Subliminal
Leonard Mlodinow
ISBN: 978-0307-378217
Pantheon, 2012
You really ought to see the jacket design for this book. It's frankly brilliant, and I laughed out loud when it arrived. On a bright green cover (people are reassured and made comfortable by green) is a nice blocky text stating the title, subtitle, and author. Just barely noticeable is the counterprinted slightly glossy text complimenting you (people are more likely to listen and conform after being complimented) and instructing you to buy! On the inside flaps and reverse, tis a bit more blatant, with huge BUY BUY BUY instructions marching down the pages in that blink and you miss it printing.
Once you get inside, the book continues to be entertaining (which is good, because frankly, the information presented therein is depressing as hell as it relates to our ability to rationally or logically select our governing bodies or who we believe... ) as Mlodinow draws you in through studies and brain imaging and more studies and surveys and polls and even more studies to show that really - we don't actually decide much of anything at all. In fact, we're really kept pretty busy just deciding on the made-up reasons to justify why we already decided things that we didn't know we decided, but we did, so obviously we must be right, and we need a good persuasive reason for it.
Sigh. Other than unseating my tiny spark of hope that someday humanity would become at least reasonably logical and rational, this was a truly amazing book. Read and be astounded!
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