A while back, somewhere in comments, a Glib remarked this would be a great poll topic. I’d give a H/T, but I can’t remember who it was. Thank you, anyway!
But, how about it? What book (or books) have you read that influenced your life direction, thoughts about liberty, or had some other profound effect on you?
Comments
373 responses to “Poll: Most Influential Book(s) You’ve Read”
The Fountainhead, I love architecture and Liberty and,
First!
Wendy says Hi SP
Hi, Wendy!
🙂
Harrison Bergeron, best book we had to read in school.
Another cautionary tale turned into and instruction manual.
I think someone could write a good dystopian novel these days about the futility of trying to enforce race and gender “diversity” in every single area of life.
More and more it looks that way.
Phantom Tollboth – Childhood influence
The Federalist and Anti-Federalist Papers – twenties to mid-thirties
Nothing yet for this point in my life…
Oh…I missed Democracy in America. That one I liked. Plato’s Republic is another
Catch – 22
I Robot
Choirboys
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep was something I was fond of
Never got to that one. Asimov hooked me good.
I couldn’t get into Asimov. Androids was Phillip K. Dick though.
i couldn’t get through that one, PKD was an odd writer, ever read The Shadow of the Torturer, Gene Wolf? He’s odd, great story though
No Androids was the only I read…right after I watched Blade Runner
Gene Wolf is out there. I want to read more but… oof, hard to get into.
the Book of the New Sun is awesome, tedious but awesome
I have “Shadow & Claw” – half the series – gathering dust on a shelf. I’ve powered through some of his short stories and yeah they’re exactly that. Somewhat tedious but wow when I’m done.
I think PKD’s short stories are stronger then his novels. His novels go wending through some strange paths at times, with the short stories he grabs a hook and grabs you with it. Almost to the level of Richard Matheson (who I’ll contend is the author more people have seen something he wrote then knew who he is).
Hard question, but early on in life I read “an American in the gulag.” By Alexander dolgun
It opened my eyes to the horrors of powerful government long before I ever gave any real thought to nature of the state. It’s one hell of a good story too.
tl;dr Laura Ingalls Wilder
I read the little Cabin, quite good
My favorite one of the series is Little Town on the Prairie.
LOL
I have more. ?
But do you have a little cabin in the Woods? STEVE SMITH wants to know
If STEVE SMITH wants to know, the answer is no.
Too late.
My brother in law has a little cabin in the woods. It’s about a mile from where Laura Ingalls Wilder was born in Pepin, WI. There’s even a little museum there in her honor, although not a very good one.
Anne of Green Gables for me, as a wee lass. Though I liked the little House books, too, they were easy to get in the library. I was at a weird time when the later Anne books were just coming back into print, so it was always a quest to see if they had the next one. Forever dismayed that Anne got no on-page wedding.
I also read an early Camille Paglia book (Sexual Personae, IIRC) that was probably as politically formative for me, as the Fountainhead which I read in middle schoo; (and tbh, Reason, since my dad subscribed to that and I was such a voracious reader of everything in our library, I usually read those too).
Visited Prince Edward Island about a decade ago. There were all these Asian girls there dressed up as a character in the book. I had never heard of the book, but somehow thousands of Japanese schoolgirls had and managed to drag their parents halfway around the world.
I had forgotten about that.
How bizarre.
Early books for me were The Political Racket by Martin Gross, and PJ O’rourke’s books back when he wasn’t a prog. That was in my mid 20’s and started to hate on government in a real sense rather than just being a ski bum who hated the man.
Ooh, good ones! Gross’ books are mostly forgotten today but they set me on the right path at a young age. PJ used to be essential reading. Well, his old stuff still is, Parliament of Whores in particular. “What the fuck do these people do all day, and why does it cost so goddamned much money???”
“Technically, Italy is not a 3rd World country but no one has bothered to tell the Italians.” and “The Greeks, built the Parthenon, invented democracy, and then pretty much called it a day.” have always stuck with me through the years.
From my kid days:
“All About Dinosaurs”
“The Golden Book Encyclopedia”
“Profiles of the Future”
“Stranger in a Strange Land”
“Childhood’s End”
“1984”
1984 and Brave New World, wow
I read both of them in 1984, when I was 12.
Kid, I keed, good books
Both of those were assigned reading at my High School, IIRC Honors Freshman and Sophomore lit.
Most of mine are pretty cliche 1984 by George Orwell. Made me wary of the abuse of power. IThe Fountainhead a relative who is aliberal who hasn’t kept up with the progs gave me a copy and just said I should read it. The Federalist and Antifederalists papers. Burmese Days by Orwell also was important it broke my school and pop culture taught America is the guiltiest country worldview and established an anti imperialist streak that prevented me from ever becoming a typical conservative after I had begun to reject the left.
Animal Farm is my favourite Orwell.
Acosta hucked from WH
I like Pie, if her dad was better looking she would be Hot, and Big, which is OK by me, but imagine having sex with Mike Huckabee staring at you the whole time…..
That’s a kink for some people.
(Standard disclaimer that I am most emphatically not one of those people.)
Rule 34?
I don’t know, her appearance in the Hat and the Hair today was kind of hot.
Fiction never really influenced my politics, but two that influenced me personally are Fight Club and American Psycho.
I would have to say One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich. However, I’ve been reading The Road to Serfdom as of late so that might change things.
I recently listened to The Road to Serfdom on audiobook at work. I do a lot of mindless work.
It’s good stuff, ain’t it? I especially like that it provided me with more intellectual ways and examples for arguing against planned economies.
Need to read that keep hearing good things about that here.
ditto
I tried 3 times to read it and gave up. I think because I agree with the arguments, it’s boring.
It is good stuff, I need to listen again. Listening to books I find I don’t absorb as much as reading. I listen to most of them at least twice.
I’m the same way I lost track of what was going on in wealth of nations audio book.
If you want a condensed version of Wealth of Nations, P J O’Rourke wrote On the Wealth of Nations
A Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovitch
The Moon is a Harsh Mistress
Two Treatises of Government
1984- No not the dystopian novel, the comic book! Teenage me liked cartoon tits.
Ain’t Nobody’s Business If You Do is what set me on the path to shitlorddom.
This^^^
and Harry Browne’s “How I Found Freedom in an Unfree World“
I’ve been spending too much time here. You guys are beginning to sound like broken records to me.
Beat me to it. Full title “Ain’t Nobody’s Business If You Do: The Absurdity of Consensual Crimes in a Free Society”
Opening compares a corner drug deal to a mugging and shows how the real difference is that both parties consent to the first and only one to the second and how that changes everything especially the police and legal system.
Also like his idea that if you’re not willing to lock your grandmother up for it it shouldn’t be a crime.
l
Sounds great, I should give that one a read soon.
