Nevada Powe

Director of product, pricing & development, Adtelligent

Reading helps to build a personal edifice of critical thinking to guide us through life. As we go into 2019, these are some of the books (in no particular order) that I think it would be good for us all to engage with. There are a mix of brand-new books and some very old ones, but in one way or another each of these has something particularly relevant to say to the times in which we are living.

1 Neil Postman, Amusing Ourselves to Death. Originally written in 1985, but few books have proven more prophetic than Postman’s Amusing Ourselves, where he saw that all serious thought would buckle under the weight of our desire for entertainment above all else. He predicted the global dumbing down of the citizenry due to our addiction to entertaining media and saw the rise of a Donald Trump-type president, who, if nothing else, has certainly been the most entertaining. For Postman, our new enslavement would not come from a 1984 type big brother overlord but from an obsession with trivia and happy pills so that we would not even recognise that we had been enslaved. In Postman’s view we have far more to fear from Huxley’s Brave New World than from Orwell’s 1984.

2 Safiya Noble, Algorithms of Oppression: How Search Engines Reinforce Racism. Noble challenges the idea that search engine results and by implication artificially intelligent algorithms are/will be neutral. Consider this book the canary warning cry about what we need to watch out for. Machines look neutral because we don’t see the human element but machines’ rules are programmed by humans, so they will lock in our biases and injustices if we don’t define the algorithms correctly.

3 Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex. Published in 1949, it feels as relevant today as ever. Maybe even more so. This is the story of girls and women and how their identity and character become formed. Every girl and woman should read it. Everyone who ever loved a girl or woman should read it. de Beauvoir uses myths, psychology, philosophy and lived experience to write this monumental work. Men and women are different for many reasons having to do with politics and culture, yes, but also nature. This is radical in today’s era when we are told men and women are the same except for social conditioning. de Beauvoir talks openly about women’s biology (the pain and suffering of menstruation is real) and the unequal burden of child bearing, or what she refers to as reproductive slavery, recognising that the fight for female equality is not only against the patriarchy but against nature itself which means it maybe a battle we may ultimately not win but we have to try. The subtlety and complexity of her work speak to the complexity of the issues we face between the sexes.

4 Jason Hill, We Have Overcome: An Immigrant Letter to the American People. A controversial title and subject matter. Hill, a Jamaican-born academic philosopher resists the notion that what ails black people still is what white people have done to us. Enough. Once the Civil Rights Act enshrined equality under the law, the time came for black people to move to independence. That the outcomes have not been realised, Hill would argue, stands at this juncture more squarely on the shoulders of black Americans still awaiting the “Messiah” who will not come. Hill took a lot of heat on social media and on television for his dissident views. If

immigrants (including Hill) have done it and continue to do it, it is time for generations of black Americans to take on the mantle and build sustainable positive and wealthy communities. Hill makes a compelling argument using storytelling, history and philosophy.

5 Yuval Harari, Homo Deus, A Brief History of Tomorrow. This is the story of our future. Harari does the best synthesis of all the futurists I have read in trying to discern what is about to happen with the rise of artificial intelligence and the algorithm. It is both scary and hopeful, in that he argues if we are not vigilant we will indeed lose our prime position in the world to the machine. What happens to daily life on Earth has never been so well described. How eternal “life” becomes possible. How the algorithm replaces God and humanism as the underlying organisational principle of humans. The rise of the useless class of people for whom there is no longer any meaningful work. He lays out all the issues that we will have to address now before all the technological advances hit because they are coming faster than you think. This is the must-read of 2019. Harari also has several excellent Youtube lectures and interviews to start familiarising yourself with him and the subject of AI.

6 The Bible. Particularly stories of The Origin and the Fall from Eden; Cain and Abel, the Tower of Babel; Noah and the Ark; Abraham and Isaac; Jacob Wrestling with the Angel; Joseph and the Dreams; Moses, the Pharaoh, Passover and the Exodus out of Egypt; the Ten Commandments and the Golden Calf; David and Goliath; David and Bathsheba; the Wisdom of Solomon; Daniel and the Lion’s Den; Samson and Delilah; Trials of Job; the Birth of Christ; The Wedding at Cana; the parable of the Good Samaritan; the parable of Prodigal Son; Jesus on Caesar and God; the Last Supper; the Judas Betrayal, the Peter Denial; the Crucifixion and the Resurrection of Christ; Saul’s Conversion to Paul. Whether you are or are not a practising Christian, these Bible stories are crucial to the understanding of the West. Our Judeo-christian heritage along with our pagan narratives, which are manifested magnificently through Hollywood, pornography and our shiny objects for sale, are crucial to understanding Western civilisation.

7 Jordan Peterson, 12 Rules for Life. I have spent over 50 hours in 2018 watching very carefully on Youtube the many lectures and public interviews by this academic rock star Jordan Peterson. To be honest, the book is not the best introduction or summary of Peterson’s thinking but, love him or hate him (and many do on both sides), it is difficult to deny his influence or his erudition. Peterson challenges us to think outside our politically correct ways of seeing the world—not everything is “sexist patriarchy”, “homophobia” or “racist”. Peterson senses strongly that the world is indeed adrift.

His solution is in part to turn away from our new obsessions and return to the classic texts and stories that have served us well before. For example, The Bible, Hamlet, Joseph Campbell’s the Power of Myth, etc.

8 Eckhart Tolle, The Power of Now. One of the earlier gurus in the late phase of self-help path seekers and still one of the best. Inspired by the philosophy of Daoism and Buddhism, Tolle talks about the unhappiness that is caused by obsessing about the past (I shoulda…) and/or worrying about the future (what if...) when we can only impact the Now. Forgive yourself and forgive others and do not allow the perceived slights from the past to keep clouding your present. Worried about how you going to climb that mountain? All is required of you now is to take one step towards the mountain so don’t stress about the top of the mountain, you can only take one step today. This easy to read manual to a simpler and more balanced enlightened life is my periodic go to when the mind starts chattering on about what I coulda, shoulda, woulda done. Sometimes you have got to just breathe. Tolle gives great tips for relaxing, surrendering, meditating and anchoring in the present. As personal anxiety, depression and suicidal thoughts rise around the world, Tolle can guide us towards a different path. The calming of the mind is an important skill to cultivate as the world turns.

9 Karen Armstrong, A History of God: the 4,000-Year Quest of Judaism, Christianity and Islam. In a time when world religions seem bent on new wars and antagonism, former nunturned-public intellectual Karen Armstrong provides the best overview of how our conception of God has changed over time and across religions. This is a sobering accessible text for anyone wishing to understand the primary differences between these major religions. Armstrong distills Monotheism. We can no longer live in a “my world, my religion” view point. It behoves all of us to begin to understand the underlying belief systems of our fellowmen. The book ends with an examination of the conception of God in the modern era.

10 Herman Hesse, Siddhartha. Simple and beautiful. The story of Siddhartha who gave up his life of comfort and wealth to go on a spiritual journey to become the Buddha. As we continue to push Western consumption, this short work reminds us that there is another way to live.

Happy 2019! Make it count by expanding your foundational knowledge and thinking more critically. Happy reading!