Nibsy finished reading The obstacle is the way by Ryan Holiday
The obstacle is the way by Ryan Holiday
"A guide to overcoming adversity by drawing on the wisdom of the ancient Stoics"--
My reading interests are broad and mostly non-fiction. I typically stick to topics related to nature, the environment, and science in general. However, lately I've taken an interest in cultural anthropology, history, and the sociological factors that are driving a growing mistrust in science, scientists, and scientific institutions. I have a couple of other accounts in the fediverse, which I've joined recently. But, as a reader (and recovering GR user), this little nook of the fediverse looked particularly interesting to me.
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"A guide to overcoming adversity by drawing on the wisdom of the ancient Stoics"--
This review was originally published on The Ink Smudge, March 1, 2023.
Journalist Geoff Dembicki's The Petroleum Papers: Inside the Far-Right Conspiracy to Cover Up Climate Change follows naturally from an earlier book by Naomi Oreskes and Erik Conway, Merchants of Doubt, which documents a complex campaign of disinformation to discredit science on matters of political importance, such as denying the negative health effects of smoking, the ecological impact of pesticides, and human-induced climate change. Oreskes and Conway showed that these propaganda campaigns are mostly based around a strategy developed by the tobacco industry in the 1950s, usually by a relatively small number of bad actors. It involves funding scientific research that produces industry-friendly results, grooming credentialed scientists to represent industry's interests in court, and challenging mainstream science in both traditional and, more recently, social media to give the public the illusion that the science is uncertain. This …
This review was originally published on The Ink Smudge, March 1, 2023.
Journalist Geoff Dembicki's The Petroleum Papers: Inside the Far-Right Conspiracy to Cover Up Climate Change follows naturally from an earlier book by Naomi Oreskes and Erik Conway, Merchants of Doubt, which documents a complex campaign of disinformation to discredit science on matters of political importance, such as denying the negative health effects of smoking, the ecological impact of pesticides, and human-induced climate change. Oreskes and Conway showed that these propaganda campaigns are mostly based around a strategy developed by the tobacco industry in the 1950s, usually by a relatively small number of bad actors. It involves funding scientific research that produces industry-friendly results, grooming credentialed scientists to represent industry's interests in court, and challenging mainstream science in both traditional and, more recently, social media to give the public the illusion that the science is uncertain. This is a very effective strategy with a long history of calling into doubt perfectly good science that produces results that are not favourable to industry, and delaying the implementation of any public policies that could negatively affect corporate profitability.
The Petroleum Papers looks at how major players in the Canadian oil sands of northern Alberta waged a similar disinformation campaign to protect some of the dirtiest oil in the world. Unlike traditional oil wells, where oil is pumped out of vast underground reservoirs, oil from the Canadian oil sands is mined as bitumen: a thick, solid mixture of oil and sand, which requires considerable processing to separate the oil from its sandy substrate. The more energy that's required for bitumen processing, the more carbon dioxide is released to the atmosphere. Consequently, processing Alberta's bitumen contributes disproportionately to global climate change. Industry scientists knew in the 1960s that developing the Alberta oil sands would have devastating consequences on the climate, and by extension, the major ecological systems of the world. In fact, their early predictions were remarkably accurate in demonstrating how temperature increases tracked with atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations. Rather than making this information available to the global scientific community, they buried it and launched a coordinated, full-frontal disinformation campaign involving right-wing think tanks, foreign money, and high-level political influence, including oil-lobbyist-turned-prime-minister Stephen Harper. Once elected with a majority mandate, Harper cut regulations, purged the words "climate change" from government websites, and muzzled government scientists from speaking to the public about anything that might run counter to corporate interests.
Dembicki draws from a wide range of court documents, government sources, and internal corporate communications. His research is thorough and well documented. Although he covered Jason Kenney's cheerleading for the Alberta oil sands to wealthy American investors of the Petroleum Institute (Jason Kenney was a high-level minister under Stephen Harper's government who was later elected premier of Alberta in 2019), the book ended before Danielle Smith was appointed as Alberta's premier. By the time Smith took over the provincial top job, the basic strategy was set to transfer Alberta's wealth directly into the coffers of oil and gas companies.
Before her most recent run for public office, Smith was an oil lobbyist with the Alberta Enterprise Group. As a lobbyist, she and Alberta Energy Minister Peter Guthrie advocated for the R-Star program, which ostensibly was to incentivize oil and gas companies to clean up their abandoned wells province-wide. The incentive would be a $20 billion dollar gift from the taxpayers of Alberta, even though the gift recipients are already obliged by law—or, some might say, "incentivized"—to clean up their own mess.
The R-Star program was developed by the Sustaining Alberta's Energy Network (SAEN), an oil and gas advocacy group. As though it was made for Dembicki's book (perhaps Volume II), SAEN's founder, Kris Kinnear, was Smith's campaign manager and now holds the position of Special Projects Manager in the premier's office. All Smith needs now is to be granted a mandate by Albertans to give their treasure away to Big Oil and Gas, with an election anticipated by the end of May.
