed by too many targets … yeah … it doesn’t actually work that way either … 1) that specific strategies requires a rate of reproduction that out-paces predation, which, given human juvenile timeframes, birthrates and survival stats, doesn’t seem like a good argument and 2) social grouping are common even among apex predators … such as orcas … so there are other reasons for this that are likely to be a better fit to our human evolution. This whole line of reasoning completely undermined part 1 and I almost abandoned the book at that point.

It gets a little better with Part 2 and the author’s examination of harm … while I believe this is still too simplistic an answer that would be better described by using the term “threat [or harm]” it was close enough to get the general idea and more or less seems to be a good fit … especially the idea that, in general, our moral mind, or sense of morality, is founded on the perception of [potential] harm against the individual [or group in which the individual is a member]. What is missing is the how and why this is the mechanism, that determines/encourages social conformity (order vs chaos to improve survivability of the social unit) AND “othering” (briefly discussion without any indication or acknowledgment that ejection from the social group means that the moral mind no longer applies). There was elements that were good and useful, but they are generally hidden by imprecise language and/or outright misrepresentations of organizational dynamics.

Part 3 was the best part of the work and could easily stand on its own. The basic premise here is that facts don’t really matter because human nature isn’t really optimized for facts, but for story telling. This is almost an intuitive observation … if still overly simplified. The best way to counter moral outrage is to share stories from both sides … in other words, to re-humanize opponents (because the first step of justification for violence against an opponent is to dehumanize them). This does help turn down the temperature, but if does’t persuade (then again … the whole author continually emphasizes that the purpose here is NOT persuasion.

The chapters and sections in this work are …

Introduction - Swerve: The Power of Harm
Chapter 1 War: Is Understanding Betrayal?

PART 1: Human Nature - Myth 1 The Myth of Human Nature: We Evolved as Apex Predators
Chapter 2 Prey: The New Human Nature
Chapter 3 Social: The Rise of Morality
Chapter 4 Dangerous: Ignoring Our Obvious Safety

PART 2 Our Moral Mind - Myth 2 of the Moral Mind: There are No Harmless Wrongs
Chapter 5 Legacy: A Recent History of Harm
Chapter 6 Intuitive: The New Harm
Chapter 7 Vulnerability: Explaining Political Differences
Chapter 8 Blame: Moral Typecasting
Chapter 9 Suffering: Self-Focused Victimhood

PART 3 Bridging Moral Divides - Myth 3 Facts Bridge Divides
Chapter 10 Understanding: Telling Stories of Harm
Chapter 11: Hope: Opening Up

Epilogue Humility: Always Learning

Some of the other points that really got my attention (regardless of whether or not I agreed with them) are:

(view spoiler)[

Deep in our minds, every fight about morality comes down to one thing: competing perceptions of harm. We get outraged at people when they deny our assumptions about what causes suffering and when they reject our views of victimhood.

When we look at our moral psychology, the picture is surprisingly simple. Deep down, we all have the same moral cognition. We all have a harm-based moral mind. Harm is the master key that unlocks understanding across the messiness of human moral judgment.

The key point is that perceptions of harm on both sides are sincere, even if they don’t immediately make sense to you. It is tempting to dismiss someone’s feelings of threat as misguided or exaggerated, but studies show that our moral convictions are underlain by genuinely perceived harms.

Comparing politics to war motivates people to donate to campaigns, but it is terrible for democracy, because democracy requires us to cooperate and compromise for the good of the country.

The destruction narrative spells trouble for democracy. If you believe that your opponents are trying to destroy democracy, then you might think the only way to save your democracy is to resort to antidemocratic practices yourself, including illegal gerrymandering, restricting free speech, and forcing gridlock to hurt the other party.

Evolution always builds on top of preexisting mental structures rather than replacing them.

We stand at the very top of the food pyramid. We hunt any animal we please, and no animal hunts us in return. Scholars argue that we are apex predators because of the unique abilities of our body and brain.

There is no doubt that today’s modern humans are apex predators, and that our hominid ancestors were capable of brutal violence and calculated aggression. However, our hominid ancestors were not apex predators.

Morality is the most fundamental of human social contracts. Morality is a set of norms (expectations about behavior) shared by a group. These norms revolve around encouraging cooperation and kindness and discouraging selfishness and aggression.

Moral outrage is the psychological tool that motivates people to punish wrongdoers, even at cost or risk to themselves. It is a “commitment device,” something that commits people to punishment, even though trying to punish someone can be dangerous.

Alexis de Tocqueville, argues that as societies enjoy more economic and moral progress, people get more frustrated at injustices. Tocqueville understood the subjectivity surrounding which acts are judged as “injustices,” and that these judgments hinge on people’s reference points.

This theory partitions our moral mind into five different psychological rooms, two used by both liberals and conservatives (care/harm, fairness), and three used only by conservatives (loyalty, authority, purity).

The whole idea of harmless wrongs argues that—psychologically speaking—people are willing to condemn an act as immoral while also genuinely seeing it as harmless. In other words, in people’s minds there should be a clean break between what people see as harmful and what they see as wrong.

