Ginny you know I do not name call - my thinking is the books appears derisive because it continues what we hear for the last 3 or 4 years that is so different then folks like Henry Louis Gates Jr. on PBS had been promoting - I find few on the power end will ever acknowledge what they did to a victim just as Nazi's, that escaped after WWII or hid among the population, never will and never did acknowledge what we wanted them to say much less how it affected not only Jews but the human race - Just as no pedophile ever acknowledges what they did and how it affected their victim - that is the audience I see the author hopes to touch by retelling, using new words that lead to new metaphors which does little to strengthen those ties that have successfully grown deeper - however, neither here nor there, with a black nephew and the wife of another brown and a grand whose girl friend is trans - I'm looking for books that show families that embark on forward paths and that are not pulling at heart strings by slanting stories to fit a narrative.
Reading Bored, Lonely , Angry, Stupid I realize I may be caught in the past thinking of make things better, stop complaining roll up your sleeves and make a difference and always tell the truth which we took as meaning not making the truth into a marketing tool with twists and turns - anyhow I may be passé - quote from book...
"Within a culture, there are varying emotional norms and rules that differentiate individuals’ inner experiences as well. As this book will make clear, even today, as a new emotional style is coming to dominate online social life, there is still substantial variation, for not everyone has been subject to the same emotional rules or has been entitled to express the same feelings.
It is worth tracing these changes because it helps to explain how the American emotional style developed, how modern personalities took shape, for personalities are not “natural” or inevitable but are instead the product of history and culture. How people feel—and how they feel about themselves—reflects, and in turn shapes, larger social values. Inner, private experiences are related to shared, public ones. The shifting ways people choose to express emotion, how they cope or flee from feelings, shape what and who they are individually and collectively.
These changes are important, for over the last two centuries, as Americans have debated, defined, and redefined loneliness, narcissism, boredom, attention, awe, and anger, they have also, on a subtler level, been debating long-standing questions about their relative commitments to the needs of the individual and of the community. When Americans have worried about loneliness, they have also been asking, “How much social connection does it take to be a fulfilled person?” When they have fretted about vanity, they have also been considering: “How much outside affirmation is required to achieve a virtuous sense of self?” When they have reflected on the best way to channel their attention, they were also wondering, “Do we need constant stimulation or focused attention to best realize our potential? Do we think best when we’re alone or together?” When they have considered awe, they have often been puzzling over the question “Should our sense of self be small or large? Should we expect to be awed by our own powers or those of a vaster universe?” When angry, they have often asked whether expressing the feeling will unify or divide.
In an age when constant technological innovations promise to augment human capacities, Americans are consumed by the question of whether these tools enhance or degrade their lives and their humanity. As they wrestle with humility and hubris, connection and disconnection, stimulation and solitude, they have been defining what it means to be an emotionally fulfilled person in the digital age. Today it means never being lonely, always being engaged and affirmed by others, being unconstrained in anger, and able to multitask and apprehend everything. Left out of this new emotional style is a recognition of limits."
From Bored, Lonely, Angry, Stupid (p. 20). Harvard University Press
Reading that dichotomy of change from the past to the present, not mentioned outright but I see alluded to is the marketing approach used by authors to appeal to a certain market - there are books written and even taught in some schools 'how to detect truth in the news' - could be book authors and the lack of good editors are about selling books - grab attention, appeal to outrage in order to increase sales.
But then I had the same issue with the book Swerve when the author suggested the Pope (or even to suggest the Abbot of a monastery) is supposed to know the contents of each library with thousands of holdings, some before or at least the first few centuries after Christ - I doubt the presidents of most collages know what is in their book holdings but the Pope, leader of millions was supposed to - if we call these faux pas or slanting the truth they turn me off, not knowing how many other issues I do not know about the author diddled with.
Could it be... Maybe in a society where there is in our face a never ending amount of ideas, products and services, marketing is the point of everything with outrage a great way to get attention even utilizing faux outrage over who knew or knows what...
