“Emails From the Year 2002” Explores Society’s Unspoken Interest in Persistent Social Problems

Author Andreas Daniel Fogg takes an in-depth look at society’s interest in preserving persistent social problems through a series of email messages archived in his book: “Emails From the Year 2002.” He examines how cultures thrive on their own implicit interest in the continued existence of the most persistent and loudly decried social and economic, and political issues.

This archive of emails, shared with friends, newspapers including the NY Times, and various faculty persons, remains a timely exploration of the complex relationship between society and persistent social problems. Fogg argues that while societal critics may be vocal in their criticism of these issues, society as an aggregate often has an unspoken, often unrecognized, interest in their continued existence. The author probes how this interest can manifest itself in various forms, from the perpetuation of stereotypes to the perpetuation of acute economic inequality.

The emails also tackle a plethora of topics, among which are discussions of art vs. kitsch and entertainment, hypothesized deleterious effects of TV watching addictions and internet addictions upon thinking, sexual dysfunctions and socialization (developing into adulthood) processes, free trade vs. fair trade, social class-based oppressions, neo-imperialism, neoliberalism, terrorism, religion and relations between sexes and LGBTQ issues among others.

Fogg studied sociology, psychology and philosophy, economics, and literature as an undergraduate. At Columbia College in NYC, he took required liberal arts courses, including required courses in writing which were extremely helpful in writing toward understanding the great troubles which occurred in the Spring of 1967 and 1968. The campus was occupied during those years, shut down in 1968 by much of the student body led by SDS activists protesting the War in Vietnam and the acquisition of land to be used to build a new gymnasium in Harlem.

Later after working as a clerk on Wall Street, he moved to Lake Forest College in Illinois, where he studied sociology, anthropology, philosophy, and psychology. Later still, he studied Anthropology and Sociology as a graduate student at SUNY at Ridge Lea and later at UMass/Amherst. If a legitimate traditional publisher can be accessed, additional more than a few already-written manuscripts will appear. Note also that early on in his career, partly as a result of an unhappy love affair, he voluntarily entered McLean Hospital (a psychiatric hospital) in order to obtain therapeutic support and to do participant observation research along the lines suggested by the Erving Goffman book, “Asylums” (1961).

Apart from “Emails From the Year 2002,” Fogg also wrote and (self) published four additional titles:—“Deferred Pay, Mergers and Acquisitions and Sectoral Deflation, Frame Deconstructions: Emails from 2011 Through 2013,” “Emails From the Year 2001: REFLECTIONS on War, Peace, Economy,” “Getting Past ‘The End History:’ Reflections from a Bottom Rung of the Corporate System,” and “To the Mountains and Back: Outgoing Email 1998-99: Reflections on Politics and the US Economy in a year leading up to the Millennium.”

“Emails From the Year 2002” is an important and thought-provoking book that will challenge readers to think critically about the role of society in perpetuating persistent social problems. Fogg’s book is a must-read for anyone interested in understanding the complex dynamics of social issues and the role of society in their perpetuation. For most of his working life, the author did blue collar working class work, as a dish washer, stock clerk and Fortune 500 corporate warehouse worker. So that while his social class of origin was middle class academic, his working life identification was largely with a blue collar cohort. Available on Amazon and across other major online bookstore resellers.

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