List of books that will induce a mindfuck

One gem from the first chapter:

"When the old Liberals removed the gags from all the heresies, their idea was that religious and philosophical discoveries might thus be made. Their view was that cosmic truth was so important that every one ought to bear independent testimony. The modern idea is that cosmic truth is so unimportant that it cannot matter what any one says. The former freed inquiry as men loose a noble hound; the latter frees inquiry as men fling back into the sea a fish unfit for eating. Never has there been so little discussion about the nature of men as now, when, for the first time, any one can discuss it. The old restriction meant that only the orthodox were allowed to discuss religion. Modern liberty means that nobody is allowed to discuss it. Good taste, the last and vilest of human superstitions, has succeeded in silencing us where all the rest have failed."

After recognizing that they have done evil, they have proclaimed that nobody can do good. After recognizing there are wrong things to do, they have proclaimed that there are no right things to do. After recognizing that patriotic people can do evil things, they have proclaimed that patriotic people can only do evil things. After recognizing their reason for being was evil, they proclaimed that every nation's reason for being is evil.

Germany has not dealt with its past at all, which is why all their conclusions are lies. Their conclusions are designed to erase their own culpability. If all the world is just as evil as them, if everything is a gray and there is no good and evil, then how can they bear any responsibility?

Even discarding their obvious moral failings, just as a practical matter, the recent leadership of Germany has been disastrous for the European continent and has resulted in wars and economic disasters.

"Mr. Rudyard Kipling has asked in a celebrated epigram what they can know of England who know England only. It is a far deeper and sharper question to ask, “What can they know of England who know only the world?” for the world does not include England any more than it includes the Church. The moment we care for anything deeply, the world—that is, all the other miscellaneous interests—becomes our enemy. Christians showed it when they talked of keeping one’s self “unspotted from the world;” but lovers talk of it just as much when they talk of the “world well lost.” Astronomically speaking, I understand that England is situated on the world; similarly, I suppose that the Church was a part of the world, and even the lovers inhabitants of that orb. But they all felt a certain truth—the truth that the moment you love anything the world becomes your foe. Thus Mr. Kipling does certainly know the world; he is a man of the world, with all the narrowness that belongs to those imprisoned in that planet. He knows England as an intelligent English gentleman knows Venice. He has been to England a great many times; he has stopped there for long visits. But he does not belong to it, or to any place; and the proof of it is this, that he thinks of England as a place. The moment we are rooted in a place, the place vanishes. We live like a tree with the whole strength of the universe."

After all, it's the anniversary of his Birthday today.

Source: was turn of the century developer at Everything2

> Not that the United States is above criticism

I'd be the first to admit that, for all its virtues, the U.S. Constitution (almost) completely blew off foreign policy.

High time to re-think that, instead of letting unelected pencil-necks spread woe globally.

Hitler was financed by people who opposed the ideas by Max and Engels. People in Germany largely hate Hitler. Stalin did some horrible things primarily to Russians, but people in Russia to this day love Stalin. Same thing with Mao