What are you reading?

[Matthaus Hetzenauer]

Just cracked Charles Freeman's Egypt, Greece, and Rome: Civilizations of the Ancient Mediterranean. It's a general, all-encompassing history that, due to its relatively short length (a c-hair short of 600 text pages), and considering that it covers a period of 5,000 years, doesn't delve too deeply into all the events it covers. (The Persian, Peloponnesian, and Punic wars, e.g., receive roughly 15 pages of coverage each.) That said, and throwing in the fact that it's published by the prestigious Oxford University Press, it makes a great primer for newbies and a handy refresher for those already familiar with Greco-Roman antiquity. And it's a great book for aspiring instant know-it-alls who want to impress -- or simply fool -- their dumbass friends with how intelligent they are. Then again, what the hell are they going to know...right?

btw -- As an added incentive, the histories of the Phoenicians, Mesopotamians, Assyrians, Babylonians, Egyptians, and our "Great Benefactors", that "Light Unto the Nations", the Israelites, are crammed into the first 75 pages of the book; the rest is devoted strictly to the Greeks and Romans. Now, what more can you ask for?

[Karl LaForce]

"The world, an entity out of everything, was created by neither Gods or men, but was, is and will be eternally living fire, regularly becoming ignited and regularly becoming extinguished."

"War is the mother of all things."

http://www.heraclitusfragments.com/

http://linguaspectrum.com/quotations...hor=Heraclitus

[Alex Linder]

I'm reading a recent book on sex abuse in Catholic church. Will post notes on this in coming days.

[Bruce Howard]

I am currently reading Hitler's War by David Irving,The races of man by Robert Knox, and a book called The Neuroscience of Mental Health by Stephen H.Koslow. I recommend reading Hereditary Genius by Francis Galton, as well he is the founding father of intelligence testing.

[Bardamu]

Nightly reading: The Might of the West, Lawrence Brown. This is a great book that I've read twice in the last 6 months or so.

And The Primal Blueprint by Mark Sisson. Good book. This guy is my food and fitness guru. http://www.marksdailyapple.com/

[Karl Radl]

Well my reads as of the last 1-2 weeks have been:

Bernard Wasserstein's 'On the Eve: The Jews of Europe before the Second World War' (2012: Profile)

Gordon Thomas' 'Gideon's Spies: The Secret History of the Mossad' (2012: Thomas Dunne [6th Ed])

Yaakov Katz and Yoaz Hendel's 'Israel vs. Iran: The Shadow War' (2012: Potomac)

Ronen Bergman's 'The Secret War with Iran' (2009: Oneworld [3rd Ed])

I've also been re-reading and making notes on the Qur'an in Pickthall's translation.

[littlefieldjohn]

Domination and The Arts of Resistance -Hidden Transcripts James C Scott
Talleyrand A Biography Duff Cooper
St. Clair: A Nineteenth-Century Coal Town's Experience With a Disaster-Prone Industry Anthony D C Wallace

[R. Pearson]

Ed School Follies: The Miseducation of America's Teachers

Rita Kramer

Ed School Follies: The Miseducation of America's Teachers: Rita Kramer: 9780595153244: Amazon.com: Books

Ed School Follies: The Miseducation of America's Teachers: Rita Kramer: 9780595153244: Amazon.com: Books

[Matthaus Hetzenauer]

Rereading the early 13th century German epic The Nibelungenlied, author unknown. Not quite of Le Morte d'Arthur caliber, but still well worth the time and effort.

[Marse Supial]

I finally decided to take on When Atlas Shrugged, Ayn Rand. Man, what a drag. It literally takes her 4 pages to convey to the reader the simplest settings. Really, the first pages of the book are trying to convey gloom, worry, dismal, etc. And it takes up about 10 pages just to paint that setting.

[Matthaus Hetzenauer]

Originally Posted by General_Lee

I finally decided to take on When Atlas Shrugged, Ayn Rand. Man, what a drag. It literally takes her 4 pages to convey to the reader the simplest settings. Really, the first pages of the book are trying to convey gloom, worry, dismal, etc. And it takes up about 10 pages just to paint that setting.

Fuck Anal Ram (born Alisa Rosenbaum) and her philosophy of "objectivism." She was a stereotypical jewess through and through: laissez faire capitalist, anti-Vietnam, pro-abortion, and pro-Israel in the ME wars (she considered Israelis "civilized men" fighting Arab "savages"). And to think I almost read Atlas Shrugged of my own volition back in the '70s...without a "teacher" putting a gun to my head...

[Jimmy Marr]

I'm about half way through Nobilitas, and I found myself interested by the section on Hegel, so I bought a used copy of Phenomenology of Spirit today, which I'll probably never read in it's entirety, but which will look impressive to my heirs when they discover it leaning against Heidegger's Being and Time, which I also found impossible to complete.

[Matthaus Hetzenauer]

Originally Posted by Jimmy Marr

I'm about half way through Nobilitas, and I found myself interested by the section on Hegel, so I bought a used copy of Phenomenology of Spirit today, which I'll probably never read in it's entirety, but which will look impressive to my heirs when they discover it leaning against Heidegger's Being and Time, which I also found impossible to complete.

