The Anxious Generation by Jonathan Haidt | Book Review & Discussion

[@EpistemOphelia-v6r]

You have such a great calm tone how you deliver this information. Keep making videos!

[@DavoodGozli]

I appreciate your kind words. Thank you for watching!

[@PatrickEngland-ss9uc]

Thanks Davood for another thorough review. I appreciate your use of various sources, especially Postman and Han and your comments about tragedy. And you aren't in a hurry. It seems as if a lot of youtube reviewers are too hyperactive (too much coffee?), but you calmly present your content patiently and clearly . And the Dr. address thing, I don't know, Dr. Davood has a nice sound to it, lol. Keep up the great work . Patrick

[@DavoodGozli]

Thanks a lot, Patrick! I hope that by slowing down a little bit, I can show the state of mind in which there is no hurry… or at least there is not much hurry… regardless of what other doctors and authorities in general are telling us. ;-)

[@sanc.]

Wonderful. And thank you for the book recommendations! Especially interested in "The Death of Tragedy".

[@DavoodGozli]

Glad to hear it! Thank you

[@jeselise22]

Hi David, I just stumbled across your channel and I am thoroughly enjoying it. I clicked on your patreon link to see about joining the book club, but it says it’s full. Is this correct? Do you take new members at any particular time? Thanks in advance.

[@DavoodGozli]

Hi Jessica - Thank you for your note and for your interest. I intentionally keep the reading group small so that (1) everyone has enough time to participate and share their perspective and (2) to allow for a sense of social equilibrium to develop. That said, I have now opened up 1 new spot on Patreon, in case you'd be interested in joining us. I'm excited about the possibility of seeing you in the group, as I'm sure everyone else would be!

[@mikegseclecticreads]

Thanks for the review Davood. I've read a few of Jonathan Haidt's other books including the other one you mentioned, The Righteous Mind, and I like what he brings to the conversation. I wasn't sure if I'd read this one since it sounded like it may have quite a bit of overlap with his previous work "The Coddling of the American Mind" (though maybe it overlaps most with a sort of strange tangent on smartphones that he went on towards the end of the book but felt to me rather out of place there). Based on what you said about it here though, it sounds like he may be offering at least some new thoughts in this book, so I may read this one. -- Dr. Mike, PhD

[@DavoodGozli]

Haha! Thank you, Doctor. Yes, I did found it a worthwhile read overall. It’s well-written, informative, engaging, and organized. I guess that sentiment wasn’t expressed as much in the content of my video as it is perhaps reflected in the length of the video.

[@9000ck]

I really like your balanced commentary and really agree with it. The American self help genre is really lacking the 'tragic sense of life.' To admit to anything less than perfection in Western culture is a problem to be solved rather than grieved or mourned through. Problems happen - you do your best to cope - you muddle through - you cry and get bored and get angry. Western culture wants to suppress and remove all pain. But that just leaves you stunted. Without pain you cannot become a human. And some of the most human people have suffered a great deal of loss and pain. I used to work with quadriplegics and saw them go through some of the most intense loss and grieving a human can be capable of. I would imagine what would happen to me if I were in that position. I'm not sure I could do it. But one after the other I saw people who did it. Who grieved, understood their losses, coped with all the indignities that spinal cord injuries give a person (you lose control of your bladder and bowel, you undergo uncontrollable limb spasms, you endure nursing staff turning you every few hours including in your sleep, you wait for your turn for even the smallest of needs even a sip of water from a cup). And I saw them fight it by reconnecting with relatives and friends, playing the stock market and making millions, taking photographs with drones, making music, smoking cannabis, dealing drugs (yes, I have met a paraplegic drug dealer) and crying. We do what we do to get through and in getting through we become different.

[@DavoodGozli]

Thank you for your comment. I agree with you that there is a lot of value in including in our description and awareness the so-called marginal cases in human life, because that can highlight our biases in prescribing any kind of self-help, in our assumptions about what is possible and should be desired.

