Changing the Bully Who Rules the World: Reading and Thinking aAbout Ethics
Some people are plainly evil. Mass popular education and growing prosperity have not prevented the Holocaust, race riots, and mindless domestic violence. Bly, an author and promoter of co-operation between teachers and social workers, thinks we know more than we are willing to admit. We have not used our knowledge of social psychology or exploited the riches of literature as a device for reconceptualizing and understanding our lives. There is good writing here by Joyce Carol Oates, James Agee, Tobias Wolff, and many others?and the aim is for us to use it. Bly feels that we should try to interact with the characters in literature, try to assess the long-range impact of all our decisions on the lives of others and develop coherent accounts of our own values. More historical understanding and a little formal philosophical analysis would have improved the book, but ordinary readers will find help and comfort here. Recommended for public libraries.?Leslie Armour, Univ. of OttawaCopyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.