If you are overweight and having trouble losing the extra
pounds (or keeping them off), there is a good chance that carbohydrates are your problem. In Living Low Carb, nutritionist Johnny Bowden describes the link between
carbohydrates, insulin and fat
storage. (I previously summarized this relationship in my review of Why
We Get Fat by Gary Taubes.)
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Wednesday, June 3, 2020
Living Low Carb y Johnny Bowden
Tuesday, March 31, 2020
Pascal's Wager by James A. Connor
Blaise Pascal
had a great impact on mathematics. He laid the foundations of our
mathematical understanding of probability. A computer programming language was named for
him.
Pascal was also a deeply
religious man and philosopher. His book Pensées is read as a devotional by many Christians. His argument that the belief in God
is rational is widely known.
James A. Connor takes the name of that argument for
the name of his biography of the man, Pascal’s
Wager. Connor considers both Pascal’s life in science and math and his religious
convictions.
For many, there is no
conflict in scientific study and religious devotion, but there was for Pascal.
He was a Jansenist, though somewhat at odds with the
leaders of the movement because of his interests in science and philosophy. The
Jansenists were deeply concerned with sin
and living a life of penitence; to pursue anything else was to
embrace worldliness. Pascal loved the discoveries he made by reason and experiment, but he also longed for a life of
purity and closeness to God.
Pascal was seen as a bit
of a mathematical prodigy, especially in his youth when his father led a
secular life by the standards of the day. He published a pamphlet on conic sections when he was 16 years old. He invented
a calculating machine, the Pascaline, when he was 19. He was still fairly
young by modern standards when he developed a theory of probability in a series
of letter he exchanged with Pierre Fermat.
He had a mystical
experience in 1654 that changed his focus in life. He told know one about
it, but wrote a note about it that he kept pinned in his coat to carry with him
the rest of his life. The note was discovered by his nephew shortly after his
death.
After his experience, he
devoted more of his time to supporting Jansenism, which his entire family had
come to follow, especially his sister, Jacqueline, a nun. Jansenists were in
conflict with other Catholics over their views on original sin and election, especially with the Jesuits. Pascal became an apologist for
Jansenism, and especially mocked the Jesuits in The Provincial Letters.
Politics and religion
were deeply linked in 17th Century France, and the conflict between Pascal’s
sect and the wider French Catholic church became a conflict with Louis XIV. He felt that the Jansenist leaders
capitulated to the king and the Jesuits, which brought him into conflict with
them as well.
Though religious debates
had been part of his entire life, this heating up of the conflict to such a
level occurred toward the end of his life. He expressed his devotion to God in
self-imposed poverty and care for the poor; which in one
case took the form of establishing the first public transportation system. He did not abandon math,
though, and published a paper on the cycloid as well. He had been sick most of his
life and passed away in 1662 at the age of 39.
Connor’s book is
approachable for most readers. Though Pascal’s fame today probably rests more
on his accomplishments as a mathematician, Connor shows how his life was shaped
by his religion and both the religious and secular traditions of his time
(Connor is a former Jesuit priest).
If you’re interested in
this book, you may also be interested in
Connor, James A. Pascal’s Wager: The Man Who Played Dice with
God. San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 2006.
Saturday, September 29, 2018
A Mind for Numbers by Barbara A. Oakley
I was bad at math.
Possibly I still am. I missed a lot of recess in third grade
as I struggled with multiplication tables. I had to take Calculus II twice in college.
This isn’t an inherent
quality of mine. My struggles with math stemmed from lack of effort, poor study
habits and
inadequate preparation leading to falling farther and farther behind.
(Incidentally, I managed to earn and engineering
degree in spite of myself.) These are things that can be overcome by learning
skill and developing good habits.
In A Mind for Number, Barbara
Oakley describes the learning skills and habits needed to master math and science.
Actually, you could use the advice in this book to improve you’re learning in
any field. I started a new job a couple of months ago and I’m using some of the
techniques to get up to speed as fast as I can and develop a deeper
understanding of the industry I’m working in.
People tend to associate
math and science with focused thinking. It is necessary to focus, especially
when you are taking in new material. However, it is also very important to take
breaks to allow for diffuse thinking, something like daydreaming, so the brain
can stumble upon connections between thoughts, ideas and memories that
are not obvious, or even available, when you are focused. This diffuse thinking
helps one to gain a broader understanding of a subject that makes acquiring new
information easier when you return to focused thought.
