A timely exploration of intellectual dogmatism in politics, economics, religion, and literature—and what can be done to fight it Polarization may be pushing democracy to the breaking point. But few have explored the larger, interconnected forces that have set the stage for this crisis: namely, a rise in styles of thought, across a range of fields, that literary scholar Gary Saul Morson and economist Morton Schapiro call “fundamentalist.” In Minds Wide Shut , Morson and Schapiro examine how rigid adherence to ideological thinking has altered politics, economics, religion, and literature in ways that are mutually reinforcing and antithetical to the open-mindedness and readiness to compromise that animate democracy. In response, they propose alternatives that would again make serious dialogue possible. Fundamentalist thinking, Morson and Schapiro argue, is not limited to any one camp. It flourishes across the political spectrum, giving rise to dueling monologues of shouting and abuse between those who are certain that they can’t be wrong, that truth and justice are all on their side, and that there is nothing to learn from their opponents, who must be evil or deluded. But things don’t have to be this way. Drawing on thinkers and writers from across the humanities and social sciences, Morson and Schapiro show how we might begin to return to meaningful dialogue through case-based reasoning, objective analyses, lessons drawn from literature, and more. The result is a powerful invitation to leave behind simplification, rigidity, and extremism—and to move toward a future of greater open-mindedness, moderation, and, perhaps, even wisdom.

Argues that the Dilbert comic strip actually promotes negative images of employees and reinforces the positions of management

This story of a father guiding his son from despair to hope is a chilling, inspiring journey through the mysterious tunnel of schizophrenia--a world once closed and forbidding, now suddenly radiating excitement as thousands of patients are, in effect, being reborn. Jeff Wyden, a bright, happy boy in childhood, began to withdraw in adolescence, and by the age of twenty-one was severely psychotic, disconnected from reality. He was schizophrenic. In the ensuing twenty-five years, Peter Wyden accompanied his son into a hell without certainties as they searched for a solution. We see them pass through the hands of more than fifty psychiatrists and countless hospitals, clinics, and halfway houses. Doctors and health-care providers help and sometimes hinder both father and son in their odyssey through hypnosis, electroshock, dozens of drug therapies, and disabling "side effects." Throughout their ordeal, the father's management of his son's managers is his daily task, self-assigned despite self-doubt. He is alternately tolerant and challenging while he observes and learns, always primed for more of Jeff's mercurial signs of new crises. Along the way we learn about the history of the treatment of schizophrenia, from barbaric stopgaps like prefrontal lobotomy to the biomedical treatments that have revolutionized psychiatry. And finally, there is the new drug Olanzapine--a godsend for Jeff, and reason for cheer. It is not a cure, but many consider it the safest, most effective treatment to date (the first of similar medications recently licensed by the Food and Drug Administration, with more on the way). The story of its development is told here for the first time. Until now, few of us have realized that two and a half million Americans, mostly young and intelligent, are schizophrenic, merely existing through the decades, separated from reason, rendered dysfunctional by the costly and little-understood disease. Fifty million people worldwide suffer from it. This compelling and enlightening book offers useful information about what can be done for them today--and the hope of more help to come.

Before Europeans arrived in British Columbia, the coastal Indians lived in an environment where there was no want. The fish and fur-bearing mammals in the sea fed and clothed them, they were sheltered in post-and-beam houses, and they travelled around is sturdy canoes. They plundered and waged war against their enemies, and they captured slaves. There's was a world filled with superstition and magic, with supernatural creatures such as the raven, the gluttonous trickster, that could assume human form. The Europeans brought with them smallpox and other communicable diseases to which the Indians had no immunity, and they died by the thousands. The Haida of the Queen Charlotte Islands (since renamed Haida Gwai) were particularly hard hit, their numbers reduced from an estimated 14,000 to 800. Ignoring the rights of the Indians, the Europeans established government, first as a crown colony of Great Britain, then as a province of the Dominion of Canada. The jurisdiction was sustained at first by gold strikes, but when the gold ran out, the mainstay of the economy became the forests. The ones on the coast, with huge trees nudging 300 feet in height and some exceeding 12 feet in diameter, were the first to be exploited. There arose a stalwart band of men known as loggers, who harvested the big trees. One of them, whose name was Bill Clayton, became a legend in his lifetime for his strength and ability to do the work, and they called him "Logger Bill." At the end of the depression, when he is just 16 years old, Bill is unable to find work in Queen Charlotte City. He is forced to leave his Haida sweetheart and go to a remote logging camp, where the only holidays come at Christmas time, and only last for two weeks. She find she is pregnant, and marries her cousin, a common practice among the Haida. Bill is crushed when he hears the news, and sublimates himself in the logging business.Through tragedy and triumph, Bill works his way through life, with four loves and three illegitimate offspring, and through a living history of forest management in BC. He meets a premature death, and his three sons eventually find out about their ancestry. Throughout, the raven appears from time to time, giving rise to the feeling that he may still have some magic in him.

The International Conference on Industrial Engineering and Engineering Management is sponsored by the Chinese Industrial Engineering Institution, CMES, which is the only national-level academic society for Industrial Engineering. The conference is held annually as the major event in this arena. Being the largest and the most authoritative international academic conference held in China, it provides an academic platform for experts and entrepreneurs in the areas of international industrial engineering and management to exchange their research findings. Many experts in various fields from China and around the world gather together at the conference to review, exchange, summarize and promote their achievements in the fields of industrial engineering and engineering management. For example, some experts pay special attention to the current state of the application of related techniques in China as well as their future prospects, such as green product design, quality control and management, supply chain and logistics management to address the need for, amongst other things low-carbon, energy-saving and emission-reduction. They also offer opinions on the outlook for the development of related techniques. The proceedings offers impressive methods and concrete applications for experts from colleges and universities, research institutions and enterprises who are engaged in theoretical research into industrial engineering and engineering management and its applications. As all the papers are of great value from both an academic and a practical point of view, they also provide research data for international scholars who are investigating Chinese style enterprises and engineering management.