Jonathan Kay

This is a very interesting collection of essays about board games, and what they teach us about ourselves and our society. It is co-written by Joan Moriarity, who has worked in the game industry in several capacities; and Jonathan Kay, a Canadian writer (formerly of The Walrus) and an avid gamer. Together they explore aspects of various popular games and how and why we play them. This is an easy-to-read, thought-provoking book that will appeal to gamers and to anyone interested in the dynamics of relationships.

The authors look at classics like Monopoly and Scrabble, as well as role playing games like Dungeons and Dragons. They also look at cooperative games. Sometimes they look at particular rules and why people follow them (or not); other times, they look at how relationships can affect strategies...all kinds of angles that made me think.… (mer)

Jonthan Kay's among the truther was much more interesting that "VoodHoo Historeis" I read earlier. Kay certainly is biased and I almost stopped reading at the beginning when it became clear that his status as a Secular Jew (maybe even an atheist of Jewish heritage) was influencing everything. Automatically throwing out conspiracies because they were "anti-semetic" and basically claiming that you can't believe anything people say who also believe in talking snakes and men born of virgins raising from the dead.

However chapter 7 really saved the book as he went on to talk about the problems of the conspiracy that poor blacks are disadvantageous and that admissions policies are unfair and the bullshit on the the conspiracy that women are paid less than men.

He is really stuck on firm belief that that which is most likely is probably true.

From an academic standpoint it was informative, looking at the psychology of conspiracy theorists, what makes them tick. He was surprised to learn most are not Kooks, and had interesting perspectives on how religion and conspiracies have worked together, and more recently how conspiracy theories have replaced religion for secular humanists.… (mer)