[Posted by Paul Gleason]

In The Evolution of God, Robert Wright surveys the history of human religion, especially the monotheistic faiths of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. His surprising conclusion is that God—or, more precisely, our idea of God—is becoming more egalitarian, more loving and accepting.

But far before he reaches this insight, he first discusses the earliest hunter-gatherer religions and their priests: the shamans. Distant cultures, he notes, picked their shamans in similar ways. Those who would become shamans of their own tribes should follow these general rules:

• Dance: “During the all-night curing dances of the !Kung San, any man or woman was eligible to enter a trancelike state and thus summon nun, a spiritual healing energy.”
• Find a Sponsor: “The anthropologist Robert Lowie, after studying the Crow of the North American Plains, wrote that ‘any tribesman might become a shaman’ after going on a ‘vision quest’ and having an apparition signifying his adoption by a particular spirit.”
• Search Your Family Tree: “In some societies being a famous shaman’s descendant gave you a leg up.”
• Make an Entrance: “Circumstances of birth could help in other ways, too; entering the world amid a violent storm or with an odd birthmark might be a sign.”
• Play with Gender Roles: “In parts of Siberia, effeminate boys were good prospects, and once they were shamans some dressed as women and married a man.”
• Survive a Natural Disaster: “Surviving a lightning strike or a snakebite could in some societies mark a shamanic prospect.”
• Make Good Bets: “Among the Aranda of central Australia, one of the shaman’s jobs was ensuring that solar eclipses would be temporary—nice work if you can get it.”
• Bet on Health: “Since most illnesses are, like eclipses, temporary, the average shamanic medical intervention is also likely to be vindicated.”
• Recognize a Lost Cause: “Success rates are especially high in societies where shamans have the option of during down particularly dire cases.”
• And, When All Else Fails, Blame the Witch: “A Tlingit shaman, having failed to cure a patient, might blame it on someone he identified as a witch, who would then either confess under torture or be killed.”

Best of luck!

Defense Spending

“It’s inexcusable. It’s an affront to the American people and to our troops. And it’s time for it to stop.”

- President Obama criticizing the defense industry and Congress yesterday for wasting tax dollars on weapons and strategies better suited to Cold War-era conflict than to today’s wars.

* Related Title: The Pornography of Power: How Defense Hawks Hijacked 9/11 and Weakened America, by Robert Scheer

Health Reform

“We are a testament to the success of a health care cooperative. But it took us over 30 years to get where we are today.”

- Larry J. Zanoni, executive director of the Group Health Cooperative of South Central Wisconsin. Health care cooperatives could inject competition in some insurance markets around the country, economists and health policy experts said. But they would need time to buy sophisticated information technology and to negotiate contracts with doctors, hospitals and other health care providers.

* Related Title: Howard Dean’s Prescription for Real Healthcare Reform, with Igor Volsky and Faiz Shakir

The War in Afghanistan

“The insurgency in Afghanistan didn’t just happen overnight and we won’t defeat it overnight.”

- President Obama, speaking to an audience of military veterans in Phoenix. AZ.

* Related Title: The Inheritance: The World Obama Confronts and the Challenges to American Power, by David E. Sanger

Immigration

“Today’s announcement confirms our very worst fears. [The US government's detention system for illegal immigrants is] devoid of transparency and accountability.”

- David Shapiro, a staff attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union. Immigration officials said Monday they discovered records of 10 previously unreported deaths of detainees in government custody.

* Related Title: The Accidental American: Immigration and Citizenship in the Age of Globalization, by Rinku Sen and Fekkak Mamdouh

Mubarak in Washington

“The trip is symbolic of the rewarming of a relationship that underwent a lot of tension during President Bush’s time in office.”

- Tamara Cofman Wittes, a Middle East expert at the Brookings Institution think-tank in Washington, commenting on Egyptian President/Autocrat Mubarak’s visit to Washington.

* Related Title: Engaging the Muslim World, by Juan Cole

Here’s the first installment in our new video series, Open Books, in which we ask PBC authors to tell us about the books they love. This week, Rinku Sen, the co-author of The Accidental American, recommends two novels about characters trapped “between the oppressed and the oppressor,” and tells us why these books speak to her. (Related Title: The Known World by Edward P. Jones)

Cheap: The High Cost of Discount Culture

By Ellen Ruppel Shell

From the day we open our first lemonade stand, most of us understand that price is a relative matter, one that can infuriate, surprise, sadden, or delight. As Harvard Business School professor Gerald Zaltman told me, “Price is typically a number, but there is nothing more subjective.” Who knew that the way prices are positioned on a menu can influence what we eat for lunch or that some numbers trigger in our minds the flashing light of good deal, while others send signals of rip-off? Looking deep inside the human brain, neuroscientists have discovered that the very anticipation of a “bargain” sets our neural networks aquiver. The manipulation of price can confuse us, block the thinking part of our brain and ignite the impulsive, primitive side, the part that leads us to make poor decisions based on bad assumptions. Ever wonder why you’ll drive five miles out of your way to save a buck on a six- pack of beer or, for that matter, a tank of gas? Or why you’ll snap up a sweater “marked down” from $150 to $50 but pass up the very same sweater selling for “full price” at $50? Or why you’d prefer to pay more for an item than witness someone else pay less? Ever wonder why your own closet is cluttered with ill-fitting shoes and T-shirts in unbecoming shades? As we will see, science has the answer.