I’ve got it sitting in my to read pile, it was much bigger then I expected.
It goes by in a breeze though.
Plus the author before he died placed it online (pdf) for people to download for free. Confession: I have it hardcover (for me), softcover (to lend) and pdf (to give away).
It is just so chock full of goodness – relevant, pithy quotes on every page FFS! – I can’t recommend it enough. I found it on a whim at a second-hand bookstore in NYC.
Do you have any links for that? The family and/or estate apparently stopped giving it away.
And thanks to Luther, et. al for the recommendation. It sounds like a really good book!
Yeah, I don’t see it on his website. I did a see NYT obituary which I don’t recommend unless you want to raise your blood pressure.
I’ll send the .pdf to the Glib overlords and maybe they can post in a library.
That sounds like a great idea, dbeagle. Thanks for offering to sharing it with everyone.
You know what else was bigger than you expected?
My proctologist’s finger?
Yes, that really influenced my thinking.
Same. I still remember browsing through the library shelves and grabbing that red book because it seemed interesting. Add to that everything Ayn Rand ever wrote, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, Neal Stephenson, Robert Anton Wilson, Robert Heinlein, von Mises, Bastiat…
While the official website has very sadly died, the book is still available easily enough. I have spare copies I give out every now and then.
This Christmas, certain people are getting gifted Vision of the Anointed, though, because I’ve borne the TDS in relative silence and grace for long enough and they’re getting what I think they should get, and not what they want.
“Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas”
The Great Shark Hunt, way better IMO,
Sup Tres!
HEY YUFUS!
Know what’s got 2 thumbs and replaced the shitty Honeywell gas-valve/thermostat in his water heater?
THIS GUY !
As a special bonus, I dont have any noticeable gas leaks or water pouring out.
I never doubted your abilities,
PORK! FTW!
I dont like doing residential pressurized gas work. I second-guess myself far too much.
Do you have hot water now?
The Law
Actually that was one discovered on my journey from conservative Republican (raised as such, so came by it honestly) to libertarian while in college (to probably ‘conservetarian’ now). I think I read Dilorenzo’s “How Capitalism Saved America” before “The Law”. Either way, both were philosophically influential to me. I don’t read much but I have an ever-growing list of books I would like to read. This one, for instance.
John Gall’s The Systems Bible. Funny as hell and as serious as a heart attack.
From my hippie days, Desert Solitaire, Edward Abbey
I had to read that for a college class.
I was a big Abbey fan. I think I have read all his books.
HEYDUKE LIVES!
Desert Solitaire and The Monkeywrench Gang were huge to me in my teens and I am looking at my collection of all of Desert Ed’s works as I type this.
Just saw the recent Trump-Acosta exchange that is sweeping interwebs. It. Was. Great. In fact, it made press conferences great again.
You mean Jim Accosted-a-WH-aide? Any other administration and Acosta would be fried for how he treated the young woman.
Pies twitter is ablaze. Keeping Accosted out of the press pool is a violation of the 1st amendment.
violation of the 1st amendment.
It’s literally not, but these people are mendacious AF.
Acosta just had his WH credentials revoked for this aide-grabbing incident.
I saw that at lunch, while I was bitching that my local weather wasn’t on. Not only was he confrontational and adversarial to Trump, he was quite aggressive when the aide tried to to take his mic away. He can fuck away with his >900 level unprofessionalism
Ok. But Trump’s revocation has created a prog martyr out of Acosta, and CNN will just be that more insufferable.
Probably by design. It was gonna happen eventually.
Discomfiting to me. I hate confrontation. (Though I got a laugh out of “Well I’m not a big fan of yours, either.”)
It’s a fucking clown show.
Just out of curiosity, why did Jim Accosta think he was the only reporter allowed to ask a question?
I’d guess he wants to be a hero.
So… Accosta is Sparticus?
The Intelligent Investor by Benjamin Graham.
In the investment vein :
The Intelligent Asset Allocator
The Wealthy Barber
I’ll add those to the list.
GODDAMNIT SP WHY ARENT YOU TALKING ABOUT THE ELECTION???
Don’t curse at the Lady, Elections have consequences you know……..
https://youtu.be/Tpz4Dl8focY
So I am told.
1) Dems win: will of the people and how dare you criticize us and use legal/structural means to limit our power.
2) Dems lose: the system is broken and we can’t have civility until Dems are in power.
Thank you, Yusef.
1 – The Dialogues, Plato
2 – Representative Men, Emerson
3 – Alice In Wonderland/Through the Looking Glass, Carroll
4 – Anthem, Rand
5 – The True Believer, Hoffer
6 – The Constitution
7 – Koba the Dread, Amis
8 – Collected Stories of Flannery O’Connor
1 – first started reading them as a precocious/pretentious 12yr old. kept coming back year after year after year and re-reading over and over again for 20years. i credit it with about 80% of my ability to think around questions and consider various angles. i probably should have been a lawyer. it made me think differently about ‘why do we talk w/ other people’; everything is an opportunity to learn or test what you think you know.
2- also one of the things lying around as an early teen that i picked up, read a bit, and went “this is heavy”. There was something about his POV which i recognized as consistent w/ classical ideas. it was also just (imo) superb prose, and i’d read it repeatedly just to note how he handled complex ideas within or between sentences. if plato provided the raw material, emerson added ‘style’ to the sales pitch.
3 – also something i’d read as a kid and suspected was a code-book for some secret wisdom. its not a kids book: its an adult book written to remind yourself how a child might see the world. it reinvigorates your potential to see humor in things, or how to appreciate absurdity. it is one of the greatest (if not The Greatest) work of creative lit in the world, imo, and i’ve read it once a year forever. it beats the shit out of the bible, but delivers a lot of the same goods, imo. obviously, it also leads to drug use and cat-fetishes.
4 – the shortest and simplest ‘hey here’s a libertarian story’ that made me go, “yeah, that’s how i see it.” i never liked her writing , or even the story, but it woke me up to the basic framework i already had.
5 – probably mentioned here a million times – one of the most interesting books on ‘group psychology’ i’ve ever read, and i keep seeing his ideas exposing themselves in ‘mass culture’ daily. When 9/11 happened, i went “fuck, boy am i glad i read hoffer” because so many things just made obvious sense, when otherwise they wouldn’t have.
6 – have forced myself to go through it repeatedly (some might find it pleasant, but i get a headache, which is why its probably good i never went into law) It has been supremely useful, not just ‘knowing how shit works’, but actually being forced to think about ‘why’. I don’t know why every high school kid isn’t forced to go through it section by section. I think they used to call that class “civics”, but no one teaches it anymore.