[@mellonglass]

Actually it’s analog media, because our sight and sense is analog, then of any media we are always IRL there is no other version, only how we contemplate a new or old happening. News is always a later version of IRL, so to maintain presence is essential. The happening upon things in media, is a happening like walking in on a bathroom, it can be discussed of such feelings, the classic desensitized version is to say of horror, is plastic and ketchup, where desensitized Disney forbids blood and skin, birth and death, yet includes all forms of violence to get quicker results without conversation, something Pixar shone light on, our yet to be reconciled, perversion of truth with a glorified energy surplus. A low bar entry of social, is camera off, as by way of example, rather than hiding behind my words, just pick up the camera and live chat in the moment. The impossible is possible, when the fears of each other are again social, not scripted, the glass is a window to another, not a wall of conceptual barriers in the zombie machine.

[@oddpersona22]

Very interesting title. Thank you🌲 Did you talk about Proust on your channel?

[@DavoodGozli]

Thank you! Not yet, I haven't discussed Proust except maybe in one of the older Q&A videos. Is that an author that interests you?

[@oddpersona22]

I am honestly skeptical. but I read somewhere that his work to some extent was astoundingly psychoanalytic, his father seems to have had some achievements in this direction. I read in the journal of an author I like Sandor Marai, he was very complimentary about Proust. I'm skeptical because I read that he ran an intensive advertising campaign for his work, as in the case of Mishima to arouse my unreasonable dislike, but I’d be curious to listen to someone's rant on Proust. If the syntax of my sentences is strange - sorry, English is not my primary language. Thank you 🌳

[@DavoodGozli]

Thanks for letting me know. I first encountered Proust about 18 years ago and had an intense period of reading him for about 6 months. Since then, I haven’t had a chance to read him. And I always find it hard to casually (in passing and without planning) read Proust. I will do my best to talk about him in 2025, which would require spending some time with him first.

[@oddpersona22]

don't do anything by force, just because I've planted something. Instead, I strongly recommend Sandor Marai's diaries.😉

[@DavoodGozli]

Maybe I didn't search enough, but I couldn't find an English translation of Marai's diaries. Regardless, thank you for the suggestion. I'd like to read something by him.

[@Brutedepower]

coping is underrated, healing is overrated. thanks prof for the content

[@DavoodGozli]

That’s an interesting observation. Of course, coping might avoid further harm, and in doing that avoid the need for further healing.

[@hugoantunesartwithblender]

What? Healing is clearly the awser. I knew so much people that say "i have social anxiety" and due to that, they accept, cope, and will allways stay like that

[@drewa.8156]

this was a great review. Like you, I am sympathetic to some of Haidt's arguments and find it thought provoking, despite profoundly disagreeing with some of his conservatism. But my fellow Left-leaning friends look at me somewhat incredulously when I say that there's stuff of value in his work despite its many issues (which you do a good job talking through here). I particularly liked the bit about audience capture in relation to your own videomaking practices (and your comment at the end about notifications), and your comments about his rhetorical use of his professorship.

[@DavoodGozli]

@@drewa.8156 Thank you, Drew! I appreciate the attentiveness, which is reflected in your comment. The aim of the Righteous Mind was, indeed, to show the merit (and justification) for both political sensibilities, though Haidt also ended up siding with conservatism. But, to be fair, we often cannot fulfil our intentions perfectly and our official aims become overshadowed by less conscious aims. Hence, critique and self-critique are necessary tasks. Thanks again for your attention and comment.

[@nancywysemen7196]

like your dispassionate,careful approach. "crazy" family,culture,friends etc have historically produced same outcomes. certainly girl culture and quick social chat are a lethal mix......big issues here.

[@DavoodGozli]

Thank you for watching and for your comment

[@RealIlia]

are you iranian?

[@DavoodGozli]

@@RealIlia Yes, I am

[@Robert_McGarry_Poems]

Look up radical unschooling... and... The recent NIH study linking religious fundamentalism with brain damage. This is not accidental...