If you're really interested in 18th and 19th German philosophy, try Nietzsche's Beyond Good and Evil or Genealogy of Morals; both will open your horizons and neither are as difficult to comprehend as his more highly-touted Thus Spake Zarathustra...in my opinion.

[Jimmy Marr]

Originally Posted by Matthaus Hetzenauer

If you're really interested in 18th and 19th German philosophy, try Nietzsche's Beyond Good and Evil or Genealogy of Morals; both will open your horizons and neither are as difficult to comprehend as his more highly-touted Thus Spake Zarathustra...in my opinion.

That sounds like good advice. I'll do it.

I've read Thus Spake, but don't feel I got much out of it.

Thanks.

[SaraT]

Don't give up on Hegel and Heidegger. Hold onto those books and try to reread them in five years or so. I've found that sometimes a book is hard to crack because you are either not in the right frame of mind or are too inexperienced. It's also a good reason to reread classics. You will often found you get more out of them as you age. You catch onto things that previously passed you by in earlier readings.

[SUNOFSPARTA]

Sever Pillars of Wisdom-By T.E.Lawrence-for the third time

WWI Mid East Arab/Turkish war-highly recommended
Very relative to the current conflicts in the very same areas going on today.

[ATiii]

I am currently reading through David Irving's excellent books. The extent to which Jews lie and distort reality is sickening.

Alan

[Karl Radl]

Originally Posted by Matthaus Hetzenauer

If you're really interested in 18th and 19th German philosophy, try Nietzsche's Beyond Good and Evil or Genealogy of Morals;

These are some of his more literal works, but again the problem with Nietzsche; and why he is so frequently misinterpreted (sometimes deliberately and sometimes not), is that everything he says can be taken at two or three different levels, which is how he intended it to be.

Basically its a way of laughing at the gullibility of (and the need to believe in) men as those who uncritically espouse Nietzschian philosophy without kicking their master in the proverbial bollocks while doing so are falling into Nietzsche's intellectual trap of pointing out man's inherent need to believe in a system of thought as any intellectual system; even professed disbelief in intellectual systems, is based on the leap of faith that belief of any kind inherently represents.

Nietzsche is a nice philosopher to read, but difficult to do so if you are unacquainted with the philosophers he is beating to a pulp in his delightfully vicious aphorisms.

You are far better looking at Greek and Roman philosophy before you go anywhere near later Western philosophy precisely because the latter is derived largely from the former meaning that you won't understand the multiplicity of meanings that even a word can be given by different philosophers.

both will open your horizons and neither are as difficult to comprehend as his more highly-touted Thus Spake Zarathustra...in my opinion.

It helps if you've read Voltaire, because 'Thus Spake' is; in my opinion, based on Voltaire's 'Zadig', which uses very similar literary devices to make a point within the same context of Iranian monotheism.

'Thus Spake' is quite systematic, but you have to think allegorically quite a lot and match back passages to make it make sense.

[Karl Radl]

Originally Posted by SaraT

Don't give up on Hegel and Heidegger. Hold onto those books and try to reread them in five years or so. I've found that sometimes a book is hard to crack because you are either not in the right frame of mind or are too inexperienced. It's also a good reason to reread classics. You will often found you get more out of them as you age. You catch onto things that previously passed you by in earlier readings.

True, but people should always keep their reading at a level they are comfortable with. There is; what it is fashionable to call, 'smart thinking' then there is pop philosophy (e.g. Naomi Klein and Alain de Botton) and then there is the varying philosophical disciplines.

I've seen people try to engage with Spengler and not understand the wealth of historical references he uses and I've seen people grapple hopelessly with Marx's Left Hegelianism. You can push the boat out a bit, but don't expect to be able to jump right into reading Bertrand Russell, Martin Heidegger and Saint Thomas Aquinas.

Also I'd suggest; if you are going to read a philosophy, to go for a specific philosophical area you wish to study such as the philosophy of religion, philosophy of science, philosophy of history (etc) or a particular thinker or group of thinkers (e.g. Hegelians, pre-Socratics, Materialists).

Reading mid-high brow intellectual material is a bit like eating: bite off as much as you feel comfortable with and chew it slowly. If you bite off too much and try and wolf it down: you will get intellectual indigestion.

[Jimmy Marr]

I've seen people try to engage with Spengler and not understand the wealth of historical references he uses

Yeah. I choked out on that one a few years back.

You are far better looking at Greek and Roman philosophy before you go anywhere near later Western philosophy precisely because the latter is derived largely from the former

Sounds like good advice. I'll look around.

The Greek basis of Western Philosophy is something that recently struck in relation to the rise of Golden Dawn. I've been watching them via Alex's thread, and I share his enthusiasm, but previously I had been observing them as if they were some sort of foreign identity, which American White Nationalism might mimmic in some way.

As recently as last evening, it occurred to me that we (our culture) may accurately be seen as an extension of "them", and of a very old idea which originated there.

The Meander itself can be seen as a graphical conveyance the idea's evolution. Its Odyssey.