[Phys-L] Re: Ten Most Harmful Books of the 19th and 20th Centuries

[rrhake at EARTHLINK.NET (Richard Hake)]

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ABSTRACT: I reference attempts by  Michael Shermer, Sharon Begley,
and Susan Clancy to answer the question "Why do people believe in
weird things," e.g., the ability of a commercially available
"electron water/air machine" to change the hydrogen bond angle of
water, "Intelligent Design," abduction by aliens from outer space,
and (most outrageously) THAT DEWEY'S "DEMOCRACY AND EDUCATION" IS THE
5TH MOST HARMFUL BOOK OF THE 19TH AND 20TH CENTURIES (as indicated by
15 "conservative scholars and public policy leaders" designated as
judges by the editors of the conservative weekly "Human Events").
Have there been any substantive counters to that harmful book list?
There can be little doubt that (with the possible exception of "Mein
Kampf") blogger Harvey Jerkwater's list (headed by Julie Child's
"Mastering the Art of French Cooking") contains books far more
harmful than those listed by "World Events."
-------------------------------------------

In response to my post "Ten Most Harmful Books of the 19th and 20th
Centuries," [Hake (2005)], POD's Ed Nuhfer (2005) wrote [bracketed by
lines "NNNNN. . . "; my insertions within square brackets]:

NNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN
I immediately wondered what a book list by the opposite lunatic
fringe would contain. Ever the spokesman for alternative irreverent
interpretations, I initially found Hake's post hopeful - hopeful -
that any group would take to reading the likes of Freidrich
Nietzsche, John Dewey, John Stuart Mill, Charles Darwin . . . and
then have an evaluative argument. (Our current campus reading is
"Nickel and Dimed" [Ehrenreich (2005)]). Not quite in the same
literary class and it didn't make the dangerous book hit list...the
compilers were obviously not Walmart shoppers.

However, the flashing window at the lower left of the list caught my
attention. It linked [<http://www.johnellis.com/fs_main.htm>] to
someone trying to sell me an "electron water/air machine" that would
purify my home's water and "permanently change the properties of
water so they could be identified 100 years from now"  ["Fifty years
ago the hydrogen bond angle in water was 108 degrees and you rarely
heard of anyone with cancer. Today, it's only 104 degrees and, as a
result, cancer is an epidemic!! By using our machine you can increase
the bond angle to 114 degrees and, unlike any other water, doctors
can see an immediate change in the red blood cells under a
microscope! It's truly amazing!!] Finding this juxtaposed with the
listing of books by such influential writers, I realized I had
arrived in critical thinking hell. "Nickel & Dimed"...suddenly looked
like a canon candidate.
NNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN

The flashing window at the lower left of the ""Ten Most Harmful Books
Of the 19th and 20th Centuries""
site  <http://www.humaneventsonline.com/article.php?id=7591> shows
that hucksters for the "electron water/air machine" realize that
"Human Events" probably serves one of the *most* scientifically
illiterate sectors in a nation of science illiterates [Hake (2000)]
- eager to believe even the most outrageous quackery.

Why do people believe in weird things such as the ability of the
"electron water/air machine" to change the hydrogen bond angle in
water, "Intelligent Design," abduction by aliens from outer space,
and (most outrageously) that Dewey's (1916) "Democracy and Education"
is the 5th most harmful book of the 19th and 20th Centuries - as
indicated by 15 "conservative scholars and public policy
leaders" picked by "Human Events Online"
<http://www.humaneventsonline.com/>  - "The National Conservative
Weekly - Since 1944"?

This question has been addressed by, e.g.:

(a) psychologist and science historian Michael Shermer
<http://www.skeptic.com/about_us/meet_michael_shermer.html> in "Why
People Believe Weird Things" [Shermer (2002)] and "Science Friction"
[Shermer (2005)],

(b) Wall Street Journal columnist Sharon Begley in "For Space
Travelers, Logic Seems to Be A Truly Alien Concept" [Begley (2005)],
a discussion of

(c) "Abducted: How People Come to Believe They Were Kidnapped by
Aliens" by Harvard psychologist Susan Clancy (2005).

Unfortunately, it's probably too much to hope that aliens will swoop
down and kidnap the editors
<http://www.humaneventsonline.com/about-editors.php> of "World
Events" along with their 15 "conservative scholars and public policy
leaders" [for their names,  associations, and a relevant URL for
each, see APPENDIX #2 of Hake (2005)]. They will remain at large to
mislead the public.

Have there been any substantive counters of the "Ten Most Harmful
Books Of the 19th and 20th Centuries"?

A Google search For "Ten Most Harmful Books" (with the quotes)
yielded 147,000 hits, among them a reference to perceptive blogger
Harvey Jerkwater's (2005) "Filing Cabinet of the Damned: The Ten Most
Harmful Books." There can be little doubt that (with the possible
exception of "Mein Kampf") Jerkwater's list contains books far more
harmful than those listed by "World Events" (if you doubt this scan
Jerkwater's erudite rationale for each book at
<http://filingcabinetofthedamned.blogspot.com/2005/06/ten-most-harmful-books.html>):

  1. Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Julia Child;
  2. Great Expectations, Charles Dickens;
  3. Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary;
  4. The Complete Poems of Emily Dickenson;
  5. The Lord of the Rings, J.R.R. Tolkien;
  6. Frankenstein: Or the Modern Prometheus, Mary Shelley;
  7. The Fountainhead, Ayn Rand;
  8. The Man Who Knew Too Much, G.K. Chesterton;
  9. Where's Waldo, Martin Handford;
10. The DaVinci Code, Dan Brown.


