Why We Fight, Why Our Decisions Don’t Matter, Why We Love Edited by Simon Van Booy Harper Perennial, $10 each Plumbing life’s “big questions” continues to feather a few literary nests, though not to the degree enjoyed by the purveyors of histories, pornography and cookbooks. Simon Van Booy, a gentle-souled writer who believes that contemplating “central questions” (such as why we fight and love, and what if any effect our decisions actually have) helps us “experience more fulfillment in our relationships, in our work, and how we view ourselves,“ has produced a trio of books brimming with worthy thoughts from some of history’s pre-eminent ponderers, including the peerless Almighty. In “Why We Fight,” Van Booy opens with the Genesis account of Cain and Abel, perhaps the world’s best known fratricide, which he says underscores the role “excessive pride” plays in human mayhem. While spiritual and religious writers are given their due, Van Booy also includes lengthy excerpts from writers as diverse as Abraham Lincoln, Sophocles, Charles Dickens, James Joyce and Desmond Morris of Naked Ape fame, who argues the long-term solution to human aggression is “massive de-population, or a rapid spread of the species on to other planets” which, to some of us at least, merely sounds like a change of venue. To no surprise there’s little agreement as to why so many of us are constantly at each other’s throat, or if indeed we’re the insatiable predators, bullies and throat-slicers some insist we are. Anthropologist Richard Leaky argues that “humans are innately non-aggressive toward one another” which might have earned him a bullet through the skull from Gen. George S. Patton, whose thoughts are found in the speech that clearly informed George C. Scott’s magnificent opening monologue in “Patton.” The famed tanker not only argues that all “real Americans love the clash and sting of battle” but urges that without exception the “cowards” in the ranks “should be killed off like rats” (this obscenity-laced address is almost worth the price of the book). Meanwhile, “Why Our Decisions Don’t Matter” is not, as the title may suggest, a droning collection of excerpts on predestination or meaninglessness, but reminds that we shouldn’t sit around sweating the little stuff, such as worrying about eating that extra Twinkie or puffing a therapeutic cigar. As Mark Twain observes, “The fear of death follows from the fear of life. A man who lives fully is prepared to die at any time.” Perhaps an argument for less treadmill and more barstool. Readers will likely take issue with some of the thinkers, including the late Mother Teresa, who in “Why We Love” opines that the “hunger for love is much harder to remove than the hunger for bread.” To some this may suggest she never fully contemplated the sometime fruits of matrimony – or, for that matter, the romance destroying powers of addiction to the National Football League. Besides being full of highly interesting and, for the most part, well-written observations, Mr. Van Booy’s learned volumes are also small enough to be easily concealed inside the countless publications hellbent on advancing every fashion save the thinking cap. Here’s a writer who has truly thought things through.