Factory outlets are America’s number-one tourist destination, the fastest-growing segment of not only the retail industry but also the travel industry. In Las Vegas we see the point that outlets can be as dicey as the slots, treacherous places for those who don’t know the landscape. At the outlets a “designer” necklace, a pair of Levi Strauss jeans, a Coach bag are often mere decoys, name brands in name only. Who’s to know? And it’s not only outlets that lead us astray. Merchants of rugs, mattresses, jewelry, and almost everything else use similar strategies to make bad deals irresistible. Even Harvard University dilutes its brand to capitalize on the human penchant for bargains. When the price is right, what’s in the box seems to matter far less than what is on the label.

In the world of Cheap, “design” has become a stand-in for quality. Companies such as Target, H & M, and Zara offer consumers the look they love at a price they can live with—but at what true cost? In Sweden we visit IKEA, the global furniture retailer made famous and fabulously successful by a scheme of designing not just for low price but to low price. The consequences of this are both obvious and subtle. IKEA makes furniture available to all at a low price, which means college students, young couples, and others on a budget can furnish their homes in style. But IKEA does not overly concern itself with what Homer Simpson calls “fall-apart.” The company designs for easy construction, uniformity, cheap production, and transportability around the globe. Ultimately, what it markets is disposable, with everything that implies. The genius of IKEA and other cheap-chic purveyors is that they have made fashionable, desirable, and even lovable objects nearly devoid of craftsmanship. The environmental and social implications of this are insidious and alarming. Read More

In his book In Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto, Michael Pollan sets down four principles for healthy eating. They are…

1. Pay More, Eat Less.

The American food system has for more than a decade devoted its energies to quantity and price rather than to quality. Yes, you can find exceptional food in America, and increasingly so, but historically the guiding principle has been, in the slogan of one supermarket chain, to “pile it high and sell it cheap.”  To make the overall recommendation to “pay more, eat less” more palatable, consider that quality itself, besides tending to cost more, may have a direct bearing on the quantity you’ll want to eat. The better the food, the less of it you need to feel satisfied. Choose quality over quantity, food experience over mere calories.

2. Do All Your Eating at a Table. No, a desk is not a table.

3. Don’t Get Your Fuel From the Same Place Your Car Does.

American gas stations now make more money selling food (and cigarettes) than gasoline, but consider what kind of food this is: except perhaps for milk and water, it’s all highly processed nonperishable snack foods and extravagantly sweetened soft drinks in hefty twenty-ounce bottles. Gas stations have become processed corn stations: ethanol outside for your car and high-fructose corn syrup inside for you.

4. Try Not to Eat Alone.

Americans are increasingly eating in solitude. Though there is research suggesting that light eaters will eat more when they dine with others (probably because they spend more time at the table), for people prone to overeating, communal meals tend to limit consumption, if only because we’re less likely to stuff ourselves when others are watching.

[Posted by Corinne Lestch]

In her book Cheap: The High Cost of Discount Culture, Ellen Ruppel Shell writes, “Discounting plays many tricks on the human mind, and among the more intriguing is the influence of discounting on our relationship to the purchase itself.” Many times we think we are getting the better deal when we pay less for something, and, as consumers, we light up at the thought of getting a “deal” or “bargain.” But whether we are conscious of it, whether we just grudgingly accept it, we are getting played by a market that has reshaped itself to anticipate how we think. Here are a few of the ways sellers have put knowlege of human psychology to work in the service of their bottom line. They’re all probably familiar–and we all probably fall for them again and again.

Seeing the world in 5s and 10s

Retailers are onto the fact that we think in multiples of five and ten. We would balk at a price of $96.08. In our minds, this price should be, and most often is, either two cents more or eight cents less.

Shell:

We expect and prefer our prices rounded off because, thanks to a quirk of evolution that gave us five fingers on each hand and five toes on each foot, we tend to think in multiples of five and ten.

Magic number 99

Instead of making an item $10, taking that penny away $9.99 tends to work magic in our minds. (Other examples: $19.99 instead of $20, $299.99 instead of $300).

Shell:

…Beginning in 1880 or so the magical number nine started creeping into prices. Even though we all ‘know’ this trick…the penny reduction lures by conveying the ‘cheaper’ message subliminally. And, sorry to say, we are fooled every time.

All Low Prices Aren’t Equal

We like bargains if we think we’re getting quality — something retailers plan for.

Shell:

The trick for retailers – and certainly low-price retailers – is not necessarily to ensure that their products are the best they can be but to associate the product with quality in consumers’ minds. Once quality is assumed – as it is for many branded products – a lower price is a plus. When quality is in dispute, as it is when we buy things we know nothing about at flea markets or eBay, low price can be a negative.

