What one book contains the most valuable lessons on government that every citizen of the country should become familiar with? The Federalist Papers? Plato’s Democracy? Seems to me that some of this stuff would be a lot more valuable than Romeo and Juliet or anne frankly’s diary or whatever passes for a civics class these days
Inb4 Starship Troopers
The Gulag Archipelago - and I would take great pains to absolutely pound the point home that the kids reading the book would be the ones in the camps if communism gains power here.
Gulag Archipelago is likely exaggerated. There were work camps everywhere during WW2, its no secret but the severity of which people were treated in them is debatable. Some of those camps were necessary to house violent prisoners and populations in central Asia who were prone to terrorist activities. Overly harsh? But a necessary step.
Yep. Similarly, stories about what happened to Jews in concentration camps in nazi Germany, or even to slaves in plantations in the US, are extremely exaggerated. Not everything written in history books is accurate.
There is documented evidence that the Nazis were exterminating Jews on am industrial scale. Mich of the evidence was lost because the Nazis covered it up which means the actual events were even WORSE than reported. More than 7000000 jews were exterminated during that genocide.
The Soviets on the other hand only forced central Asian Muslims to drink Alcohol and smoke cigarettes in a failed attempt to civilize them. Most of them being Muslims refused so they were sent to camps to support the war effort. Some were shot or died from accidents but there was nothing purposeful about it.
Keep saying that to yourself tankie.
Gopower is a shitposter playing a strawman character for the conpro shitbags to engage with. Not a real human being engaging in good faith discussion. He's not a tankie, he's a fed maggot.
He is how he acts. Redundant distinction.
Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking by Susan Cain
The Narcissism Epidemic: Living in the Age of Entitlement by Jean Twenge & Keith Campbell
Both books are somewhat old now. They were also probably written by leftist academics.
They likely aren't gen pop focused enough. But these two books had the largest impacts on my personal life.
The first made me less apologetic about embracing Introversion and taking agency in life to maximize this framework.
The second helped to understand narcissists for who they really are. It specifically killed the Archie comics version of narcissists simply being insecure bullies who are full of self-doubt inside. It helped to clinically validate them as the all-consuming irreparable monsters they really are.
It also argues against the "everyone is great" participation medal culture.
Huh, interesting options
I guess the smallest form of “government” is interpersonal, and how you understand other people will play a big role in those interactions, so I see where you’re coming from
These books were very specific to my personal situation, so they likely don't extrapolate.
But without a doubt, these two books have had the biggest impact on changing the way I approach real life.
Perhaps a high school curriculum could have a reading list of similar Big 5 Personality Inventory books that have been vetted so that teens could pick the one most applicable or interesting to them to start "thinking about thinking".
The Prince by Niccolò Machiavelli, I want kids to learn and KNOW that their 'adults and leaders' will discard them easily for power...
..and see how dumb and petty they are compared to the original they think they are copying.
Don't kids already have to read that? They used to.
Most people, especially young students, are too stupid to interpret literature themselves, which is why we have endless streams of "Starship Troopers is Fascist" or "this is JUST like Harry Potter." It's not enough to provide excellent literature because only the smarter kids will "get" it anyway, you must also teach them explicitly what the book is saying and how. This is why we need to retake the institutions first.
Harry Potter is haram nowadays.
Why? Because it's a love letter to the 2nd Amendment?
And because JKR is also haram
Atlas Shrugged
1984
Animal Farm
Lord of the Flies
A novelized and well-translated version of Legend of the Galactic Heros
We read animal farm and lord of the flies In my school, but this was done in the context of “English” as opposed to really digging into what those books were saying about government.
Never read 1984 but Brave New World instead…
What’s kind of fucked is it almost feels like they made these books required reading not to serve as a warning but more to serve as a “this is where we’re going to drag you kicking and screaming” lol
yeah, they are presented by shitlib teachers as a dive into literary culture and history for the most part. There was hardly any emphasis on what the author was trying to warn us about.
For me, Animal Farm was purposefully assigned in parallel with our unit on the russian revolution, so that was good.
animal farm was better than 1984 in my opinion. somehow it's more approachable, and gives a better feel for how socialism makes things incrementally worse while pretending it's making things better.