My biggest quibble with The Petroleum Papers is that it ended too soon. I don't say this in a self-immolation sense; rather, I say this because this story is still being written. Kenny gave a billion dollars away to oil and gas. Smith is preparing to give away up to $20 billion. And just last week (February 18, 2023), Christine Anderson, a member of Germany's Alternative für Deutschland (AfD)—a neo-Nazi party—was gifted a white cowboy hat, typically reserved for dignitaries, after her invited talk at the Petroleum Club in Calgary.
You just can't make this stuff up. Thank goodness for Geoff Dembicki and his ilk for recording it all. I can feel the "I told you so's" from here.
In The Petroleum Papers, investigative journalist Geoff Dembicki tells the story of how the American oil companies that founded the …
@Emmacox@writing.exchange As Marcus Aurelius' daily journal, Meditations is one person's Stoic philosophy in practice, rather than a philosophy text. Nevertheless, I highly recommend it. Like I said in my review, it leaves you scratching your chin once you realise that almost everything he wrote in his journal 2000 years ago is probably relevant to your own life today. And, BTW, it resonates with me, too!
It's difficult to review a book that has been read by many thousands or millions of people over the past two thousand years or so, including world leaders, philosophers and other academics, athletes, and everyday people who just want to live their best lives possible. Meditations by Marcus Aurelius, Emperor of Rome (161-180), was never intended to be read by anyone other than its author. It is a collection of Aurelius' thoughts as they occurred to him, presumably over the course of his life. This book has no plot, no story arc, and no relatable characters, per se. Instead, it's a record of his daily journal that has been translated, interpreted, and transcribed repeatedly down through the ages. The individual entries have been compiled into 12 books, which are loosely arranged in chronological order; although there is some debate about that.
This book is remarkable for two important reasons. …
It's difficult to review a book that has been read by many thousands or millions of people over the past two thousand years or so, including world leaders, philosophers and other academics, athletes, and everyday people who just want to live their best lives possible. Meditations by Marcus Aurelius, Emperor of Rome (161-180), was never intended to be read by anyone other than its author. It is a collection of Aurelius' thoughts as they occurred to him, presumably over the course of his life. This book has no plot, no story arc, and no relatable characters, per se. Instead, it's a record of his daily journal that has been translated, interpreted, and transcribed repeatedly down through the ages. The individual entries have been compiled into 12 books, which are loosely arranged in chronological order; although there is some debate about that.
This book is remarkable for two important reasons. It provides a glimpse into the thoughts of a Roman emperor, and it defines his personal life philosophy. Aurelius was a student of Stoic philosophy, which he carried with him throughout his life. Meditations represents his version of Stoic philosophy as he applied it to his own life. It's this philosophy that informed his approach not just as a ruler, but also as a human being. The philosophical virtues that were important to Aurelius and other ancient Stoic philosophers transcend time and are just as applicable today as they were back then.
This is not a book to be read once and returned to the shelf to collect dust. It's meant to be read slowly and repeatedly; it's meant to be studied. I found myself often reflecting on individual passages while I searched for ways these ideas were relevant to me and my own circumstances. I've only read this book once, but it's clear to me that new revelations are likely to emerge with each subsequent reading. Very few books can maintain their relevance beyond a few decades, let alone centuries or millennia. But this one does. This is one book to which I will return often as I polish my own personal philosophy, as so many have done before me.
was born on April 26, A.D. 121. His real name was M. Annius Verus, and he was sprung of a …
As author Polly Morland was cleaning her mother's library she came across a misplaced book. It was, "A Fortunate Man" (1967) by John Berger, which was about a country doctor who practiced in her own community some five decades before. This book is about the doctor who replaced the Fortunate Man, who herself was inspired to pursue family medicine by the same book when she was a medical student two decades earlier.
This biography is as much about person and place as it is about the transformation of family medicine from the human connections of a country doctor to a monolithic public service focused on efficiencies, fiscal accountability, and key performance indicators. It's a story that mirrors a similar transformation of society at large. As a member of the community she serves, the Fortunate Doctor knows her patients as more than just reporting data, but as human beings, and all …
As author Polly Morland was cleaning her mother's library she came across a misplaced book. It was, "A Fortunate Man" (1967) by John Berger, which was about a country doctor who practiced in her own community some five decades before. This book is about the doctor who replaced the Fortunate Man, who herself was inspired to pursue family medicine by the same book when she was a medical student two decades earlier.
This biography is as much about person and place as it is about the transformation of family medicine from the human connections of a country doctor to a monolithic public service focused on efficiencies, fiscal accountability, and key performance indicators. It's a story that mirrors a similar transformation of society at large. As a member of the community she serves, the Fortunate Doctor knows her patients as more than just reporting data, but as human beings, and all the complexities and baggage that that involves—as did the doctor who served in this place before her.
If you value humanity as more than just efficiencies and performance metrics, then this book will move you. Morland's writing is beautiful at times, and brutal when it needs to be. It's a book that forces you to reflect on your own interpersonal connections and question if society's trajectory affords us a reasonable chance to meet the challenges of the future. When that challenge is healthcare, one British country valley lights the way.
