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A review by ashrafulla
Fist Stick Knife Gun: A Personal History of Violence by Geoffrey Canada
5.0
This is a gripping treatise on the culture of violence in inner city youth. The book is meant to engage both the system 1 and system 2 biases of the reader. System 1 comes from all of the author's personal stories, stories where he had to stand up for himself or act hood or carry a gun. System 2 comes from all of the author's work as an adult, where you learn the rationality behind having children play enforcers and being consistently deferential to the community members themselves.
The author is very, very good at weaving policy into his experiences while ensuring that he's not bludgeoning you or using bad arguments. The arguments themselves are very solid and point to the main issues he sees with current welfare systems. Adding more police is only meant to arrest more criminals, not deter them. Building objects is not as important as building time. Volunteer service is going to outweigh cash donations. These are all properly described as changes that should be made, have low cost and can provide multiplicative effects.
The implementation in this book is also strong. This must be related to the author's personal role as the director of the Harlem Children's Zone. Through those experiences, the author can immediately provide baby steps to solve the complex problem of inner city violence. Baby steps are a good indicator of someone who is actually trying to solve the problem rather than someone who is trying to use the problem to make themselves feel or look good.
One thing to note is that this book's message does not resonate in rural or suburban society. There are a few reasons. Due to the low density, the notion of a death of an "innocent bystander" doesn't exist in rural or suburban communities. Due to the slower pace of rural and suburban society, members of those societies are more relaxed and less inclined to antagonize. The notion of being bored with nothing to do is something that isn't as much of a problem in rural or suburban society because you just go outside. In urban society, as the author demonstrates time and time again, just going outside requires that the community ensure it is safe and worthwhile. So for those who read this book and poo-poo it as something that doesn't describe them, that probably means you live in a different society with different problems.
This book is a great and fast read, with you wanting to hear both the stories themselves and the author's viewpoints/analyses on those stories.
The author is very, very good at weaving policy into his experiences while ensuring that he's not bludgeoning you or using bad arguments. The arguments themselves are very solid and point to the main issues he sees with current welfare systems. Adding more police is only meant to arrest more criminals, not deter them. Building objects is not as important as building time. Volunteer service is going to outweigh cash donations. These are all properly described as changes that should be made, have low cost and can provide multiplicative effects.
The implementation in this book is also strong. This must be related to the author's personal role as the director of the Harlem Children's Zone. Through those experiences, the author can immediately provide baby steps to solve the complex problem of inner city violence. Baby steps are a good indicator of someone who is actually trying to solve the problem rather than someone who is trying to use the problem to make themselves feel or look good.
One thing to note is that this book's message does not resonate in rural or suburban society. There are a few reasons. Due to the low density, the notion of a death of an "innocent bystander" doesn't exist in rural or suburban communities. Due to the slower pace of rural and suburban society, members of those societies are more relaxed and less inclined to antagonize. The notion of being bored with nothing to do is something that isn't as much of a problem in rural or suburban society because you just go outside. In urban society, as the author demonstrates time and time again, just going outside requires that the community ensure it is safe and worthwhile. So for those who read this book and poo-poo it as something that doesn't describe them, that probably means you live in a different society with different problems.
This book is a great and fast read, with you wanting to hear both the stories themselves and the author's viewpoints/analyses on those stories.