There are two ways to connect harm with virtues. The first is to recognize that virtues outline ways of acting that prevent salient harms in society. … The second way that a harm-based mind understands the importance of virtues is that virtues compensate for harm.

To help reduce this complexity, we have developed a suite of heuristics, also called rules of thumb or cognitive shortcuts, that help us make sense of the world.

Moral typecasting is the intuitive urge to see people as either 100 percent villains and 0 percent victims or 0 percent villains and 100 percent victims. This all-or-nothing division of pain and blame allows us to feel righteous when we excuse the misdeeds of those who suffer or ignore the suffering of those who have harmed others.

When people think about the mind of God, they anchor on themselves. God may be ultimately unknowable, but this ambiguity paradoxically breeds confidence that His convictions are your convictions. People’s moral egocentrism also convinces them that millions of others share their political opinions, sometimes leading to disaster.

But there is a more charitable interpretation of why victimhood is so often invoked on social media. The social distance and anonymity of the internet makes it harder to understand other people. In-person conversations allow for small talk that establishes common ground, allowing people to bond over their common love of music or their common dislike of the weather. On the anonymous internet, this initial connection and common ground is hard to find, especially when people immediately start arguing about politics.

Facts fail to foster respect in political discussions because our moral beliefs are based on intuitions of harm, not objective evidence. Our moral convictions are founded not on statistics but on feelings of threat.

The process of dehumanization starts when you see the other side as fundamentally different from yourself, especially as concerns their minds and morals. Encountering differences is not necessarily bad and can even be exciting, but they can also set the stage for feelings of superiority—and perceptions of inferiority—once conflict arises.

(hide spoiler)]

I was given this free advance reader copy (ARC) ebook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

#Outraged #NetGalley.

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Review: Seven Deadly Sins: The Biology of Being Human

Seven Deadly Sins: The Biology of Being Human by Guy Leschziner
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

An interesting exploration of the intersection between free-will and brain function/injury with respect to moral decision and the social conventions/limits governed by such. Organized into a chapter for each of the “standard” cardinal sins, the author introduces a medical case study that seems to highlight how the brain controls our ability to conform or not to the social prohibition defined by each sin … and, although it is a strength for some examples, does highlight the contributions made by trauma or injury to various regions of the brain. The author provides remarkable insights from his own medical practice along with some supporting research for each of his points … which was interesting from a scientific point of view, but generally much less helpful from a theological point of view. Still, the material was clear and well organized, making it an easy and accessible read.

The chapters and sections in this work are …

Introduction

1. Wrath
2. Gluttony
3. Lust
4. Envy
5. Sloth
6. Greed
7. Pride
8. Free Will

Glossary

Some of the other points that really got my attention (regardless of whether or not I agreed with them) are:

These Jewish principles were formalised by the Desert Fathers, early Christian hermit monks residing in the Scetes desert of Egypt, in the fourth century, and were listed as eight sins. It was Pope Gregory I in 590 CE who revised the deadly sins into the more familiar Seven Deadly Sins format–lust, gluttony, greed, sloth, wrath, envy and pride.

For all of us, these ‘sinful’ character traits are perhaps less of a moral issue and more of a biological one, raising questions of responsibility, blame and free will in the face of sin. It is only at their extremes that they give rise to untethered human suffering, pain and tragedy.

Amongst our negative emotions, anger is unusual. Unlikely sadness, fear and disgust, which lead us away from the provocation, anger drives us towards it. To confront, to fight.

Through Gage, and others like him, it became obvious that the frontal lobes have a role in regulating and inhibiting behaviour, including impulsivity, anger, and other basic instincts. And, as we will see, in sexual behaviour too.

Neuroscience is therefore gradually exposing the links between childhood neglect and abuse, our genes, and our brain structure and function in those individuals with BPD. Even beyond those with a formal diagnosis of a personality disorder, however, aggressive people also exhibit differences in these brain areas.

By now, it should be apparent that there are many factors present from birth that influence our appetite and our weight, like the genes we are born with, the microbes we acquire as we enter the world, and who we surround ourselves with.

In all three of these soldiers’ cases, damage to their brains had somehow impaired their ability to control their sexual impulses, either in word or deed–demonstrating the presence of neurological mechanisms for restraining ‘lust’.

Since past behaviour is often a predictor of future behaviour, and having a large number of sex partners prior to marriage is a predictor in infidelity in marriage, men tend to evaluate past sexual activity in a prospective partner prior to commitment.

At its core, envy can be defined loosely as the desire of, or the wish to see someone deprived of superior qualities, possessions or achievements that someone else has. ... From a psychological perspective, jealousy involves the threat of someone taking something or someone away from you…

The hallmarks of this personality trait when extreme, as in NPD, result in a sense of being special: an entitlement, feelings of self-importance to the point of grandiosity, preoccupations of brilliance or success, and excessive arrogance. These features are accompanied by a lack of empathy, the tendency to exploit others to achieve their own ends, and attention-seeking behaviour.