7 – during college, i’d read a dozen books about wwii but i’d never read anything specific about stalin; after college i read this, and it was like a slap in the face. its a very personal book (its written as a letter to his dead father) It changed the way i thought about history, and the present, and why/how people purposely bury and forget things. Its almost as much about the way Amis wrote the book as the subject matter….. He was angry at his own generation for covering up the crimes of the communists and he wanted them to suffer, so he wrote this gut-wrenching book. It had an effect on me that never wore completely off. It also impressed upon me how book can accomplish many different things at once.
8 – i have a dark sense of humor. so does she. i read her stuff and felt like i’d met an older long-lost relative. we’d never met, but we bonded instantly. i got all her weird jokes. I’ve never read anyone else that instantly gave me that feeling, ever before or since.
My 12th grade English teacher had us read “Anthem” by Rand. Now that I think back on her class, I think she may have been an undercover libertarian. It makes me feel kind of bad for acting like such a shithead in her class.
I had a teacher of world religions class talk about economics and religion and he said some people believe taxation is theft and looked right at me when he said it. I hadn’t said anything super libertarian as far as I remember.
You didn’t need to say anything, he had read your diary.
*scrolling above and looking at other people’s
i have to give an honorable mention to “Welcome to the Monkey House” (vonnegut); also read it as young teen, but (even tho he was a screaming lefty) that book is largely libertarian in theme. It has Harrison Bergeron and others (the Eupheo Question) that raise common libertarian questions about freedom vs. safety/security.
it reinvigorates your potential to see humor in things, or how to appreciate absurdity.
I think I tried to read Alice in Wonderland as a kid but never made it through it. Your sentence above reminded me of Three Men in a Boat, Jerome K Jerome. While not fantasy, that book is all humor in the absurd. Absurd human nature. I need to read it again.
If you can’t do Carroll, I’d recommend Italo Calvino
It doesn’t matter which book, just pick any 2 or 3, get them all (they’re all mostly short) and just read them at random. He has a similar effect, tho he’s from a different generation obviously, and its translated from Italian, so it doesn’t have the 19th century wit/cuteness that carroll has.
I will look for them.
Do get Martin Gardner’s “The Annotated Alice.” Superb, and it will give you an appreciation of what made Carroll great.
Oh wow, I had no idea this existed. I devoured Gardner’s pop-math books when I was a kid. *adds to wish list*
I have an entire shelf devoted to ‘alice’ related stuff.
I got my first ‘annotated’ in the early 1990s (it was a paperback from the 1980s)
the last one i got as a Christmas present was a big coffee-table sized, illustrated edition from 2015
this here
http://books.wwnorton.com/books/detail.aspx?ID=4294981517
Also honorable-mention (probably should have been in my list)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/We_Wish_to_Inform_You_That_Tomorrow_We_Will_Be_Killed_with_Our_Families
this book probably was the most profound thing i’d ever read before “koba”
I think literature which documents “how bad can people really be” is always worth trying to understand. you don’t know what ‘good’ is until you really plumb the depths of ‘bad’
The Art of Neighboring by Jay Pathak and Dave Runyon. Made me more seriously evaluate what living like a Christian looks like.
Followed soon after by The Myth of a Christian Nation: How the Quest for Political Power is Destroying the Church by Greg Boyd, a Christian anarchist.
Martin Eden by Jack London. When I read this, I had already been on a sort of “autodidactic journey” for a few years. It was inspiring to see a story about a guy who comes up from working class roots and becomes an intellectual.
First Principles by Herbert Spencer. It’s funny – I actually learned about this book because it was mentioned in Martin Eden and chose to read it because of the praise heaped upon it by the main character. I did find it to be a worthwhile read. The philosophy itself lays out Spencer’s theory of evolution, which is actually a law of the universe rather than a biological process. Even if you don’t totally agree with the philosophy, his reasoning process is fascinating. He describes this law and shows it in action using examples ranging from the formation of galaxies all the way down to the smallest units of matter. I don’t mean to gush too much here, but it’s almost poetic.
The Trivium: The Liberal Arts of Logic, Grammar, and Rhetoric by Sister Miriam Joseph. Yes, believe it or not, there was a time when “liberal arts” was NOT synonymous with commie feminazi bullshit! This is a primer on Aristotelian logic, propositions, syllogisms, and the use of language. If you’ve already skimmed the surface of logic and philosophy, you probably won’t find much new material here, but Sr. Miriam Joseph did a great job of laying out the basics in a way that is accessible for a total beginner (and yes, Martin Eden inspired me to read this book).
Jack London has a sad:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Eden
Non Fiction wise – Piers Anthony’s Bio of a Space Tyrant I was reading the Xanth books and this shit caught me completely off guard. I’m pretty sure my parents/teachers had no idea what was in these books. Likewise, the Mongo books by Chesbro, not necessarily anything political but I remember reading “Beast of Valhalla” in the dentist office with my mom sitting right next to me and turning the page to the Talking Monkey Thing’s (it was a long time ago I forget the details) full cap text of MOTHER FUCKER. I was sure I was doing something wrong just reading those word but none of the adults around even knew.
Elmer Keith, “Sixguns.”
The Odyssey
What Do You Care What Other People Think?
Not an easy read but the basis of almost every movie with a hero…I liked it
+1 on The Odyssey as well as The Iliad.
I even toyed with the idea of learning Attic Greek to read it in its original form, but I found that that would probably require a ton of time and effort that I currently don’t have to spare.
I loved The Odyssey, it was one of my favorite required reads. Odysseus was the man.
Oddly, I never read it for school, but at a hard time in my life. It had great meaning to me as my first wife and I had separated and I was afraid of not being in contact with my son. That all resolved well, but I’ve always felt I got something very different from the book reading it when I did.
The thing about it isn’t just that this was a heroic narrative, but this is the first great love story of Western literature.
Glad it all went well for you in the end, but you’re right. The love Odysseus had for his friends, wife, and son made him an amazing positive role model. Then there’s Penelope who was a strong and fantastic woman, mother, and wife.
Three Felonies a Day, Geek Love, A Confederacy of Dunces, the Little House series, Little Women.
Too many to mention.
Geek Love, now that’s a blast from the past and a really weird book. Some might call it Sugarfree worthy, complete with flippers.
There are way too many to list, so let’s go back to the beginning where I first got into reading. In the late ‘60s, I waited at the door every month waiting for the mailman to deliver the next Dr. Seuss book. Grimm’s Fairy Tales. Later the Time Life Nature and History series. Those are the books that set the foundation.
