The Tipping Point - By Malcolm Gladwell

This book discusses the 'phenomenon of epidemics' ... What are the little factors and details that cause huge transformations .. the writer tries to analyze the reasons that make something "widespread"..



The writer argues that there are three rules of epidemics:

• The Law of the few: There is a small number of people - the few - who play the major role in popularizing certain things.. similar to the 80-20 rule, They are classified into the following groups: Connectors (people who are capable of creating a large network of connections, maintaining good relationships and tapping into the potential of so many individuals), Mavens (people with accumulated knowledge and trusted for their knowledge and will to help people - knowledge and social skills), Salesmen (people who are passionate about what they believe in and can sell the idea to people easily)


• The Stickiness factor: certain characteristics of a product have an innate psychological reach and ability to be memorized and acted on by people ... even if some of the 'few' hold a message that doesn't have its 'stickiness factors', their success in creating an epidemic will be very limited .. this factor is a function of the profiles of people and their psychological beliefs and motivators .. advice has to be practical and personal, then memorable .. the information age, creates a substantial stickiness problem due to the huge flow of information.


• The power of context: Sensitivity of epidemics to the conditions and circumstances of the times and places in which they occur. This also includes the overall emotional state of people and their readiness for the epidemic. There is an important role for 'group' power in the spread of academics (smaller close-nit groups have the power to magnify the epidemic potential of a message or idea).

Although the author did some interesting research and included many studies, the main problem seems to be with his deductions ( as is with many statisticians and empiricists ), and his ability to relate this research in building a case .. .. there should be a deeper observation of the phonemna and better linking of the overall concepts, the overall analytical methods in the book are not up to the level of publicity that this book got .. so much of the research is not relevant to the logic flow, and seems to be part of a number game that really doesnt add alot to the thesis.

All in all, such phonemna should have received a much better attention, and deeper research in order to provide a deeper, wider understanding of such a huge concept.. the book simply fell short..

One-Dimensional Man - by Herbert Marcuse

The picture of the 'one dimensional man' reflects the image of the man in the advanced industrial societies.. This is not a light reading, but rather a highly philosophical, and a deeply analytical book of the mind control that is imposed by the industrial-capitalistic society..

"The needs that are delivered by the industrial community are imaginary needs made by publicity and advertising and mass communications.. If the society sees to the fulfillment of these made-up needs, its not just because its the condition to its continuity and productivity growth, but mostly because its the best way to create the one dimensional man, who accepts and lives with the one dimensional society.

The one dimensional is the man that exchanges freedom for the illusion of freedom. If this man imagines that he is free simply because he has the freedom to select out of a wide collection of goods and services that this society grants him, how similar is he to the slave that imagines that he is free because he has the freedom to select his masters.

The industrial society not only faked the material needs of man, but also faked his intellectual needs.. thought. Though is originally the enemy to a society of control, because it represents the critical negative power of the mind.. the power that continuously moves towards what should be not what is. This is an ideological power, although the one dimensional society tried to relate ideology to contempt and scorn in the name of technological reason, and also neutralized its power. This doesn't mean that there is no more ideology.. only that technological civilization is the new ideology.. Its most obvious materialization is the commitment to the existing reality, and the rejection of totalistic or critical concepts that threaten unveiling another dimension of reality"

This is a very import criticism of the social/ economic model of the 'first world'. It also contains important criticisms to the soviet implementation of communism, looking at the dimensions of cultural and the importance of intellectual freedom, and freedom from slavery to the economics and material (i.e. consumeristic) needs. Everything in the industrial/technological/advanced/consumeristic society is transformed into a commodity, even music, art and literature... the refusal of arts to the existing reality, has itself become refused!

The writer brilliantly discusses this same concept, and one of the fronts is through the transformation of sexual desire, that the industrial society exchanged its erotic nature into a kind of sexual reality-ness (sorry for that word).. The Shrinking of the concept of pleasure and gratification into the realm of the physical.

The writer starts by considering the disappearance of criticism and the rise of a society without opposition, then looking into the functions and some aspects of the one dimensional society (the new forms of supervision, the closure of the political world, the invasion of sad conscience..), then he moves to a discussion of one dimensional thought, the death of negative, critical and opposing thought, the role of technological rationality and the logic of control and the victory of positive thought.

Marx assured that if the direct producers themselves took charge of organization the productive body and controlling it, then there will be a qualitative change to technological continuity, that will evolve towards the fulfillment of the freely developing individual needs. Refusal of reality is key towards reaching true change!

He also argues that both soviet-communism (marxist-leninist-stalinist) shares with capitalism the same aspect of resistance to a form of life that can evade the basis of control.

