Here and There #8
Lots happening in the last 4 or 5 days. Here's some of what I have been reading.
Truth matters. We generally think lying is bad—and it is. However, some recent studies show that lying is not as prevalent as we may think and that the result, increasing skepticism about what we hear or read is unhelpful and unhealthy. This is a factor both in how we read history—whether we can trust records/historians of the past, and in the present. (Link courtesy of Chris Gehrz.)
“The identity of one of the largest benefactors behind the discredited review of Arizona’s vote count has been shrouded in secrecy. Now the Guardian can reveal that the person who partially bankrolled the failed attempt to prove that the election was stolen from Trump was … Trump.” Read the whole story here.
Is there a connection between “toxic masculinity” or some other misbegotten notion of what masculinity is and the prevalence in our current culture of the loner who suddenly turns violent? Tom Nichols labels the latter “Lost Boys.” And he points to narcissism as a key factor in the phenomenon. I’m personally not entirely sure that narcissism and toxic masculinity are unconnected. But read and make your own conclusions.
Music is one of my loves—music of almost all kinds. Thanks to a link from James Spinti (and before that, Alan Jacobs), here’s a lovely story about a Chicago luthier who repairs the world’s best violins, including how he got his start (in part) by building an electric guitar for Randy California (guitarist for the band Spirit). Craftsmanship at its very best! (Thanks to James Spinti for the link.)
Censorship. Is it happening? Well, it certainly is in Florida, where the law has shifted from (a) permitting you to complain about a book in your library if you think it’s dangerous to (b) now you can’t have a book at school at all unless it’s been pre-approved by a government agency. This is true censorship and it may be coming to a school near you.
Timothy Snyder, the Yale historian of Eastern Europe in the 20th century (and now, too) is my go-to person for understanding the political complexity of the region and what is happening in the Russia–Ukraine war. (Not militarily; that’s a different matter.) He sees the arrest of Charles McGonigal, the former FBI agent, on charges of taking payments from Russians to work on their behalf as having huge implications for our understanding of what’s happened in 2016 and into the present. I recommend.
If you haven’t noticed yet, you will soon: I care about education. A lot. And my favorite gonzo education writer is Peter Greene, who is wrong at least some of the time but whose insights are usually spot-on, as in this case about loss of learning during the pandemic. Even I can see how wrong this McKinsey report is.