The Sirens' Call, Chris Hayes

 

The Sirens' Call:  How attention became the world's most endangered resource by Chris Hayes

Started: October 12, 2025
Completed: October 18, 2025
Recommendation: Recommended

Media:  Audio
Recommended By: Barrack Obama

Review:

I do not follow Chris Hayes closely (perhaps that is sideways music to his ears), but I was quite surprised to see a reference to Epictetus show up in this book.  There is no reason a news anchor should not be well educated (and many reasons why they should be), but this borders on someone who actually has an interest in philosophy and his interest in other topics (like Death of a Salesman) could be a side-effect of having acted or could be a side-effect of a deep education.  I dunno what it is, but I like it and I think he would make an interesting person with whom to speak outside of the context of what he does for a living.

I wonder about the particular type of utopia he has in mind.  SPOILER ALERT.  I'm not sure that the return to a directed way of looking at the world (such as a physical copy of the New York Times or a vinal album) is where we are headed.  Surely there will be pockets of people who will use this kind of method to view the world and, perhaps, it will not be dwindling pockets.  In the end, however, I wonder if they will be sufficiently large to function as a brake on the rest of society.