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Be Good: How To Navigate The Ethics Of Everything (2012)

by Randy Cohen(Favorite Author)

3.45 of 5 Votes: 5

ISBN

1452107904 (ISBN13: 9781452107905)

languge

English

genre

Humor

publisher

Chronicle Books

review 1: collection of ethics advice columns from NYT magazine. I don't see that paper regularly and hadn't heard of this guy, so all new to me. Quite funny [apparently he used to write for Letterman]. Deals with mundane issues for the most part, and by his own admission he's not a professional philosopher or rabbi or what have you, just a regular thoughtful guy giving his take on the various dilemmas people face.I mostly agreed with him (e.g., school board member is not obligated to send her kids to public schools -- living in DC I've been exposed to that issue forever -- Jimmy Carter good, Clinton and Obama bad for sending daughters to Sidwell Friends, etc. etc.), but understandably not always. For instance, I don't agree that looking at a salary list for your company (that y... moreou came across inadvertently) is ok ("admirable" in his terms, b/c transparency is good and keeping salaries private is just to protect the Boss Man). but he always gives a good account of the basis for his conclusions, considers alternatives, etc. A particularly interesting feature of the book, applied to maybe half of the Q & A's, is his "update" in which he discusses either what the original writer did about the situation and with what consequence, and/or discusses the feedback he got on his response.If books were Facebook, I'd give many "like"'s to his point (p. 196) that it can be gratifying to turn a nasty interaction with a critic into a civil one just by setting a gracious tone yourself. He cites Proverbs for "a soft answer turneth away wrath". Doesn't always work of course -- I'm still waiting for a response from the guy who emailed me to cancel his subscription to an internet psychotherapy panel I was on circa 2000 -- he wrote "take me off your f...ing list!", and I replied "thank you for your constructive, closely reasoned feedback" but got no further dialogue going. Maybe he thought I was sarcastic -- always hard to tell tone from email. In any case, fun, quick read about interesting, concrete ethical issues.
review 2: Loved the premise of this book - that an ordinary person (like Randy Cohen) can tackle all sorts of questions life poses - especially the lowly, commonplace circumstances people find themselves in. In doing so, he gives you a sense that it is indeed important to live an examined life. One may also get the feeling that every decision made by an individual does have effects on oneself and others. His writing style is hilarious, as are some of the questions (my favorite one began: I'm a better driver slightly inebriated than my wife is sober...). I especially liked his longer pieces in the beginnings of chapters. There was a lot to think about in reading this book. Enjoy! less

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