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September 6th: The Book Club Returns

2007-09-06 · John · watch on YouTube · Science & nature · reflection essay

John revives the Brotherhood 2.0 book club with Bill McKibben's Deep Economy, which leaves him troubled that he owns a car when everyone owning one would make human life impossible; he wants a life everyone could live. He names his own Paper Towns draft as the next book.

What is said

00:00:00 — Reaction to Hank's song: congratulations, his 'dark side', Britney's Toxic, and a Mortal Kombat correction (Scorpion vs Sub-Zero)

  • ★ John congratulates Hank on another great song, though, as a commenter noted, he is a bit scared of 'the dark side of Hank Green'. (playful) — 00:00:00
  • ★ John jokes that Hank's anger once taught him the older brother isn't necessarily the stronger, and says the song just toughens Hank's image, like Britney Spears releasing Toxic. (playful) — 00:00:00
  • ★★ John corrects the song's lyric: Scorpion's fatality was taking off his mask and breathing fire to reduce the victim to bones; ripping off the spine was Sub-Zero's. (playful) — 00:00:00

00:00:39 — The Brotherhood 2.0 book club returns: John has finished Deep Economy; its argument that economic growth no longer gives us what we want

  • ★★ Prompted by Hank's hatred of Hummers, John announces the Brotherhood 2.0 Book Club is back, like high-waisted jeans, the Indonesian economy and John Travolta's acting career. (playful) — 00:00:39 · Nerdfighter Book Club
  • ★★ John has just finished Deep Economy by Bill McKibben, the book Hank assigned him back around February, and really liked it. — 00:01:01 · Hank Green
  • ★★★ John says Deep Economy argues that more is no longer equivalent to good and that economic growth, as we've constructed it, has stopped giving us what we want. — 00:01:01
  • ★★★ John finds it hard to imagine a world that doesn't measure success by economic growth, but finds McKibben's argument compelling that doing so is screwing our future. — 00:01:01

00:01:30 — Cars if everyone owned them at the US rate; John's New York life vs owning a car in Indianapolis; wanting a life everyone could live

  • ★★★ Citing McKibben, John says that if people in China owned cars at the American rate, the total number of cars in the world would immediately double. — 00:01:30 · China, United States
  • ★★★ After calling Daniel, John says that if everyone in the world owned cars at the American rate, there would be about five times as many cars as now. (hedged) — 00:01:30 · Daniel Biss, United States
  • ★★ John says the atmosphere couldn't handle that much carbon dioxide, and human life would in very short order become impossible. — 00:01:30 · climate change
  • ★★★ In New York John had only what he thinks everyone should have: an apartment, good public transportation, affordable food, an independent bookstore; in Indianapolis he owns a car. (hedged) — 00:02:00 · New York City, Indianapolis
  • ★★★ John doesn't want everyone to own a car, so it bugs him that he feels entitled to own one when everyone owning one would destroy the world. — 00:02:26
  • ★★★ Reading Deep Economy, John kept thinking he wants to live a life everyone could live without the world ending; a life dependent on an underclass is 'pretty sick'. — 00:02:26 > «I want to be living a life that everyone could live without the world ending.»
  • ★★ John thanks Hank for recommending Deep Economy and enjoyed it, though it lacked the love stories, car chases or metaphors about existential isolation of most books he likes. (playful) — 00:02:26 · Hank Green

00:02:56 — Next book club book: John's own Paper Towns, draft to Hank and Katherine in a couple of weeks; sign-off

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