That broader
understanding is important. Math and science is more than a great pile of
facts. There are concepts that link these facts, and understanding these
concepts helps you to understand and remember the facts. As Oakley points out,
mastery of math and science is not only about knowing techniques for solving
problems, is also about recognizing when to use a technique.
You brain can be your
friend or enemy when it comes to learning. Oakley gives readers tips on how to
get friendly with your brain. Struggling with a subject can be the result from
leaning on our brains weaknesses. We can learn to apply our brains strengths to
learning. Some of the things our brain is good at are remembering locations,
remembering images (the wilder the better) and forming powerful habits.
Oakley doesn’t just talk
about learning skills. Her book is structured in a way that demonstrates and
encourages readers to use the techniques she describes.
I wish I had come across
a book like this when I was much younger. Learning is a skill, and improving
learning skills can help you improve in anything you want to learn.
If you’re interested in
this book, you may also be interested in
Oakley, Barbara. A Mind for Numbers: How to Excel at Math and
Science (Even If You Flunked Algebra). New York: TarcherPerigee,
2014.
Sunday, September 23, 2018
Why Comics? by Hilary Chute
I enjoyed reading comic
books as a kid. Sometimes I enjoy reading them as an adult. Comics have
always been for adults (and kids, too). While popular superhero
comics have told stories of the physical and moral paragons of our fantasies,
comics have also been a place accessible to those who didn’t see themselves
represented in other media. The combination of words and pictures, sometimes
more of a juxtaposition, that are the language of comics can powerfully present
a point of view. Hilary Chute
considers the power of comics to communicate the experience of individuals and
subcultures in Why Comics?
While Chute focuses on comic books, she considers cartooning more
broadly, especially the early cartoons that appeared in British
magazines (quickly imitated in the U.S.) and
the American newspaper comic strip.
While some newspaper comics were designed to appeal to kids, many were meant to
attract adult readers. They often depicted people from poor and immigrant
communities. In addition, cartooning could also be very artistic and even in
the early days of comic strips some artists were recognized for the quality of
their images and storytelling, such as Winsor McCay
and George
Herriman.
Because Chute generally focuses on groups that were historically or
currently marginalized, much of the book focuses on underground
and independent
comics. I’ll admit that I’ve not particularly been a fan of underground
comics. My earliest introduction to underground comics in the 1980s was mostly
to 1960s and 1970s books that
featured drug
culture and bizarre or pornographic depictions of sex.
In the subsequent years, I’ve come across some incredibly good underground, literary
or artistic comics. Chute discusses some of them such as Art
Spieglman’s Maus, Marjane
Satrapi’s Persepolis and Harvey
Pekar’s American Splendor. I’m a Midwesterner and
I was amazed to see Pekar’s depictions of scenes I might see in my own town.
Comics were born as a mass media, which may explain some of the stigma
attached to them, and mainstream comics have always been produced in
factory-like manor with a division of labor (writer, penciler, inker, etc.).
Some creators were uncredited, or one name appeared on the work of many (this
practice was common in the newspaper comic strips, too). Undeground and art
comics were more often the work of an auteur, who produced the entire work.
This opened up comics to more individual perspectives that strayed farther from
the mainstream. Comics can powerfully represent personal experience or memories
because it is like memory: it mixes words and images, it can readily present
comparisons and contrasts, and it can show past, present, future, real and
imagined on the same page.
I don’t plan on adding a lot of underground comics to my reading list,
but I did enjoy Chute’s book. If someone is looking for an introduction to
comics that are outside the mainstream and done well, Why Comics? is a good place to start.
If you’re interested in this book, you may also be interested in
Saturday, July 29, 2017
Reposition Yourself by T. D. Jakes
We’re not always where we want to be in life, but we can make it better
if we’re willing to change. Megachurch pastor T. D. Jakes
offers advice on making positive change in his book Reposition Yourself.
To make a change, you need to face the truth. For most of us, a hard
truth is that we have a lot to do with our problems. We bring ourselves to an
unhappy, unfulfilled state through our own apathy, lack of passion, settling
for less than our best, passivity, poor money
management and lukewarm relationship
with God.
Another hard truth is that life is unfair. Bad stuff happens to all of
us, and to some more than others. Success demands
perseverance and flexibility.
People who successfully change take effective action. They are
attentive to their situation and to themselves, developing a strong sense of
their gifts and purpose.