I had to read a couple of those in school. I'm sure the message taken was very dependent on the age and sex of the teachers. I had a lot of teachers that are likely dead today. I specifically remember my paper on Animal Farm was not well received though, I can't remember exactly why, but I did and wrote what the hell I wanted in high school too without concern for conformity.
curious, what was your take on animal farm?
I can't remember totally, it's been a long time. I'm sure it was counter to the teachers point. I never got along with English teachers. Honestly, with a few exceptions I never got along with female teachers if I really think of it. I do remember not discussing communism at all, I wasn't aware of much of anything about communism until I was older. We had a lot of "plight of the negro" teaching in those days, but less than a decade after the fall of the Soviet Union it wasn't quite allowed yet for them to openly preach communism.
Far too many female teachers view boys as defective girls.
Fewer male teachers seem to, but nowadays it's still the majority.
Yeah, I reflect on my own life and I fully believe that women's need to "fix" boys is a huge factor in the problems with them today. As a lot of us here, I wasn't the most fitting in normal kid, women were always trying to push me to do some magic thing to be normal or they'd use some BS term "come out of your shell" or what not.
I was also very lucky to have a lot of really good male influences and I recall that with few-to-none of them. They treated me with respect, even as a weird little kid.
The only possible good that could come of making Atlas Shrugged mandatory reading in public schools is kids might pick up on the fact that the English teachers teaching it act a lot like the bad guys in the book.
Otherwise it's just going to be wasted by it being taught by the worst people in the world.
Animal Farm Basic Economics Creature from Jekyll Island Starship Troopers
I vote for something about the Fed, too.
Jekyll Island is about the Fed. I'm surprised that Smith1980 has read it, but is still a reticent about the JQ... Griffin minces his words a bit, but it's tough to not notice.
The Great Gatsby was one of the most boring books I had to read in school, and it got worse as an adult when I realized the entire plot was some dude simping over a chick.
I once read somewhere that The Great Gatsby was supposed to be an allegory for America. I don't remember what specifically it was a reference to, though.
One of my most hated Hollywood movies of all time.
I managed to read that book without remembering a damn thing. I think because nothing sensible happened.
Mein Kampf
And no this isn't a joke answer. If Shinzo Abe had allowed Mein Kampf in Japanese schools(whether the schools read it or not is a different thing but it was allowed in schools as teaching material under Shinzo Abe apparently) then there's no reason why we can't have it in our schools too.
Hah it was this or Legend of the Galactic Heroes?
Do you really think this teaches the reader much about government systems though? It felt a lot more like a memoir to me than an analysis of how government works…I mean…beyond that one really important factor lol. I feel like the reader would need some knowledge base they were building on/deconstructing to even get anything out of it
Well it goes in to the mind of the most influential political figure of the 20th and 21st century who invented a new political system and who people still keep talking about today. I would think that would be important. And if the Japanese government thinks it can be used as teaching materials then who are we to question right?
Yeah, I could see it, or atleast sections of it, fitting nicely into a new WW2/History curriculum for the older kids who’ve got a basic picture that they’re building on. That would require quite the shift in the popular consciousness though, to ever see a lesson plan like that lol.
Any other options you think are slightly more likely?
On top of the ones mentioned before, I'd throw in Hoppe's Democracy: The God That Failed. It is a bit of a dry read IMO, which would hurt it in younger people reading it, but it does nicely outline how universal suffrage and democracy directly leads to many of the problems of today due to the masses wanting free gibs.
Nothing.
Making it mandatory means that it just gets ignored. I read books now only to open them and awaken a lost memory that I did in fact read them in school and have completely forgotten everything about it.
I remember watching Falling Down in year 10 and it just went completely over my head. In fact it'd make me less likely to watch it in the future "because I've seen it"
I see the point, but kids don't have any understanding of what it means before they experience anything like it.
Demon-Haunted World by Sagan. Teach students proper skepticism and how to think for themselves in a world that constantly seeks to deceive them.
Seeing Like a State was really interesting. The topic of Managerialism comes up a lot here, and that book goes through a history of how that increased over time to ease the administration of larger and larger dominions as Kings consolidated power.
Animal farm, Short and to the point
Manipulated Man by Esther Villard
The vulgate.
Something about the Federal Reserve. I haven't actually read the Jekyll Island book.
The Bible.
Political Ponerology
Schindler's List. Not even 100 years has passed and the amount of people unaware of this genocide is rising sharply.