Richard Hake, Emeritus Professor of Physics, Indiana University
24245 Hatteras Street, Woodland Hills, CA 91367
<rrhake@earthlink.net>
<http://www.physics.indiana.edu/~hake>
<http://www.physics.indiana.edu/~sdi>

REFERENCES
Begley, S.  2005. "For Space Travelers, Logic Seems to Be A Truly
Alien Concept," Wall Street Journal Online, 21 October; freely online
for a few days at
<http://online.wsj.com/article_email/SB112984413306274853-lMyQjAxMDE1MjI5MjgyNDI0Wj.html>,
and more permanently at
<http://lists.asu.edu/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind0510&L=aera-l&T=0&O=D&X=4BA754403156633983&Y=rrhake%40earthlink.net&P=3033>.

Clancy, S.A. 2005. "Abducted: How People Come to Believe They Were
Kidnapped by Aliens." Harvard University Press. Amazon.com
information at
<http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0674018796/104-3108283-4762347?v=glance&n=283155&s=books&v=glance>.

Dewey, J. 1916 "Democracy and Education: An Introduction to the
Philosophy of Education." According to Amazon.com, Dover has has
published a 2004 paperback edition - see
<http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0486433994/104-3108283-4762347?v=glance&n=283155&s=books&v=glance>.

Ehrenreich, B. 2002. "Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in
America." Owl Books; Amazon.com information at
<http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0805063897/104-3108283-4762347?v=glance&n=283155&v=glance>.

Hake, R.R. 2000. "The General Population's Ignorance of Science
Related Societal Issues: A Challenge for the University," AAPT
Announcer 30(2): 105; online as ref. 11 at
<http://www.physics.indiana.edu/~hake> or download directly by
clicking on
<http://www.physics.indiana.edu/~hake/GuelphSocietyG.pdf> (2.1MB).
Based on an earlier libretto with the leitmotiv: "The road to U.S.
science literacy begins with effective university science courses for
pre-college teachers." The opera dramatizes the fact that the failure
of universities throughout the universe to properly educate
pre-college teachers is responsible for our failure to observe any
signs of either terrestrial or extraterrestrial intelligence.

Hake, R.R. 2005. "Ten Most Harmful Books of the 19th and 20th
Centuries," online at
<http://listserv.nd.edu/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind0510&L=pod&O=D&P=16448>.
Post of 22 Oct 2005 15:01:49-0700 to to American-Philosophy, Dewey-L,
Math-Learn, PhysLrnR, POD, TeachingEdPsych, TIPS; latter sent to
AERA-C,  AERA-GSL, AERA-J, AERA-L; and then to Biopi-L, Chemed-L, and
Phys-L and Physoc.

Jerkwater, H. 2005. "Filing Cabinet of the Damned: The Ten Most
Harmful Books," online at
<http://filingcabinetofthedamned.blogspot.com/2005/06/ten-most-harmful-books.html>.

Nuhfer, E. 2005. "Re: Ten Most Harmful Books of the 19th and 20th
Centuries," POD post of 22 Oct 2005 21:13:41-0600; online at
<http://listserv.nd.edu/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind0510&L=pod&O=D&P=16578>.

Shermer, M. 2002. "Why People Believe Weird Things: Pseudoscience,
Superstition, and other Confusions of Our Time."  Owl Books (2nd
revised edition).  Amazon.com information at
<http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0805070893/104-3108283-4762347?v=glance&n=283155&s=books&v=glanceBook>.
Description: "In this age of supposed scientific enlightenment, many
people still believe in mind reading, past-life regression theory,
New Age hokum, and ALIEN ABDUCTION. A no-holds-barred assault on
popular superstitions and prejudices, with more than 80,000 copies in
print, 'Why People Believe Weird Things' debunks these nonsensical
claims and explores the very human reasons people find otherworldly
phenomena, conspiracy theories, and cults so appealing. In an
entirely new chapter, 'Why *Smart" People Believe in Weird Things,'
Michael Shermer takes on science luminaries like physicist Frank
Tippler and others, who hide their spiritual beliefs behind the
trappings of science." See also Shermer (2005).

Shermer, M. 2005. "Science Friction: Where the Known Meets the
Unknown." Henry Holt. Amazon.com information at
<http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0805077081/104-3108283-4762347?v=glance&n=283155&s=books&v=glance>.
> From Booklist (my CAPS): "The author of several books and a columnist
for 'Scientific American,' Shermer here gathers a dozen of his
articles from other sources, such as 'Skeptic'. .
.[<http://www.skeptic.com/>]. . .  the magazine he founded. Eclectic
in range, the pieces can be personal (an account of his mother's
death), formidably theoretical (a deep dive into historical
causation), or playful (AN ESSAY ABOUT TOP-10-TYPE LISTS OF GREAT
PERSONS, EVENTS, OR INVENTIONS. . . [in Chapter 12 'History's
Heretics']. . . The predominant subject, though, is the one that has
garnered Shermer such a loyal readership: confronting unscientific
thought. Shermer delights in debunking superstition and ignorance
about science and considers it a worthy vocation since 45 PERCENT OF
AMERICANS, according to a 2001 Gallup survey Shermer cites, BELIEVE
THAT GOD CREATED HUMANS A FEW THOUSAND YEARS AGO. In one piece, the
author illustrates how easily a poseur--himself--can give convincing
psychic readings, and another exposition DISPUTES SO-CALLED
INTELLIGENT DESIGN THEORY . . .[in Chapter 11 'The New New
Creationism: Intelligent Design Theory and Its Discontents']. . ., a
species of creationism. Homages to his heroes, Star Trek creator
creator Gene Roddenberry and the late paleontologist Stephen Jay
Gould, conclude the collection and indicate its variety."
Gilbert Taylor
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