[QatzelOk]

The Great Divide, Studs Terkel

The Great Divide is a great and disturbing book about America today.

Terkel shows two real strains in our culture now: a vocal adherence to "me first, anything to get ahead" with an emotional response to those less fortunate, which results in a kind of living lie or dichotomy; and a profound lack of history which results in a kind of pride of ignorance.

Terkel found many people who prided themselves on not even wanting to know things. It gave me a lot to think about...

Source of review: http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/ ... ai_8151827

[Truth-a-naut]

I'm reading a Kierkgaard anthology. Because I'm such a sensetive guy.

[Lokakyy]

Because I'm such a sensetive guy.

Emo, you mean.

Then again, what can you expect from a man whose surname is Kierkegaard...

I'm reading Metsäteollisuuden maa. Suomi, metsät ja kansainvälinen järjestelmä 1620 - 1920. by Markku Kuisma. That would be Green gold and Capitalism - Finland, Forests and World Economy, 1620 - 1920. Fascinating, isn't it!

[The Immortal Goon]

Portriat of the Artist as a Young Man - Joyce

And about a hundred million other things going in to my paper.

-TIG

[Red_Army]

The Sandino Affair - Neill Macaulay

[Lokakyy]

Oscar Wilde - The Picture of Dorian G-r-a-y (damn spellcheck)

It just occured to me that I have never read anything from Wilde and decided to correct the situation.

[Potemkin]

It just occured to me that I have never read anything from Wilde and decided to correct the situation.

Try Wilde's 'The Soul of Man Under Socialism' next. How can you not admire a man who writes something like this:

Socialism, Communism, or whatever one chooses to call it, by converting private property into public wealth, and substituting co-operation for competition, will restore society to its proper condition of a thoroughly healthy organism, and insure the material wellbeing of each member of the community. It will, in fact, give Life its proper basis and its proper environment. But for the full development of Life to its highest mode of perfection, something more is needed. What is needed is Individualism. If the Socialism is Authoritarian; if there are Governments armed with economic power as they are now with political power; if, in a word, we are to have Industrial Tyrannies, then the last state of man will be worse than the first. At present, in consequence of the existence of private property, a great many people are enabled to develop a certain very limited amount of individualism. They are either under no necessity to work for their living, or are enabled to choose the sphere of activity that is really congenial to them and gives them pleasure. These are the poets, the philosophers, the men of science, the men of culture - in a word, the real men, the men who have realised themselves, and in whom all Humanity gains a partial realisation. Upon the other hand, there are a great many people who, having no private property of their own, and being always on the brink of sheer starvation, are compelled to do the work of beasts of burden, to do work that is quite uncongenial to them, and to which they are forced by the peremptory, unreasonable, degrading Tyranny of want. These are the poor, and amongst them there is no grace of manner, or charm of speech, or civilisation, or culture, or refinement in pleasures, or joy of life. From their collective force Humanity gains much in material prosperity. But it is only the material result that it gains, and the man who is poor is in himself absolutely of no importance. He is merely the infinitesimal atom of a force that, so far from regarding him, crushes him: indeed, prefers him crushed, as in that case he is far more obedient.

