Cat’s Cradle

"I think it’s something that progressives need to think about, because the book talks a lot about two tendencies that people can adopt, to try to find meaning and purpose. One is kind of a sheer technological approach, and the other is more of a spiritual and religious approach. The book talks about the perils and challenges of each way. Sometimes we as progressives defend technology and science and fact, and other people – clearly both progressive and otherwise – appreciate the spiritual more. Then on either extreme, the book tries to say that blind adherence to either tendency also has huge problems. The book, for me, is about trying to seek meaning, not trying to find simple answers, and appreciating that in some ways following a belief to an extreme can be equally as dangerous as having no beliefs. It did. I think all of us in our own community, sometimes, can adopt a set of beliefs and practice them to the exclusion of other ideas. Being progressive doesn’t mean not being challenged by other people’s point of views, it doesn’t mean having a politically correct tendency, and it doesn’t mean crowding out all other ideas. I think the book, in a very satirical way, points to what happens when we become so single-minded and passionate about a single idea to the exclusion of others that we just lose our way."