Yeah, the whole “grimms fairy tales” and greek/roman myths stuff was huge for me as a kid. it made me want to read
I had this Rumplestiltskin book illustrated by Paul O. Zelinsky. Those photo-realistic drawings used to freak me the fuck out when I was a little kid:
https://i.pinimg.com/736x/76/ad/ee/76adeed27f740f76f5d23c6c132293f8.jpg
My big thing was the “kids books” that were attached to the Encyclopedia Britannica ‘Great Books’ series in our family library
we had this very serious looking set of books on the shelves….
but there was a section completely devoted to ‘kids literature’
robinson crusoe, treasure island, pinnochio, robin hood, king arthur, 1001 arabian nights … grimms… other things i can’t remember
here = it was the “Mortimer Adler” curated thing
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_books
but it had a kid’s book section, which i can’t seem to find any specific reference to
Mark Twain – The adventures of Huckleberry Finn and The adventures of Tom sawyer
Brave new world
Gulag archipelago
A whole bunch of CS Lewis
Little house on the prairie
Theodore and Woodrow – Judge Nap
The Bible… Not for reasons most would think.
It is the best selling book in the world
It sells so well they give em away!
/looks at Gideon Bible in Motel room…..
The sex scenes?
I’m not religious, but I’ve thought about reading the Bible from start to finish. I don’t know if there’s a more influential book in the world.
I do think that Christianity has been a net positive for humanity… I don’t know how I reconcile this with the fact that I don’t believe it myself. In other words, if I could push some kind of magic brainwashing button and permanently convert the entire world to one religion, I would probably pick Christianity even though I would want to remain non-religious. It’s weird.
Let me revise that: if I were FORCED to make this choice and did not have the option to just let everyone practice whatever religion they choose, that’s how I would decide.
So you’d have us all worship a zombie carpenter rather than following the teachings of a 5th century BC philosopher and probably the first psychiatrist?
Sounds legit.
Wait…. HM is pushing a religion whose prime tenet is the elimination of desire?
Boot(y)ism
Tantra is Sanskrit for “thicc”.
The narrative Old Testament books in the Bible are pretty interesting – just skip the parts where it’s crazy Hebrew Law like Deuteronomy.
What a pastor I really like always points out is that the characters are in there with all their faults and screw ups. There is sex, violence, and politics. Samuel has his epic rant against government.
Rehoboam is King Solomon’s son and thinks he’s going to be badass tyrant, but everyone in Israel tells him to fuck off and revolts. Rehoboam sends down his head thug to whip them back in line but the people stone the guy to death and a prophet tells Rehoboam to let it go,
Good stuff.
I like how weird and abstruse it is. It’s pretty fucked-up in parts, in an appealing way.
Which makes its influence kind of disturbing to me, tbh 😛
There is a story about a woman whose husband dies. The tradition then was she automatically became one of his brothers’ wives (good times). But that guy was a douche and would pull out of her and cum on the ground instead of knocking her up – so God killed him. The story goes on to her tricking the dad into knocking her up by pretending to be a prostitute.
It does sound interesting. I like Jordan Peterson’s take on it: works of literature like that become great works because they show something fundamental to the human condition that holds true across time and culture. His frequent Biblical references in 12 Rules For Life actually kindled my interest in reading the Bible.
Judeo Christianity is why we HAVE a western civilization, free will and the Responsibility to use it correctly
After 6 years of being dragged to Bible study kicking and screaming, my mom said if you can come up with a good argument I’ll let you quit. I spent hours compiling the contradictions in the text. I also read up on the history around the Bible. I put together quite the argument. My mom said good job you’re still going to Bible study. So the Bible was the first book outside of school to inspire me to think critically… Ironically in order to discredit it.
Not political at all, but I have read Shogun about a half dozen times. I love that book. It also gives some insight to why the Japanese behaved as they did in the 1930s and 40s.
You know who else was concerned with the Japanese in the ’40s?
FDR?
Dr. Seuss?
PornHub’s MILF section?
Chinese women?
Colonel Paul Tibbets?
I liked the whole Asian saga.
James Clavell was a die-hard libertarian/Objectivist and, imo, got pretty political in Tai-Pan.
Interesting. I did note what I interpreted as anti-gun comments in some of the books, but those could whole be the character’s thoughts and not his own.
BTW HM, I started “the Life & Opinions of Tristram Shandy Gentleman” tonight. I believe it was you that recommended it.
Excellent! It’s my favorite book.
I’m only on chapter 8, but I’m enjoying the word play.
Loved Shogun and King Rat.
I think of Shogun every time you mention pheasants.
Lol!
I like Hemingway; probably more his writing style than anything else. For Whom the Bell Tolls is my favourite.
Ya, Old Man and The Sea is one of my all time favorites. Havn’t read For whom the bell tolls. I need to do that.
I devoured his books when I was younger. He certainly knew who to create atmosphere. Sun Also Rises is my favorite, but For Whom the Bell Tolls was great, too.
Ditto Sun Also Rises.
Works been awful. On my way home from Japanese class now. First time here in about a week.
Whatever you do don’t read them now that you understand Japanese.
I thoroughly enjoyed Shogun when I read it, however.
I’ve never read Shogun. Many people in the States know way more about Western takes on Japanese history than I do. Same for anime. I don’t know squat about it and plan to keep it that way.
It’s not the history part which is essentially a compilation, but the Japanese language in the book itself. It’s basically awful.
Still a recommended read from me, however.
What argument are you putting up?
In love with the girl on the left
The True Believer – Hoffer
Explaining Postmodernism – Hicks
Dick and Jane
I forgot:
The Nazi Seizure of Power
The Science of Cooking
I see a lot of titles of stuff I have read. I got started late in life on libertarianism, before I even knew there was such a thing.
Robert Ringer’s “Looking Out for Number 1” was the first book that piqued my interest, I was about 42 years old at the time.
In about 1950 the Mpls morning paper ran “1984” as a series in the paper. As I was walking my route every morning I would
read that day’s episode. I didn’t understand it at the time. I read it again 35 years later and realized everything Orwell had said
had come or was coming to pass.
But you still love Big Brother right?
I’m waiting for the right people to get elected. Hoping it’ll be those nice folks from the DMV or Land Use department. Always helpful, cuddly.
Atlas Shrugged. As Mises wrote to in a letter to Rand: ” You have the courage to tell the masses what no politician told
them: you are inferior and all the improvements in your conditions
which you simply take for granted you owe to the effort of men who
are better than you.
If this be arrogance, as some of your critics observed, it still is the
truth that had to be said in this age of the Welfare State.”
Russians can stack up against any people anywhere: Dosty, Tolstoy, Solzhenitsyn, etc. Hemingway touched on a tenth of their despair and blew his head off.
Huh.
The Flight from Truth: The Reign of Deceit in the Age of Information by Jean Francois Revel (1992); also his How Democracies Perish. A Farewell to Alms and Paul Johnson’s Modern Times: A History of the World From the 1920s to the Year 2000.
