The Man Without Qualities by Morris Berman - Episode 168

The Man Without Qualities by Morris Berman was recommended by listener (and author!) O.F. Cieri back in December of 2020. It was recommended to them by a friend who said this book "would change America" and that "we were all going to look at each other differently "- "a new culture would emerge from this book!" Although this book is supposedly intended as satire, it left us wondering how much of it or what elements were supposed to be funny.

Check out O.F. Cieri's urban fantasy, Lord of Thundertown

In addition to our usual barnyard language, this episode includes discussion of: American politics (specifically the 2015-2016 brand) & jokes based on ethnicities and gender. 

Correction: Around 2:00 and 9:50 we mention that we were told this author was a "major conservative thinker who worked for the Nixon administration" by the original person who recommended it to O.F. We later discovered that neither of those things were true - Morris Berman is an American historian and social critic and is not typically categorized as conservative. He also never worked for the Nixon administration. Whoops! Apologies for the accidental misinformation.

• Sherry Turkle:
  • 2012 TEDtalk: Connected, but alone?
  • Turkle's Books & Articles
• U.S. Socioeconomic & Political Background Info:
  • Poverty & Disenfranchisment:
    • https://www.poorpeoplescampaign.org/resource/power-of-poor-voters/
    • https://www.prrac.org/newsletters/julaug2002.pdf
    • https://www.americanprogress.org/article/systematic-inequality-american-democracy/
    • https://www.aclu.org/news/voting-rights/racist-roots-denying-incarcerated-people-their-right-vote
    • https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9930477/
  • Police Brutality:
    • https://mappingpoliceviolence.org/
    • https://policebrutalitycenter.org/police-brutality-statistics/
    • https://policeepi.uic.edu/u-s-data-on-police-shootings-and-violence/
  • March & Protest Statistics:
    • https://stacker.com/history/famous-protests-us-history-and-their-impacts
    • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_protests_and_demonstrations_in_the_United_States_by_size
    • https://acleddata.com/2020/09/03/demonstrations-political-violence-in-america-new-data-for-summer-2020/