A Book by Author: Rutger Bregman
(Book Review courtesy of: James Ellsworth, Member of VRMNC’s Book Club)
As Emmy Award winner Brett Goldstein, aka Roy Kent, when asked why Ted Lasso was such a pop cult hit, opined that the show has tapped into people’s need for decency in an increasingly negative world perhaps. That view may have propelled popular historian Rutger Bregman’s 2020 book, Humankind: a Hopeful History to New York Times bestseller status also. It certainly was a well-received choice for the current season of the Newcomers’ Men’s Book Club.
The meetings always begin with the host explaining why he chose the book selection, then each person gives individual reactions while courteous discussion and queries interrupt from time to time. The hour and a half session is interesting, informative and seamless. Most would agree that they often read selections they would never have chosen on their own, ranging from body-building (Muscle, Confessions of an Unlikely Body Builder by Samuel W Fussell), to fishing lures (The Feather Thief by Kirk Wallace Johnson), to magic (Hiding the Elephant by Jim Steinmeyer). Pre-pandemic gatherings also included coffee/tea and goodies to facilitate a social afterwards but alas not now, not yet.
The book club is a long-standing one, averaging a dozen or so members, who met monthly at a pre-scheduled book choice/host’s home for discussion and mingling until perforce COVID protocols meant Zoom meetings ensued. Al Hanna has been the chair and organizer for over twenty years. The club members bring diverse backgrounds to the table, architects, engineers, professors, educators, physicians, two bona fide authors and even a bishop once, whose interests and points of view enrich every meeting. It was no different for October’s meeting.
The book in this case, focused on optimism after the privations of the pandemic. Bregman has an engaging style of writing which anticipates the reader’s “yes, but” reaction and counters with a new and refreshing look at several iconic presuppositions. He puts them into new contexts with esoteric and painstaking research, such as travelling to an antipodean island to interview real shipwrecked survivors in order to put the fictional Lord of the Flies to the test of non-fiction. And somewhat disturbingly, long held ‘truths’ about episodes, such as the Milgram shock experiment, the Kitty Genovese murder, and Thor Heyerdahl’s claims about Easter Island are turned upside down to show that shoddy research and reporting from those decades were every bit as duplicitous as today’s social media foibles of alternate truths.
Bregman claims that humans are more hard-wired historically for kindness and altruism, and to that end, even gives rules to live by in his epilogue. He uses the parable of the two wolves that live inside us, the evil one of anger, greed, jealousy, and the good one of kindness and compassion. The one that wins is the one we feed. Too much of our outlook has been dominated by feeding the bad rather than the good; that we’ve been swayed by the negative rather than the better angels of our nature.
Needless to say, not everyone agreed with Bregman’s generalizations and conclusions but the discussion showed surprise at what his research revealed, took note of his warnings about social media, and were mostly buoyed by his message of hope. It was good to end a day positively.
If interested, further reviews and TED talks of Rutger Bregman’s work can be found on YouTube and Google.
– James Ellsworth
