That ye might have joy
Hinckley, Bryant S. 1958. That ye might have joy. Bookcraft.
Rating:
4
Summary:
Companion volume to “…not by Bread Alone”; pretty much the same thing
The book is made up of about 120 one-page thoughts on subjects ranging from education to success to politics to religion.
Review:
Having read the companion volume not to long ago, I’m going to use many of the same comments for this volume. First, once again the thoughts don’t seem to be in any particular order. Some are inspired by quotes from others or are almost entirely a quote from other authors. And, once again, some of the ‘profound’ thoughts aren’t actually contributed by Mr. Hinckley.
Also, similar to the earlier book, there are a lot of quotes about how superior the United States is to other countries (very ethnocentric); perhaps I should be a bit lenient considering the time period in which these thoughts were written (just after World War II). Nevertheless, he really does seem to have some deep fixation with U.S. superiority. I’m all for thinking the U.S. is a great country, but it is far from superior to other countries in most ways (the exception being militarily, which I’m not sure is something to be proud of).
I was also less forgiving of some of the religion-oriented thoughts this time. For instance, Hinckley writes, “No man will rise high who jeers at sacred things… Wherever or whenever there is a lack of reverence, there is a reversion to the baser instincts of man, which is followed by a loss of self-respect, remorse and disappointment” (p. 40). I laughed out loud when I read this. I guess this could be rephrased, ‘if you aren’t religious or at least don’t think religious things should be respected, you suck.’ Well, I think many religious things are silly (e.g., Why revere the tool used to kill your God? The cross. I’ve never understood this idea, but I don’t claim to know everything.), so I guess I suck. Damn!
There was also the incredibly wrong assertion made about the speed of a fast pitch in baseball, “The batter stands at the plate with the ball speeding toward him at the rate of 150 miles per hour” (p. 89). Once again, some leeway should be given considering they didn’t have radar guns to clock pitches back in the 1950s, but I couldn’t help but wonder who was pitching back then :) Wow, what an arm!
There are at least two more things worth mentioning. First, the author, whether he realizes it or not, is in many ways a Marxist. For instance, this quote appears to be lifted straight out of a Karly Marx essay, “The creative instinct is deep in the human soul and its reward is satisfaction and joy” (p. 30). Of course Marx would have left out the ‘soul’ part, but he definitely saw the creative instinct as being the most important part of being human. There was an additional thought that really resembled Marx’s ideas, “One hundred years ago four out of five persons were self-employed. Today four out of five people work for others. As a result, the significance of the individual is submerged” (p. 104). Once again, I’m not sure the author realized it, but with thoughts like these, he is nothing short of a Marxist. Woohoo! (I’m a Marxist too, so I can cheer.)
Finally, there was one good thought that I found worthy of writing down, “A part of the creed of the Optimist’s Club reads: “To make all of your friends feel that there is something in them”” (p. 43). I don’t claim to fully understand what Hinckley (or the Optimist’s Club) means here, but the way I interpreted it, I thought it was good advice.
Overall, the book is really kind of laborious to read, despite only taking me about 1 hour from start to finish, because there is no logical connection from thought to thought. Also, the overt ethnocentricity started to get on my nerves. I wouldn’t recommend the book for, well, pretty much anyone, except right wing, god-fearing extremists, but they probably wouldn’t even like it because it doesn’t talk about violence enough. Oh well, it’s out of print anyone, so what does it matter.