“The study of error is not only in the highest degree prophylactic, but it also serves as a stimulating introduction to the study of truth” -Walter Lippmann, “Public Opinion”
In this brief study on how and why we hold to certain views on a wide range of popular subjects, Lippmann attempts to open our minds to the possibility that our opinions are really shaped by forces often outside our control. Personal opinions are really only a microcosm of the public domain from which they are derived through many channels. Having established that idea as his thesis, Lippmann, arguably one of the great liberal thinkers of the twentieth century along with Isaiah Berlin, makes his case. Using examples from an earlier age - the Great War of 1914-1918 - Lippmann begins to describe that bigger world out there as one containing big events, traditional institutions, great ‘men’, and monumental ideas all coming together in a human collectivity called society, held together by a complex process of decision-making. While the individual may at times think he or she has acquired a valid viewpoint on any number of issues, Lippmann is quick to show us that many of the ideas we claim as our own are really just amalgams of other people’s erroneous perceptions of reality. What is particularly disturbing is his contention that governments, mass media and religious institutions have attempted, through the use of various forms of propaganda, to manipulate the facts so that we, the trusting public, can readily adopt national and cultural symbols and myths associated with national greatness in time of war, courageous leadership in time of crisis, and political correctness in time of conflict. Anybody with half an ounce of societal influence is interested in seeking personal opinion in order to create the image of public sentiment. In all things, Lippmann believes that the individual should never abdicate his or her responsibility to test the truth and integrity of public views as to their potentially negative impact on the private conscience. Truth about the world we live in is a value earned through the power of trust and not the inspiration of words.

According to the late Isaac Bashevis Singer life generally consists of an unfolding drama full of the wisest of plans and the best of intentions that often go awry when the events of the world-at-large impose their own will. Fashioned as a love story, with some peculiar twists and turns, 'Shosha' describes the life of young Jew, Aaron Greidinger, growing up in an anti-Semitic Poland during the inter-war years. His life in the ghettos of Warsaw seems to be pulled in every direction as he contemplates a very uncertain future. He is hopelessly taken with a young Jewish girl, Shosha, who while pretty is hardly his mental or social equal. What starts out as mere childhood infatuation turns into a deep care, obligation and pathos for a girl who basically has a mind of a child and has yet to experience genuine love from anyone. While some in Aaron's circle of friends might argue that he needs to break off this bizarre one-way relationship before it destroys him, he would argue that there is something irresistibly drawing him to Shosha's helpless estate. Complicating matters is the fact that Aaron, as a young Jew, has developed both an interest in writing plays and developing an interest in carnal delights such as prostitution. As he moves in and out of these three worlds, the hasidic values of his early childhood will become lost. Settling down and becoming a good reliable Jew in Poland will no longer be possible because this culture has now decided to draw inward, circle the wagons and wait for the enemy to come to them in the form of Hitler and the Nazis. Aaron is faced with a choice of escaping this suffocating environment where the old life is doomed, or staying loyal to traditional values and perish in the Holocaust. The first choice will take courage to uproot oneself from an archaic world and flee to America, a place of new opportunity fraught with its own momentous uncertainty, while the second one will only involve passively resigning oneself to an inevitable doom. While events do play a large role in shaping our destinies, Singer seems to think that there comes a time in our existences when we have to throw out the traces, throw all caution to the wind, and seek our own destiny, regardless how uncertain it may be. Living in the shadows of parents, the synagogue and the rabbi, mentors, or childhood sweethearts and lovers will only hold one back from knowing a greater sense of freedom from oppression and tyranny.