All of these smacked me upside the head for different reasons. But before all of them was Polanyi’s Personal Knowledge: Towards a Post-Critical Philosophy. Prepped me for everything else that was to come.
One Day In the Life of Ivan Denisovich – Solzhenitsyn
Black Rednecks and White Liberals, The Vision of the Anointed – Sowell
Anarchy, the State, and Utopia – Nozick
Two Treatises of Government – Locke
Propaganda: The Formation of Men’s Attitudes – Ellul
The True Believer – Hoffer
Darkness at Noon – Koestler
I should also give a nod to the syndicated columns of Walter Williams, which I read religiously in high school and college
Black Rednecks and White Liberals, The Vision of the Anointed – Sowell
Also on my list on things to read.
Downloaded a pdf of Two Treatises and started reading it once, need to get back on that one.
While not a “book”, “The Cold Equations” by Tom Godwin was extremely influential in shaping how I view the world.
That is an awesome story…which I think SciFi completely fucked up when they made it into a TV movie.
YES! I was furious!
Keep it under 30 minutes, and it’s fantastic.
One of my fave episodes of that re-vamp.
I should mention (again) The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich by William Shirer, twenty years of research, not to mention he was a reporter in Germany while the Nazis rose to power.
Incredible
My step dad growing up had an extensive library and that was one I got halfway through…never finished it though
Shirer is incomparable. That said, I’ve been super impressed with Richard Evans’ trilogy.
In all honesty, a book isn’t responsible opening my eyes to state power. It was the bailouts in 2008-09. I was a civil libertarian before that and didn’t have much of a worry about the economic side. We were capitalist, after all. Bailouts, Obamacare, and looking back at the US since 1913 changed everything.
Hmmmm….
Overall, the biggest impact on my life would be “Burmese Days”, not because it is special in any particular way, but because I picked it up after staggering home drunk at age 17 and it was the first time I read “literature” for pleasure not because it was assigned. It was the gateway drug.
Actual influence on my way of thinking:
– Crime and Punishment
– The Sickness Unto Death
– Infinite Jest
– The Books of Genesis and Ecclesiastes
– A Personal Matter
– The Idiot
– Beyond Good and Evil
Libertarian reads:
– Atlas Shrugged (obligatory)
– Brave New World
– Anarchy, State and Utopia
– Ten Things You Can’t Say in America
–
You can’t learn ANYTHING from Nietzsche! He wasn’t libertarian! *Actual arguments I received on TOS after I referred to Nietzsche.
That was a big influence on me as well I read it at 12 or 13. I think it was the only Orwell book in our school library besides the two big ones.
For me at that young of an age the content along with shooting an elephant opened my eyes to a few things
LOL
HAH!
I still have my gripes with some of his policies, but goddamn, he’s scoring some major points with me every time he smacks down these state-fellating media scumbags.
I didn’t see video of Acosta refusing to give the lady the mic. Is it out there?
^^this. I want to know so I can look forward to watching it when I get home.
It seems to have gone down the Memory hole, but I saw it, he didn’t Shove her as much as violate her space and laid on hands, a big No No at a presser
Yeah I figured getting a bit physical at a friggin press conference is NOT a good idea. Thanks though, Mr. Yusef.
Yes it is, he’s an ass of the first order, lemme look….
Not the best angle – I saw it live:
http://trumptrainnews.com/articles/president-trump-destroys-cnn-s-jim-acosta
Thanks. Klavan says he “manhandled” her? Acosta is a dickhead, but that’s a stretch to call it “manhandled”.
You would be Ok with that if it was Your wife? I’d kick his ass for touching her, where are you? Mars?
Trump handled that perfectly. Some guy blasting Acosta in the face for that would’ve been the worst thing you could do.
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2018/11/breaking-jim-acostas-press-pass-suspended/
Totally deserved. He broke the protocol and gets the consequences.
let me enact the labor for you:
https://www.abcactionnews.com/news/trump-scolds-cnn-reporter-for-being-rude-as-wh-staffer-wrestles-microphone-away-during-presser
Thank you to both OMWC and Tres. I will enact some labor for you in exchange sometime in the future.
Can you send me the jacket when it unleashes itself from you?
I do not know if the jacket is safe to send to others, but I will try.
“The Forever War” for all kinds of reasons even though I was a little too young the first time I read it to realize it was a commentary on Vietnam.
I read “Starship Troopers” years after I first read TFW and still liked it despite the different message.
Here, have some blues on your Wednesday evening: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hxaineCMv38
Thx. Not usually a big fan of Tadeschi, but the instrumental was great.
Trey Gowdy for AG?
He wants no part of it. Gowdy is the type of guy that looks at his time in Washington and feels soiled.
So what you’re saying is Gowdy for prez?
Gowdy for wealthy private practice. Or state AG.
To throw my books into the list:
Starship Troopers
The Discworld novels (specifically the Death and City Watch cycles). His Grace, His Excellency, The Duke of Ankh; Commander Sir Vimes, the Blackboard monitor is the monarch we need.
I apologize for the length, but few things have struck me as much as this exchange:
Oh, and the Spider Robinson Callahan’s Crosstime Saloon and Lady Sally books.
Ooh, I had forgotten all about the Cross Time Saloon.
Have you not read Lady Slings the Booze and Callahan’s Lady? It’s about Callahan’s wife who runs a house of negotiable affection. You’ve got some joy to look forward to.
Yeah, just about any of Spider’s Crosstime Saloon stuff are great fun. I’ve filed the serial numbers off several great Feghoots and retold them my own way.
My Dad handed me his copies of Arundel and Rabble in Arms when I was in 6th grade.
Simply fantastic historical books that pulled me in. Since Benedict Arnold is a hero in both books, it also sparked my interest in getting to the real stories in history. Those books are why I was a History Major,
‘Naming and Necessity’ by Saul Kripke
Language is a lot of fakery and dressing, and it’s nice to cut through a lot of the bullshit and work through how we think and communicate on a more essential level. I have trouble understanding concepts when they’re just presented as generalities, and there are lots of great examples here that make sense of those concepts—or make sense of how they’re intuited and then generalized. It’s like following his thought process as it happens, rather than trying to deduce, after the fact, what his builds up as general concepts. And… It all makes sense. There’s an inkling of or direction toward what is true, and that’s powerful.
Noice. Been meaning to read that one. Have it somewhere.
Goldwater’s “Conscience of a Conservative.”
^This.
Too bad Team Red has basically memory-holed both him and this (ghost-written) book.
Team Red did their damnedest to memory hole him while he was running.
He is my write in vote every election.
Too many to list ’em all, but to hit the high spots:
-Atlas Shrugged
-Why I am a Libertarian
-The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress
-The True Believer
For those mentioning Starship Troopers, Farmer In The Sky had a much greater impact for me.
