I’m currently reading The Open Veins of Latin America, which is a detailed history of how Latin America has been screwed over across the centuries. It reminds me of a book I read a while ago, Confessions of an Economic Hit-man. Though it’s clear the author thinks that what has happened to Latin America has been unjust, he does a good job of not adding lots of, “and therefor...”s. It’s mostly a poetic historical account. There’s a lot more cartoonishly evil things that have happened in history than I realized.
I’m simulating bringing up this book to various friends, and in many cases the sim-of-friend feels the need to either go, “Yeah it sucks, but it’s not actually that bad because XYZ,” or “I know! The globalist/capitalist/materialist west is sooo evil, right?”
This seems to point to a general trend of people not wanting to spend a ton of time dwelling on the data, and instead jumping straight to drawing conclusions.
If you spend enough time dealing with people who are trying to get certain data to support their team, you start to lose you ability to engage with exploring the territory. For some, it might not feel safe to ask about what the U.S did or didn’t do in Latin America, because if they agree to the wrong point, they might be forced into the other sides conclusion.
I’m currently reading The Open Veins of Latin America, which is a detailed history of how Latin America has been screwed over across the centuries. It reminds me of a book I read a while ago, Confessions of an Economic Hit-man. Though it’s clear the author thinks that what has happened to Latin America has been unjust, he does a good job of not adding lots of, “and therefor...”s. It’s mostly a poetic historical account. There’s a lot more cartoonishly evil things that have happened in history than I realized.
I’m simulating bringing up this book to various friends, and in many cases the sim-of-friend feels the need to either go, “Yeah it sucks, but it’s not actually that bad because XYZ,” or “I know! The globalist/capitalist/materialist west is sooo evil, right?”
This seems to point to a general trend of people not wanting to spend a ton of time dwelling on the data, and instead jumping straight to drawing conclusions.
If you spend enough time dealing with people who are trying to get certain data to support their team, you start to lose you ability to engage with exploring the territory. For some, it might not feel safe to ask about what the U.S did or didn’t do in Latin America, because if they agree to the wrong point, they might be forced into the other sides conclusion.
Hold of on proposing solutions.