Price versus value

When a shirt or a necklace is discounted, we may not mind buying it because they are non-essentials, items of comparatively little value. But when selling something like a car, people want to make sure they are getting value and would rather pay more – in their minds, the value is better than if the price is lowered and the car stays in the same condition.

Shell:

I consulted a number of friends and colleagues and also a neighbor who by odd coincidence had sold her daughter’s Honda CRV earlier that year. She suggested I raise the price. Within a week the car – scratches and all – was sold to a young architect.

Keeping the Rat Pack away

Outlet malls are strategically-placed shopping centers with sales and discounts galore, but they also serve as a haven for many stay-at-home moms, restless teenagers and senior citizen “mall-walkers.” To discourage these people from getting too comfortable, the outlet malls make sure the revolving doors keep swinging – more people coming out makes sure more people can go in to spend money – by making it less amenable than a regular mall.

Shell:

…Many outlet developers follow what might be called the ‘Golden Arches’ approach to social engineering. At McDonald’s and many other fast-food restaurants, the lighting tends to be unflattering fluorescents, and the seats are bolted to the floor at an awkward distance from the tables. The purpose of this is not to prevent theft of the chairs, as many think, but to discourage elders, teenagers, and other undesirables from getting comfortable and congregating for hours over a small coffee, or an order of fries.

The Retail Revolution: How Wal-Mart Created a Brave New World of Business
The retailing behemoth has created a unique corporate subculture that is rooted in its hope of Bentonville, Ark

Healthcare Reform and the Public Option

“I don’t think it can pass without the public option. There are too many people who understand, including the president himself, the public option is absolutely linked to reform. You can’t have reform without a public option. If you really want to fix the health-care system, you’ve got to give the public the choice.”

-Gov. Howard Dean, “The Early Show” on CBS, responding to news reports that the White House is backing away from a “public option” for buying health insurance. Health secretary Kathleen Sebelius yesterday said the public option was “not the essential element” in healthcare reform.

“Ultimately, if the president decides that he’s going to go with a reform effort that doesn’t include a public option, what he will have done is spent a ton of political capital, riled up an incredibly angry right wing base who’s been told that this is a plot to kill grandma, grandma, and he will have achieved something that doesn’t change health care very much and that doesn’t save us very much money and won’t do very much for the American people.  It’s not a very good thing to spend a lot of political capital on.”

-Rachel Maddow, on Meet the Press, responding to same.

*Related Title: Howard Dean’s Prescription for Real Healthcare Reform: How We Can Achieve Affordable Medical Care for Every American and Make Our Jobs Safer, by Howard Dean, with Igor Volsky and Faiz Shakir

Afghan Elections

“We can’t vote. Everybody knows it. We are farmers, and we cannot do a thing against the Taliban.”

-Hakmatullah, an Afghan farmer. Across eastern and southern Afghanistan, where Taliban insurgents control many villages, people are being warned against voting in Thursday’s presidential election.

*Related Title: The Inheritance: The World Obama Confronts and the Challenges to American Power, by David E. Sanger

Public Schools

“Schools are really getting that they can’t just expect students to show up any more. They have to go out and recruit.”

-Lisa Relou, who directs marketing efforts for the Denver Public Schools. Public schools are increasingly deploying marketing professional marketing techniques — think: infomercials, direct mail, “rebranding” — to to win back students fleeing to charter schools, private schools and suburban districts.

*Related Title: Tested: One American School Struggles to Make the Grade, by Linda Perlstein

Climate Legislation

“There is a lot of wishful thinking on the part of some senators. They want to do what is easy, not what is needed.”

-Daniel Weiss, an energy and climate specialist for the Center for American Progress. Four Democratic senators are saying that the Senate should strip legislation of provisions curbing greenhouse-gas emissions this year and concentrate on a narrower bill to require use of renewable energy.

*Related Title: The Green Collar Economy: How One Solution Can Fix Our Two Biggest Problems, by Van Jones

“1959: The Year Everything Changed” is the latest book from Fred Kaplan, Slate contributor and the author of another PBC pick “The Daydream Believers.” Kaplan covers pivotal events, from the free jazz to Fidel Castro, and their importance in shaping the world as it exists today.

This video is part one in a three part series.  Kaplan talks to PBC about the major events of 1959, and the parallels between the political climate then and now.  Tune in next week to hear about the societal changes of that year!

Watch the video on YouTube HD!

Updike’s Joyous, Touching Final Story Collection
John Updike tended to let his characters age with him, and his final group of short stories, My Father’s Tears, is no exception.

A Boom for Some
A story is beginning to take shape in the media. It exhorts families to reduce their expectations.

Free This Book
Author Chris Anderson talks about how the value of information and services is not always best tied to price.

Facts are Subversive
Review of a perceptive anthology of political writing from the world’s hot spots.

A Scoundrel in the Land of the Lax
Two accounts of the mega-crook Bernard Madoff and his Ponzi scheme.