Of course, it might be said that the Individualism generated under conditions of private property is not always, or even as a rule of a fine or wonderful type, and that the poor, if they have not culture and charm, have still many virtues. Both these statements would be quite true. The possession of private property is very often extremely demoralising, and that is, of course, one of the reasons why Socialism wants to get rid of the institution. In fact, property is really a nuisance. Some years ago people went about the country saying that property has duties. They said it so often and so tediously that, at last, the Church has begun to say it. One hears it now from every pulpit. It is perfectly true. Property not merely has duties, but has so many duties that its possession to any large extent is a bore. It involves endless claims upon one, endless attention to business, endless bother. If property had simply pleasures, we could stand it; but its duties make it unbearable. In the interest of the rich we must get rid of it. The virtues of the poor may be readily admitted, and are much to be regretted. We are often told that the poor are grateful for charity. Some of them are, no doubt, but the best amongst the poor are never grateful. They are ungrateful, discontented, disobedient, and rebellious. They are quite right to be so. Charity they feel to be a ridiculously inadequate mode of partial restitution, or a sentimental dole, usually accompanied by some impertinent attempt on the part of the sentimentalist to tyrannise over their private lives. Why should they be grateful for the crumbs that fall from the rich man's table? They should be seated at the board, and are beginning to know it. As for being discontented, a man who would not be discontented with such surroundings and such alow mode of life would be a perfect brute. Disobedience, in the eyes of any one who has read history, is man's original virtue. It is through disobedience that progress has been made, through disobedience and through rebellion. Sometimes the poor are praised for being thrifty. But to recommend thrift to the poor is both grotesque and insulting. It is like advising a man who is starving to eat less. For a town or country labourer to practise thrift would be absolutely immoral. Man should not be ready to show that he can live like a badly-fed animal. He should decline to live like that, and should either steal or go on the rates, which is considered by many to be a form of stealing. As for begging, it is safer to beg than to take, but it is finer to take than to beg. No; a poor man who is ungrateful, unthrifty, discontented, and rebellious is probably a real personality, and has much in him. He is at any rate a healthy protest. As for the virtuous poor, one can pity them, of course, but one cannot possibly admire them. They have made private terms with the enemy and sold their birthright for very bad pottage. They must also be extraordinarily stupid. I can quite understand a man accepting laws that protect private property, and admit of its accumulation, as long as he himself is able under these conditions to realise some form of beautiful and intellectual life. But it is almost incredible to me how a man whose life is marred and made hideous by such laws can possibly acquiesce in their continuance.

[Red_Army]

Shake Hands With the Devil - Romeo Dallaire

I'm a little over halfway done. It's a sad, but interesting and insightful book.

[Garibaldi]

Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand. I'm trying to finish it quick, though, so I can move on to The Republic by Plato, then Thus Spoke Zarathustra(never finished it last year, school started) and Beyond Good and Evil by Neitzsche before I leave for basic on the 9th of August.

[Clann]

Provos, the IRA and Sinn Féin - Pete Taylor
The IRA - TP Coogan
Armed Struggle - R.English

All for my paper.

[Thoss]

Generation Kill by Evan Wright. Follows a platoon of marines into in invasion of Iraq.

This is the light reading...which is to say my only reading right now.

I plan on reading Hitler's Willing Executioners: Ordinary Germans and the Holocaust by Daniel Goldhagen later this summer.

[Lokakyy]

Potemkin wrote:

Try Wilde's 'The Soul of Man Under Socialism' next.

Very well, I shall try to find it.

[Andres]

A Mighty Fortress : A New History of the German People by Steven E. Ozment
Light reading, but since I actually didnt know that much of german history (beyond the 19th and 20th century), I found it quite interesting.

I will start tomorrow with
The first crusade by Thomas S. Asbridge

[Hatred]

Crime e Castigo - Fiodor Dostoievsky

The title in English is probably Crime and Punishment, I don't know.

[ecks]

I'm reading [i]Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintainance{/i] by Robert Pirsig. It's very easy to read and comprehend. Did anyone else like this book?

[Schrödinger's Kitty]

1. Elegant Universe
Superstrings, Hidden Dimensions and the Quest for the Ultimate Theory
by Brian Greene

Couldn't find in Swedish, so had to settle for english.
(almost done reading it)

----

2. Stjärnor och äpplen som faller
En bok om upptäckter och märkvärdigheter i universum
av Ulf Danielsson

(near half-way done)

----

After I'm done with those, I plan to read:

Tre vägar till kvantgravitation
av Lee Smolin

[Lokakyy]

Just started Röda Rummet by August Strindberg after finishing Ondskan by Jan Guillou. Needed some "easy" reading for idle moments in the countryside.

[Falx]

I just got a subscription to Scientific American online and now I'm reading the last 12 years in science.

[Truth-a-naut]

Wow, how much did that cost?

Edit: Nevermind, I could of just checked it myself.

[Steve]

The Pol Pot Regime: Race, Power and Genocide in Cambodia Under the Khmer Rouge 1975-1979 by Ben Kiernan.