WANTED WOMEN: Faith, Lies & The War on Terror: The Lives of Ayaan Hirsi Ali & Aafia Siddiqui, by Deborah Scroggins – Harper/HarperCollinsPublishers New York, NY Copyright © 2012 by Deborah Scroggins.

 A review by Bill Dahl

A Legitimate Pulitzer Prize Candidate:

When I received my copy for review – the title and cover made me skeptical…but…I started reading…then – I couldn’t out it down.

This book is unique and profoundly distinctive in so many ways. The following are noteworthy:

a) Deborah Scroggins spent 6 years on this project.

b) Initially, I viewed the structure of the book as a gamble – alternating chapters for Ayaan Hirsi Ali & Aafia Siddiqui – I came to absolutely adore it.

c) The author had never interviewed either woman directly during the research and writing of the book. Yet, the tertiary sources Scroggins plied to obtain the pertinent material are both comprehensive and intimate – providing the reader with the ability to become acutely familiar with each subject.

d) You can’t write a book like this without placing your personal safety and welfare in jeopardy (no matter what the author says).

This work has it all: religion, women’s rights, equality, terrorists, murder, birth, faith development, human development, intrigue, political intrigue, Somalia, the war on terror, the disconnect between the west and the rest, family relations, refugees, terrorism, suicide bombings, contradiction, lies, deception, death, Africa, immigration, racism, Guantanamo, secret CIA prisons, abductions, prejudice, divorce, intolerance, relationships, misunderstanding, certainty, fundamentalism, Judaism, Pakistan, charisma, injustice, finance, bodyguards, assassinations, court proceedings, mental health issues, separation, The U.S., extremism, the media, anarchy, survival, irrationality, mystery, children, misperception, military engagement, war, genocide, foreign policy, Iran, Iraq, the oppressed, poverty, affluence, the pursuit of personal achievement, strategic international relations, CIA, FBI, ISI, Taliban, Al-Qaeda, Daniel Pearl – and running for your life…whatever that may mean.

In the absence of such an incredibly gifted investigative journalist/author (Deborah Scroggins) – this book might have easily become a mediocre mess. I garnered a deep appreciation for both the writing and storytelling skill of Scroggins, as well as the unimaginable perseverance she aptly displays – crafting a page-turning, insightful examination of the intersection where the issues I enumerate above collide…in the lives of real people…today. She lets the story speak for itself (if there really is such a thing). The voice Scroggins equips the two central characters with is a feast for the reader.  The manner in which she shares this story is so terribly poignant and powerful yet, unequivocally uniquely creative – causes the reader to become curious, engaged, concerned, educated, perplexed, angry — to ponder deeply — and arrive at a place where one understands just how much difficult work we have yet to accomplish — in directly addressing the innumerable challenges, contradictions and life shaping/threatening conditions WANTED WOMEN: Faith, Lies & The War on Terror: The Lives of Ayaan Hirsi Ali & Aafia Siddiqui so cogently illuminates.

Today, as a species, in our current historical epoch, homo-sapiens (that’d be us) – particularly those who are sufficiently fortunate to be free from worry about survival on a daily basis – also seem to have acquired another peculiar tendency this book illuminated for me. It’s epistemological self-righteousness – We humans have an infernal capacity to come to believe what we think we know is both adequate and sufficient. As Princeton research psychologist and Nobel Prize winner Dan Kahneman has said in his most recent book, Thinking, Fast and Slow – we develop the tendency to think What You See Is All There Is. Kahneman writes: “At work here is that powerful WYSIATI rule: You cannot help dealing with the limited information you have as if it were all there is to know. You build the best possible story from the information available to you, and if it is a good story, you believe it.”[i] Kahneman refers to this as “pretended knowledge” – a phenomenon very apparent in the lives of both Ayaan Hirsi Ali and Aafia Siddiqui…and our world.

As any superlative literary work of non-fiction requires Deborah Scroggins’ WANTED WOMEN: Faith, Lies & The War on Terror: The Lives of Ayaan Hirsi Ali & Aafia Siddiqui leaves the reader with the veil epistemological modesty firmly affixed to ones’ heart and soul. Yet, the work clearly defines the challenges ahead, prompting the essential dialog required to re-think our current beliefs, policies, practices and past approaches to the ongoing, unresolved issues so vividly and persuasively illuminated by this book. There’s vastly more import to this work than your what you see is all there is mechanism might suggest.

Like I said…a legitimate Pulitzer Prize candidate. Believe it!

https://picasaweb.google.com/110627777356098083553/CraterLakeNationalPark2012?authkey=Gv1sRgCMaN5dq_wcPjBg

Here’s another Weekly Whiff of Economic $scents

Fondling the Job Knob

The most frequent word used during the Republican party presidential nominee debates is reported as “job.” Honestly, the term has become a fixture on the dial of the words each and every politician has pre-programmed into every public utterance.

