Ricardo Villarreal

Think, Therefore Think Again

Book Summary for 2018

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Libros foto 2018My reading summary for 2018. Total books read: 62. Fiction 74% and non-fiction 26%; 53% in Spanish and 47% in English; 25% female authors, 75% male authors (need to improve balance here).

The month I read the least was August with only one book, and the month I read the most was November with 9 books. Longest book: 592 pages. Shortest: 94. Average book length: 271 pages.

Favorite fiction book by a female author: “Woman at War” by Dacia Maraini. Favorite fiction book by a male author: “The Elephant’s Journey” by José Saramago and “Zeno’s Conscience” by Italo Svevo. Favorite book of short stories in Spanish: “Juglares del Bordo” by Daniel Salinas Basave. Favorite book of short stories in English: “Rain and other South Sea Stories” by W. Somerset Maugham.

Favorite book of essays in Spanish: “De la Estupidez a la Locura” by Umberto Eco. Favorite book of essays in English: “Making Waves” by Mario Vargas Llosa. Most meaningful book I enjoyed re-reading after 20+ years: “Siddhartha” by Herman Hesse. Newly discovered author in Spanish worth reading: Joel Flores. Favorite non-fiction book: “Enlightenment Now” by Steven Pinker.

Most recurrent authors year after year: Saramago, Mario Vargas Llosa, Daniel Salinas Basave, W. Somerset Maugham, Richard Dawkins, and Eduardo Galeano. Days without reading: 0.

 

Keep the Enlightenment Going!

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Enlightenment Now Steven Pinker

If your perception of the world is one built around the content of news, you probably have a negative feeling about the current state of affairs. News coverage has indeed become more negative over time. Fortunately, it is also true the world is not falling apart, but quite the contrary.

In his latest book “Enlightenment Now: The Case for Reason, Science, Humanism, and Progress,” Harvard cognitive scientist Steven Pinker presents a very compelling argument on how humanity today is living in the best time in history.

Following meticulously researched data on different development metrics throughout time, Pinker shows the incredible progress humanity has achieved and makes the case on why we must continue to defend the ideals of reason, science, and humanism, the pillars of the Enlightenment.

Some of the measurements of progress researched are prioritized on values the world agrees on including those in the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.

When it comes to life span, the world has seen a sharp increase in the average life expectancy. While no developed country in the year 1800 had a life expectancy above 40, today the average life expectancy is 71.5 years globally. For countries in the developed world the average is more than 80 years. That is double the life expectancy in a period of 200 years!

With that, the rates of children and maternal mortality have plunged dramatically. And thanks to advances in farming, sanitation, medicine and science, people are also healthier today than ever before.

In terms of wealth and prosperity, Pinker shows in a very simple but powerful graphic how the Gross World Product today has grown almost 100 times since the Industrial Revolution. All countries have considerably increased their GDP while the percentage of people in extreme poverty has declined from 90% in the year 1800 to 10% today.

And yes, there is inequality. The author’s argument here could sound controversial to some as he mentions that inequality is not a fundamental component of well-being. Instead, he suggests focusing on poverty as a main concern, as “it is not about everyone having the same, but everyone having enough.”

Today, everyone in the US is better off thanks to globalization and technology. The author reveals how today “more than 95% of American households below the poverty line enjoy electricity, running water, flush toilets, a refrigerator, a stove, and a color TV. Affluent families like the Vanderbilts, Rothchilds, and others, had none of these things a century and a half before.”

But Pinker does acknowledge more needs to be done to reduce inequality and improve everyone’s standard of living, particularly the more economically vulnerable. He suggests a solution may be found in a universal basic income.

I appreciate his observations regarding the environment as I have been somewhat pessimistic and concerned about the future of humanity particularly on two topics: overpopulation and the depletion of our natural resources (mainly the water crisis).

As he shows, world population will continue to grow, but only temporary. Its growth rate peaked at 2.1% in 1962 and it has declined ever since, reaching 1.2% growth rate in 2010, and a close to zero projection for the year 2070, when the world population is expected to reach its maximum figure of about 9.4 billion people before it begins to decline.

The environment has seen promising progress as people continue to be more mindful about the importance of protecting our planet. Using clear graphs, Steven Pinker shows how the world has seen a decline in air pollution, deforestation, and oil spills, while the percentage of land and marine protected areas keep expanding.

Progress in technology and the digital revolution has pushed everywhere a rapid process of dematerialization which has allowed us to achieve more with less resources.

Alarming predictions of resource shortages have failed repeatedly, and humanity has always been able to find cheaper, better, and more plentiful substitutes, or recycle and re-engineer products for subsequent use.

