<!DOCTYPE html><html><head><title></title><style type="text/css">p.MsoNormal,p.MsoNoSpacing{margin:0}</style></head><body><div style="font-family:Arial;">several people made comments about people not reading much and glen mentioned he has read maybe 2 books this year. This triggered me, a lifelong addicted bibliophile.<br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;"><br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">I started reading (comic books with<i> Donald Duck in Mathemagic Land</i> and heroes like Lex Luthor) a couple of hears before starting school. I maxed out my Weekly Reader Book Club order every week during grade school. Weekly trips to neighborhood book store for 20-25 cent paperbacks (mostly science fiction, but a hell of a lot of non-fiction popular science books as well). A simple mention in a TV show, <i>Outer Limit</i>s, prompted a library trip to check out and read Kant's <i>Critique of Pure Reason</i>, My freshman year at Macalester required buying and reading over forty books—mostly monographs, not textbooks. I have read just over 10,000 books in my lifetime (a significant percentage being fiction—mysteries and science fiction). Until the past decade, I had subscribed to at least two local papers and one national paper. Before they descended to junk, read Newsweek and Time every week and subscribed to at least six-seven different periodicals (a lot of them computer journals). When I encountered a mention of Graeber, I bought and read one, then all, of his books (<i>Dawn of Everything </i>is, IMO, a really important book with insights that could inform much of the socio-political discussion on this list). Whenever anyone on this list mentions a book, I am on Amazon with seconds ordering it. When I attended FRIAM at St. John's, I visited the bookstore's new books table and always left with 3-8 books; every week.<br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;"><br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">When speaking at professional conferences I always ask how many people have read 1-2 computer books this year. and most of the audience raises their hand. How many have read one book other than a computer book this year—less than half the audience. How many a fiction book—four or five people.<br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;"><br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">Alan Kay once said, <i>"If you do not read for pleasure, you cannot read for purpose."</i> An exaggeration perhaps, but a valid observation.<br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;"><br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">My last three or four years teaching, I was not allowed to mandate any books for any class. I could recommend one text book.<br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;"><br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">The year i spent teaching high school in Las Vegas, NV; not one student, outside of 'honors/AP' courses had read even one book in their entire 4-year high school career.<br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;"><br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">Books are not the only medium of course, but I am deeply suspicious of the value of much of what is consumed from on-line and mass media sources.<br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;"><br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">I would attribute any descent into authoritarianism, any demise of social order, and any succumbing to existential threats on humanity to nothing more than the massive ignorance of the vast majority of people who do not read.<br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;"><br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">davew<br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;"><br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;"><br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">On Thu, Nov 7, 2024, at 8:29 AM, glen wrote:<br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">> I would guess the majority of those who voted for Harris also don't <br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">> read. Or, maybe it's better to say they don't read the same way we used <br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">> to read: <a href="https://www.the-hinternet.com/p/the-future-of-reading">https://www.the-hinternet.com/p/the-future-of-reading</a><br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">><br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">> I'll admit that I rarely read books anymore. I think I've read 2 this <br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">> year. The overwhelming majority of my reading is journal, magazine, and <br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">> news articles. And I spend a LOT of time listening to podcasts and <br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">> video essays. Granted, my only social media is Mastodon. Though I do <br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">> try to post to Instagram sporadically. I just have no idea why serious <br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">> people still use eX-Twitter. I mean, WTF?<br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">><br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">> All this stuff plays an important role in "how democracies die". And my <br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">> guess is we'll learn less from the deep thinking book writers or <br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">> essayists and more from attempts at network analysis across media like <br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">> TikTok, Telegram, Signal, Discord, & SimpleX. There was this (good) <br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">> article on Graeber in the Guardian: <br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/2024/nov/07/david-graeber-optimistic-anarchist-rebecca-solnit">https://www.theguardian.com/books/2024/nov/07/david-graeber-optimistic-anarchist-rebecca-solnit</a>. <br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">> And despite it tweaking my old philia, it just reads so empty to me <br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">> now. A stroll through .5TB of leaked chat logs is much more exciting <br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">> these days <br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">> (<a href="https://ddosecrets.com/article/paramilitary-election-interference">https://ddosecrets.com/article/paramilitary-election-interference</a>).