Iconic American Filmmaker, Writer and Director of Who Killed the Electric Car? And Producer of Faster and No Maps for These Territories, Founder of Mondo-Tronics and Internet Outfitters

During my senior year of college I had a kind of revelation one night with some friends. No matter how many hours I spent researching an issue, my thesis could be blown out of the water by an emotional half-truth. My earnest study of the SALT 2 nuclear arms treaty, for example, carried no more weight than the petulant cry of "you can't trust the Russians." Little did I know I was already facing one of The Watchman's Rattle's top five villains. A foe called "irrational opposition" - and one of the reasons our species is having such a damn difficult time navigating into the 21st century.  It's much easier to be a contrarian then to champion new ideas. 

The biggest surprise of The Watchman's Rattle is that after arguing a convincing set of fresh reasons for our race's long war on itself,  it lands on the simplest of solutions: our own brain's capacity for insight. As an old Kurt Vonnegut fan from "Galapagos" days,  I'd name our brains as the primary culprit for our unconscious rush toward collective suicide.  But Ms. Costas makes an excellent case for rethinking this notion - and giving our not so primitive brains another chance.   

The inspired notion of this jeremiad is that we can "think our way out of extinction" by learning how to better cultivate and deploy our best ideas. Like a venture capitalist who depends on a slim 20% of her businesses to succeed,  we only need better deeper insights to break out of our self destructive patterns.  Examples like the massive failure of mortgage backed loans versus the surprise success of Muhammad Yunus' micro-financing to small impoverished groups is a case in point.  Take nothing for granted.

The trick is to stop taking the easy way out.  To be more specific, we have to challenge the current operating code for society - what Costa calls supermeme's.   The Watchman's Rattle lays out five of the most detrimental of them in convincing detail.  With names like irrational opposition, the personalization of blame, counterfeit correlations, silo thinking, and extreme economics, Costas uses contemporary examples to demonstrate how we compound our problems with faulty premises.  We, like the Romans and Mayans before us, accelerate our collapse by rationalizing fictions.

But it's the turn of this book, to advocating the care and exercise of our brains, that really charged me up.  A healthier brain generates more insight.  The Watchman's Rattle cites some strong examples and leaves the reader to contemplate even more.  No wonder the rules of my first love, improvisational theater create so many aha moments.   As social networking transforms mass communication,  I wouldn't count out a theater game rooted in affirmation and changing circumstance.   Or how about in the area of transportation?  Inspired ideas are trumping old patterns.   Bicycle lanes are being drawn in Manhattan and Los Angeles. Electric cars are being built in Detroit.   Car sharing is taking off in the capital of a country built on the automobile.   All ideas coming from healthy brains on the mend.