Posted on 01/11/2024 6:40:37 AM PST by Chickensoup
I am listening to a remarkable concise well written book: TEN BOOKS THAT SCREWED UP THE WORLD. Recommended!
You've heard of the "Great Books"? These are their evil opposites. From Machiavelli's The Prince to Karl Marx's The Communist Manifesto to Alfred Kinsey's Sexual Behavior in the Human Male, these "influential" books have led to war, genocide, totalitarian oppression, family breakdown, and disastrous social experiments. And yet these authors' bad ideas are still popular and pervasive--in fact, they might influence your own thinking without your realizing it. Here with the antidote is Professor Benjamin Wiker. In his scintillating new book, 10 Books That Screwed Up the World (And 5 Others That Didn't Help), he seizes each of these evil books by its malignant heart and exposes it to the light of day. In this witty, learned, and provocative expos???, you'll learn: * Why Machiavelli's The Prince was the inspiration for a long list of tyrannies (Stalin had it on his nightstand) * How Descartes' Discourse on Method "proved" God's existence only by making Him a creation of our own ego * How Hobbes' Leviathan led to the belief that we have a "right" to whatever we want * Why Marx and Engels's Communist Manifesto could win the award for the most malicious book ever written * How Darwin's The Descent of Man proves he intended "survival of the fittest" to be applied to human society * How Nietzsche's Beyond Good and Evil issued the call for a world ruled solely by the "will to power" * How Hitler's Mein Kampf was a kind of "spiritualized Darwinism" that accounts for his genocidal anti-Semitism * How the pansexual paradise described in Margaret Mead's Coming of Age in Samoa turned out to be a creation of her own sexual confusions and aspirations * Why Alfred Kinsey's Sexual Behavior in the Human Male was simply autobiography masquerading as science Witty, shocking, and instructive, 10 Books That Screwed Up the World offers a quick education on the worst ideas in human history--and how we can avoid them in the future. Read Less
You've heard of the "Great Books"? These are their evil opposites. From Machiavelli's The Prince to Karl Marx's The Communist Manifesto to Alfred Kinsey's Sexual Behavior in the Human Male, these "influential" books have led to war, genocide, totalitarian oppression, family breakdown, and disastrous social experiments. And yet these authors' bad ideas are still popular and pervasive--in fact, they might influence your own thinking without your realizing it. Here with the antidote is Professor Benjamin Wiker. In his scintillating new book, 10 Books That Screwed Up the World (And 5 Others That Didn't Help), he seizes each of these evil books by its malignant heart and exposes it to the light of day. In this witty, learned, and provocative expos???, you'll learn: * Why Machiavelli's The Prince was the inspiration for a long list of tyrannies (Stalin had it on his nightstand) * How Descartes' Discourse on Method "proved" God's existence only by making Him a creation of our own ego * How Hobbes' Leviathan led to the belief that we have a "right" to whatever we want * Why Marx and Engels's Communist Manifesto could win the award for the most malicious book ever written * How Darwin's The Descent of Man proves he intended "survival of the fittest" to be applied to human society * How Nietzsche's Beyond Good and Evil issued the call for a world ruled solely by the "will to power" * How Hitler's Mein Kampf was a kind of "spiritualized Darwinism" that accounts for his genocidal anti-Semitism * How the pansexual paradise described in Margaret Mead's Coming of Age in Samoa turned out to be a creation of her own sexual confusions and aspirations * Why Alfred Kinsey's Sexual Behavior in the Human Male was simply autobiography masquerading as science Witty, shocking, and instructive, 10 Books That Screwed Up the World offers a quick education on the worst ideas in human history--and how we can avoid them in the future. Read
An excellent book that all people should read.
A People’s History Of The United States, by Howard Zinn
Lists and paragraphs are our friends.
BTTT
The Koran, The Communist Manifesto, Mein Kampf, The Sayings of Chairman Mao, The Origin of Species........................
.....and Catcher in the Rye....................
This has the distinction of being the only book I've thrown away.
Totally agree! I have not read it, but I have read enough ABOUT it to deem it dangerous. I have read the dedication to Lucifer at the very beginning, in the bookstore.
bump to the top
Bfl
Not one I am familiar with
I have read most of the authors mentioned. Great review
Yes true.
Glad I homeschooled
True and I am friendless.
I have read and reread the Rules
Helps to understand manipulation in everyday life.
Alinsky didn’t invent the rules, it’s about time we started using the rules on them.
I'm your friend.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.