They are intentional, setting definite goals and putting
themselves in environments and around people who support what they want to
achieve. Thee have a plan, recognizing that it is inevitable that things will
that they will face setbacks, but a delay in achieving their goals does not
mean they will be denied success.
Humility
is another key to successful change, though I don’t recall Jakes putting it so
bluntly. Humility begins with recognition that we need God; we need the
cleansing and power we can only receive through Jesus Christ.
Our humility is grown through gratitude.
In thanksgiving we appreciate what we have, learn contentment, and gain
strength from our struggles. Humility also protects us from the pitfalls of
success such as excessive self-reliance, neglect of important relationships or
becoming coopted for the agendas of others.
Along the way to way, it is good to make some money. Money gives you
options. Jakes offers some advice on managing money so you can make yours grow
and have more freedom.
Sunday, April 16, 2017
Major Prophets
The major prophets are the longest books in the prophecy
section of the Old Testament.
These are Isaiah,
Jeremiah,
Lamentations
and Ezekiel.
These books were written toward the end of the kingdoms of Israel and Judah and into the
period of captivity to foreign empires. The main themes of the major prophets
were: the fall of Israel and Judah to foreign powers, the eventual return of
the people after a period of captivity, and the coming of the messiah.
The fall of the kingdoms is attributed to the sin of the people
and their leaders. They abandoned God, pursued
whatever their lusts desired, oppressed weak and poor people, and relied on
alliances with foreign powers. They would be enslaved to foreign empires for 70
years.
Some of these prophets were active during the period of captivity. As
much as earlier prophecies were warnings, God’s message in this time was
focused on comfort and His plan to restore the people to the land from which
they were taken.
Isaiah in particularly provides many messages of the messiah who will
restore a true, lasting relationship with God. Christians
see evidence in these prophecies for the claims of Jesus Christ,
and some New
Testament writers point to passages from Isaiah as evidence to believe Him.
If you’re interested in the major prophets, you may also be interested
it
Saturday, December 10, 2016
Amos
Amos was
a shepherd
in Judah who God called to
deliver a message to his nation, its sister nation Israel and the
surrounding countries. His tenure as a prophet
occurred during the reigns of Uzziah in Judah
and Jeroboam
in Israel. His message had three components: an indictment of the nations for
their sins, a
warning of the oppression to come from occupying nations and a hopeful vision
of the kingdom to come.
Amos warned the people, and particularly called out the leaders of the
nations, that God saw their sins and He would not tolerate them forever. In
particular, greed
was rampant. People used dishonesty and force to gain wealth,
especially to exploit those who were already poor. The leaders
of the nations were complicit and expanded their own wealth by these means.
The luxurious lifestyles of these aristocrats was not to last. Amos
warned them of the judgment to come in the form of subjugation to a foreign
empire. That empire would be Babylon.
Like many of his contemporaries, Amos had a vision of a future
restoration. Israel would be restored to nationhood for a while after the end
of its occupation by Babylon (and later Persia), but
these prophetic visions also extended the unending kingdom of Christ.
If you’re interested in this book, you may also be interested in
Monday, November 14, 2016
Empires of Light by Jill Jonnes
In the last decades of the 19th
Century, inventors
and industrialists
battled for dominance in the emerging market of electric energy.
One of the major fronts of this conflict was the choice of DC (direct
current) or AC
(alternating current). Jill Jonnes
explains the history
of this pioneering age of electricity in Empires
of Light.
Thomas
Edison was a major player in the early days of electrification. He is known
for developing a commercially viable incandescent
light. The innovation
that made his light commercially successful was that he developed an entire
system for generating a distributing electric energy to make those lights work.
Edison designed a DC system, and he was a major proponent of DC. A
weakness of his system was distance. He could only supply power over a distance
of about a mile. If large areas were to be lit, a power station would be needed
every mile. This made it hard for Edison to market the system for community
lighting, though he successfully sold many systems to manufacturers,
commercial establishments and very wealthy homeowners. In spite of the
limitations, he built a system to light a portion of Manhattan; his
Pearl Street station began powering lights in 1882.
Though it was not obvious at first, it soon became clear that high
voltage AC could be transmitted over very great distances. The invention of
transformers in Europe
provided a way for voltage to be stepped up for transmission and stepped back
down to levels appropriate for lighting.
George
Westinghouse adopted the AC system. The advantages of AC soon make
Westinghouse Electric Company a major competitor with Edison. Even Edison’s own
salesman began to ask for an AC system to sell, though he was reluctant to have
any involvement with AC.
