A book by Leonard Dalenberg
Is There Anybody Out There?
Simple Philosophies for a Divided Time
People shout at each other about politics, and almost nobody seems to listen. Families go quiet at the dinner table. Neighbors stop waving. Each of us ends up behind a wall built so slowly we hardly noticed it going up.
This book is about getting to the other side. It does not ask anyone to tear a wall down. It asks for something smaller that the person on the other side can answer in kind.
This book is not a demolition manual. It is about removing bricks, one at a time. From the Introduction
PDF, 144 pages. Opens in your browser or any PDF reader.
What is inside
Part I
Simple Philosophies of Life
Eight short premises about how a single life works: whom it travels with, what it exchanges at every crossing, how it judges, works, forgives, and reckons with its luck.
- The Philosophical Bus
- Crossings
- World View
- Gray Scale
- High IQ
- Experts vs. Amateurs
- Setting It Down
- What Fate Dealt
Part II
Rights, Understanding, and Honest Conversation
Eleven chapters arranged like stairs, from everyday ideas up to harder ones, about the divided public square and what one person can do about it.
- One Honest Conversation at a Time
- Whose Reality?
- I’m Sorry, What Did You Say?
- A Declaration of Reciprocal Rights
- Media Bias & Political Terms Reference
- The Hive We’re Building
- Extended Reflections
- True Believers
- The Anatomy of Grievance
- Collective Trauma
- Beyond One’s Ken
With a foreword, a short memoir (“How I Got Here”), an epilogue, a closing charge, and a soundtrack.
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About the author
Leonard Dalenberg
Leonard Dalenberg spent twenty-eight years in the United States Navy, retiring as a Master Chief Petty Officer. He went on to work as a programmer and analyst in the defense industry, and later served as Vice President of Information Technology for a dental-insurance company.
He is a member of Mensa, an unlikely turn given that he began school as a decidedly below-average student. He tells that story in the book, in “How I Got Here.”
He is now retired and lives in Niles, Michigan. The premises in the book were carried, worn smooth, and argued over for the better part of a lifetime before they were written down. The essays were developed in open collaboration with an AI assistant, as the Preface explains; the ideas, the images, and every opinion are his.
He also edits BothSides Review, which lays out contested public issues one at a time: each side in its own best words, then the facts.