I read Farmer in the Sky after Starship Troopers, same with Tunnel in the Sky (which I felt was a great counterpoint to Lord of the Flies).
TITS(gee, a Heinlein title), also had an impact. I think I around ten when I was reading Heinlein’s juvenile series.
OT: How about this for some dystopian horror…
Obama = Teddy Roosevelt
Trump = Taft
Lizzie Warren = Woodrow Wilson
I can’t shake the thought that we’re in for a repeat of the progressive Era.
Does that mean we’ll also see the revival of speakeasys and Ragtime tunes?
This has already been a thing for a few years now.
Man Who Writes Bigfoot Erotica Now a U.S. Congressman
Be honest who here was influenced by Rigglemans work
God most definitely has a sense of humor. This goes very well with the stone cold dead pimp Dennis Hof winning in Nevada.
I’m not motivated enough to fact-check this but the reference to SPLC isn’t helping its cause.
I always ignore anything from the SPLC, but Riggleman is/was an NSA contractor, which is plenty reason enough to dislike him.
Although, when a Cockburn is your opponent…..since westernsloper mentioned PJ O’Rourke, I will quote his New Enemies List from the early ’90s: “Alexander Cockburn, Andrew Cockburn, anyone named Cockburn….Christ, who the hell is checking green cards around here?”
Grade School: Asimov’s non-fiction science essays
High School: “Atlas Shrugged” and “Desert Solitaire” (Honorable Mention-Poetry “Requiem for Sonora” by Richard Shelton and it available online)
College: “Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail ’72” by Hunter S Thompson (I still read it every presidential election year as an antidote to the BS.), “Bodyguard of Lies” by Anthony C Brown (The story of the D-Day deception plan and ULTRA), “An Introduction to the Philosophy of Science”
Since: “Ain’t Nobodies Biz”, “A Life Wild and Perilous” Robert Utley (Overview of the mountain man era), “Bloodlands” Timothy Snyder paired with “It Was a long time ago and it never happened anyway” by David Satter
Here, Get pissed, My Dad did 4 tours, and never told me this, McNamara’s Folly,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_J2VwFDV4-g
Just watched that last night. Maddening. McNamara was truly evil. I’m of an age that should have been aware of it but wasn’t. Now I think I knew a guy that was part of it. At the time i thought it was just more War Sucks.
If you haven’t read Dereliction of Duty by McMaster – you must. There was plenty of blame to go around beyond McNamara. Personally I’d be game for digging up both of the Bundy brothers just to shit on their corpses.
I just started the new history by Max Hastings “Vietnam: an epic tragedy, 1945-1975”. We shall see. “Dereliction” is a good and depressing read.
No love for “Farnham’s Freehold” from any of you lot ?
Nuclear War? Let’s fuck. FF was good by I think it lagged behind some of the others. Same with I Will Fear No Evil.
Gates of Fire might be the best historical novel ever written. I was literally shaking during some of the battles. Made me more interested in Greek history.
The Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers, Dune, and the works of Rudyard Kipling, H.P. Lovecraft, P.J. O’Rourke, and Hunter Thompson.
https://handbra-central.tumblr.com/image/176751591748
https://archive.is/7j6G3/3b422df8213762a4dac736f92cbdfa4e0322cab6
https://archive.is/7j6G3/3f53a65f244bcdb72856b93cf8dbecdf72ff6a84
https://archive.is/7j6G3/cf88e80ac7f339471556767901c0c3db84aacd4a
https://archive.is/7j6G3/d986951906011283dd076531f7f8e0920d73cfc7
https://archive.is/7j6G3/10ec3cf6b227c56e491a90fc3a5e7fcc8aa852eb
Have this one sent to my room.
Just read The Cold Equations.
Thanks HM
Mike Mulligan And His Steamshovel was a childhood favorite of mine and also, now, my kids. Your avatar always makes me smile.
On this thread I guess I should mention it was my first book. Given to me by my grandfather because my name is Mike.
Yeah, the pictures still make me smile too.
#metoo
My pleasure.
Lord of the Flies, book of Job, A Wrinkle in Time, Screwtape Letters.
I’m supposed to be reading Screwtape Letters right now and designing a study for my small group based on it. I’m procrastinating by reading other CS Lewis books (Perelandra is the current one)
I am trying to play catch-up so I only got about a third the way down.
I probably read a bit more than half of the stuff people listed but I dont see any Robert Howard up to that point.
I think Howard gave me a sense of what it means to be courageous and not tolerate bullshit.
Now I am off to bed. I am sorry I missed this article but I had a bit of a crisis to deal with.
An elderly family member just gave me another real life example of how people who cant face reality create their own disasters. The majority of misery in the world is self-inflicted.
Oh, I forgot to mention one more childhood book. 4th grade.
https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/linda-cline/weakfoot/
I recently found the first book I ever remember owning “The Big Book of Trains” from 1963. I purchased it for my grandkids.
Sorry to hear that… Hope everything comes out alright.
Pppfffttt…Take care Suthen. I feel your pain.
LOL
https://twitter.com/iowahawkblog/status/1060185875286495232
Jeez… it was Ron Jeremy who found him? Appropriate, I guess.
He died after partying with Ron Jeremy, Flava Flav, and Sheriff Joe Arpaio.
Ponder that.
Wikipedia adds Heidi Fleiss and Grover Norquist.
You can’t make this stuff up.
da fuq
Ok, now this is getting into meme territory, what are the sources? Same goes for Luther Rudethoughtlesspig, were their any links in the wiki?
Flava Flav was invited and is (was) a Denis Hof associate, although this article says it can’t conform if he was there.
“The former sheriff said Hof was in good spirits when Arpaio left the party around 10 p.m. Monday.
Arpaio, who lost a Senate GOP primary in Arizona in August, said he had taken part in some of Hof’s campaign efforts and was asked by Hof to speak at the party. The lawman said he delivered his comments to the crowd, wished Hof well and ate birthday cake.
“The thing I liked about him: He was with Trump and was for the Second Amendment and lower taxes,” Arpaio said moments before boarding a plane to Phoenix.”
https://www.mercurynews.com/2018/10/16/nevada-pimp-hbo-series-star-found-dead-at-72/
Truly we live in interesting and strange times. The mind boggles.
So, Arpaio who was touted by the moral conservatives was friends with Hof? I’d like to hear Hanity’s take on these just to hear his brain explode from double think on air.
Pimpin’ ain’t E Z.
That’s how I want to go – after my birthday party with Ron Jeremy, Flavor Flav, and Sheriff Joe.
Damn that is some winning.
Mr. Flav was not in attendance according to this report.
The truth will come out!
These news blurb videos are such a fucking…I can’t even…they aren’t even done by people claiming to be journalists, and are shit products as well…yet they are getting steady pay and I’m not…I wish I didn’t have scruples.