When it comes to food production, farmers and scientists have discovered different methods which have allowed food to grow exponentially despite natural disasters and other crises. Our concern today has more to do with food waste rather than supply.

Regarding the topic of water, I wish the author had given the subject more coverage. In a brief remark, however, he believes there is no reason to be alarmed as water assurance will be achieved through desalinating seawater as the world continues to develop more carbon-free energy sources.

Despite the many improvements in environmental quality, the biggest challenge is facing the problem of human-made climate change. The effects of greenhouse gases on our planet’s climate have been increasing the average temperature with every recent year becoming the hottest on record.

The annual emissions of CO2 in the world increased almost every year since 1960. But thanks to strong global actions on decarbonization, CO2 emissions reached its peak in 2014, leveled in 2015, and has declined among the top three emitters (China, United States, and the European Union).

In the United States, carbon reduction has been accomplished by the growth of wind and solar energy, and by replacing bitumen coal with methane gas. In addition, and as distrusted as it is among the most passionate environmentalists, Pinker stresses we must support nuclear power, a carbon-free energy source and a key solution to further advance decarbonization.

The world is also more peaceful thanks in part to international trade, economic development, international law, and democracy around the world. Democratic Peace theory suggests countries that are more democratic are less likely to engage in a military conflict. Additionally, Pinker reminds us that war also became illegal with the founding of the United Nations in 1945.

On other topics I won’t expand (because I strongly recommend reading this book), the world is living its safest time in history, we are more democratic, more countries have taken big steps on equal rights, and people overall live a better quality of life.

All the above-mentioned criteria take us down to one of the most important indicators of human progress: happiness. People are happier when they are healthier, feel safer, have enough money, when they have the freedom to choose what to do with their lives, and when they spend quality time with friends and family, among other reasons. And data shows every newer generation seem to be happier than the previous one.

But what about the future of progress?

The ideals of the Enlightenment have contributed to improve human flourishing, and it must be an ongoing process. Pinker notes “progress is not utopia” and we must keep striving for human progress and fight counter-Enlightenment ideals that threaten the advancement of humanity.

Reason, science, and humanism are threatened today by the rise of authoritarian backward-looking populism in individuals in power like Trump, who has damaged the institutions of American democracy, attacked freedom of speech, promoted long-debunked conspiracy theories, threatened the environment, antagonized immigrants, and has been hostile to science, just to name a few of his autocratic actions.

More than ever, we need to keep defending reason, science, and humanism.

Pinker warns us that “politicization has become the major enemy of reason,” where people are making their own conclusions of what to believe based on their political bias and not on what is true.

To be clear, this happens with people in both right-wing and left-wing political ideologies. One of the best examples on the right is the denial of human-made climate change. And on the left, we have those denying the safety of vaccines and GMOs. Their positions completely ignore the scientific facts in defense of their (erroneous) beliefs.

To improve the standards of reasoning, we need effective training in critical thinking, cognitive debiasing, better discourse, and debate exercises. But the author also reveals a promising new strategy called adversarial collaboration, where opposite thinkers agree on a method and work together to reach a conclusion.

The accomplishments of science are vast. It has given us evidence-based medicine, it has explained many of the universe’s mysteries, how life evolved and how physical things work, among many other discoveries.

Despite this (or because of this), science has been attacked with hostility by groups that favor ignorance and superstition. The religious are particularly ticked off by science.

I have always found it silly when religious groups get mad at science for ruining their fairy tale stories. Instead of being mad at science for exposing the truth, they should be mad at whoever indoctrinated them with lies in the first place.

Positive for the advancement of reason and science is the fact that more and more people are realizing there is absolutely no good reason to believe in the existence of a God, and today the fastest-growing religion in the world is no religion at all. Amen!

Together with reason and science, Pinker stresses the importance of humanism to achieve progress and maximize human flourishing.

Humanism promotes the enrichment of life, health, happiness, freedom, knowledge, and love through the employment of secular values. Steven Pinker explains not only how the separation of church and state in the US Constitution originated from the necessity to consolidate the former British colonies, but also how diverse cultures have converged peacefully thanks to humanism.

A great example of a successful accomplishment among the world nations is the 1948 humanist manifesto known as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

There are many challenges to face, but many more reasons to be optimistic about the future of our planet. Steven Pinker’s book could not have come at a better time.

“Enlightenment Now” is uplifting and it has improved my perspective of the future of the world. It is also a call to understand, appreciate, and keep protecting the ideals of the Enlightenment that have made our lives better. I strongly recommend everyone to read his book.

 

Yes, You Have Time to Read Books

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Reading BooksOften, I hear people say they don’t have time to read books. Their lives are simply too busy that they cannot find any time in the day to make room for reading.