Edison believed that AC and the high voltage used for its transmission
were dangerous. He also had business and personal reasons to oppose the
introduction of rival systems. He attacked the use of AC. He even went so far
as to aid an AC opponent who successfully lobbied to make electrocution by AC
power the official means of executing condemned prisoners in the state of New York.
Westinghouse pressed on and won high profile contracts that proved the
safety and efficiency of his AC equipment. Notably, he had the major lighting
contract for the White City of
Chicago’s
World Columbian Exposition of 1893. He also won
the contract to build generators for the hydropower plant at Niagara Falls.
The promise of inexpensive power drew major manufacturers to the area before
the plant starting operating in 1895. This
surprised the investors, who had though the city of Buffalo would be
the target market.
Though transformers made AC a very viable system, it had other
technological hurdles, such as difficulty powering motors. Serbian-born inventor Nikola Tesla
solved this problem with his induction motor. Like Edison, Tesla invented an
entire system for supplying electrical power to his motors, which could also
easily accommodate incandescent and arc lighting. The Niagara Falls system was
based on Tesla’s patented technology.
Tesla went on to invent and explore the potential of other electrical
devices, notably fluorescent lights and radios.
Unfortunately, he was never able to create commercial products from these later
works. He fell on hard times and was quite poor for many of the last years of
his life. He died in 1943.
After the formation of General
Electric, which largely pushed him out of the management
of the company, Thomas Edison moved on to other things. His later ventures were
of mixed success, but his work on the phonograph
and improvements to motion
picture helped to launch the American entertainment
industry. Edison passed away in 1931, semi-retired
in Florida.
Westinghouse continued to grow his electrical empire. After the Panic
of 1907, in
which a banking crisis shook the economy,
investors forced him out of the management of Westinghouse Electric. He had
four other companies to run. He didn’t care for the way Wall Street
did business
so he got involved in Progressive politics.
He died in 1914.
Jonnes includes a chapter that is a very good, brief introduction to
the history of electrical science.
She describes the discoveries of William
Gilbert, Stephen
Gray, Andreas
Cuneus, Benjamin
Franklin, Alessandro
Volta, Sir
Humphrey Davy, Hans
Christian Oersted, André Marie Ampère, Zénobe-Théophie Gramme and Michael
Faraday.
If you’re interested in this book, you may also be interested in
Jonnes, Jill. Empires of Light:
Edison, Tesla, Westinghouse, and the Race to Electrify the World. New York:
Random House,
2003.
Sunday, August 28, 2016
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot
HeLa is
an immortal human cell line. It is immortal in the sense that the cells will
live and grow in culture indefinitely. Since it was first cultured in 1951, the cell line
has been an important part of medical
research.
It was used to develop vaccines for polio and HPV (Human Papilloma Virus). It
has been used to study cancer, HIV
(Human Immunodeficiency Virus), other diseases and drugs to treat them. HeLa
cells have made medical science
as we know it possible.
These cells came from a real person. Her name was Henrietta
Lacks. She was a poor,
black woman who went to Johns Hopkins
Hospital for treatment of what turned out to be cancer. The cells were taken
from a tumor by a doctor who was treating her.
Cancer took the life of Henrietta Lacks, but her immortality in the
form of the cell line has caused a lot of pain and distress for her
descendants. Rebecca
Skloot tells the story of Henrietta, her family,
the HeLa cells and their legacy in The
Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks.
It is a bit unusual in a book of biography
or scientific history
to write in the first person, but is the approach taken by Skloot. In order to
emphasize the humanity of Henrietta, she tells a personal story of her research
and the relationship she develops with the Lacks family, especially Henrietta’s
daughter, Deborah.
This is important. It’s easy to get swept up in all the incredible
results that have been produced from developing and testing with the HeLa cell
line. It is harder to look at the individual lives on people, especially when
those people are treated with little respect by the scientists and physicians
who are benefiting from the cells taken from her mother.
These men saw little if anything wrong in what they did by taking the cells
and growing them. They were doing what was legal
at the time (and still legal) and in keeping with the ethical
standards of the time. There is still much debate over the ethics of using
human tissues in research. Though there are standards related to samples taken
from humans, the only legally binding ones relate to federally-funded research.
