We got a book in by each presidential candidate yesterday. I know I mentioned that but today I got a visual for them. Behold the Presidential Candidate Vermont Teddy Bears. They were too cute to resist.
Anyway. I started to read one of the other books I got yesterday, too. It is called Millenial Makover. It is about the changing face of politics and how the newest generation of voters have the power to change the way we run for office. It goes along with my not-so-nice comments about the seemingly egotistical generation taking over the web 2.0. But Millennial Makeover contests that they are actually more likely to feel empathy toward other people, to be more tolerant and so on. I will let you know more as I read more.
By the way, Obama's book is already checked out, but Clinton's and McCain's are still available for check out.
Another reminder: the whole campus, including the library will be closed for Memorial Day. You need a day to stop studying and go play in the Redwood Forest anyway. Find a trail, examine a mushroom, do something in the fresh air (now watch, it will rain and we will all be stuck inside anyway.)
5 comments:
While this author says the younger generation may be more likely to display empathy and compassion, I don't know whether that will translate to the political process. Go to any forum where USA politics are discussed on the Net. The participants tend to sling trebuchet loads of bile and vitriol at each other. OK, part of that might be due to Tycho and Gabe's Greater Internet @#%^wad Theory, where the pseudo-anonymity of the Net makes people more likely to be impolite.
It would be very interesting to see how a political candidate for major office reacted to an unmoderated IRC channel all talking to him. This will never happen, though, because there would be too many chances for the candidate to be majorly embarrass himself or his campaign.
I wonder if there is any book you have not read...
There are millions of books that I haven't read. I've ignored entire genres of books to focus on a few favorites. I haven't read the book you were discussing in the entry above--I was just going off your description of its contents and my own experiences.
Actually, blindly trusting what other people have said can be useful sometimes. If you're in college, and you haven't read book N, you might be able to get a B on a test by just rephrasing what the instructor said about book N. It depends on how sharp the instructor is though.
or how trusting. I am very prone to believing what I read, especially the first couple pages. I feel like I have to suspend skepticism for a little while to understand better where the author is coming from. But after the first few pages, if they are talking crazy, I want to close it up and move on. I guess I am a harsh critic that way, but time is valuable.
For most fiction, suspension of disbelief is necessary, otherwise you won't enjoy the book at all. Dead Beat by Jim Butcher has a freaking zombie tyrannosaurus in it, and it's a great popcorn book.
Nonfiction's more difficult. Like the Adcult book I was reading recently seemed to be reasonable and fairly well-researched. Then the author quoted the "Chevy Nova sold poorly in South America because 'no va' means 'doesn't go' in Spanish" urban legend. This called the rest of his research into question. Well, what's advertising without a big lie somewhere in it?
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