Category Archives: Discussion and Philosophy

Here is where I can rant about issues, or just calmly discuss them.

"The Poisoner's Handbook" and Reading About Real Evil

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Recently I read The Poisoner’s Handbook: Murder and the Birth of Forensic Medicine in Jazz Age New York, by Deborah Blum. I was originally looking for information on poisons for a possible new mystery novel, but got caught up in the stories of poisonings, both accidental and deliberate, and the development of techniques for detecting them—not to mention the story of Prohibition in New York, and the politics that was inevitably involved along the way.
It was a very good book, but there was nonetheless something sort of creepy about reading an interesting story about a poisoning and remembering, suddenly, this really happened. Mary Frances Creighton really did kill first her brother, then a friend, with arsenic. A group of three people really did take out insurance on an old drunk, and then kill him with carbon monoxide after several attempts to kill him in other ways failed. Some people—too many—really are capable of doing evil things.
This brought to mind an incident from years ago, in college. Our class had been assigned a reading on pornography by someone whose name I have now forgotten. She described in impassioned terms some incredibly degrading images and corresponding attitudes toward women. Seriously, to say that these people were treating women as objects fails to recognize how much more carefully and gently we treat most of our inanimate possessions. It was extreme.
A number of us were sitting on the steps outside, waiting for class. One young woman started talking about the article, basically saying that it had seemed kind of over-the-top to her. “Who really thinks like that? None of the men I know,” she said.
An older student in the class, a soft-spoken man in his late twenties or thirties, heard her. “I’ve known men like that,” he told her. “They’re out there. Believe me.” I think everyone went quiet for a while after that.
So now I’m thinking maybe I should read about people who do horrible things, if only to remind myself that some people are capable of knowingly and willingly inflicting terrible suffering on others.  I do read about terrible things in the newspaper, but there’s a difference between reading about, say, dictators, who deal in evil on a scale that’s hard to comprehend (and often dealt out through intermediaries), and reading about quite ordinary individuals carrying out quite specific and describable crimes.
I’ve been lucky enough not to have had to deal with anyone really evil. Even people who are merely very unpleasant have generally been on the fringes of my life, not a daily part of it. As a result, perhaps, I tend to look for a charitable explanation for people’s actions.  
Often this is a good thing. But as the cases in The Poisoner’s Handbook show, sometimes there’s no room to wonder whether a person’s intentions were misunderstood or their actions excusable. Killing someone for insurance money makes one’s attitude toward other people quite clear. Sometimes, people really are just that bad.
It’s something to keep in mind.
Till next post.

Arguing About Gun Control—conflicting intuitions and the need for good research

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Between the shooting at the concert in Las Vegas and the Parkland school shooting, people have had compelling reasons to talk about gun violence and how we should respond to it. We all have an interest in our own safety and the safety of our kids. And yet, people still come to drastically different conclusions about how to approach this.

One group of people finds it intuitively obvious that making it harder for people to get their hands on guns, especially guns that can be fired many times without reloading, will reduce deaths in school shootings. If the shooter has to keep stopping to reload, he won’t be able to shoot as many people before someone stops him.

Another group finds it intuitively obvious that having more armed adults at schools will reduce deaths in school shootings because it takes someone with a gun to stop someone with a gun. Having armed personnel on hand will mean shooters are stopped faster, before they can kill a lot of people. Therefore, they think, we should make it easier for teachers and staff to bring guns to school.

The first group, on the other hand, thinks that it is intuitively obvious that having a lot of guns and a lot of kids in the same building is a recipe for disaster.

The problem with intuition is that what seems blindingly obvious sometimes isn’t. This is well known to people involved in medicine and is the reason that new treatments have to prove themselves in trials, no matter how plausible they seem. So in making decisions about gun policies, one thing we desperately need is good research on guns and safety. The RAND Corporation recently published a review of available studies on the effects of gun policies, and one of their conclusions is that there are big gaps in the research available. They also noted that changes in the way information is collected could be tremendously useful.

