nategass 's review for:

The Trouble with Reality: A Rumination on Moral Panic in Our Time by Brooke Gladstone

5.0

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"Part of the problem stems from the fact that facts, even a lot of facts, do not constitute reality. Reality is what forms after we filter, arrange, and prioritize those facts and marinade them in our values and traditions. Reality is personal."

I found a lot of comfort in this little book. Not because it provides easy answers, or any answers really, to the increasingly unsettling state of our nation (at least the nation in my reality), but because Brooke Gladstone synthesizes and provides reference points to the scattered thoughts, opinions, concerns, and feelings that we apparently both share. It felt good to soak in some exceptionally well written sanity.

Ever since reading both books in high school, I've felt America was always more at risk of devolving into something more Brave New World than 1984 and Brooke's choice to bring Neil Postman's Orwell/Huxley contrast into the analysis of Trump's ascension feels spot on and worthy of a whole lot of reflection.

"Orwell feared that the truth would be concealed from us. Huxley feared that the truth would be drowned in a sea of irrelevance."