Changing the Bully Who Rules the World : Reading and Thinking about Ethics

Bosses, partners, governments, corporations - all can act as bullies in our lives, intimidating us to their will. But changing their behavior may be in our power. In this provocative, visionary book, Carol Bly examines some of this century's most far-ranging concepts about how to nurture ethical human beings and presents them through the lens of excellent contemporary literature. Changing the Bully Who Rules the World is a book of hopeful, practical ideas that can hasten ethical change both in our thinking and in our behavior. Through an anthology of exceptional literature, Bly's book asks the reader to contemplate anew the voices she presents - including works by Charles Baxter, Donald Hall, Jim Harrison, Mark Helprin, Denise Levertov, Thomas McGrath, Joyce Carol Oates, Mary Oliver, Katha Pollitt, Alice Walker, Tobias Wolff, and many others - and to consider them in terms of the ideas of important thinkers in human behavior and our own experiences.

Library Journal

Some people are plainly evil. Mass popular education and growing prosperity have not prevented the Holocaust, race riots, and mindless domestic violence. Bly, an author and promoter of co-operation between teachers and social workers, thinks we know more than we are willing to admit. We have not used our knowledge of social psychology or exploited the riches of literature as a device for reconceptualizing and understanding our lives. There is good writing here by Joyce Carol Oates, James Agee, Tobias Wolff, and many othersand the aim is for us to use it. Bly feels that we should try to interact with the characters in literature, try to assess the long-range impact of all our decisions on the lives of others and develop coherent accounts of our own values. More historical understanding and a little formal philosophical analysis would have improved the book, but ordinary readers will find help and comfort here. Recommended for public libraries.Leslie Armour, Univ. of Ottawa