Celebrated British journalist and historical fiction writer Michael Dobbs has written a very informative study that looks at how Madeleine Albright became the US Secretary of State in the last years of the twentieth century. This book looks more at her biography leading up to her ultimate career appointment than her achievements while in office. While she did not distinguish herself in the three years in office by helping to establish key foreign policy directives for the country, at least her ascent to the position is a most instructive and telling one. According to Dobbs' research, Albright went through a number of stages in her illustrious life trying to remake herself in an effort to fulfill a dream: follow in the footsteps of her diplomat father, Josef. There was the escape from the Nazis in Czechoslovakia, her life growing up in a dozen rented flats before finally settling in America during the cold war, attending an elite prep school and eastern university, marrying into wealth and divorce, pursuit of a Ph'd at Columbia, and her work with various Democratic administrations in Washington as a researcher and senior adviser. Through all this, she proved to be articulate in her views on the need for strengthening the European nuclear shield and de-escalating global tensions like the Serbian crisis. Her abilities to pick up languages quickly and write intelligent papers on thorny issues were two reasons why she was a natural selection to become the UN ambassador in the Clinton administration. While Dobbs does not dispute her credentials as a woman or a career diplomat/academic, he does express his concern that, when she finally grasped the big brass ring, she did little to really leave her mark on the office. The nineties became known as a period when America drifted in respect to its leadership in the post-Cold War. There were numerous failures in Rwanda, Somalia, the growing refugee problem and the Middle-east where American international dominance seemed to be slipping in favour of NATO and other world bodies. Dobbs raises the point that Albright, through all these transitions in her life, was seeking to Americanize herself as a way of concealing her Jewishness. In the end, it is this extended process of change rather than what she became that is meant to catch our eye.

Harry Jones, that omnipotent modern hero ready to rush where angels fear to tread and save humanity from itself, is on the move again. This time he, with a band of confederates, has focused his attention on rescuing an old buddy, Zac, from the clutches of a central Asian tinpot dictatorship where he is being held in an impenetrable prison as an unfriendly. Heading the mission to rescue Zac from certain death, Harry is only repaying a debt from years before when his friend saved his wife during a boat accident on the Thames. It doesn't matter that the incident happened twenty years ago, Harry is a man of honor who will do anything humanly possible to return the favour. This story becomes a fascinating journey into a shady world that is extremely backward, dangerous, and corrupt. If that isn't enough, there is serious political opposition coming from those in high places back home who aren't comfortable with the idea of Harry intruding on their private schemes to profit from supporting foreign tyrants. Beside contending with cruel, sadistic prison officials and corrupt national leaders planning to seize government when the time is right, Harry faces a bigger, more ominous system where connection in high places in Britain are prepared to throw him under the bus if that is what it takes to protect their dirty, illegal investments in grubby old Ta'argistan. The price Harry is willing to endure to remain a principled individual amidst such moral torpor - incredible privations, loss of friendship, and betrayal is only superceded by his masterful skill in getting out of tight corners. Once again, another well-written, fast-paced thriller of an adventure that has you guessing to the end. There are many angles to this superman's life, and he thoughtfully uses everyone to make the world a safer place in which to live.

This movie reminds me a lot of "Fargo" and its many moments of jolting surprise and impromptu change. While its story or plot may initially appear to be blase - a cowboy drifter aimlessly travelling across a wide-open, snowbound prairie in a beat-up old station wagon - something suddenly happens to change all that. He picks up a hitchhiker whose car has broken down in the middle of a blizzard and, all of a sudden, that which was once a ho hum existence, now becomes a fascinating tale of love, lust and murder. As the hitchhiker shares his story about going to visit a female penpal at a local penitentiary, the drifter suddenly comes alive. As a survivor who has always lived his life on the margins of society, the wonders of sex have never been part of his lonely lifestyle. Now as he listens to the fantastic plans of his new travelling companion, his mind becomes transformed. He, too, wants to be able to have a woman in his life, and the only way he can do it is to hijack the other man's dream. This will involve acquiring critical detail about the woman waiting to be released from prison, finding a way to kill the would-be lover and, then, with his stolen identity turn up to claim his prize and enjoy the moment. Everything seems to work in his favour because he has no identity but an assumed one. Later on, as events coalesce, the new woman of his dreams will learn the awful truth behind her new Lothario, but the power of love being what it is will stand by her man in the end as they are left to crawl through snowdrifts in an attempt to avoid the law that is closing in on them. As a backdrop to their futile efforts to escape, a church spire can be seen off in the distance, offering them the vain hope of a safe haven.

