Bringing skepticism to the masses

BrendanBurgess

I see that there was a talk yesterday at the Galway Arts Festival by Francis Wheen:

In his latest book How Mumbo-Jumbo Conquered the World: A Short History of Modern Delusions, Francis Wheen evokes the key personalities of the post-political era - including Princess Diana, Osama Bin-Laden and Nancy Reagan's astrologer - while charting the extraordinary rise in superstition and emotional hysteria over the past quarter of a century. From UFO scares to dotcom mania, his hilarious and gloriously impassioned polemic describes a period in the world's history when everything began to stop making sense.

This is a good way of spreading skepticism and critical thinking - talking to the non-converted.

Brendan

davros

That book made a big splash in the media a few months ago and even inspired big newspaper articles outside the book pages. But who actually bought it?

I compared that book's Amazon.co.uk sales rank with a few others:

How Mumbo Jumbo Conquered the World - sales rank 6,062
Eats, Shoots & Leaves - sales rank 5
PS, I Love You (by Cecilia Ahern) - sales rank 17
Secret Language of Birthdays - sales rank 3,953

The author of that last one "combines astrology, numerology, and his own psychic intuition with his many years of observation of the people he has encountered". I never heard of the book before yet it comfortably beats the Wheen one for sales.

On the face of it, it doesn't look like the non-converted bought the book in droves. Perhaps they didn't attend the lecture either.

That said, it was a nice stroke to slip it into an arts festival where at least it would come to the attention of a large number of people, most of whom would have no particular Skeptical leanings.

sliabh

I have read it and it's not quite a page turner. Some of the arguments are quite involved and philosophical. If you are looking for something that the public can buy in droves then it has to be at a read on the bus/by the pool on holiday level. While I enjoyed Mumbo Jumbo it isn't that sort of book.

Got any ideas on ones that may be? Sagan's Demon Haunted World springs to mind, but its probably a little too strong again. But I was pretty impressed with "Bad Medicine : Misconceptions and Misuses Revealed, from Distance Healing to Vitamin O" by Christopher Wanjek. It's limited to medical topics but it is informative, funny and a page turner to use the blockbuster blurb.