<br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">><br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">> On 11/7/24 02:16, Sarbajit Roy wrote:<br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">>> "> ..,The people who voted for him probably do not read Paxton, Arendt or Levitsky and Ziblat ..."<br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">>> The people who voted for him don't read...<br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">>> <br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">>> We have a similar problem in India, the great semi-literate masses have been handed cheap smartp[hiones with cheap data plans so they are connected 24x7 to the Matrix.<br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">>> <br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">>> On Wed, Nov 6, 2024 at 2:04 PM Jochen Fromm <<a href="mailto:jofr@cas-group.net">jofr@cas-group.net</a> <mailto:<a href="mailto:jofr@cas-group.net">jofr@cas-group.net</a>>> wrote:<br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">>> <br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">>> I woke up today and saw the horrific news on TV that Trump has won again. It is incredibly bad on many levels. It is bad for the environment. The world will not be able to stop global warming without the U.S. It is bad for Ukraine as well. To me it feels like the end of civilization and democracy. The people who voted for him probably do not read Paxton, Arendt or Levitsky and Ziblatt. Or do not care.<br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">>> <a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/562246/how-democracies-die-by-steven-levitsky-and-daniel-ziblatt/">https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/562246/how-democracies-die-by-steven-levitsky-and-daniel-ziblatt/</a> <<a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/562246/how-democracies-die-by-steven-levitsky-and-daniel-ziblatt/">https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/562246/how-democracies-die-by-steven-levitsky-and-daniel-ziblatt/</a>><br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">>> <br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">>> I was wondering how this is possible. If we define populism as an ideology that presents "the people" as a morally good force and contrasts them against "the elite", who are portrayed as corrupt and self-serving then this could be a reason why Trump is so successful. He is good at populism because he is corrupt and self-serving himself, and uses projection to accuse others.<br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">>> <br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">>> <a href="https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/308163/what-is-populism-by-muller-jan-werner/9780141987378">https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/308163/what-is-populism-by-muller-jan-werner/9780141987378</a> <<a href="https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/308163/what-is-populism-by-muller-jan-werner/9780141987378">https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/308163/what-is-populism-by-muller-jan-werner/9780141987378</a>><br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">>> <br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">>> <br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">>> What do you think? Why have people voted for him although they know what kind of person he his? Are we doomed now?<br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">>> <br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">><br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">><br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">> -- <br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">> ꙮ Mɥǝu ǝlǝdɥɐuʇs ɟᴉƃɥʇ' ʇɥǝ ƃɹɐss snɟɟǝɹs˙ ꙮ<br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">><br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">> .- .-.. .-.. / ..-. --- --- - . .-. ... / .- .-. . / .-- .-. --- -. --. <br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">> / ... --- -- . / .- .-. . / ..- ... . ..-. ..- .-..<br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">> FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv<br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">> Fridays 9a-12p Friday St. Johns Cafe / Thursdays 9a-12p Zoom <br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">> <a href="https://bit.ly/virtualfriam">https://bit.ly/virtualfriam</a><br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">> to (un)subscribe <a href="http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com">http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com</a><br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">> FRIAM-COMIC <a href="http://friam-comic.blogspot.com/">http://friam-comic.blogspot.com/</a><br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">> archives: 5/2017 thru present <br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">> <a href="https://redfish.com/pipermail/friam_redfish.com/">https://redfish.com/pipermail/friam_redfish.com/</a><br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">> 1/2003 thru 6/2021 <a href="http://friam.383.s1.nabble.com/">http://friam.383.s1.nabble.com/</a><br></div></body></html>