For me it’s all a matter of priorities and really wanting to do it. But I’ll show you here one area where you can find plenty of time to read books.

According to statistic portal Statista, global internet users spend an average of 135 minutes daily on social media platforms. That is, 2 hours and 15 minutes each day!

But let’s go further. According to TechCrunch, mobile device users in the US spend 5 hours daily on mobile apps!

Which apps are absorbing most of their time? Facebook takes 19% of the time spent, followed by those related to music, media & entertainment, other social media platforms (Snap Chat, Instagram, Twitter), text messaging, and gaming.

Of the total 5 hours spent daily on mobile device apps, only 9% of the time (27 minutes) is allocated to “productivity.” But let’s say I’m willing to give you texting as part of your work too. That amounts to 1 hour of productivity and 4 hours of time spent on non-essential activities.

And here is where we find time to read. Because I am generous, I’m willing to give you half the time out of those 4 hours so you can waste spend them on social media and entertainment. That leaves 2 hours a day to read books!

Now, a 300-page book could be read anywhere from 4 to 6 hours depending on the book, your reading pace, page/font size, etc. Lighter novels are also faster to read than more technical science essays, for example.

If we take the more conservative number of 6 hours to read an entire 300-page book, and we allocate 2 hours a day to read, that means you could read a book in 3 days.

But let’s say you simply can’t dedicate two hours a day to read, and all you have is one hour. Fine, since it will now take you double the time, that means you could read a book in 6 days.

If we translate this number into a year time, that means you can potentially read 60 books in one year!

You think it’s still too much? Ok, this is my last dispatch of generosity. Cut the reading time in half again, and you can still read 30 books a year.

You now have time to read. It’s up to you to make it happen.

 

Our Doom in the Hands of Morons

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DoomsDayWhat do you do the day your invention, the atom bomb, is finally dropped on a city killing millions of people? Do you watch the event on TV with a feeling of total regret by the horrific atrocity your creation caused humanity? No, not at all. Instead, you find yourself at ease playing a string game of cat’s cradle.

In his hilarious satire Cat’s Cradle, Kurt Vonnegut masterfully created a novel about the risks of technological advancements, the ridiculousness of political ambitions, the absurdities of religions, and how the entire human race could come to a destructive end in the hands of irresponsible, foolish, ignorant, and selfish people in positions of power. Sounds familiar?

Yes, it does. Cat’s Cradle was first published in 1963, but it’s relevance today fits perfectly with the current political environment we see around the world.

Today, the two political figures that pose the highest risk on humanity are Trump and Kim Jung Un; two childish, egocentric, authoritarian, easily irritable, and mentally unstable individuals who have access to nuclear weapons capable of destroying the planet where 7.8 billion people live.

And the threat is real. To convey its seriousness, the scientists behind the Doomsday Clock have set its time at two minutes before midnight, representing the highest risk we’ve ever been since 1953 of being close to a global nuclear catastrophe.

The main reason for this alarming display? Trump’s decision to leave the Paris Agreement ignoring the threats of climate change, and his reckless, unpredictable, violent, and provocative nuclear rhetoric against North Korea and Iran.

And all it takes is a moment of rage (which commonly happens in humans like Trump) to commit an atrocity.

The man who is supposed to be the “leader” of the free world, who should guide all nations into achieving world peace, and who should reaffirm unity and collaboration, is actually the biggest threat to the planet.

How quickly we have arrived at this vulnerable place! This just shows we cannot take anything for granted and we need to be more politically active. We have no choice if we want to protect our future and secure world peace.

But if we can’t do anything to prevent Doomsday… well, there’s always reading Cat’s Cradle and enjoying its brutal dark humor. What better way to face the end of the world than laughing your pants off.

 

It’s (kind of) Happening Here

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Barbed WireSinclair Lewis’ dystopian political novel It Can’t Happen Here was written in 1935, but it regained popularity and relevance lately due to the unavoidable parallels of the story with the current state of political affairs in the United States under a Trump presidency.

Lewis, the first American to win a Nobel Prize in Literature, wrote this masterpiece warning us about the rise of totalitarian regimes in free nations, and how they can destroy the foundations of freedom and democracy when they exert obstructions of checks and balances, when there is suppression of the press, and when government focuses more on military power than in the advancement of science and education.

Not only that, but there are also warnings about having an ignorant population of political zealots who easily fall prey to the false rhetoric conducted by the antagonist character in the novel, Buzz Windrip, a populist candidate who wins the presidential election in the United States.

Similar to Trump, Buzz Windrip’s political strategies to escalate his agenda involve inciting fear among his followers, shutting down opponents, and fabricating conspiracies for personal gain and power, while dividing the country.

