Perfect.. I like the challenge of posting the 10 books that have most influenced my thinking. Theyre actually all the same book, or fragments of the same theory of everything, seen from different angles. 1-Island, Aldous Huxley, on how our customs of looking at the world make it seem less connected and coherent than it actually is.. we must accept its violence, and look at it in the eye, to live in reason. 2-The Aleph, Jorge Luis Borges (everything Borges wrote.. itd be the size of a novel all put together), showing that the intricacies of being are endlessly relatable, and endlessly metaphorical for the actual universe each person carries within. 3-Daniel Graeber, Debt, on how property is an extension of political power, and the economic world is really all colonies and owners, the free market and international institutions being an extension of military might.. makes WAY more sense than the illusion of freedom. 4-Guns, Germs, and Steel, Jared Diamond, on the reasons why some people are poor and others rich being 100 % about who got powerful first, and whether they could keep the initiative as they grew. 5-Out of Africa, Isak Dinesen, on how rural life goes against the grain of capitalism, and is also where we lived and evolved, so the rubs our species has with capitalism are actually natural.. its a prison we made ourselves, and outside there is also meaning. 6-Love in Time of Cholera, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, on how any and all societies are held up by a framework of shared dreams and aspirations, and the little things set the bases for the big ones, around which we flutter all our lives, attempting and mostly failing to escape from ourselves. 7-True Hallucinations, Terence McKenna, on how socially constructed reality is actually ruled by obsessions and compulsions (he claims to be able to see them with enough mushrooms), and the reasonable, calm person we imagine ourselves being is not in control. Welcome to the jungle. 8-Land of the Pheasant and the Deer, Antonio Mediz Bolio, on how human history actually has rhythms, times to live and times to die, and were really creatures of our planet and of our time. Any attempt to have universal truth, to have solved the riddle of everything, is properly laughed at once youve seen that. 9-Tao Te Ching, Lao Tze, on how truth becomes lies the moment you disconnect it from the simple reality of being a half-awakened chimp, and how staying true is a constant exercise, ever harder as more rules and fixes are put on what was broken from the beginning, hiding what was perfect from day 1. 10-Genesis of the Cosmos, Paul LaViolette, on how the whole process of life, growing, and dying is really rather similar for people, galaxies, projects, thoughts, and any existing thing, and that knowing what stage of the cycle youre actually on is a good half of the battle, other knowledge being found as required. We are born, we die, and a fair amount of lies and delusions happens in the middle, after which we return to the void (which remains at our side at all times, in any case). Really a workable way to see whats what. Could add books endlessly, but theyre all the same. Honorable mention: The Giver, Lois Lowry.
Posted on: Mon, 08 Sep 2014 03:31:01 +0000
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