Kenneth Sharpe – författare

Why have our drug wars failed and how might we turn things around? Ask the authors of this hard-hitting expose of U.S. efforts to fight drug trafficking and abuse. In a bold analysis of a century's worth of policy failure, "Drug War Politics" turns on its head many familiar bromides about drug politics. It demonstrates how, instead of learning from our failures, we duplicate and reinforce them in the same flawed policies. The authors examine the 'politics of denial' that has led to this catastrophic predicament and propose a basis for a realistic and desperately needed solution. Domestic and foreign drug wars have consistently fallen short because they are based on a flawed model of force and punishment, the authors show. The failure of these misguided solutions has led to harsher get-tough policies, debilitating cycles of more force and punishment, and a drug problem that continues to escalate. On the foreign policy front, billions of dollars have been wasted, corruption has mushroomed, and human rights undermined in Latin America and across the globe. Yet cheap drugs still flow abundantly across our borders.At home, more money than ever is spent on law enforcement, and an unprecedented number of people - disproportionately minorities - are incarcerated. But drug abuse and addiction persist. The authors outline the political struggles that help create and sustain the current punitive approach. They probe the workings of Washington politics, demonstrating how presidential and congressional 'out-toughing' tactics create a logic of escalation while the criticisms and alternatives of reformers are sidelined or silenced. Critical of both the punitive model and the legalization approach, "Drug War Politics" calls for a bold new public health approach, one that frames the drug problem as a public health - not a criminal - concern. The authors argue that only by situating drug issues in the context of our fundamental institutions - the family, neighborhoods, and schools - can we hope to provide viable treatment, prevention, and law enforcement. In its comprehensive investigation of our long, futile battle with drugs and its original argument for fundamental change, this book is essential for every concerned citizen.

A reasoned yet urgent call to embrace and protect the essential, practical human quality that has been drummed out of our lives: wisdom. It''s in our nature to want to succeed. It''s also human nature to want to do right. But we''ve lost how to balance the two. How do we get it back? Practical Wisdom can help. "Practical wisdom" is the essential human quality that combines the fruits of our individual experiences with our empathy and intellect-an aim that Aristotle identified millennia ago. It''s learning "the right way to do the right thing in a particular circumstance, with a particular person, at a particular time." But we have forgotten how to do this. In Practical Wisdom, Barry Schwartz and Kenneth Sharpe illuminate how to get back in touch with our wisdom: how to identify it, cultivate it, and enact it, and how to make ourselves healthier, wealthier, and wiser.

The surest route to a happier, more productive life and future   Most of us want to succeed. And most of us want to do the right thing. But we often forget that the way to succeed is by doing the right thing, as Barry Schwartz and Kenneth Sharpe remind us in Practical Wisdom: The Right Way to Do the Right Thing. When the institutions that shape our society need to change, the people in them typically either make more rules or offer smarter incentives. But there is a better way, and in this lively and provocative book, Schwartz and Sharpe explore the essential principle of problem solving that can transform our lives: practical wisdom.   A concept that Aristotle identified millennia ago and that new scientific research reveals is as crucial today as it was in ancient Greece, practical wisdom is the essential human quality that combines the fruits of our individual experiences with our empathy and intellect. It’s how we learn to be a good friend or parent or doctor or soldier or citizen or statesman. It’s how we come to understand, as the authors write, “the right way to do the right thing in a particular circumstance, with a particular person, at a particular time.” In Practical Wisdom, Schwartz and Sharpe explain the importance of wisdom in our daily lives and show how to combat work situations that squeeze it out of our practices. They introduce us to what they call the “canny outlaws,” people with the wisdom to work around the calcified conventions of business as usual to achieve inspiring and satisfying results in daily life. And they identify System Changers, people who are building new, more rewarding, and ultimately more effective ways to work. The result is a book that helps us understand that wisdom is above all a practical idea.   What the world needs now is more people with practical wisdom and more institutions that allow them to display it. And this is the book to teach us how to identify and cultivate it.