Book Thread

[robayon]

Do you listen to Mike Duncan's podcast, Revolutions? It's great stuff, too. We are working through the French Revolution now. I'd been reccommended his book but haven't ordered one yet.

[Kaveh]

I’ve done the history of Rome in its entirety but not yet revolutions

[Rethalis]

Been using a real dictionary lately for when I have been reading. It's really nice to not pickup my phone and google the word, advertisements yelling at you, notifications interrupting the flow. Its really quite nice. My dictionary is an American Heritage college edition Dictionary from 1980, so a little dated however I have an issue paying 80$ for a Flagship brand new dictionary. I am also pretty sure majority of the new words are meaningless garbage anyway.

[unsunghero]

Originally Posted by Rethalis [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

UNSUNGHERO with your psychology stuff you might find this one interesting.

I chose these two excerpts from the book:

"Still, the reasoned intervention is an extremely compelling idea because of a factor that has nothing to do with rationality. When redemptive liberals make interventions the agents of change over people, they avail themselves to one of the most popular formulas for power in the twentieth century.

This formula always begins in the same way: A society runs into a problem that shames it. At the turn of the century, it was the inequities and backwardness of a society stuck in czarist-imposed feudalism against the backdrop of a rapidly modernizing western Europe, that brought shame to Russia. In Germany it was the grating defeat in World War One, the specter of a great power humiliated. In the United States it was the shame of three centuries of virulent racial oppression that contradicted every principle of the society supposedly stood for. These societies then conjured ideas-of-the-good that they hoped would redeem them from the shame. Against the inequities of feudalism Russia would have a "classless society." Against its postwar lowliness Germany would have Aryan supremacy. And against the shame of American racism there would be a new "multicultural," "inclusive" "diversity."

"In our age of the New Sovereignty the original grievances those having to do with fundamental questions such as basic rights, have in large measure been addressed, if not entirely redressed. But this is of little matter now. The sovereign fiefdoms are ends in themselves, providing career tracks and bases of power. This power tends to be used now mostly to defend and extend the fiefdom, often by exaggerating and exploiting secondary, amorphous, or largely symbolic complaints. In this way, the United States has increasingly become an uneasy federation of newly sovereign nations."


I would recommend it if you are interested in hearing a different perspective on racial issue in the USA other than the usual critical theory or "systemic structural theory" (the irony here is palpable if you read the book)

Yeah that's interesting, shame is a powerful thing. Not to get too political but IMO the left decries when they are shamed in various forms, usually for things within their control, but definitely leans into the shame tactic politically. Ends justify the means kinda thing

What I like to do, but don't always do, in my job based on the presenting initial information is ask the person "do you have any particular expectations with our interaction?". The most common answer is no or I don't know. But sometimes you can tease out some really unrealistic stuff and nip that in the bud. And even if they don't know, the question is also a mini-suggestion to think of some

What is the expectation of any political ideology? What are parameters we can use for things being "fixed" or "better", and are those realistic? I feel just like individuals the most common responses are either I don't know or sometimes something completely unrealistic

[unsunghero]

Hidden gem of casual easy-read fantasy from my childhood

Cyric the Mad God is one of my all time fav villains

[Mblake1981]

Originally Posted by unsunghero [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Hidden gem of casual easy-read fantasy from my childhood

Cyric the Mad God is one of my all time fav villains

http://art.ofearna.us/brom.html

[Rethalis]

Red badge of courage is finished. It was an ok book, would only really recommend it if you enjoy historical fiction or the civil war.

Now onto people of the earth

"housands of years ago, small hunting bands crossed the fragile land bridge linking the Eurasian continent to the Americas and discovered a land untouched by humankind. Over the centuries that followed, their descendents spread throughout this land. Bestselling authors and award-winning archaeologists W. Michael Gear and Kathleen O?Neal Gear bring the stories of these first North Americans to life in this magnificent, multi-volume saga. Set five thousand years ago and ranging through what is now Montana, Wyoming, northern Colorado, and Utah, People of the Earth follows the migration of the Uto-Aztecan people south out of Canada. It is the unforgettable tale of a woman torn between two peoples and two dreams, of the two men who love her and the third who must have her, and of the vision given to the peoples long ago by the spirit of the wolf."

poe.jpg

[Encroaching Death]

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[Encroaching Death]

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[Encroaching Death]

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