Various dictionaries, however, define sloth rather more precisely. These definitions centre on inactivity, akin to these sickness behaviours rather than sleep, on a disinclination to act, to exert oneself or to work. A lack of effort, an idleness or indolence, an inability to generate action. Sloth is the lack of motivation.

In the neurological world, this syndrome is usually referred to as apathy*–diminished motivation to engage in physical, cognitive or emotional activity–and is seen in many common neurological disorders such as stroke, Alzheimer’s disease and Parkinson’s, as well as other rarer conditions.

Search the medical databases for ‘greed’ or ‘avarice’ and ‘neurology’ or ‘psychiatry’, and there is almost nothing to find. Greed eludes our medical lexicon in a way that the other ‘sins’ do not.

In contrast to these evolutionary aspects, greed’s economic benefits are actually very clear. In laboratory tasks, greed has been shown to be associated with trying to use time productively, to reach goals and make progress, to work harder and earn more money.

Greed hinders so-called prosocial behaviours: sharing, donating, comforting, volunteering, and other acts that benefit society. The greedy may have diminished empathic concern–the ability to sympathise with other people–resulting in an impairment of prosocial acts.

It is widely considered that the success and happiness of our children is dependent on their self-esteem, and that we as parents play a crucial part in building it. Children of this new way of parenting seem to benefit.

People with NPD often demonstrate extremely good cognitive empathy–the capability to figure out someone else’s emotions and motivations. … In contrast, people with NPD show little emotional empathy–feeling the emotions of others, rather than simply knowing them.

I was given this free advance reader copy (ARC) ebook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

#SevenDeadlySins #NetGalley.

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Review: Still Falling

Still Falling by Martin Wilsey
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

The First Part of a Larger Story
Book: **
Performance: ****

The best I can say about this book is that I didn’t hate it. As stories go it was ok despite a general lacking of craft (the MC was pretty over the top with a lot of exposition slowing everything down). Fortunately I rather liked the MC and the narration made it fun to listen to. Each chapter begins with an unexplained extract from what appears to be some form of inquest … that hits at some form of disaster that the MC, and his trust AI sidekick, were involved in … then it jumps into the fantastic tale of Barcus (the MC) who is the “sole” survivor of an ambush of his survey ship by unknown planetary defenses who crash lands on the planet and has to hide from the native humans hunting him in sky ships that seem to just be transports for mercs on horseback Fortunately Barcus has a super, if mysterious, AI (that is pretty sketch … echos of HAL here) and two huge, advanced robotic machines that make him pretty much invincible (when he is riding in them at least). This of course allows him to pontificate at length about the bad guys … who were truly bad … and I am sure there is a reason, but it is not really explored here. Mostly this all allows him to add to his graphic, and rather gratuitous, body count (‘cause that is what you do with bad guys). There is also the expected love interest taken from the natives and a whole mess of anger and navel gazing that was mildly entertaining most of the time. So … basically you get a survival story that is entirely predictable that brings right up to where you might expect some conflict resolution … and then stops (with a whole bunch of questions waiting for the sequel).

In addition to the decent narration, the only thing that saved the story here was the world building … it was actually interesting if not well presented or explained. There is an apparent social hierarchy that resembles feudalism with “keepers” at the top and ignorant quasi-slaves (or serfs if you will) at the bottom and very little mobility … or recourse for abuse by those in the higher cast. It can be presumed that the keepers are the ones using (and perhaps trying to maintain) what technology remains on the planet, but it is pretty much a mystery how they tie into the planetary defenses that took out the scout ship (and the 2000 souls onboard) so quickly. All in all … this has the feel of being just the setup to a larger story that might be interesting enough to continue just to find out some of the answers … may be.

I was given this free advance review/listener copy (ARC) audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

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Review: Blue Descent

Blue Descent by David Wood
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Book: ***
Performance: ***

All the elements were there for a casual summer read that was entertaining, but not particularly deep. The narration made it easy to just let the story develop from a simple mystery to some more … paranormal. Not exactly believable, but still interesting and fun way to pass the time with a little treasure hunting mixed in with a few legends (rumors of the fountain of youth and monster sea creatures play a significant role here) and conspiracies (standard missing persons) that sort of magically all work out (almost predictably). That also makes it easy to come and go pretty much at will and not really miss much. As an intro to the series, it was okay … a little choppy, but a good introduction to the characters and story telling style that might be hit or miss for some folks.

I was given this free advance review/listener copy (ARC) audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

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Review: MARSHAL OLIVER BLACKSTONE: Oliver's Gold

MARSHAL OLIVER BLACKSTONE: Oliver's Gold by Riano D. McFarland
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Book: **
Performance: ****

The story itself was pretty much as expected for the genre; strong, mysterious and rugged man facing some threat that prevents him from winning his love interest … in this case, it is the marshal’s reputation and all of the young guns trying to win a name by taking him out … and a young lady who doesn’t quite fit into the Boston High Society her daddy’s wealth brings. Over all … it is a fell good tale that follows a well worn and very predictable path. The characters are all too good to be true, but are fun none-the-less (especially Oliver). Here there are two basic plots … how Oliver can become wealthy enough to “deserve” his lady love (which doesn’t hit home for me at all) and how to keep the danger from his violent past from breaking in on his new life of retirement. 

