I have greatly enjoyed all of this New Yorker’s often counterfactual discourses on a wide variety of social issues and trends, so when this came out on the 25th anniversary of his first book, The Tipping Point, I delved right in.
In this book, he delivers his usual insights into a few new areas, and does not disappoint, although I had some difficulty relating some to the original book. This includes discussion of the massive culture of Medicare fraud in Miami, and its surprising acceptance by the Florida population at large. The magic third is treated as a universal law when it comes to representation of women on corporate boards and more generally on acceptance of women as equals, and the acceptance of Blacks as neighbours in suburbia, with sometimes counterfactual results.
The discussion of sports in the Harvard and several other university’s admissions policy, with reserved places for athletes, alumni and donor children, and faculty member’s families makes a mockery of any claim for meritocracy as the main criteria.
The tipping point is clearly relevant when it comes to the belated acceptance and discussion of the Holocaust, and the slow acceptance of gays as equal members of society.
The Biogene meeting in Boston that did much to introduce Covid 19 into the U.S. seems a bit out of place in this discussion
Triplicate prescription laws for narcotics and the states that did or did not enact them lead to a widespread discrepancy in the rates of narcotic abuse and overdose deaths. The nefarious marketing of narcotics by Perdue Pharmacy is well known, but the author’s counterfactual argument that its downfall lead to thousands of extra deaths from overdoses is compelling and new.
The role of television viewing of popular programs in shaping societal opinions is extensively addressed and the dangers of monoculture, is addressed by reference to cheetahs with susceptibility to feline corona virus and to the seemingly ideal and conformist town of Pleasant Grove with its exceptionally high rate of suicides.
“Epidemics love monocultures.”
I enjoyed this book, with the author’s unique insights although he seems at times to exaggerate the counterfactual. Perhaps not quite as good as the original “The Tipping Point”, or “Blink”, but better than “What the Dog Saw” or “Talking to Strangers.”
4/5
The Passionate Reader 