Issues of informed consent, ownership, and commercialization are still being
worked out. If you’re a corpse, the law is fairly clear. If you’re a
participant in a research study, legal and ethical standards assure some level
of informed consent. If tissues are taken from a living patient for purposes of
diagnosis or treatment, what can happen to those tissues is up for grabs.
I think this is a book worth reading. HeLa is an interesting scientific
story. The ethical issues related to research using human tissues deserves more
attention that it gets. I think the most important thing to remember is that
the things we do affect human beings. Science, law and philosophy
can become so abstract they are nearly pointless if we lose sight of how the
things we say and do, individually and as a society, affect the lives of real
people.
If you’re interested in this book, you may also be interested it
Sunday, April 17, 2016
You Can, You Will by Joel Osteen
In You Can, You Will, megachurch pastor Joel Osteen
discusses qualities of a winner. Actually, Osteen might say that you’re already
a winner, you just need to start believing and acting one to see in come to
fruition.
First, winners have a vision and they stay focused on in. A practical
way that Osteen suggests to keep your vision before your eyes is to put things
in your environment, like sayings or objects, that remind you of your vision.
Winners stay focused on their goals. In particular,
they don’t get derailed by trying to please everyone or to please people who
are never happy. They know the difference between being kind and generous and
taking improper responsibility for the happiness of others.
Osteen encourages people to expect good things to happen. Reinforce
this belief by actively remembering good things that have happened to you in
the past.
Be positive intentionally. Do your best to enjoy whatever you can in
your current situation, even while you hope and work for something better.
Winners strive for excellence. Do the best you can and look for ways to
improve. Show your desire for excellence by taking care of yourself and your
things.
Always be growing. If you’re not working to improve your abilities,
you’ll get left behind. Besides, if you have big dreams, there are probably many
things you need to learn
and improve on your way to achieving them.
Make service a lifestyles. Try to make life actually better for actual
people. As a bonus, you’ll have more satisfaction with life.
Finally, be enthusiastic. Stir up your passion. It’s easy to get bogged
down and discouraged, so you have to intentionally maintain a good attitude that
will carry you through rough times.
Mostly, this is standard self-help
material. Osteen touches on a more deeply and fundamentally Christian
topic in the chapter on serving others. The Bible
repeatedly describes God
as a helper of the poor, widowed, orphan and oppressed. He repeatedly expresses
the pleasure he takes in His people when they help needy people.
Though he doesn’t devote a chapter too it, Osteen emphasizes the need
to surround yourself with good people. You need to spend time with people who
will challenge and encourage you. Spend as much time as you can with people you
want to be like.
Joel Osteen also wrote I Declare.
If you’re interested in this book, you may also be interested in
Osteen, Joel. You Can, You Will:
8 Undeniable Qualities of a Winner. New York: Faith Words, 2014.
Sunday, March 13, 2016
Switch on Your Brain by Caroline Leaf
The brain
is malleable, and we can, by conscious effort, change our patterns of thought
and the structures in our brains. These changes can lead to improved thinking,
joy, and physical
health. Caroline
Leaf considers how to take advantage of our brains ability to adapt,
neuroplasticity, in her book Switch on
Your Brain.
The first, and longer, part of the book is devoted to making the case
that the brain can be changed and that people can change their brains
intentionally. People are not biological automata. They can control how they
react to the situations they encounter, even if they can’t control those
situations. Therefore, they can control the types and intensities of emotions
attached to memories, and the patterns of thoughts they form. They do not have
to default to toxic thinking (leading to stress, bad health and poor decision
making), but can choose healthy thinking.
The central scientific notion that Leaf appeals to is neuroplasticity.
She also finds support for her views in other related science, especially
related to the structure and functioning of the brain (her appeals to quantum
physics strike me as much weaker).
Leaf has a particular religious
view as well, and frequently appeals to the Bible. I think
it is fair to say that Leaf comes from a particular religious point of view
relating to the power and nature of faith, one in which she is comfortable
ending her prologue with a quote from Peace Pilgrim.
The science
and scripture are in agreement in Leaf’s presentation. Both come across to me
as being cherry-picked. Admittedly, this is a self-help book, not a scientific
text. The potential damage of being over-selective with scripture is more
troubling, though I don’t think Leaf twists them nearly as much as others I’ve
heard.
The blunt conclusion of the first part is “mind over matter.” Leaf
keeps this to the narrow notion that we can choose our reactions and therefore
can alter structures in our brains that encode and manage memories and thought
patterns. Of course, these have consequences in our health, happiness, and
success in life.