So the first half of the story is focused on trying to keep his history as a western marshal a secret (which is a bit of a stretch … with a bit of a genie out of the bottle problem that never really gets solved). The second half of the story is Oliver chasing his gold to solve the wealth problem. The story moves quickly here and there is enough hand waving to prevent any buildup before we get to the anticipated climax. All of that considered, the narration was quite good and makes this a fun distraction worth the effort.

I was given this free advance review/listener copy (ARC) audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

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Review: Wheel of Fortune

Wheel of Fortune by Theodore Jerome Cohen
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Book: ***
Performance: ****

An Ole Timey Mystery for Today

Another mystery in the Martelli NYPD series that should appeal to folks that like the noir style and police procedurals (think of a 60’s style in today’s NYC). The book itself is pretty standard for the genre (so take it all with a grain of salt) with little to raise it above the pack, but that still leaves it as decent entertainment, especially with the solid narration performance. Standard tropes and stereotypes apply … As mentioned, we get the standard murder mystery with a grizzled, veteran police detective with a Jane Doe and a mysterious connection to an archrival in the FBI who has his own case dealing with the “Boy Scouts” (ref Rodney Dangerfield in Back to School) that run NYC trash hauling business. To solve the case, they both play fast and loose with the rules to collar the bad guy(s) which might prompt an eye roll to two, but nothing that was out of place considering what is typical. The End comes up a little quick. but the Epilogue gives an okay summary to wrap everything up.

I was given this free advance review/listener copy (ARC) audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

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Review: Danger Beneath The Surface

Danger Beneath The Surface by Jon Sniderman
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Book: ***
Performance: ***

A Short Trip Down Memory Lane

I wanted to give this a listen based almost entirely on a bit of nostalgia … and on that point it delivers. Of all the places I have lived, AK was the best experience that I have had. It is a short vignette that, as near as I can recall, is more or less solid on location and science, so props for that. However, the story itself was pretty slow … a simple mystery plot that might have been a science thriller in a longer format, but there was not really a lot of suspense (most of this was just confirming details on why animals were getting sick and dying … and given the science theme was reasonably predictable). Still … the narration was decent and I enjoyed the trip down memory lane.

I was given this free advance review/listener copy (ARC) audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

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Review: The Edith Wharton Collection

The Edith Wharton Collection by Edith Wharton
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Book: ***
Performance: ****

A Nice Way to Enjoy a Classic

First off … this is not my typical fare; in fact, I don’t usually care for relationship drama, but I am on a bit of a classics kick and this seemed like an easy way to move outside my comfort zone … and for the most part that is true. The Narration on this collection was great and made it all very enjoyable. In “The Age of Innocence,” we get a Hallmark love triangle set in the NYC socialite scene that now has a bit of a nostalgic feel to it. I am not sure why “The House of Mirth” was not first, but they are remarkably similar stories to my mind, with perhaps a more stinging critique of social expectations and obligations of the time found here. Enough to make me happy to not be living then (while every age has its issues, I would like to believe that there is more freedom and opportunity today for many folks that traditionally had little or none). Granted this is all first world issues … but is still progress. The last piece, “Ethan Frome,” is the weakest of the three and explores an even darker side of human social relationships. All in all, it was worth the effort, but such stories remain a bit of a struggle for me to enjoy much.

The chapters and sections in this work are:

“The Age of Innocence”
Book 1 (5:47)
Book 2 (5:45)

“The House of Mirth”
Book 1 (6:41)
Book 2 5:32)

“Ethan Frome” (3:14)

I was given this free advance review/listener copy (ARC) audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

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Review: Henry David Thoreau Bundle: Walden, On the Duty of Civil Disobedience, and Walking

Henry David Thoreau Bundle: Walden, On the Duty of Civil Disobedience, and Walking by Henry David Thoreau
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Book: ****
Performance: ***

Great Bundle, Poorly Organized

A collection of classics that most Americans probable encountered at some point in their education (I certainly did) and it was interesting to come back to them many … many years later to contemplate how my perception and understanding of them may have changed. In this case, I definitely enjoyed them more, especially thanks to the excellent narration (I still think he was a loon). As might be expected, the bulk of the bundle is taken up by Walden, with several chapters devoted to certain aspects of Thoreau’s experience. The treatise on Civil Disobedience remains the most interesting IMHO, but it was all good and recommended. The only criticism I have is with the organization … there are no labels to the chapters and entire chapters are devoted to Title and the Words “The End” (You can tell these because they are only 3 seconds long). In light of that, I have tried to outline what is what below.

