PREFACE

             This book is very un-neat.  The chapters are of very

        different lengths.  The techiques used differe from chapter to

        chapter, spanning the range from a case study to compilations of

        statistical data.  The prose varies from chatty to academic cum

        footnotes.

             The reason for this dismaying but unavoidable variety is

        that I am trying to describe an entire elephant of an issue, and

        the parts of an elephant are very different from each other.

        Feet require less space to discuss than do heart and brain.

        Genes require electronmicrosopy whereas tusks require tape

        measures.

             Similar treatment is appropriate for similar subjects - 20

        similar chapters on 20 sopranos or skyscrapers or insurrections.

        But similar treatment does not work for very different dimensions

        of a single phenomenon like an elephant.

             Shifting to a different legs metaphor:  Someone asked

        Abraham Lincoln, "How long should a man's legs be?" Lincoln

        answered, "Long enough to reach the ground".  I hope that each

        chapter is long enough to reach the ground, and no longer.

             Many of the examples of news stories and public events used

        here are not recent. I have been collecting material for this

        book, and writing these essays, for most of two decades, and the

        examples date from when I was thinking about a particular topic.

        This may seem a drawback to some, but it relates to one of the

        themes of the book:  Up-to-dateness and true "news" is

        inconsistent with a long historical perspective, and therefore is

        often inconsistent with a valid set of facts and a sound

        understanding of events and trends.

             As with all my books, various chapters draw heavily upon my

        earlier writings; ; this article may therefore be thought of as

        part of an evolutionary process in knowledge development, rather

        than invention de novo. I make no apologies for this.  Few of my

        readers are likely to have read much of the earlier work, and

        just as with a play or a piece of music,  there is nothing

        sacreligious or indecent or exploitive about putting the same

        material before new audiences.



        page 1 mediabk mpreface May 30, 1994