"The study of error is not only in the highest degree prophylactic, but it also serves as a stimulating introduction to the study of truth" -Walter Lippmann, "Public Opinion"
In this brief study on how and why we hold to certain views on a wide range of popular subjects, Lippmann attempts to open our minds to the possibility that our opinions are really shaped by forces often outside our control. Personal opinions are really only a microcosm of the public domain from which they are derived through many channels. Having established that idea as his thesis, Lippmann, arguably one of the great liberal thinkers of the twentieth century along with Isaiah Berlin, makes his case. Using examples from an earlier age - the Great War of 1914-1918 - Lippmann begins to describe that bigger world out there as one containing big events, traditional institutions, great 'men', and monumental ideas all coming together in a collectivity called society, held together by a complex process of decision-making. While the individual may at times think he or she has acquired a valid viewpoint on any number of issues, Lippmann is quick to show us that many of the ideas we claim as our own are really just amalgams of other people's erroneous perceptions of reality. What is particularly disturbing is his contention that governments, mass media and religious institutions have attempted, through the use of various forms of propaganda, to manipulate the facts so that we, the trusting public, can readily adopt national and cultural symbols and myths associated with national greatness in time of war, courageous leadership in time of crisis, and political correctness in time of conflict. Anybody with half an ounce of societal influence is interested in seeking personal opinion in order to create the image of public sentiment. In all things, Lippmann believes that the individual should never abdicate his or her responsibility to test the truth and integrity of public views as to their potentially negative impact on the private conscience. Truth about the world we live in is a value earned through the power of trust and not the inspiration of words.

The mark of any credible murder-mystery novel is its ability to keep its core idea front and centre in the mind of the reader while he or she follows a complex and suspenseful plot. As in most novels of this kind, Eriksson has as his primal force a mystery that needs solving: who killed Angel Alvarez, a Mexican drug dealer living in Sweden of all places. There is a drug war going on in this most unassuming of nations, and two groups are prepared to kill to protect their turf: an eastern European syndicate and two brothers out to put things right. Someone is now profiting from the proceeds of this crime by opening up what looks like a profitable restaurant called The Dakar just outside of Uppsala, Sweden. This murder prompts two slightly similar yet vastly different reactions: the family of the victim is looking to exact revenge and is hot on the trail of who they believe is the killer, while Swedish police are interested in making an arrest to prevent further bloodshed. On one hand, we have the singular inexpert mind of a young Latino feverishly driven by a need to avenge the murder of his brother, while on the reverse side there are the Nordic minions of the law collectively working at a glacially pace to find the murderer. This juxtaposition of operating styles is further accentuated by the author including a significant glimpse into the uneasy criminal mind of the quarry as he tries to protect himself and his ill-gotten property, a fancy upscale restaurant. As a psychological thriller, this story gives its reader an inside look at how this investigation affects the minds of its key players and friends. No one seems to come off easy in this deadly, high-stakes drama where the main parties will seek each other out with a deadly intent to get even. Escaping now is no guarantee that you are safe tomorrow regardless of how far you run. I like this open-ended type of novel because it realistically tells us that running criminals to ground is a never-ending battle for truth and justice. Be prepared for a couple of interesting little twists in this story.

According to biblical apologist and popular Christian writer Phil Yancy, the world is made up of a growing number of people who may have a great respect for Christ's teachings but are not interested in darkening the doors of Christian churches. This disconnect may be due in some part to a popular perception that Christians, inside their nice, clean, respectable-looking churches, do not always demonstrate Christ's love to the down and outs and oppressed of society the way they should. Yancy himself grew up in a Southern Baptist church in Atlanta in the fifties that promoted segregation as part of its theological creed, and it took him years to disabuse himself of these incredibly negative values inculcated in him since childhood. This book is an intellectual effort on his part at personal redemption by reaching out in authentic Christian love to those who exist outside the walls of the church. To achieve this, Yancy writes about how some of the great unorthodox thinkers, writers, and activists in history helped change his attitude as to how Christians are to live in the world at large. These role models might greatly surprise you in that when put under a microscope turn out to be very human in their failings. What makes the lives of a Martin Luther King Jr., Mahatma Gandhi, Dostoevsky, Chesterton, Donne, Tolstoy and Koop so memorable was that in some unique way they were searching for a better way to live out Christian principles in daily life, though some traditional Christians might find it hard to see them as orthodox in their beliefs. When I read these stories, I was convinced that each one of these people did a better job of capturing the essence of the two greatest commandments in the Bible (love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, and body and your neighbour as yourself) better than your standard church member like myself. Putting one's life on the line against an evil like segregation; opposing unjust rule; treating lepers in third-world countries; and divesting oneself of all your earthly possessions are statements that may represent a holy calling fraught with all kinds of opposition and controversy because it steps outside the bounds of personal safety, but that is what Christ calls his followers to do. That might mean adopting the non-judgmental attitude of a C. Everett Koop who became renowned in the eighties for advocating timely medical help to the poor and underprivileged in society. Righteousness is found in demonstrating love in action to needy people around us, and that means stepping outside the comfort and security of our churches to do business with a hurting world. That will mean making ourselves human too, so that God can fill our souls with love for others outside our circle of Christian friends.