The chapters and sections in this work are:

Chapter 1 “Walden”
Chapter 2,3,4 - Economy (3:09)
Chapter 5 - Reading (22)
Chapter 6 - Sounds (35)
Chapter 7 - Solitude (20)
Chapter 8 - Visitors (27)
Chapter 9 - The Bean-field (24)
Chapter 10 - The Village (12)
Chapter 11 - The Ponds (54)
Chapter 12 - Baker Farm (15)
Chapter 13 - Higher Laws (25)
Chapter 14 - Brute Neighbors (27)
Chapter 15 - House Warming (33)
Chapter 16 - Former Inhabitants and Winter Visitors (28)
Chapter 17 - Winter Animals (21)
Chapter 18 - The End in Winter (31)
Chapter 19 - Spring
Chapter 20,21 - Conclusions, The End

Chapter 22,23,24 “On the Duty of Civil Disobedience” (53)

Chapter 25, 26, 27 “Walking” (1:12)

I was given this free advance review/listener copy (ARC) audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

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Review: David Hume Collection: A Treatise of Human Nature, An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, An Enquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals, Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion.

David Hume Collection: A Treatise of Human Nature, An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, An Enquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals, Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion. by David Hume
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Book: ****
Performance: ***

Audible Missing the Principles of Morals book

There really is not much to say about a collection of classic philosophy by such a famous personage. As a classic, it has already stood the test of time and is well worth the effort to explore the concepts and ideas within. It is, however, fairly typical of the genre, so if you struggle with the language typical of the genre, you will struggle here as will (it is not written for the plebeian audiences such as I). Normally that would leave the narration, which is perfectly fine for the task, as the determine factor for my rating; unfortunately, it appears that one of the four books advertised is missing from the audible edition (it is in the kindle edition, which suffers from formatting issues).

The chapters and sections in this work are:

“A Treatise of Human Nature” (21 hrs)
Book 1 - Of The Understanding
- Part 1: Of ideas, their origin, composition, connexion, abstraction, etc.
- Part 2: Of the ideas of space and time
- Part 3: Of knowledge and probability
- Part 4: Of the skeptical and other systems of philosophy
Book 2 - Of the Passions
- Part 1: Of pride and humility
- Part 2: Of love and hatred
- Part 3: Of the will and direct passions
Book 3 - Of Morals
- Part 1: Of virtue and vice in general
- Part 2: Of justice and injustice
- Part 3: Of the other virtues and vices

“An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding”
Section 1 - Of the different species of philosophy
Section 2 - Of the origin of ideas
Section 3 - Of the association of ideas
Section 4 - Skeptical doubts concerning the operations of the understanding (in two parts)
Section 5 - Skeptical solution of these doubts (in two parts)
Section 6 - Of probability
Section 7 - Of the idea of necessary connection (in two parts)
Section 8 - Of liberty and necessity (in two parts)
Section 9 - Of the reason of animals
Section 10 - Of miracles (in two parts)
Section 11 - Of a particular providence and of a future state
Section 12 - Of the academical or skeptical philosophy (in three parts)

“An Enquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals”
** Seems to be missing from this collection **

“Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion”
Part 1 - After I joined the company …
Part 2 - I must own …
Part 3 - How the most absurd argument …
Part 4 - It seems strange to me …
Part 5 - But to show you still more inconveniences …
Part 6 - It must be a slight fabric …
Part 7 - But here …
Part 8 - What you ascribe to the fertility of my invention …
Part 9 - But if so many difficulties attend the argument a posteriori …
Part 10 - It is my opinion …
Part 11 - I scruple not to allow …
Part 12 - After DEMEA's departure …

I was given this free advance review/listener copy (ARC) audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

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Review: Religious Appeals in Power Politics

Religious Appeals in Power Politics by Peter S. Henne
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Book: ***
Performance: ***

An Interesting Look at the Use of Religious Appeals for Political Persuasion

This is primarily an academic exercise that looks at the use of religious appeals in three (3) specific instances and draws a few inferences from that. As such, the material is fairly dry, but interesting if you actually enjoy political analysis in any form. Generally we are first given some context of the situation from which the religious appeal is used, followed by how the religious appeal was constructed and finally an analysis of how effective the religious appeal was. In some respects, the targeted view here makes it difficult to make any over arching generalization outside of sometimes it works as expected and sometimes it doesn’t, but such appeals can’t be ignored within the political process. There primary explanation for this is a combination of source credibility and target material gain … which seems somewhat intuitive to me where such things a proof texting is used to justify already existing inclinations … in other words, religious appeals are primarily used to allow people to do what they already wanted to do without any guilt or moral condemnation. As such it seems that such appeals are purely machiavellian.

