Read a book; you may just learn from it

Brian Greenspun

Asked how to explain one of President Donald Trump’s latest incredulisms — I think I just made that word up — a CNN commentator said she was at a loss. The issue was Trump’s belief that, had he been around at the time, President Andrew Jackson could have staved off the Civil War, a war that didn’t have to happen and a war for which our president wasn’t quite sure how and why it happened. Or so he said.

After a few pundits took a stab at trying to tell us what Trump might have really meant to say — to little or no avail — the last commenter said the issue wasn’t about what the president was trying to say. It was really about what he wasn’t trying to know. The solution, she declared, was an immediate need for Trump to “crack open a book.”

She implied willful ignorance, and I am pretty sure it was a negative comment.

But I am not here trying to be negative, I am merely picking up on the concept of reading a book. You know, the age-old remedy for ignorance that our parents and their parents and their parents used to instill in each of us as we were growing up. It used to be encouraging words like “let’s look it up in the encyclopedia” or “let’s take a walk over to the library.” The point is simple: We can learn from books, and some of us have a lot to learn.

I mention this television encounter from last week because while listening to CNN I was finishing a book by my friend and Pulitzer Prize-winning author, Tom Friedman. It is called, “Thank You for Being Late” and if ever there were a book that needs to be read by everyone and right now — especially our president — it is this book.

I don’t know if Tom can be labeled as a conservative or a liberal — he seems to be in both camps depending upon the issue and where the camps are at any given time — but I do know him to be extremely smart. This is his seventh book. Most of you will remember when he wrote “The World is Flat” in 2005 in which he described the incredible competition to U.S. pre-eminence by countries like India and China in creating jobs in the 21st century. He was 100 percent right about what would happen. And, yes, it has happened already.

In “Thank You for Being Late,” Tom shares some valuable insights about the accelerating world around us that is powered by cloud computing and which, in a very short period of time and for the first time, has caused a disruption in the social and economic fabric of our country. For everyone trying to understand “what the hell is happening,” Friedman’s description of the anxiety, frustration and anger