Weekly Non-Fiction Reading List 6.17.24
We have two great books this weekend. The first is by a psychologist, physicist, and philosopher who wrote a book about being a better thinker. Then, we have a must-read book about how we criminalize the poor in America.
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Third Millennium Thinking: Creating Sense in a World of Nonsense by Saul Perlmutter PhD , Robert MacCoun PhD, and John Campbell PhD
This book is on an insanely important topic, which is becoming a better thinker. The authors include a physicist, a psychologist, and a philosopher, so I was pretty excited to check this book out. Now, as I give my review of this book, just know that it’s insanely bias because I read a ton of books on this topic, so my experience is much different compared to someone who hasn’t read many of these or hasn’t read any at all.
Overall, this book was fine. I was expecting a lot more from this book, but it wasn’t really there. Sure, there were some studies that were interesting and some of the personal stories with lessons the authors have learned to improve their own thinking were great, but there wasn’t much that was groundbreaking in this book. Again, it’s important to remember that I’ve read dozens of these books.
If you’re just now becoming interested in the topic of becoming a better thinker, this is a 10 out of 10 book to learn about biases, heuristics, and other thinking errors. The authors teach a course at UC Berkeley, so they know their stuff. I definitely recommend this book to anyone new to the topic or haven’t read many books in this realm.
Profit and Punishment: How America Criminalizes the Poor in the Name of Justice by Tony Messenger
In my opinion, this is a must-read book. Something that occupies a lot of space in my brain is the lack of empathy we have for those who have criminal records. This most likely comes from the fact that I’m a recovering drug addict and alcoholic who should have gone to jail dozens of times, but I was somehow lucky enough to never have it happen. The only thing that separates me from many of the people who have criminal records is nothing more than luck.
In this book, Tony Messenger puts a spotlight on how we criminalize the poor. My theory is that once someone has a criminal record, we lose all empathy for them because we think, “Welp, they did something wrong, and this is the punishment.” At the same time, we fail to acknowledge (or purposely don’t) the fact that many of us have done something criminal and just didn’t get caught. The book highlights how those who don’t make as much money or are flat out poor are criminalized more than anyone else in America just because they can’t afford bail, fines, and fees.
There’s one part in the book where someone the author interviewed in the book describes it as extortion. Extortion is defined as “the crime of obtaining something from someone, especially money, by using force or threats.” When a court tells someone who leaves jail that if they can’t afford to pay their fines and fees, they’re going back to jail, there’s no other word than extortion to describe what’s happening to them.
The book is mainly interviews with people who have been victims of this as well as with people who are trying to change the system. You’ll learn about corrupt counties that understand that society lacks empathy for these people and do criminal things to pad their own pockets by punishing the poor even more.
If I had one criticism of this book, it’s that it could probably be 25%-40% shorter. At a certain point, you have a very clear picture of how screwed up our system is, so it just seems like we didn’t need more examples and stories. I can definitely understand why the author thought that each one was important in it’s own way, so take my criticism with a grain of salt. Overall, you definitely need to read this book.
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