Useful Delusions - by Shankar Vedantam

This autumn (and our last read) has been so real for everybody, we're going to dive in to the non-fiction side of fiction for December.

A few years ago, former NPR journalist and Hidden Brain podcast host Shankar Vedantam became absorbed with the story of Donald Lowry.
Decades ago this Illinois man impersonated a woman, writing thousands of love letters to men across America — and he asked them for money.
Some of the men who were fooled by this con artist did not care when they learned the truth. Some actually reported that their lives had been transformed for the better. Eventually, when Lowery was brought to trial on charges of mail fraud, some even came and testified in his defense and argued that the love letters had kept them from depression and suicide.

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In 2004 Karl Rove was said to have expressed disdain for people living 'in what we call the reality-based community,' which he defined as people who 'believe that solutions emerge from your judicious study of discernible reality.'
...'That's not the way the world really works anymore,' he continued. 'We're an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. And while you're studying that reality— judiciously, as you will—we'll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that's how things will sort out. We're history's actors ... and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do.'

From the sudden rise of fascist autocracies, to the incomprehensible love and joy in Roberto Benini's Guido in Life is Beautiful, committing to a dubious narrative proves itself to be humanity's greatest superpower.

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We are a media-positive book group. Audiobookers and Podcasters are welcome too. Prepare yourself for lively, non-disrespectful discussion - and BYO snacks!