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4.31 AVERAGE
4.31 AVERAGE
hopeful
informative
inspiring
fast-paced
Content Warnings
Graphic: Slavery, Violence
Moderate: War
Minor: Bullying, Suicide
challenging
funny
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
hopeful
informative
inspiring
medium-paced
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
slow-paced
humans are weird and silly and I love them for that. I enjoyed how this book explores historic examples of humanity and hope but also highlights psychology research and experiments that reaffirm this sentiment. this book shares some similarities with “hope for cynics” which made it a little slow at times.
hopeful
informative
inspiring
medium-paced
Boy, did I need this little booster shot of hope this year. While Bregman's case isn't comprehensively airtight - how could it be? - it's refreshing and important to hear arguments that recast much of what we think we know, and posit that humans are actually inclined toward kindness and "doing good." I loved how he drew from various events and lit from the "mankind sucks" canon ("Lord of the Flies," the Milgram test, etc.) and unpacked them, inviting us to look at the familiar in a new way. Compelling and oh-so-needed book for 2020. I'll be holding on to this one and remembering its lessons.
Easy to read and easy to believe, and in most parts, also supported by facts. I started this book a bit sceptical - not of the premise but of the implicit assumption that the big question of human nature (are we selfish or are we kind, by default, as a species?) could be answered at all; the concept of "human nature" as such is ill-defined at best. There were much better, more specific questions in my mind, to focus our efforts (in which circumstances do we do good rather than bad? how and who defines what is good?); it seemed senseless to try so hard to establish something that would be at best just another philosophical viewpoint.
However, after reading the book, I have adjusted my position, for two reasons. First, trying to answer the "big" question does lead one to the myriad of more specific questions that we really need to answer in order to change, so perhaps it's not in vain, and it can serve as an umbrella term of sorts. Second, and more importantly, enough people believe in the validity of the question, and in the existence of a negative answer, that to convince people of the need for change one must tackle and dismantle that belief before anything else.
And tackle and dismantle Bregman certainly does. A large portion of the book could be described as a series of detective chases, enjoyable to follow even as they repeatedly bait-and-switch the reader ("Here's something you thought you knew! Oh, but that's not what happened..."). I had been aware of the dubiousness of some of the case studies, but not all, and some of them cast a rather bad light on psychology as a science as well as the journalists that report on it. Sometimes, the arguments can get a bit muddled, and here I did wonder whether the preoccupation with making a strong argument for the "big" question may have led Bregman astray, wanting to present a concise story rather than reveal the complexity of the underlying truth (exactly where many of the case studies presented strayed); however, for the most part, he seems willing to go wherever evidence points.
It's good that the book doesn't stop there, and goes on to offer if not solutions, then at least a hint of some, though it gets necessarily a bit weaker. It's one thing to debunk experiments that were wrong, another to then offer other experiments as positive evidence - one must tread cautiously, after priming the reader to be very suspicious of such claims. Here, I sometimes wished Bregman spent a bit more time digging into the subject matter, just like he did in the previous chapters. Books have been written on some of the topics that have a mere chapter here - for example, Bregman seems to be an immediate convert to the "unstructured" approach, though it's already a misnomer of sorts (and also recalling The Tyranny of Structurelessness to mind), and the treatment of non-violence in social movements lacks any nuance.
Despite its faults, it is a very hopeful book at its heart, and I wish more people follow Bregman's call for kindness.
However, after reading the book, I have adjusted my position, for two reasons. First, trying to answer the "big" question does lead one to the myriad of more specific questions that we really need to answer in order to change, so perhaps it's not in vain, and it can serve as an umbrella term of sorts. Second, and more importantly, enough people believe in the validity of the question, and in the existence of a negative answer, that to convince people of the need for change one must tackle and dismantle that belief before anything else.
And tackle and dismantle Bregman certainly does. A large portion of the book could be described as a series of detective chases, enjoyable to follow even as they repeatedly bait-and-switch the reader ("Here's something you thought you knew! Oh, but that's not what happened..."). I had been aware of the dubiousness of some of the case studies, but not all, and some of them cast a rather bad light on psychology as a science as well as the journalists that report on it. Sometimes, the arguments can get a bit muddled, and here I did wonder whether the preoccupation with making a strong argument for the "big" question may have led Bregman astray, wanting to present a concise story rather than reveal the complexity of the underlying truth (exactly where many of the case studies presented strayed); however, for the most part, he seems willing to go wherever evidence points.
It's good that the book doesn't stop there, and goes on to offer if not solutions, then at least a hint of some, though it gets necessarily a bit weaker. It's one thing to debunk experiments that were wrong, another to then offer other experiments as positive evidence - one must tread cautiously, after priming the reader to be very suspicious of such claims. Here, I sometimes wished Bregman spent a bit more time digging into the subject matter, just like he did in the previous chapters. Books have been written on some of the topics that have a mere chapter here - for example, Bregman seems to be an immediate convert to the "unstructured" approach, though it's already a misnomer of sorts (and also recalling The Tyranny of Structurelessness to mind), and the treatment of non-violence in social movements lacks any nuance.
Despite its faults, it is a very hopeful book at its heart, and I wish more people follow Bregman's call for kindness.
hopeful
informative
reflective
medium-paced
"Remember that cynicism is just another word for laziness. It's an excuse not to take responsibility. Because if you believe most people are rotten, you don't need to get worked up about injustice. The world is going to hell either way."
This is a very eye-opening book that argues that a cynical view of human nature, that we are all basically evil and only by living within society and following the law can we avoid falling to barbarism and chaos, is wrong. In fact, it's deliberately encouraged by those who seek to control us; if we're all too busy thinking the worst of our fellows, then we'll trust in the state or in other leaders to keep "order". By learning to trust one another and treat others not like us with compassion, by creating institutions that do not seek to punish our "wicked" nature but instead seek to encourage our positive nature, we can create a society that works better for us all.
This is a very eye-opening book that argues that a cynical view of human nature, that we are all basically evil and only by living within society and following the law can we avoid falling to barbarism and chaos, is wrong. In fact, it's deliberately encouraged by those who seek to control us; if we're all too busy thinking the worst of our fellows, then we'll trust in the state or in other leaders to keep "order". By learning to trust one another and treat others not like us with compassion, by creating institutions that do not seek to punish our "wicked" nature but instead seek to encourage our positive nature, we can create a society that works better for us all.
hopeful
informative
inspiring
fast-paced
For thousands of years, we've cultivated a false self-image of humans has inherently selfish. As a result, we often distrust each other. But it's neither civilization nor the fear of punishment that prevents violent and selfish behaviors. In evolutionary terms, we are neither egoists nor murderers: we are friendly and cooperative, as we can see in the way we behave during crises. So it's high time for a new, more positive view of humanity.