Marcuse brilliantly also discusses the cultural-literary-artistic effects of consumerism and the way of technological capitalism through a discussion of the type of the heroes in literature.. The moods and nature of heroes were transformed deeply and fundamentally... they no longer refuse reality and present another way of life but are a validation of the society's values (positive thought as opposed to critical negative thought). Even the great figures of art and literature and philosophy have been removed from their critical transcendental nature.

"Let's take an example: If it was suddenly announced (and at once) that advertising and media adaptation are to be stopped, the individual would initially sink into deep, painful wondering.. Afterwards he will definitely discover the possibility of asking questions and considering himself and the possibility of understanding himself and community. It is true that if he is deprived from his from his fake fathers, politicians, friends and phony representatives.. He will have to learn the ABCs, but the sentences that he makes will come in a new form, and so will his hopes and dreams!!"

A very beautiful and interesting book.. We really need critical, negative thinking... and refusal of the imposed reality!! Amen!

Wear Sun screen

I don't know if I should include this in the 'Poetry' section... It obviously isn't.. This is the song from the ending of the amazing movie 'the big kahuna' .... "wear sun screen" ....

'Don't congratulate yourself ..... everything is half luck' .... Well ... i wouldnt call it luck, but its a bunch of factors that we can never know of or control anyway no matter how deep we dig .... so we are really not that significant .... coulndt 'being be that light' ?

So all the great advice that he gives on life .... he is only sure of one ... the sun screen ... because in the end ..... we really don't know that much to give advice ...

The song is by Baz Luhrman ..

Here is the youtube link to the original clip:



Wear sunscreen.

If I could offer you only one tip for the future, sunscreen would be it. The long-term benefits of sunscreen have been proved by scientists, whereas the rest of my advice has no basis more reliable than my own meandering experience. I will dispense this advice now.

Enjoy the power and beauty of your youth. Oh, never mind. You will not understand the power and beauty of your youth until they've faded. But trust me, in 20 years, you'll look back at photos of yourself and recall in a way you can't grasp now how much possibility lay before you and how fabulous you really looked. You are not as fat as you imagine. Don't worry about the future. Or worry, but know that worrying is as effective as trying to solve an algebra equation by chewing bubble gum.

The real troubles in your life are apt to be things that never crossed your worried mind, the kind that blind side you at 4pm on some idle Tuesday.

Do one thing every day that scares you.

Sing.

Don't be reckless with other people's hearts. Don't put up with people who are reckless with yours.

Floss.

Don't waste your time on jealousy. Sometimes you're ahead, sometimes you're behind. The race is long and, in the end, it's only with yourself.

Remember compliments you receive. Forget the insults. If you succeed in doing this, tell me how.

Keep your old love letters. Throw your old bank statements.

Stretch.

Don't feel guilty if you don't know what you want to do with your life. The most interesting people I know didn't know at 22 what they wanted to do with their lives. Some of the most interesting 40 year olds I know still don't know.

Get plenty of calcium. Be kind to your knees. You'll miss them when they're gone.

Maybe you'll marry, maybe you won't. Maybe you'll have children, maybe you won't. Maybe you'll divorce at 40, maybe you'll dance the funky chicken on your 75th anniversary. Whatever you do, don't congratulate yourself too much, or berate yourself either. Your choices are half chance. So are everybody else's.

Enjoy your body. Use it every way you can. Don't be afraid of it or of what other people think of it. It's the greatest instrument you'll ever own.

Dance, even if you have nowhere to do it but your living room.

Read the directions, even if you don't follow them.

Do not read beauty magazines. They will only make you feel ugly.

Get to know your parents. You never know when they'll be gone for good.

Be nice to your siblings. They're your best link to your past and the people most likely to stick with you in the future.

Understand that friends come and go, but with a precious few you should hold on. Work hard to bridge the gaps in geography and lifestyle, because the older you get, the more you need the people who knew you when you were young.

Live in New York City once, but leave it before it makes you hard. Live in Northern California once, but leave before it makes you soft.

Travel.

Accept certain inalienable truths: Prices will rise. Politicians will philander. You, too, will get old. And when you do, you'll fantasize that when you were young, prices were reasonable, politicians were noble, and children respected their elders.

Respect your elders.

Don't expect anyone else to support you. Maybe you have a trust fund. Maybe you'll have a wealthy spouse. But you never know when either one might run out.

Don't mess around too much with your hair or by the time you're 40 it will look 85.

Be careful whose advice you buy, buy be patient with those who supply it. Advice is a form of nostalgia. Dispensing it is a way of fishing the past from the disposal, wiping it off, painting over the ugly parts and recycling it for more than it's worth.

But trust me on the sunscreen.