The problem is, a real world challenge has become a simple point of reference or  keyword that is a required utterance…It’s just a teaser…it’s foreplay. It’s just “fondling the job knob.” The problem is, foreplay typically results in an appetite for something more.

American voters deserve a discussion that gets to the meat of the matter. If values and beliefs about how someone proposes to run  the largest economy in the world – both parties need to give up the specifics…what they believe will result in a vastly more satisfactory experience for the participants involved. American voters need the full meal deal…to determine whether this critical component of our compatibility is present…prior to making any  commitment about marriage for “four more years.”

To use a phrase from David Brooks column today, what must be done is to “select bold policies from both ends.”

“Ready on the set…Camera…Action!”

The whole world’s watching…

“We have not seen—and don’t expect—a broad deterioration in mortgage credit quality,” the Fed staff said in a June 2006 report to policy makers. (excerpt from WSJ Article here).

“An inability to imagine how an outcome  might come about leaves you convinced that it will not happen.”(1)

(1) Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman – Farrar, Straus and Giroux NY,NY Copyright (c) 2012 by Daniel Kahneman, p. 331.

An incredible treatise on primarily the life’s work of Dan Kahneman and Amos Tversky. Kahneman is the Eugene Higgins Professor of Psychology Emeritus at Princeton and Prof. of Psychology and Public Affairs Emeritus at the Woodrow Wilson School of Public Affairs at Princeton. Although “primarily” is a useful term, Kahnenan utilizes the leading research in the field throughout the book.

How do human beings make decisions? What does the current research in psychology suggest? What do we think we know about the ways the human mind behaves? These are the three primary questions addressed in the book.

Kahneman introduces a myriad of concepts. The two main main one’s are System 1 and 2, and WYSIATI. System 1 is our intuitive, automatic system. System 2 is our effortful system (self control) engineered to overcome the impulses of System 1. We are all familiar with WYSIWIG. Kahneman introduces the concept of WYSIATI – What You See Is All There Is. Kaheman introduces a pile of research that supports the notion that the human mind (System 1) relies upon WYSIATI to reinforce his contention that “we can be blind to the obvious, and we are also blind to our blindness.” (p.24). WYSIATI provides us with the equipment that produces the capacity to “exaggerate the consistency and coherence of what we see.” (p.114). WYSIATI provides the inertia for the human mind’s willingness to “misclassify an event as systematic – - rejecting the belief that much of what we see in life is random.” (p. 117).

Throughout the book, the following thesis is an observation that is a constant:

“when people believe a conclusion is true, they are also very likely to believe arguments that appear to support it, even when these arguments are unsound. If System 1 is involved, the conclusion comes first and the arguments follow.” (p.45).

System 1 is associative – looking for memories and experiences that provide a context for the mind to reply to questions, judgments and choices that we humans encounter in daily life. It is also “lazy”. System 1 enjoys “cognitive ease,” constantly updating our world view in terms of what is “normal.”System 2 requires effort to engage it. The human mind  is clearly prone to developing biases in making decisions. Frankly, the examples that Kahneman uses throughout the book will both amaze and amuse you.

This is NOT light reading. Frankly, this is distinctly a System 2 book – requiring “effortful” reading. Yet, it is well worth the effort. At times, a background in social research was very helpful to me, as I considered the plight of other readers who may not possess that experience. Yet, perhaps that is an over-simplification of my part, as Kahneman writes:

“The world in our heads is not a precise replica of reality; our expectations about the frequency of events are distorted by the prevalence and emotional intensity of the messages to which we are exposed.” (p. 138).

Kaheman states that “the test of learning psychology is whether your understanding of of situations you encounter has changed, not whether you have learned a new fact…you are more likely to learn something by finding surprises in your own behavior than by learning surprising facts about people in general.” (p.174.). The way in which this book is written places one experientially within the context of the preceding statement…the reader is required to “experience” the book…it’s personal and participatory.The chapters on Bad Events and The Forfold Pattern were my favorites…and highlight a myriad of questions in the economic arena that beg for further inquiry. I intend to write a separate article about my observations spawned by these two chapters.

The chapters on the illusion of validity, intuition, optimism and expert intuition are fascinating… rearranging what you thought you knew.

This book takes one beyond the frontier of epistemology – or how we know what we think we know. It is a groundbreaking treatise into the current results of research that is completely counter-intuitive. What one comes to know after reading this book is just how much we have to unlearn from our knowing and embrace the challenges to learn anew, from this outstanding contribution.

