The phenomena of the world don't come prepackaged into categories. The classic example, used in this book, is colors. Between red and orange there is an infinite number of intermediate hues. But we don't have an infinite number of words to talk about these, we can't distinguish them, and we don't use them. Similarly with most everything. How psychopathic must a person be before they cross the line into clinical diagnosis - or any other psychological dimension that becomes pathological when present in an extreme.

How coarsely or finely we should judge or describe a given situation, that depends on our purpose. Sometimes a major decision must be made in a very short time. Other times it is better to analyze things more precisely.

That's pretty much the message of the book. It turns into 330 pages in a few ways. Yeah, sheer repetition. Plus a bunch of examples. And then there is a lot of a kind of banter, a kind of coarse poetic amplification that is mostly quite sloppy. Alliteration, imagery, kind of a rap rhythm. Maybe for some readers, this will make the book less dull and give a kind of cool hip flavor. Dutton gives us three deeply embedded categories: fight or flight, us or them, right or wrong. So maybe the cool factor is a way of framing the book as being "one of us" for his intended audience - not college professors, that's for sure! Or anyway, only very hip college professors. I must admit, he maps a lot of slogans into those three deeply embedded categories, in ways that don't make much sense to me. Rather than looking deeply into the mapping, he gives us more rap poetry, to get us to sign the contract. Well, he walks his talk, I'll say that!

I'd give the book a lower score because the way it is written... well, it's not for me! But the subject is really important, and Dutton does share some valuable insights. Boil this book down to the maybe 10% that has real meaning, then take that 10% and go deeper with it. Dutton does mention George Lakoff. Maybe I should have read Lakoff instead. Is there anything here that Lakoff hasn't said better? I don't know! Lakoff is kinda more professorial than I can handle! And then here I am complaining!

The most absurd thing - I'm reading the first American edition, FSG 2021, first printing. I presume the 2020 Bantam UK edition had color plates, but my book doesn't. There are a few illustrations where the colors are the whole point. The B&W images show identical shaded blocks, with different color labels below them. Well, I have an imagination! Kind of a waste of paper though. ( )