Had I forgotten?
Nov. 23rd, 2009 04:28 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sathorIt has been a great deal of time since I read a book of any worth. I admit, even in college, many of the books are beneath the works I am taking on now. College texts are no substitute for the works that they are based upon, and furthermore, I have to wonder if some books are left for graduate study or left out entirely because they are considered either non-canonical or beyond the capacities of a great number of students.
Thomas Paine's The Age of Reason I have more than half finished in a day, and I've started with Julius Caesar the African War (After reading through a good deal of it, I imagine I will read the other campaigns as well. Although I keep a degree of disbelief in me, because it is, after all, the winners who write the history.)
After these, I think Hegel, Kant, Lao-Tse, and a re-reading of The Art of War are in order. I want to balance myself as much as possible with western and eastern works.
Chomsky has sparked my interest in Lenin and Trotsky as well. I would like to further my understanding of Bakunin in addition, but Marx I threw out the window long ago. The Communist Manifesto, to me, was nothing more than propaganda, and on a level far more serious than what people face today with regards to the Media. The number of times he uses the word "bourgeoisie" is enough to make me feel ill - the word has its uses, but using it to pound your ideas through self-evidently is not acceptable. Workers should collectively own business, I would not argue against such an idea, but I believe Marx took the wrong route entirely in trying to convince people of this.
I know there is no true point to this, other than increasing my knowledge further and increasing the amount of distance between myself and the common person. Will I ever meet a woman that can handle this mass of information I am becoming?
Only time will tell, I suppose.
Thomas Paine's The Age of Reason I have more than half finished in a day, and I've started with Julius Caesar the African War (After reading through a good deal of it, I imagine I will read the other campaigns as well. Although I keep a degree of disbelief in me, because it is, after all, the winners who write the history.)
After these, I think Hegel, Kant, Lao-Tse, and a re-reading of The Art of War are in order. I want to balance myself as much as possible with western and eastern works.
Chomsky has sparked my interest in Lenin and Trotsky as well. I would like to further my understanding of Bakunin in addition, but Marx I threw out the window long ago. The Communist Manifesto, to me, was nothing more than propaganda, and on a level far more serious than what people face today with regards to the Media. The number of times he uses the word "bourgeoisie" is enough to make me feel ill - the word has its uses, but using it to pound your ideas through self-evidently is not acceptable. Workers should collectively own business, I would not argue against such an idea, but I believe Marx took the wrong route entirely in trying to convince people of this.
I know there is no true point to this, other than increasing my knowledge further and increasing the amount of distance between myself and the common person. Will I ever meet a woman that can handle this mass of information I am becoming?
Only time will tell, I suppose.
