Saturday, April 4, 2009

What Are We Wrong About?

A few years ago science writer Steven Johnson wrote a book called Everything Bad is Good for You. In it, he challenges the conventional wisdom that certain forms of flashy, mass appeal media pose a public health risk. Instead, he argues, video games represent powerful problem-solving simulators and sleazy reality TV shows some kind of elaborate sociological experiment. He makes a good case.

In the same spirit, Slate's Jacob Weisberg has queued up a few sacred cows for slaughter as well, or at least a critical review. Nuclear proliferation? Not so bad, maybe. Global warming? Chill out. China the next ultra-superpower? Yeah, no.

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