This recent release, starring Phillip Seymour Hoffman (Capote) and Joaquin Phoenix (Johnny Cash), takes up a very fascinating and thought-provoking tale about a communal movement's efforts to restore people's happiness in post-war America. Led by a charismatic figure, Lancaster Dodd aka The Master, The Cause sought out people who were looking for affection and happiness to replace the stress and strain left over from the war. Using the controversial practice of hypnosis, Dodd, depicted as an authoritarian figure, builds up this commune on the idea that its residents must submit to his arbitrary prescription for living the untrammelled life. Sounds gimmicky, to be sure, but there were lost souls out there who were looking for a new direction in life. Along comes a young unhappy ex-serviceman, Freddie, looking for that new beginning, and the commune quickly embraces him as part of the family. The problem here is that he is anything but a conformist. He has serious anger issues and resents authority, especially the kind Lancaster wants to impose on him. In this film we get to see Freddie and Lancaster continually butting heads in a classic battle of wills in an institutional setting of control versus an individual's craving for untrammeled freedom. The big question to consider here is whether the happiness offered Freddie effectively replaces the demons of loneliness at loose in his tormented soul? Can love and happiness genuinely flow from submitting to someone else's authority or is it forever lost in the infernal struggles of angry individuals bent on figuring it out themselves? While Dobbs is definitely a charlatan whose main goal is to effect greater mind control over his followers, does Freddie really have any choice as to ultimately submitting to him, given the depths of his unhappiness? This movie will attempt to answer these questions by giving its viewers much food for thought.

Unlike the other reviewer, I did not find the illustrations in this book to detract from its basic thesis that effective marketing depends on innovative leadership and sensitivity to change. We live in an age where entrepreneurial success is coming more and more to rely on 'marketing' to achieve optimal results. It is no longer good enough to promote a great product. Now the company has to be aware of where advantages can be lost on a turn of a dime because of an undetected weakness in design, poor timing, unhappy workforce, changing fundamentals, or new competitors. Cohen looks at how the great business management expert Peter Drucker addressed this challenge to take marketing to a new level in his day. Much of Drucker's writing on building a more effective corporate business model looks at the need to think internally and externally, to examine carefully, to seek understanding, and respond in a timely manner when opportunity knocks. In the business world questionable decisions are often made that lack the best information, are poorly tested, inadequately communicated, and are unethically sound. Since creative innovation or imaginative tweaking is critical to beating the competition to the consumer's heart, Drucker would likely suggest a company to start small, think simple and be patient in rolling out new product lines, remembering that the customer or consumer usually has the last word. When something doesn't work the way it is supposed to, get rid of it before iapitalit ends up harming the bottom-line. Capitalizing on what looks like new knowledge to save an old concept might be just buying into someone else's mistakes and misfortune. Central to all this whole philosophy is the idea that a successful business will be built on clearly defined principles that encourage dependable strategies and workable tactics. Over all, Drucker saw leadership as essential for making the key decisions in bringing together all the various parts in the process at the right time. Taken together, these facets add up to a high standard of quality based on integrity or the ability to be transparent each step of the way. As this book attests to, the business world is full of cases where products failed because quality took second place to speed of production in the rush to beat the competition at all costs.