What I'm Reading (Oct. 3)

I am often most moved in the moment by my current reading, in this instance, Hurari’s Nexus. He discusses fallibility, the opposite of certainty. And then I found this. 

“A hallmark of religion is certainty, often called faith in this context. Certainty is what allows you to carve up your neighbor as a path to salvation. Like all effective religions, the Church of the Environment demands certainty. There’s no half-way house; no real difference between a denier and a skeptic. You are either a believer or an infidel. That certainty is what allows wealthy followers to impoverish Sri Lankan farmers by proscribing ammonia-based fertilizer.”

From the Gordian Knot, The Church of the Environment

The rise and fall of fame. Moo Deng had 15 minutes, quickly supplanted by Pesto, the 52-pound penguin chick. And these viral sensations are accompanied by a plethora of cute other creatures. 

“Over the past week or so, my X feed has been overtaken by Moo Deng, the baby pygmy hippopotamus whose glistening skin, jaunty trot, and rippling neck rolls have won the internet’s devotion. A Washington Post article last week tried to explain the young calf’s popularity, citing scientific evidence for how the cuteness of animals “hijacks our brains,” similar to the way a baby’s adorable features “strike at people’s ingrained nurturing instinct”—an evolutionary advantage that has helped humans survive. But human attitudes toward other creatures are far more complicated than the latest internet frenzy would suggest. 

On the one hand, human affection for animals, which often manifests in their anthropomorphization, is well documented. As early as 1874, The Atlantic published an article asking whether they have souls. (Since then, our writers have asked how smart animals are, whether they love us, and how they think.) On the other hand, many people still believe that other species are lesser beings—to be kept in zoos or in homes as pets, to be eaten, to test drugs on.”

From The Atlantic, When One Animal Changes a Human’s Mind

And then there is the inevitable rise of the gist.

“Nicholas Dames has taught Literature Humanities, Columbia University’s required great-books course, since 1998. He loves the job, but it has changed. Over the past decade, students have become overwhelmed by the reading. College kids have never read everything they’re assigned, of course, but this feels different. Dames’s students now seem bewildered by the thought of finishing multiple books a semester. His colleagues have noticed the same problem. Many students no longer arrive at college—even at highly selective, elite colleges—prepared to read books.”

From The Atlantic, The Elite College Students Who Can’t Read Books

Long before our current political climate, long before a certain someone rode down a golden escalator, this was written.

“The Simple Truth Thesis encourages us to hold that a given truth is so simple and so obvious that only the ignorant, wicked, or benighted could possibly deny it. As our popular political commentary accepts the Simple Truth Thesis, there is a great deal of inflammatory rhetoric and righteous indignation, but, in fact, there is very little public debate over the issues that matter most. Consequently, the Big Questions over which we are divided remain unexamined, and our reasons for adopting our d⁠⁠ifferent answers are never brought to bear in public discussion.”

It has aged well and remains as accurate today as then. From 3 Quarks Daily, The Myth of Simple Truth