The chapters and sections in this work are:

Preface (4:06)
Introduction (42:40)
Chapter 1 - Why, How, and When Religious Appeals Matter in Power Politics (1:09:15)
Chapter 2 - Religious Appeals in a Middle East Rivalry: Saudi Arabia and the Islamic Pact (1:33:37)
Chapter 3 - US Engagement in the Global War on Terrorism (1:29:27)
Chapter 4 - Russia: Undermining Western Opposition to the Russky Mir(1:19:10)
Chapter 5 - Expanding the Analysis (45:32)
Conclusion (1:11:09)

I was given this free advance review/listener copy (ARC) audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

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Review: Hayden's World: Volume 2

Hayden's World: Volume 2 by S.D. Falchetti
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Janus 2: ***
Bernard’s Promise: ****

This is the second collection of of hard science shorts in the James Hayden Universe and it looks at First Contact. Over all it was better than Vol 1 with each story having more room to develop and become interesting (both novellas were slow starting up). It is obvious that a lot of thought went into the science for these stories and for the most part the author came across as knowledgable … but that also means that some of the extensive descriptions and explanations slowed down the narrative a bit and I am sure that experts in these science and tech fields could find plenty wrong with the details, but for the casual reader it was an entertaining mind exercise that I enjoyed.

I was given this free advance review/listener copy (ARC) audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

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Review: The Unseen Blade

The Unseen Blade by Ambrose Z. Adams
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Book: ***
Performance: **

A Derivative YA Fantasy w/ poor narration

This is a YA coming of age story complete with a school of magic and a “chosen one.” Kids are “sorted” into specialities and placed into small “combat” teams that was ridiculously like a magical fight club (and the required bully). There is a parallel story about a conflict between werewolves and vampires that was highly predictable and not very interesting … at least until it intersects with the main plot late in the last half of the book. Of course … getting there requires a few time jumps punctuated by child combat to grievous injury et al. Despite all that, there is some character development (as might be expected with the coming of age genre). Bottomline, it was not nearly as interesting as I thought it would be given the premise from the jacket blurb. This was aggravated by the poor narration performance where the performance came across extremely awkward and wooden. It might help if playback speed is bumped up.

I was given this free advance review/listener copy (ARC) audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

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Review: The Bleeding Stone

The Bleeding Stone by Joseph John Lee
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Book: ***
Performance: ****

A Slow Fantasy with a Colonizer Trope

The story is told from the perspective of a native tribal culture in retreat from a more technologically advance colonizing civilizations that is an obvious nod how the European powers colonized the Americas. In this case, the “natives” are of course more attuned to nature (Sun Tribe, Wood Tribe, Stone Tribe, et al), with some minor supernatural gifts that are awarded by a special ceremony when they become adults. The invaders primarily use firearms (flintlocks) which apparently are too advance for the natives to figure out a counter So yeah … there despite the very interesting premise, there are parts of the world-building that are overly simplistic and tropey. That makes the main driving force behind the story the characters … with the the bad guy a typical arrogant fool and the FMC an emotional wreck … because she was born under the eclipse and should have been “exposed” as a cursed born child.

The bulk of the story focused on developing the extremely dysfunction relationships between the FMC and various members of her tribe (allies and enemies) while highlighting her self-destructive behavior that made her much less appealing over all. There are slowly revealed mysteries that remained largely unexplored (although there is a hint at the end that is really only there to pull you into the sequel). Still, the bones of a pretty good story are there. It loses points for the time jumping across three (3) separate timelines (not a fan) and the really slow (almost nonexistent) and the unsatisfactory (and rushed) ending. It gets credit for a solid narration though making it a decent piece of entertainment.

I was given this free advance review/listener copy (ARC) audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

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Review: Relics of Tomorrow

Relics of Tomorrow by Brandon Cleland
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Book: ***
Performance: **

A Very Simple Trope filled Dystopian Story

It is a basic coming of age story in a dystopian world that is divided into levels according to net worth. A young, orphaned thief, dreams of making it to a level above the smog where he can ditch the O2 mask and see the sun. Of course … there is something special about the young hooligan … who eventually teams up it a shape changing alien who becomes something of a mentor for the “big league” of possession liberation. There is a little force humor between the pair as they have encounter a few mishaps in each caper/heist, but nothing too unbelievable (and or unexpected). The story does come across as something of a “paint-by-the-numbers” piece all the way to the end (which was a tad on the rabbit/hat or comic book style). Overall it was entertaining, but fairly forgettable.

The Narration was pretty basic. The reader struggled to differentiate character voices, especially for women, and there was something off that made the delivery feel awkward and unnatural to me. It was not so bad that I couldn’t tolerate it, but it did highlight the rather formulaic nature of the story to the point of amusement.

I was given this free advance review/listener copy (ARC) audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

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Review: Homecoming

Homecoming by Jude Austin
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Book: **
Performance: ****

The Cleanup from Book One

We get a little bit more world-building … which is basically just a SciFi veneer over today, with such weirdness as parking-lot asteroids and cryo-sleep for a three (3) day trip. Generally it is more of the same with Kata and Tau now on the run where they encounter more bad guys that want to take advantage of their unique abilities (mostly Kata). There is less violence, but impact of that experience lingers throughout the story here and gets a little long in the tooth towards the end (and less interesting as it devolves into a pseudo courtroom drama). The biggest issue was that it moved sooo slowly that it was hard to stay focused.

