#Non-fiction The Coddling of the American Mind
- Author: G. Lukianhoff, J. Haidt
- Ttile: The Coddling of the American Mind
- Published: 2018 (352 pg)
- Trivia: 2018 shortlist National Book Critics Circle Award for non-fiction
- List of Challenges 2019
- Monthly reading plan
- #TBR 2019 5/43
Introduction:
- This is a book for anyone who is confused by
- what is happening on college campuses today,
- ….or is concerned about the growing inability of
- Americans to live, work, and cooperate across party lines.
Topics:
- Rising political polarization (harassment by off campus right wing groups)
- Rise of teen depression and anxiety (especially women)
- Helicopter parenting (overprotective)
- Decline of free play (now…play is alone with computers, gaming)
- Rise of campus bureaucracy (eliminate courses from syllabus to avoid complaints)
- Rising passion for justice after major national events (campus politically engaged)
Conclusion:
- I was very impressed by
- Part 3: How did we Get Here?
- While reading this chapter I kept in mind the
- political climate in USA.
- I know the presidential campaigns 2020 will probably
- be very nasty…now I know what to look for!
- #MustRead
USA:
- Regardless of political persuasion,
- Americans today are deeply susceptible to a renunciation of reason
- …and celebration of ignorance. (ouch!)
- They know what they know without reading,
- …discussing or engaging those who might disagree with them.
TRUMP BASE
- They reject calm logic, eager to embrace the
- alternative news that supports their prejudices.
- SVP: Read: Strangers in Their Own Land (A. Hochschild)
- Americans must relearn how to engage civilly with one another,
- something hard to do with a bullying president as a role model.
SAD BUT TRUE…
- Gone are the days of moving speeches and well referenced debate.
- We have no Vidal and Buckley exchanges.
- Where are the Adlai Stevenson’s, the Dirkesens’s and Kennedy’s.
- A few hundred characters (tweet) or a
- ten second sound bite is what we get…
- shutting down the other side
- instead … of defeating with logic and reason.
TRENDS
- American politics is driven LESS by hope
- and more by the untruth of “US vs THEM”.
- THEY must be stopped at all costs.
CONGRESS:
- Norms for civility and bipartisanship
- between the two parties (Rep-Dem)
- …have nearly disappeared.
VOTERS:
- Years before this stark polarization
- voters rushed to the polls to choose
- their favorite candidate of their beloved political party.
- Today….it is the hostility towards the OUT party that
- make people more inclined to vote.
- In other words….
- Americans are motivated to get off their couches
- and get involved in political action
- not by LOVE for their party’s candidate
- but by HATRED for the other party’s candidate.
2010s
- Via Twitter and Facebook voters
- …encase themselves in an echo chamber.
- Filter bubbles are search engines
- …and You Tube algorithms
- designed to give you more
- …of what you seemed be interested in.
- This leads conservatives and liberals
- into disconnected ‘moral network’ backed up by
- contradictory informational worlds.
ISOLATION
- Physical and electronic isolation
- …from people we disagree with
- allows the forces of…
- bias
- group think
- tribalism
- …to push us further apart.
Political Map 1960 – Presidential race JFK vs Nixon
Prognose of political map 2020
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