In late Summer 2017, I was making a transition into a new position, and traveling weekly because of it. Being away from my family is something I loathe. In some senses, it can be a good thing – it brings perspective into your relationships when you have an opportunity to step away from them for a bit. When you do the “stepping-away” solitarily ( meaning, not taking a vacation with friends, etc. where your thoughts will surely be influenced), you’re able to take stock of how things can change for the better when you get back to those relationships. One way to really take advantage of the time away, is to do some uninterrupted, non-fiction reading.
One evening while traveling, I stopped into a Barnes and Noble, and came across this book by Leonard Mlodinow – “Subliminal. How Your Unconscious Mind Rules Your Behavior.” The book is a bright green, so it naturally grabs your eye. What made it even better, the book has a glossy ‘background’ print on the cover that states “Pssst, Hey There. Yes, You, Sexy. Buy this book now. You know you want it.” I usually have an idea as to what book I’d like to buy when I walk into a bookstore. That day, the book did the deciding for me. I took the bait. They weren’t even trying to hide it. How can you not appreciate the humor? Even though the book’s title is “Subliminal”, it was pretty obvious that their “tongue in cheek” cover was the only sales tactic needed.
The book is arranged into two parts: The Two-Tiered Brain, and The Social Unconscious. The book is pretty accessible, meaning, you don’t have to be a trained Neuroscientist to understand what Mlodvinow is trying to say. However, having some working knowledge of the brain definitely adds to the experience of reading the book.
I won’t go into every detail about the book, as I believe that to be unfair, and somewhat pointless, as my experience with the book would likely be different than yours. Here are a couple of parts I found really interesting:
- Blind People, can actually see. No. I’m being serious. The human brain seems to be far less limited than what people think. Mlodvinow describes some experiments that really show how accurate blind people can be when asked to point out “where” things are. Pretty astounding.
- Social Identity – how it’s constructed, it’s basis, and importance. This part of the book points out how group-based social identity causes discrimination ( I think this is an extremely important topic, as identity politics takes it toll on the U.S. We have people who claim to be “fighting” discrimination, who are the worst offenders). Also, this part of the book describes how people strongly cleave to a group identity that is often based on the most meaningless of personal qualities. Really, it makes you analyze where you might self-define. For some, it may be a wake-up call.
If you’re looking for a Non-Fiction read, that’s endlessly interesting ( and may do some self-awakening in the process), I definitely recommend picking it up.
Andrew L Hamilton 