The Subconscious Review of Pancho Villa
Jun. 1st, 2012 02:30 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bluegargantuaHey,
So I read stuff.
First up: Subliminal: How Your Unconscious Mind Rules Your Behavior by Leonard Mlodinow. It only sorta does what it says on the tin. Frankly, we're only just beginning to really understand how much work our unconscious mind does -- the how is pretty much uncharted territory. So the book doesn't really focus on the how so much as recount the various studies and experiments that have been done to try and tease out the unconscious workings of the mind.
The main thrust of the book is that our unconscious mind scarfs down the barrage of sensory information, decides what's important and feeds it up the ladder to our conscious minds. Conscious thought and deliberation can help us detect and evaluate information that our subconscious minds have passed up on, but it can take a lot of effort (or cleverly designed studies) to reveal our inherent biases. More importantly, we want to be on a team and we want to be on the winning team so we'll desperately support our position no matter what.
So while this is really more of a pop-psychology studies round-up, the discussions are interesting. It also highlights that in the 50's-60's you could be an absolute dick to people if it was part of a research program. The book really falls down when the author tries to be funny...cause he's not. Not in print, I'm sure he's a funny guy in person, but not on the page.
It's not a book that explains things, but as a source of anecdotes, it's great.
Next up: The Hunt for Pancho Villa - The Columbus Raid and Pershing's Punitive Expedition 1916-17 by Alejandro Quesada. This is part of the Osprey Publishing Raid Series where they break down a military operation. In this case, Pancho Villa raids Columbus, Texas and General Pershing (along with a young George Patton) go South of the border to track him down. They fail in that task, but do manage to effectively knock him out of action and also manage to really tick off the Mexican government.
This book needs a serious re-editing. Whole paragraphs are repeated nearly verbatim. There wasn't quite enough detail about the expedition's day-to-day activities. That said, the book opened up a fascinating period of history for me. The Mexican Civil War, German attempts to get Mexico to help invade the US, the US's abrupt mechanization to supply the Expedition, the disposition of Pancho's men who were captured in the US following the raid, and lots of other good stuff. Some very interesting parallels to present-day border/immigration problems. It just needed another editing. Worthwhile for a quick overview of America gearing up for WWI.
Later
Tom
So I read stuff.
First up: Subliminal: How Your Unconscious Mind Rules Your Behavior by Leonard Mlodinow. It only sorta does what it says on the tin. Frankly, we're only just beginning to really understand how much work our unconscious mind does -- the how is pretty much uncharted territory. So the book doesn't really focus on the how so much as recount the various studies and experiments that have been done to try and tease out the unconscious workings of the mind.
The main thrust of the book is that our unconscious mind scarfs down the barrage of sensory information, decides what's important and feeds it up the ladder to our conscious minds. Conscious thought and deliberation can help us detect and evaluate information that our subconscious minds have passed up on, but it can take a lot of effort (or cleverly designed studies) to reveal our inherent biases. More importantly, we want to be on a team and we want to be on the winning team so we'll desperately support our position no matter what.
So while this is really more of a pop-psychology studies round-up, the discussions are interesting. It also highlights that in the 50's-60's you could be an absolute dick to people if it was part of a research program. The book really falls down when the author tries to be funny...cause he's not. Not in print, I'm sure he's a funny guy in person, but not on the page.
It's not a book that explains things, but as a source of anecdotes, it's great.
Next up: The Hunt for Pancho Villa - The Columbus Raid and Pershing's Punitive Expedition 1916-17 by Alejandro Quesada. This is part of the Osprey Publishing Raid Series where they break down a military operation. In this case, Pancho Villa raids Columbus, Texas and General Pershing (along with a young George Patton) go South of the border to track him down. They fail in that task, but do manage to effectively knock him out of action and also manage to really tick off the Mexican government.
This book needs a serious re-editing. Whole paragraphs are repeated nearly verbatim. There wasn't quite enough detail about the expedition's day-to-day activities. That said, the book opened up a fascinating period of history for me. The Mexican Civil War, German attempts to get Mexico to help invade the US, the US's abrupt mechanization to supply the Expedition, the disposition of Pancho's men who were captured in the US following the raid, and lots of other good stuff. Some very interesting parallels to present-day border/immigration problems. It just needed another editing. Worthwhile for a quick overview of America gearing up for WWI.
Later
Tom