The author describes Windrip in a way that sounds like a description of Trump: “(Windrip) was vulgar, almost illiterate, a public liar easily detected, and his ‘ideas’ almost idiotic…” Early in the story, there is even a mention on how Windrip, the presidential candidate, wants to “make America prosperous again.”

And while the parallel between Trump and Windrip is quite unequivocal, let me remind you again Sinclair Lewis wrote this novel in 1935, eleven years before Trump was born.

But the magnificence of this cautionary tale is universally applicable to even moderate politicians who have utilized totalitarian practices against their population.

Surely, the novel It Can’t Happen Here reminds us of Trump today. However, the George W. Bush administration also comes to mind when we discover a reference in the story on how Americans in the 1930’s, during the war hysteria against Germany, started calling sauerkraut “Liberty Cabbage.” Pretty much the same level of stupidity as when many Americans in 2003 started calling French fries “Freedom Fries” after France voted against the Iraq War at the UN Security Council.

Just like Buzz Windrip in the novel, Trump publicly mentioned he would fight the banks and the powers of Wall Street. But once he got into power, he has given banks power and influence in his cabinet, hired Steve Mnuchin (a former bank executive) as his Secretary of the Treasury, and, among other things, repealed consumer arbitration rule in favor of banks.

As far as other key people, I believe an obvious comparison in the story is that of character Lee Sarason and Steve Bannon. Sarason was the right-hand man of President Windrip, and was also invited to work with him having been the managing editor of a popular newspaper, where he was “building up” Buzz Windrip for years before his nomination as President.

It’s also inevitable thinking about Melania Trump when the author mentions that “no potential dictator ought ever to have a visible wife.” Buzz Windrip did have a wife, but she was not noticeable. In fact, she didn’t even live in Washington. Compared to previous First Ladies, Melania Trump’s lack of involvement is quite notorious.

The political philosophy of Buzz Windrip is described in his “Fifteen Points of Victory for the Forgotten Men” and incorporates fascist and confederate ideas, prevalent in today’s Alt-Right movement. Just to list five examples of this platform created to please his base, we have the following:

  • All persons are guaranteed absolute freedom of religious worship, provided, however, that no atheist, agnostic, nor any Jew who shall refuse allegiance to the New Testament, nor any person who refuses to take the Pledge of the Flag, shall be permitted to hold any public office or to practice as a teacher, professor, lawyer, judge, or as a physician.
  • The Government will decide which Labor Unions will stay and they will have the power of decision in all labor disputes.
  • The size of the military, armaments, and naval establishments shall be consistently increased.
  • African-Americans shall be prohibited from voting, holding public office, practicing law, medicine, or teaching in any class above the grade of grammar school.
  • All women employed shall be assisted to return to their incomparably sacred duties as home-makers and as mothers of strong citizens.

The above points sound horrific indeed, but the scary thing is many in the far-right today will have no problem with any of those concepts.

Another resemblance of Windrip with Trump is shown on Buzz Windrip’s eagerness of having business dealings with… Russia! And similar to Trump’s “America First” catch phrase, Buzz Windrip is anti-trade and wants every single thing the country needs to be produced at home.

The exertion of a Corporate State in the novel dramatically impacts education as well, where the authoritarian government does its part to get rid of any intellectualism, “dangerous thinkers,” literature, and science .

Funny thing is, one of the Corpo universities in the novel was named Windrip University after the president. Yes, just like a Trump University, and a total scam as well.

Of course, Trump hasn’t gone as far as executing people who discredit his administration or imprisoning journalists who cover him negatively (although he has retaliated against CNN publicly over their reporting and has referred to any news network not covering him favorably as “fake news”).

Neither has Trump established labor camps and a paramilitary army at his service, nor has he made the liberal Supreme Court members resign and replaced them with his friends, among other draconian measures that Buzz Windrip does impose in the novel.

But Trump’s authoritarian style, although at a smaller scale, is obvious. And as long as he remains in power, the threat against our democratic institutions is still there.

Extreme ideologies are hurting our country, and we must be smart in identifying and reducing divisive authoritarian groups in order to protect our freedoms.

As Doremus Jessup, the protagonist liberal journalist, observes: “the struggle today is not about Communism against Fascism, but tolerance against the bigotry that is preached equally by Communism and Fascism.”

We have been forewarned and cannot take things for granted. Towards the end of the story, and without giving any spoilers, Doremus Jessup leaves us with a final thought:

“More and more, as I think about history, I am convinced that everything that is worthwhile in the world has been accomplished by the free, inquiring, critical spirit, and that preservation of this spirit is more important than any social system whatsoever. But the men of ritual and the men of barbarism are capable of shutting up the men of science and of silencing them forever.”