That’s funny. I don’t need to be brainwashed to prefer a corpse to a Democrat—or just about any living politician, for that matter. I doubt Republicans feel much differently (though most obviously would prefer their team).
But whatever keeps you smug, baby.
Wow, that’s quite a thread. I just read through it, somewhat inadvertently. That guy is the quintessential smug leftist douche. And what a surprise, he works in media.
Just travel the world! Yup, this character jibes with the stereotypical privileged progressive douchebags I encounter daily. Bragging about travels, sniffing their own farts, smugly condescending to those of us who aren’t so, ahem…privileged.
Brian handled him well, though.
I like granola. Is that wrong of me?
Not if you mix it in yogurt.
A parfait, I think McD’s calls it.
Considering what leftists are doing to tear Portland apart, I think I’d stay away from there myself.
Where’s Jean Carnahan when we need her?
I can’t say it was influential, but it was probably the most challenging and enjoyable read, From Dawn to Decadence by Jacques Barzun. He’d make a brief, terribly interesting reference to some obscure figure of the 17th or 18th century and I’d put the book down to go research that person so that I could fully get the context. It was a slow read but not because it wasn’t engaging.
I guess it is true, the only way to keep the glibertariate to stay on topic is ask them to talk about themselves. Bunch of narcissistic assholes. Now listen to what I have to say!
I brought up a Vietnam topic, so…..
Fuck off Slaver!
Robert the Rose Horse
Too many books. So authors instead.
Jr High and High School. Asimov, Clarke, Heinlein
Early Adulthood. Frank Herbert.
Mid Adulthood. Stephen R Donaldson, William Gibson, John Sanford
Most recently. Terry Pratchett, Terry Pratchett, Terry Pratchett, Neal Stephenson
And if Ron is around BIF #1 is a nice Belgian Pale Ale
Donaldson’s writing style is hilarious. Not intentionally, I’m guess. Loved those Covenant series. Can’t remember which book it’s in, but he has one of my favorite lines in all of literature. He killed a bunch of guards and one of them is described as: “splayed out on the bed like a spent lover.”
The first Covenant book is one of the very few (non-school) books I ever tossed away in disgust mid-way through. Couldn’t stand it.
For me, that book was The Trial by Franz Kafka. To some people, it’s a nihilist treatise on the absurdity of life. To others, it’s just an incredibly fucking boring book.
I love cheesy writing and no one does it better than Donaldson. It’s so excessively earnest that you a) throw it away in disgust b) gooble it up the sappy sentimental angst c) laugh your ass off at it. It was c) for me, but I did finish the entire series.
At the time, I couldn’t stand what a colossal fucking asshole the narrator was. Maybe I will give it another try some day; it’s been a long time.
Speaking of cheesy, I enjoyed the first 3 Shannara books.
Atlas Shrugged. I read it while living in Eastern Europe shortly after the fall of communism, so the context had an influence.
Barefoot Boy with Cheek. The tale of a small town boy during his freshman year at the mythical University of Minnesota where he courts two coeds, the sorority girl Nobless Oblige and the communist rabble rouser Yetta Samovar. Written in the 1940s it shows that a lot of the campus nonsense is nothing new.
Somehow I don’t think this would work out like they think.
http://thefederalist.com/2018/11/07/incoming-democrat-chairman-dems-will-go-all-in-on-russia-impeach-kavanaugh-for-perjury
Endless impeachment is surely a winning strategy.
With all the talk of demographic changes (perhaps top of which is Californian migration), was the Beto run a test for the Dems to see how close they could get using money to flip Texas? This is a guy who ran a progressive campaign. Never made a real attempt to make inroads with Republican voters on actual policy.
The money is on their side. Trump broke the blue wall last election. Would it really be crazy if some Dem strategists were wondering if they couldn’t break the red wall in the South? Texas being the most attractive target given its size. Was it really all just blind stupidity pumping $70 million into a Texas seat you had little chance of winning? Were people really that sold on Beto of all people? A milquetoast white guy was suddenly the darling of the left?
Well, Trump ‘broke the blue wall’ by espousing things democrats said in the 90s, while spending less than his opponent; so that sounds like the exact opposite of what Beto did.
Progressives think their message sells everywhere. They also believe that turning Texas blue is manifest destiny. They know full well that, despite all talk about dark money, that they’re the party of big money. It’s a kind of circular argument they’ve trapped themselves into despite real evidence to the contrary.
Maybe the people coughing up all that money really are just that fucking stupid, though. And no one was directing any of it. They (progressives) are always searching for their next icon.
It seems to me (I didn’t pay that close of attention to the actual race) an act of hubris. Like you said, they think money buys votes and they think their message sells and no need to compromise. Which is the exact opposite lesson of what won Trump the election. There ain’t no party like a Trump party, just like there ain’t no Party like an S Club party.
They’re religious thinkers. Imagine the most aggressively proselytizing religion you can think of with millions of dollars to spend trying to convert. They’re out to save the souls of the damned.
It’s going to take a helluva lot of money to sell the new and improved Ten Commandments:
-Thou shalt not have free speech
-Thou shalt not have due process
-Honor the racists
-Honor the sexists
-Covet and confiscate thy neighbor’s house
-Thou shalt not be civil
-Worship your victim hood
-Have any god other than Christ
-Be hypocrites because winning matters
9 anyways.
Add “The government is your god and you shall have no gods before it.” and you get 10
I dunno, but I hope the authors of some of the stroke-pieces I read about him go find a rock to crawl under in embarrassment.
“milquetoast white guy”
Excuse me, he’s a relatively good-looking white guy (progs worship their white guys, that’s why they believe so heavily in white privilege: it’s just more projection), skateboards, played music and took drugs, uses the F-bomb in his concession speeches. He’s fucking cool, brah.
But it was a little of column A, little of column B. They’re definitely desiring and seeking to flip the state. (I think they’ll succeed eventually.)
“They’re definitely desiring and seeking to flip the state. (I think they’ll succeed eventually.)”
This is where they have the decisive advantage over the Pachyderms; they play a long game and they are relentless. Can you imagine the Pubs throwing themselves against the wall for decades trying to flip California? No, they just act like eunuchs and retreat to their corner. The word “cuck” exists to describe the California GOP.
Hey, man. Eunuchs (well, the few that survived) at least rose to high courts, by virtue of the fact that they wouldn’t be able to fuck the noblewomen and fuck up successions.
‘Cuck’ is really the most appropriate pejorative for much of the GOP. And State of Jefferson whining is getting a bit irritating. They’re feckless.
It’s inevitable with so many people moving there.
You know what? Enough with people shitting on Star Trek V (unrelated to convos here, but a video I’m watching), it is the only one that asks a truly interesting question.