I was given this free advance review/listener copy (ARC) audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

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Review: How Did Christianity Begin? Hallucinations? Fabrications? Myths? Resurrection? A Look at the Evidence

How Did Christianity Begin? Hallucinations? Fabrications? Myths? Resurrection? A Look at the Evidence by Christopher Hearn
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This book as an interesting premise; however, it is by no means an academic or scholarly work. The entire focus is on proving the Resurrection of Jesus, and while it marshals an impressive amount of circumstantial evidence, there is little to no direct evidence (as might be expected), so it is unlikely to convince skeptics; although it might comfort believers. No where does it cover anything about the origins of Christianity outside of the resurrection narrative, so if that is what you are looking for, this is not the book for you. The book is divided into three (3) parts, with each part organized differently. Part One proposes that the resurrection has been denied with the claim that all witnesses were experiencing some form of mass hallucination … and makes the unsupported point that this is the principle means by which the resurrection story is denied. I count myself as fairly knowledgeable in christian apologetics, and I have never found this to be true, not have I encountered this anecdotally; however, there is still some good information here (such as a convenient table of all the biblical post resurrection sightings of Jesus) as well as provides a few basic reasons for the early resistance to the message of christianity … and then it undermines its own credibility with poor scholarship such as the insistence of inserting a creedal statement into 1 Corinthians that was adopted no more than 9 years after the crucifixion with no supporting citations. That is not to say anything in this part is complete wrong, just that what is there is not really a strong supporting argument if you are trying to convince a non-believer, so the best use here would be as a supplement to private or personal reflections by believers.

Part Two focuses on the Empty Tomb … with the basic claim that resurrection deniers attempt to explain how the early believers could have found the tomb of Jesus empty. There are 10 more specific claims here, each with a response. And while I don’t have the credentials needed to verify how accurate this information is, it seems reasonable in many cases and does have some supporting citations (from people that I have not previously encountered in my own studies). For example, there is an interesting connection on why Joseph of Arimathea was the one who had to claim the body of Jesus that was connected to his belonging to the Sanhedrin that was pretty investing and not something that I had heard before (will still need to do some follow-on research to verify though). Additional there was an interesting discussion about why the tomb had to be new in order not to run afoul of custom and law; however, the discussion of why we are so certain of the tomb’s location doesn’t appear to follow any consensus and fails to mention any of the competing claims, giving the a impression of certainty here. Additionally he talks about the James ossuary as if it has been determined to be authentic, while that is actually still contested. This might be inferred by the fact that Oded Golan was eventually acquitted of personally forging the ossuary, but the courts made no ruling on the items actual authenticity.

Part Three attempts to defend the New Testament as a whole; doing so with a combination of strawman arguments and historical inferences (the later being a list of extra biblical documents that mention Jesus by name). An immediate problem here is the inclusion of Thallus, who, while a favorite of Christian apologists because of its early date (52AD), really only confirms that solar eclipse around the time of the crucifixion and it was Africanus writing nearly 200 years after the fact that made the connection to Jesus. So the best external reference we have is actually Josephus as part of his histories, who mentions Jesus primarily in passing as the founder of a Jewish sect that was [believed to have been] executed on a cross by the sect members. In short, all of these arguments have potential, but they are all circumstantial and fairly weak on their own.
…
The chapters and sections in this work are:

Introduction
Part One - Hallucination Theory (1 claim w/ 8 responses)
Part Two - Empty Tomb (1 main claim w/ 10 subclaims and responses)
Part Three - The New Testament (1 main claim and response with 4 counter arguments and responses)

Some of the other points that really got my attention are:

Jesus made thirteen recorded appearances, at different times and locations, over the span of forty days.

When we look at what happened to people who gathered followers in Israel both before and after Jesus' life, we find that all of the movements failed and were finished off. Done. Yet only Christianity survived the death of its leader and did so in a spectacular way.

This brings us to the second hurdle. Jewish custom at the time stated that if a Jewish person was crucified, being a criminal, his or her body could only be retrieved by a member of the Sanhedrin. Family members or friends were not allowed. This explains why Mary, Jesus’ mother, or any of His siblings or even His disciples did not ask for Jesus’ body for burial.

According to the rules and customs of that time, Jesus' body should have been buried in a tomb for criminals. But Joseph asks for Jesus' body and places it in his own, brand-new tomb which had never been used. This works because as a new tomb, it is neither a place of honor or dishonor.

I was given this free advance reader copy (ARC) ebook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

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Review: Spawn

Spawn by Donald F. Glut
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Book: **
Performance: ***

Pocahontas in Space … With Dinos

This is the third book in the Don Glut’s Pulp series; I have not read the first two of the series, but this installment does stand well on its own. That said, the story feels like is a nod to the 1960’s pulp sub-genre of SciFi (which should come as no surprise) … most especially with its overtly man’s man hero coming to the rescue of the helpless, and very beautiful, woman. From an art perspective I can appreciate the effort even as I have a hard time truly enjoying the cringe here. The basic idea is that, in a world where nobody ever watched any of the Jurassic Park movies, the people of earth want a Dinosaur park, and rather than just cloning DinoDNA, send a spaceship to a planet that has what they are looking for. While there, they rescue a sexy native woman from the jaws of death on two feet and hitch her to the expedition captain for a little play on the side.