Peter Leigh transformed his life from a down-and-out junkie by embracing religion and becoming a well respected pastor. He married Beatrice, the nurse who saved him from himself and cared for him through the worst of his transformation. They both offered their services to USIC, a private corporation that was trying to establish a human colony on Oasis, a far off planet light years from Earth. After a rigorous screening process, Peter was hired on a mission to bring religion to the indigenous people of Oasis, the Oasans. Bea, who did not get past the initial screening, stayed home, holding down the fort and caring for their cat, Joshua, while the world fell down around her.
This is a story about western colonialism and corporate exploitation of indigenous peoples for power and profit, and how religious indoctrination is used to achieve those ends. Despite Peter's best intentions, he was blind …
Peter Leigh transformed his life from a down-and-out junkie by embracing religion and becoming a well respected pastor. He married Beatrice, the nurse who saved him from himself and cared for him through the worst of his transformation. They both offered their services to USIC, a private corporation that was trying to establish a human colony on Oasis, a far off planet light years from Earth. After a rigorous screening process, Peter was hired on a mission to bring religion to the indigenous people of Oasis, the Oasans. Bea, who did not get past the initial screening, stayed home, holding down the fort and caring for their cat, Joshua, while the world fell down around her.
This is a story about western colonialism and corporate exploitation of indigenous peoples for power and profit, and how religious indoctrination is used to achieve those ends. Despite Peter's best intentions, he was blind to the fact that he was being used as an instrument of USIC to get the Oasans to produce white flower--the only edible, and highly versatile, plant on the planet. In return, USIC provided the Oasans with drugs, which also worked to USIC's benefit. The company was prepared to go to any length to advance its interests, even if it meant great personal costs to the indigenous peoples it exploited and its own employees, like Grainger (the USIC pharmacist) and Peter, among others. It counted on its employees' loyalty, personal commitment to USIC's agenda, and the naive trading abilities of the Oasans.
Although the various story lines followed the kinds of interpersonal relationships we all have with those around us, Faber constructed this story with layers and layers of nuance. The themes in this book ranged from politics and religion, to personal commitment and personal fallibility, to the tension between the environment and raw corporate avarice. It was just the sort of book that whisked you away somewhere far from your everyday travails here on Earth, but returned you thinking about your own circumstances and how interests other than your own got you here. You don't always have to go somewhere else to find your path. Sometimes it's right in front of you.
The last several years have seen a rise in contempt for expertise by a growing segment of society who seem to embrace, or even celebrate, ignorance. Examples from around the world are easy to find, but no more so than in the United States--especially since Donald Trump was elected, given his open hostility towards experts. The internet, especially social media, has provided anyone with an opinion--regardless of how misinformed it may be--with a platform that can potentially reach a global audience of millions. This has led to a growing sentiment that anyone's opinion on any matter is just as valid as anyone else's, regardless of the expertise of the person expressing it. Problem is, it's not.
But society has exacerbated this hostility towards expertise in a number of other ways beyond the internet. Shifts in reporting practices in the mainstream media that focus on engagement over veracity has led to …
The last several years have seen a rise in contempt for expertise by a growing segment of society who seem to embrace, or even celebrate, ignorance. Examples from around the world are easy to find, but no more so than in the United States--especially since Donald Trump was elected, given his open hostility towards experts. The internet, especially social media, has provided anyone with an opinion--regardless of how misinformed it may be--with a platform that can potentially reach a global audience of millions. This has led to a growing sentiment that anyone's opinion on any matter is just as valid as anyone else's, regardless of the expertise of the person expressing it. Problem is, it's not.
But society has exacerbated this hostility towards expertise in a number of other ways beyond the internet. Shifts in reporting practices in the mainstream media that focus on engagement over veracity has led to a decline in the quality of information they disseminate. It has also led to a massive increase in the number of partisan media outlets, which has contributed to the growing polarization of society. Cognitive biases, such as the Dunning-Kruger effect, has led some of the least knowledgeable people on any given topic to confidently express and amplify their (usually misinformed) opinions the loudest, while actual experts use caution and caveats in expressing theirs. The education system has also eroded the value of expertise, where post-secondary institutions place more effort and funding on providing students with "experiences" and "safe spaces" than equipping them with critical thinking skills and resilience to adversity, which are both necessary for thriving and surviving in a pluralistic society.
When bona fide experts are rejected by society and replaced by the misinformed opinions of propagandists, charlatans, and their advocates, democracy itself is threatened. But that's where we find ourselves today. The Death of Expertise by Tom Nichols addresses this problem, as an expert himself, by defining the problem and offering a number of possible ways to correct it. Some have criticized Nichols for drifting out of his lane (as a political scientist) by writing on this topic, but I disagree. As an academic, he's exactly the right sort of person to write a book like this--someone who understands not only the problem with the public's perception of experts and expertise, but also someone who appreciates the wider implications if this problem is allowed to fester. The book is written in clear, simple language without "dumbing-down" the content, so that maybe those who need this message most are more likely to read this book.
@SocProf I'm in the process of writing a review for it. Short version: it's excellent! 5/5 stars. What could be better than a book about books?
was born on April 26, A.D. 121. His real name was M. Annius Verus, and he was sprung of a …