The second part of the book is devoted to a five-step process to weaken
toxic thoughts and implant and strengthen healthy thoughts. It begins with
awareness of your own thoughts and feelings. This is followed by deep thinking
and reflection on those thoughts, especially toxic thoughts you want to weaken
and alternative thoughts you want to strengthen. Writing is used to aid this
process. After writing your thoughts, you review them with an intention of
finding solutions, new ways of thinking, and ways to reinforce those new
thoughts in action. Finally, you take action by saying and doing things that
reinforce the new thoughts.
This process has analogs in other psychology
and self-help
literature. Cultivating awareness is encouraged by proponent of the mind-body
connection. Awareness and reflection both relate to forms of meditation. Even
the 21-day length of the program (based on the amount of time it takes to form
new structures in the brain) is in keeping with other literature on making new
habits.
If you’re interested in this book, you may also be interested in
Leaf, Caroline. Switch On Your
Brain: The Key to Peak Happiness, Thinking, and Health. Grand
Rapids, MI: Baker Books,
2013.
Sunday, December 13, 2015
Waste and Want by Susan Strasser
An old proverb
relates trash
and treasure
as a matter of perspective.
In Waste and Want, Susan
Strasser describes American’s
changing perspectives on waste from the colonial era to
our own day.
In the colonial and revolutionary
period of American history,
manufactured
objects were rare and expensive. Repair and mending were common even among the
wealthy because it was difficult and costly to replace objects. In addition,
the various types of home industry practiced by both men and women equipped
them with skills in handling materials that made them adept at repair. Even
when and object was beyond repair, it parts, or the material it was made of,
might be usefully repurposed themselves or as part of an assembly. This lack of
goods and facility with handling materials made bricolage
common. Because things had durable value, people had a sense of stewardship
relating to them.
Strasser establishes this as a beginning state. The development of industry
and consumerism
led to a current state in which all of these have been reversed. We have an
abundance of goods, and many of them are inexpensive. We work in factories and
offices where we do not develop skills for repair, and particularly have lost
familiarity with materials needed for practical bricolage. These and other
forces, particularly those related to health
and cleanliness,
have resulted in waste being something of the home where additional value may
be extracted to something that is the realm of specialists that is taken away
and handled by government
agencies or specialized companies.
There are many stages in this development. It is interesting to me that
the value of household waste as raw materials American industry provided a
mechanism for poor
and rural
people to purchase manufactured goods. Even so, as industrialization made more
goods available, along with larger quantities of more manageable waste,
household waste became less valuable, and reuse and recycling
became associated with poverty.
By the end of the 1920s, consumer
culture was established in America, and it reinforced the trends identified by
Strasser. Planned obsolescence was
developed in the automotive
industry, and along with the craze for fashion, it took
hold for almost all consumer goods. Even during the Great
Depression, when lack of credit and unemployment made doing it yourself
attractive, there was an assumption that people had access to new and old
consumer goods and their packaging. Even during this period of economic
distress, demand for certain types of consumer goods grew. Thrift was
reimaged for a consumer age. For instance, refrigerators became commonplace,
and instead of being presented as luxury items they
were sold on the notion of thrift, allowing housewives to save on food by
keeping leftovers and buying in bulk.
People were encouraged to conserve
and recycle to support the war effort during World War II.
However, this did little to reverse changing attitudes that valued the new over
the old and saw little value in trash. People had jobs and
money, and
wartime rationing created a pent up demand for goods that was unleased after
the war. Disposable goods and packaging represented cleanliness and
convenience; it was freedom from dirt and drudgery. There was no value in
trash, which was taken away by collectors.
There were reactions against this even in the 1950s. They grew
into the counterculture
of the 1960s
and 1970s,
which were skeptical
of corporations and consumerism. The environmental
movement also grew out of this counterculture. Reuse of second-hand goods
became more acceptable for even middle-class
families, though few had the skills
needed to rework these items to make them seem new or adapt them to current
fashion. Little used goods were seen to have some value that could be recovered
through yard sales. (I grew up on a stretch of highway that now boasts and
annual 100 mile yard sale.)
This counterculture has not resulted in a broad return to a stewardship
of things. Strasser suggests that a rising ethic of environmental or resource
stewardship may lead to the mitigation of problems related to the abundant
trash created by disposable and rapidly obsolete goods. There is no turning
back, but we might find new reasons and ways to reduce use, reuse, and recycle.
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