So with a little bit of egg napping, the people get what they want … and more. There is actually a pretty interesting twist woven into he plot line that was fun to think about and probably would have worked better with a different first contact story, but it was still entertaining. At times there was a little too much focus on details (so if you are a dino loving geek add back a star).

I was given this free advance review/listener copy (ARC) audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

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Review: Nanoverse

Nanoverse by Theophilus Monroe
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Story: ***
Performance: ***

Fantasy with a SciFi Facade ...

This is a collection of four(4) quick (3+ hours ea) fantasy stories set in a fantasy world wearing the skin of a cyberpunk genre … because it’s all about uses the new buzzword nano as much as possible without any real knowledge of what they are are how they would actually work. Maybe that is just my inner geek chanting that is not how that works in my head for almost the entire book (IOW I know too much about the tech and had a hard time letting go). Regardless … while the story doesn’t work well within the generally accepted norms of SciFi, it was a fairly typical Fantasy that is build to leverage a virtual (fantasy) world concept along the lines of the matrix, upload or free guy where the bad guy mysteriously works toward the total destruction of the real world. It’s not a bad plot … however, it has been done much better else where.

The story begins with an example of unintended consequences despite good intentions when a vaccine is developed to introduce nanites into the human body that would be tasked with healing wounds and preventing disease. Patient Zero is a badly wounded soldier who would probably have died otherwise, so with that success story behind the program, the government mandates nanovax for everybody … and hidden within those nanites is the ability to network into the public cloud to spy on the host AND take over the human conscious … a la mind control (maybe I am reading the tealeaves wrong here, but this part of the story starts to read like covid antivax conspiracies that didn’t help with the whole suspension of disbelief needed to fully enjoy the story).

That is where the algorithm comes in … which works sorta like minority report in that it predicts aberrant behavior ahead of time and reports it to the authorities who controls the nanites which can then control the host. Of course, in this paranoid fantasy, our hero is a threat to the system because his PTSD has change his mind enough that he can’t be controlled and that makes him a terrorist … only before the government can take him out back and shoot him, he is rescued by the resistance so that he can eventually defeat the algorithm.

Of course that is not the end … in part 2 the nanites can now swarm (in say 500 in each cloud) externally and possess others in the physical world … and apparently host an uploaded consciousness and associated memories all in readable code with individual global network addresses … so the resistance moves from minority report into the matrix here … again with a lot less finesse. We also begin to see the hero’s daughter make her debut as the bad guys cats paw … something that didn’t really work for me. This actually becomes a central theme in Post Human as the action moves almost entirely into the virtual world and a race to avoid an apocalypse in the real world. This part of the story calls to mind elements of the bobiverse with all the consciousness cloning. It all wraps up with a redemption arc in the final installment, which for better or for worse can actually stand on its own with no significant inspiration from other stories, but which does get a little preachy with a hint of Judeo-Christian theology … for me, this was actually the best of the four (4)

Book 1: Algorithm (3:56)
Book 2: Nanoswarm (3:43)
Book 3: Posthuman (3:15)
Book 4: Nanowar (2:32)

I was given this free advance review/listener copy (ARC) audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

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Review: MAIDEN

MAIDEN by Charles Brass
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Book: **
Performance: ***

Great Concept, Weak Execution

The premise is good if well worn. A post conflict dystopia where a group of scrappy exiles hold out against the collective/empire (aka The Brethren) where everyone mysteriously fights with archaic close combat melee weapons (aka swords/blades and electroprods) despite being part of an interstellar civilization. Enter the Last Jedi … er … Maiden who was specifically created to battle the evil Sith … er Brethren. So much potential that just didn’t hit home for me. To start, the world building was so extremely loose and haphazard that I still don’t know how it all holds together. Most confusing is how slip rings (star gates) appear to come if two sizes (person transporters and ship transit points). Then is is how the Brethren are actually organized and who (or what) is a Master, a Knight, a Drone, or a Minion. I think I figured it out towards the end, but it was pretty confusing until then. More problematic is the interaction between each estate was full of overly aggressive bluster and all around idiocy that they worn thin long before the end.

The quasi-good guys (aka Exiles) are even worse, with an irritating display of imperial arrogance and pod measuring in virtually every scene (at least among the leadership). I absolutely hated ever part they were in. Fortunately the main characters, Crystal Maiden (The title character), Builder Scrounger (who is somehow related to the Brethren) and the Smart Ship (AI) are refreshingly innocent (read juvenile) and somewhat likable. However, even that didn’t make up for the slow pacing and buildup (all the interesting action is almost at the end of the book). Unfortunately there was way too much incessant dialogue and unnecessary detail that the lack of action made the first half of the story painfully boring (where my difficulty concentrating on what was happening might be the reason I didn’t follow the world building very well). In addition, the narration, while featuring very good accents and character voices, only reinforced the issues that I had with the aggressive interactions of both the Brethren and Exiles (in most cases it felt unnatural and way over the top).

I was given this free advance review/listener copy (ARC) audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

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