By Thomas Geoghegan.
Fawar, Straus. 267 pp.$19.95
By Frank Close.
Princeton. 376pp.$24.95
By Jewy E. Bishop and Michael Waldholz.
Simon & Schuster. 352 pp. $22.95
Malise Ruthven
ate one evening in May United States, with investments amounting 1989, in the narrow, cob- to billions. Its clean-cut, youthful mission- bled streets of La Paz, Bo-aries in their white shirts and black ties livia, two Mormon mission- seem as representative of American values aries were shot and killed as the executives of Citibank and other three terrorists in a yel- American institutions that have been at-low Volkswagen. In a handwritten state- tacked by guerrillas. Nor is this...
ate one evening in May United States, with investments amounting 1989, in the narrow, cob- to billions. Its clean-cut, youthful mission- bled streets of La Paz, Bo-aries in their white shirts and black ties livia, two Mormon mission- seem as representative of American values aries were shot and killed as the executives of Citibank and other by three terrorists in a yel- American institutions that have been at-low Volkswagen. In a handwritten state- tacked by guerrillas. Nor is this simply a ment...
or Latter-day Saints, "once upon a time"
was yesterday. Perhaps a majority of to-day's adult Saints grew up in a different uni- verse, one insulated from the larger culture, a world that was divided between "them" and "us." Young Saints learned how to recognize "the other" before they learned their ABCs. To- day much of this has changed: "By 1980," writes religious historian Martin Marty, "the Mormons had grown to be. ..like everyone e...
THE D9 AND
OTHER ONS OF
Who among us does not scoff at UFOs) astrology) and ESP? But the fact is that most of us also embrace dozens of other illusions with scarcely a second thought. These illusions) says psychologist Thomas Gilovich) are a product of the human mind's ceaseless quest to find order and meaning in the world-even where there is no order) even if the mind gets the meaning wrong. Many of these erroneous beliefs are harmless; others can lead to bias, prej- udice) error) or) in th...
exaggerated crises such as Love Canal and distracted minor environmental threats, even as larger ones go unattended. At a deeper level, biologist Daniel Botkin says, they hold ancient and sentimental misconceptions of nature, and of man's place in it, that could stifle the emerging new environmentalism.
ATURE
by Daniel B. Botkin
ast June, California voters tried to strike a blow for the state's endangered moun- tain lions when they passed Proposition 1 17, protecting all but the most aggress...
ast June, California voters tried to strike a blow for the state's endangered moun- tain lions when they passed Proposition 1 17, protecting all but the most aggressive cats from human beings. Anybody caught killing, trapping, or transporting a moun- tain lion in the state now faces one year in jail and a $10,000 fine. The Wilderness So- ciety, Defenders of Wildlife, and the Sierra Club all lined up behind the measure, and there was nothing in the debate (such as it was) to suggest that Proposition 1...
wo weeks into the Middle
East War a distraught At-
lanta Constitution editorial
writer declared on a televi-
sion news broadcast that
the Iraqi oil spill in the Per- sian Gulf had thrown her into "despair." The same day, the New York Times and the Washington Post published equivocal news stories about a U.S. Environmental Protec- tion Agency (EPA) decision to require an Arizona utility company to spend $2.3 bil-lion at one power plant to try to eradicate a seasonal blue haze that s...