Greenwich Free Library
January Newsletter
C'mon People Now
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And, if we're honest with ourselves, it really is we, not just "those people". I have had the opportunity to attend some meetings of the local chapter of Better Angels and examine my own habits and attitudes. I found out that I was not the paragon of tolerance I had imagined myself to be. I listened to very well-meaning, intelligent people confidently make arguments based on nothing but the heresay of their Facebook feeds. I saw a lot of people trying to be understood and validated but not yet quite able to do the same for others. Getting past that is the goal and the work of this organization.
The reasons for our tendency to latch onto certain ideas, hold onto them and scorn others are well documented. In his excellent 2017 book, The Undoing Project, Michael Lewis introduces us to the work of two Israeli scholars whose research into human behavior and decision-making opened our eyes to the reality of cognitive bias, a terrifyingly long list of bad strategies our minds use to make sense of this, otherwise unbearably complex, world. Malcom Gladwell's 2005 book, Blink , examines how these biases make our decisions before we even start "thinking" about something. So the lesson, to quote someone who is quoted on bumper stickers, is "Don't believe everything you think." A humbling motto we might all want to have prominently displayed above every keyboard we ever touch.
At our library, like most others, we talk a lot about adorable toddlers and admirable elders and fun things teenagers are doing with rockets. These are all important aspects of our service to the community. But, at its heart, the library is here to be a resource for developing that legendary well-informed citizenry. These days, that often means trying to help people navigate the morass of the internet. We can recommend in depth strategies or point you to tools that do the work for you. Whichever route you choose, we are here to help.
I'll take it one step further and suggest this New Year's resolution: Question your own assumptions and engage in some slow thinking. Do it just once a week. You never know, you might just learn something. You could even change your mind. If nothing else, it may help you be a bit less shouty in the comments section.
Hope to see you soon,
Annie
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Email: amiller@sals.edu
Website: www.greenwichfreelibrary.org
Location: 148 Main Street, Greenwich, NY, USA
Phone: (518) 692-7157
Facebook: facebook.com/GreenwichFreeLibrary