‘What happened’ – the title of Hillary Clinton’s recent book – was a must read to get her perspective of the question on a good half of the population’s minds. After being subject to the media's interpretation of events, I was interested to hear the story (with all its bias) from one of the key players.
Here are a few of my reflections:
She must be the most (or certainly one of them) investigated person in history but I'm still not clear what wrongdoing she has legally been accused of.
The different treatment of men and women, by men and women, is still alive and well. We can still get away with doing things, and being judged for our actions, differently.
The noisy wheel still gets the most attention - and what they want.
People like drama, we look forward to the juicy story with more enthusiasm than we give to seeking truth.
Media has the final say .
People are as predictable as they are unpredictable.
Energy, passion, and productivity is still abundant at the age of 70.
My favourite chapter was 'Women in Politics' and I bought in to her story that despite not winning the election, she has moved women closer to being given top positions.
My favourite quote was one she found in the Bits and Pieces magazine that asked for entries defining 'a friend'. The winning quote was: "A friend is the one that comes in when the rest of the world has gone out." I've already made different choices with this quote in mind.
Many book reviewers dismiss 'What Happened' for numerous reasons. Psychology tells us that we look for information to confirm our existing views (confirmation bias) so you'll probably find that there will be as many people who are interested in giving her the benefit of the doubt as those that won't. Keeping an open mind isn't easy as I'm finding out while reading Michael Wolff's 'Fire and Fury', an account of Trump's first 200 days in office.
My bottom line: learn to make up your own mind, don't let media do it for you.