I highly recommend Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman…just take your time with it…experience it…as Kahneman has gone to great lengths to invite your participation…learning is effortful. Well worth the effort.

A magnificent narrative about stories that are not told anymore. The masterful craftsmanship that produced this work is awe inspiring…not too much detail but sufficient to make this book one that will make you cry, shout, audibly say incredulously; “Oh my Gosh!”  at least 4 times. This book is suitable for all audiences and would be accessible intellectually by middle and high school students – particularly those studying U.S. history. I couldn’t put it down when I started…read the whole thing in bed once I began.

 Magnificent – incredible – REQUIRED READING.

Phenomenal. period.

Allow me to be brief….”BRA – freeking – VO.” If I had a book to recommend with the 2012 U.S. presidential election coming up – this would be it. Frankly, it should be required reading before people vote. It’s just that darn good.

I don’t buy books for friends – it’s rare – I bought this one for a good friend in December 2011.

Read it – buy one for a friend – talk about it with others – then vote. One of the best books I have read in the past 2 years.

I’m done…the U.S.A. is not.

This 463 page treatise is a wonderful accomplishment and is likely to become required reading for those interested in the history and development of economic thought. As Nasar, writes: “Most journeys start in the imagination.” Friedman, Hayek, Keynes, Sen, The Webbs,  Schumpeter, Marshall, Robinson – they’re all here – and many others – come alive in this magnificent weave of history, biography and economics. The manner in which it is written makes the entire subject area vastly more approachable – accessible – and shall inspire others to dedicate themselves to the the same sort of challenge that the author embraced here..

I was particularly impressed with how Nasar weaved her challenge (stated above) as cleverly, and with an unbelievable depth and breadth – yet maintained an appetite for the reader to come back for more. This is a work of art from the heart – Sylvia Nasar’s.

I truly enjoyed the journey. You will too. However, the subtitle will likely turn many off from the purchase decision…The Story of Economic Genius – probably is not one that magnetically attracts too many folks today.

]]> http://www.billdahl.net/articles/grand-pursuit-the-story-of-economic-genius-by-sylvia-nasr/feed/ 0 http://www.billdahl.net/featured/unladylike-resisting-the-injustice-of-inequality-in-the-church-by-pam-hogeweide/ http://www.billdahl.net/featured/unladylike-resisting-the-injustice-of-inequality-in-the-church-by-pam-hogeweide/#comments Sat, 07 Jan 2012 10:22:45 +0000 bill http://www.billdahl.net/?p=3326 Unladylike –

Resisting the Injustice of Inequality in the Church

By Pam Hogeweide

Beyond Beliefism – From “Just Us” to Justice – A Book Review by Bill Dahl

Once Upon A Time…

Once upon a time – long, long ago – in a universe far, far away – there existed the planet of KOG. The planet was inhabited by billions of people – including those who lived in the Kingdom of Christendom. The kingdom was ruled by the emperor “Justus.” The citizens were ruled by a body of laws – including the few – and excluding the many – from full participation in the Kingdom. The “laws of Justus” were deemed sacred, inviolable and not subject to interpretation, by countless villages throughout the kingdom. Each village was referred to as “church” – a place where like-minded villagers would come together for fellowship, study of the law, and worship of God. More specifically, numerous laws excluded women from exercising their God-given gifts within the Church – including leadership and teaching. Truth be told, the “laws of Justus”   denied women fundamental equality with men in the Church. However, this particular set of rules regarding the role of women in daily life – and the Church – were often cloaked in a veil of vagueness, facilitating the transmission of the ongoing submission of women to the “laws of Justus” – from one generation to the next – to preserve unity within the Church…and the normative standard of ladylike identities, roles and behavior by women.

Throughout the years, many women left their local Church when they realized (among other things) their God granted giftedness and calling would not be honored by their male counterparts who led, taught and administered the Church. Many women remained content at Church. Others resigned and walked away. Others, continued to show up without being present.[1] Many more remained in the Church, submitted to the laws. Although those who inhabited the broader culture, outside the subculture of Justus, had canonized rules to insure the equality of women throughout the land – the Church remained a curious exception to these rules. How can this be? Some women (and men) began to whisper to one another. The laws of Justus demanded beliefism – an unswerving dedication to a body of beliefs – no matter what – passed from one generation to the next within the Church. It is the adoption of a way of thinking and set of beliefs about self, others, life and God that are right – and provide the basis for suspicion of others who believe differently ( see Henderson).

 Unladylike?

[1] Henderson, Jim The Resignation of Eve – What If Adam’s Rib Is No Longer Willing To Be The Church’s Backbone, BARNA – An Imprint of TYNDALE House Publishers, Inc. Copyright © 2012 by Jim Henderson, p. 7.