Yeah, I’ve always wondered why God would need a spaceship.
Erich von Daniken can kiss my ass.
‘starship’! You uneducated yokal!
Potato/spud…
(no offense, Spudalicious)
But, I sit corrected, Sir.
But, seriously, Star Trek V was Ancient Aliens 20 years early.
Don’t leave me hanging. What’s the question?
“How low can this film series get?”
Unless this is a prelude to telling us how great Babylon 5 was… you shut your whore mouth.
I kid, mostly. It’s not my favorite but it has its moments.
It is actually my favorite, and the plans that nerds say that would have made it ‘better’ like fighting rock monsters at the end actually would have made the movie fail, in my humbly right opinion.
Good enough for me.
‘Is any any higher being a god?’ basically. Even if ancient alien shit were true, does that make them god? If God is simply another being in the universe, is it really god? Why does God need a starship? etc.
“Who is Keyser Soze?”
That movie asked it first, but was so looked-down upon, when The Usual Suspects stole it, no one even noticed.
Natch.
I am again reminded we are kindred spirits, and that you gave me money, which makes you the bestest person ever.
:lowers head:
Yeah….
I get that a lot from women, too.
Odd, that.
Thank you for your service. *looks for emoji button on keyboard, can’t find it, passes out*
That’s usually what I tell the women!
I agree with you it’s underrated. Between Kirk declaring he needs his pain and Spock’s brother asking why God would need a starship I was sold.
The Star Trek movies were dumb, and V was dumb for a Star Trek movie. Sorry, but it’s objectively true.
A better take is the del Rey novella “For I Am A Jealous People.”
I cannot really think of many single influential books
I am gonna go with hitchhiker’s guide to the galaxy which actually made me think of some things, and Bastiat The Law for political stuff.
It is 7:14 AM round this parts and I am working from home today so I am “at work” for 25 minutes already.
So you’re drunk then? I mean, if not you’re doing ‘working from home’ all wrong.
Romanians are ever not drunk?
I would venture to guess they’re sober more often than sconnies, otherwise they’d be bankrupted by liver failure alone.
Early days: the house with the clock in its walls, the first scary book I read. The Big Book of Trucks, Trains, and Tractors. Made me even more interested in how things work.
Pre teen to teen: loads of great classic Sci-fi: Ray Bradbury, Paul Anderson, etc.
Radix by AA Antonasio is where my name came from. It is a book about growing up in a Fuxxed up world and finding out who you are.
Young Adult: found Larry Niven and hard sci-fi, learned about the importance of self reliance from Lucifer’s hammer, awe and amazement from EON by Greg Bear, and world building by The Mote inGods Eye.
Adult: the Foutain Head introduced me to not being afraid of exceptionalism and doing great things.
The Foundation Series is about collapse and rebirth and paralleled my own challenges at the time with illness and near death. I read them while recovering and thought a lot about changing my life.
Fountainhead is interesting. You may not agree with Rourke’s stoic attitude, but the idea sticking to an unpopular opinion because you couldn’t live with yourself if you sold out is powerful.
But he literally did sell out. He sold his services for money, but then felt he had a right to destroy what wasn’t his. That has always struck me as very not libertarian.
He’d say that it was justified. I’m not saying he was, I’m just pointing out the concept of living the good life being it’s own reward. TBH, there is a case to be made that he was a criminal. I don’t think Rand adequately explained/justified his action in blowing the place up. Maybe I’ll reread it.
I don’t care about criminal liability. Thinking that you own the results of the work you sold is exactly what communists believe. It strikes me as transitional thinking on her part. (I’ve never actually read it, but this is how it comes across through synopsis)
Read it a year ago. I’ll look it over again and see how it Rand addresses that. Maybe some else here can explain it.
It’s been a long time since reading, but I thought Rourke told them they could only use his design if they built it exactly as he had drawn it up. They added a bunch of frivolities to the outside of the building, so he blew it up. So technically they had broken the contract. At least that’s how I remember it.
Also, the best part of the book to me was not to live your life as a second-hander.
Thx, Pud.
So, this person Twitter who goes by Funny Libertarian knows our memes.
I think the Funny Libertarian is someone here, but I am not sure who it is.
Economics in One Lesson
Capitalism and Freedom
The Future and Its Enemies
Neuromancer
Slightly outside SP’s parameters:
Watchmen
Batman: The Dark Knight Returns
American Flagg
I forgot to include The End of Doom and The Rational Optimist
I’m surprised Hazlitt wasn’t mentioned earlier. His arguments are accessible even to those with limited, uh, skills. Like me. All the rebuttals involve some kind of magic like the multiplier effect.
I don’t like Jim Hazlitt. (spotsball joke lost on nerds)
Exactly Straff. I also enjoyed the directness of his arguments. It’s probably why the chapters are so short.
Basic bitches.
http://thefederalist.com/2018/11/07/whats-behind-college-educated-suburban-women-flipping-democrats/
Um… “college-educated” – the answer is right there in the title.
Read: Brainwashed.
For a bunch of women who say they are “empowered”, they sure do need a lot of politicians and assorted bureaucrats to take care of them.
“I’m a strong, empowered woman-empowered to turn my life over to the State!”
It’s not for themselves, it’s for the abstract other. They can pat themselves on the back for enlisting the state to ‘help’ the less fortunate.
It’s not about ‘gibs’ or ‘free shit’ for themselves, as opposition tends to stereotype them. They think of themselves as caring. That’s the mentality that needs to be addressed.
Analysis: True.
It’s definitely about “feeling” (caring) for their ilk. They care enough to use government force to make others give to those in need. “I care, therefore, I am.”
This has never been truer.
Only when lefties are in charge. Otherwise they are the resistance.
They’re oppressed, and they empathize with others who are oppressed, like undocumented immigrants and people without access to healthcare.
Another factor is that many women are disappointed that work wasn’t the jolly old good time that feminists promised. Men were supposedly having a grand time at work all day while the wife performed unpaid labor. Instead of admitting that work kind of sucks because it’s work, they explained their unhappiness by “muh sexism!”.
“…emotionalism won the day.”
That is a pretty convincing argument against suffrage.
“Suffrage,” from the meaning of “intercessory prayer.”
Hey, that’s appropriate.
Suffrage, the minding-everyone-else’s-business ritual prayer of the civic religion.
Bourbon and jangly guitar music are a good way to spend the evening.
I fell asleep with Radio Classics on and woke up to an addaptaion of a Kurt Vonnegut short story. Reminded me that I read all his stuff in high school, re-reading some years later and the lefty bent is too much for me anymore but he had some libertarian themes, obviously anti-war and distrustful of government and top-men, as Gilmore mentioned Harrison Bergeron type stuff is sprinkled through the anti-capitalist crap.