I would hope good research would also try to control for different circumstances. For instance, when it comes to guns and self-defense, does it matter where you live? Whether law enforcement is five minutes away or an hour? Whether there are large predators in your area? What about your domestic situation?

I’m not saying that better research will end the arguments over gun policies. There will be conflicts of interpretation. There will probably also be some trade-offs to be argued about–personal freedom versus public safety. However, better research would give people something more concrete to argue about and something to test their intuitions against. That’s worth funding.

I have one more thing to add. When I showed the draft of this post to my husband, I said that I thought the most important part of it was the link to the RAND report. He said he doubted it made any difference–that most people have already made up their minds and won’t consider research except insofar as it supports what they already believe. Please, people, prove him wrong. When you read about research results, consider them with an open (but critical!!) mind. Consider the source, the reasoning, and who, if anyone, has reviewed it. Don’t judge it by whether it matches your “intuition”.

Till next post.

Catalogs–a glimpse into other worlds

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We get way too many catalogs at our house. A lot of them are repeat copies from familiar companies, but others come from companies we’ve never heard of before. Once in a while, a catalog arrives that gives an interesting glimpse into another world.
Just recently, I received a catalog from NRS. That’s “National Roper’s Supply”, suppliers to those who engage in cattle roping. It’s a very thick catalog, with everything from clothing to saddles to horse trailers. And, of course, ropes. I have no idea how I ended up on their list.
I leafed through it, marveling at the incredible variety of boots for sale. Nothing surprising about boots for sale in a catalog aimed at people who spend a lot of time riding, but I had no idea that there was such a fashion for brightly colored accents on western boots, or textured finishes on the leather.
Beautiful leather belts, folding knives of many kinds, shirts, hats, and a smattering of household goods followed. Catalogs always include some t-shirts with topical pictures or sayings on them, and this was no exception. I was particularly captivated by a women’s tee that said, “Surviving on coffee and dry shampoo.” Is this a popular catchphrase? I find myself wondering if it simply means “I’m way too busy right now for regular meals, sleep, and dealing with my hair,” or whether it makes reference to people camping out at roping events with their horses and equipment. Perhaps cooked meals and showers have to wait till they get home again?
The largest part of the catalog was concerned with tack and other gear needed for a competition that involves horses. I only glanced through, since I don’t ride, but what struck me is that any item people need will be made available in a variety of colors or styles. Pads and blankets don’t just vary in materials and other functional ways, but in stripes and patterns as well. Breast collars are available with stitched or stamped designs. The selection of spurs made me think of jewelry.
catalog page showing large selection of spurs
On the one hand, then, looking through the catalog reminded me of the many different communities that exist in this country, not just grouped geographically but also by interests and activities. I know almost nothing about competitive cattle roping or the way of life that includes it. I don’t know its fashions or its “in” jokes. I know nothing about most of the essential equipment.
At the same time, the catalog reminds me of some commonalities among people. We all like to personalize our things, to display our own sense of style. Whether that’s more likely to involve patterned Converse high-tops or western boots with neon-blue tops depends on the groups you belong to.
We like to show our sense of humor, too, with t-shirts or tea-towels or bumper stickers. Sometimes what one group finds funny doesn’t translate well to another group*, but we all like to share jokes with others who have the same interests and who will notice our shirt and “get it.”
And given that we like to display our sense of style and humor, the businesses of America will ensure that we have ample choices, not just in clothing but in pretty much every little item that we need, and will send us a big, full-color catalog to make sure we’re aware of what’s available, whether our interests are cattle-roping, knitting, or baking muffins.
We all get catalogs.
Till next post.
*To take an example from some other catalogs– I’ve never understood why anyone would want to label themselves an “Old Fart.” That joke wouldn’t go over well in my family, but judging by its persistance in catalogs, clearly it’s funny to a whole lot of other people. On the other hand, the button “I’d like to save the world but no one will give me the source code” went over very well here.