Book Description
There must have been a Civilization One: a highly advanced precursor to what is currently the earliest recognized civilization. That’s the astounding revelation from a powerful duo of writers that includes the author of the bestselling The Hiram Key. Christopher Knight and Alan Butler’s startling conclusion comes from their quest to crack the mystery of the ancient "megalithic yard"—an incredibly precise unit of measurement that’s based on a deep understanding of the solar system. It seems beyond the comprehension of the supposedly unsophisticated people of Stone Age Britain, and yet not only is it visible in the thousands of megalithic structures built in Britain and France, but this measurement keeps recurring throughout nature and science. The implications of the authors’ breakthrough discovery go far beyond the idea of a super-science or prehistory: they indicate a grand plan that will have far-reading theological ramifications.
Customer Reviews:
Intriguing.......2006-04-21
I have to admit I have never read a book that covered the subject of measurements used by early civilizations that come to such incredible conclussions. If the authors are right, prehistoric people knew much more about astronomy than we give them credit for. These guys definately think outside the box.
simply a WOW.......2006-02-01
have read lots of book in this genre... hat's off to these guys... a masterwork that gives one pause to reconsider our place in history and how humankind perpetually thinks we are smarter than our ancestors... strong evidence for advanced and integrated thinkers long long ago... inspiring to say the least.
BO-RING!!!.......2005-11-07
I am an avid reader and love topics dealing with historic mysteries, as well as other various types of fiction and non-fiction. The writing in this book just plain sucks. It is laborious to read, and makes a fascinating subject matter completely uninteresting.
In addition to poor authoring, there is the matter of the poor scientific basis. Every other point they attempt to make is stated as 'we find this to be self evident' or 'we found it reasonable to assume that'. By all rights, circumstantial evidence should have been enough to convict O.J. However, in this case, then end result is an odor similar to that of the dairy farms south of Sacramento.
Our mysterious ancestors.......2005-07-18
This fascinating book of alternative history examines the evidence of weights and measures and comes to the conclusion that there must have been an advanced culture in prehistory. The structures of the Stone Age were built by using a very precise unit of measurement, called the megalithic yard. The book explores the science behind prehistoric units, their mathematical origin and means of reproduction, and proves that these are linked to the dimensions of the solar system.
The reader must have a basic knowledge of arithmetic but overall the book is an easy read and very revealing. Amongst the topics discussed are writing, Egypt, Sumeria, the Minoan foot, solar and sidereal days, pendulums and the importance of the planet Venus. It turns out that the British Pound and Pint are both derived from ancient measurements. The units of the hour, minute and second were developed more than 4000 years ago, from the movements of the moon.
The text also encompasses subjects like the harmony of the spheres, Sumerian degrees and the calendar, and explains that the metric system is not a recent invention. There is a section on Thomas Jefferson and his achievements; this great man apparently realized that he was rediscovering parts of a very ancient system.
Amongst the most captivating sections is the chapter on music and light. There is a definite correspondence between the rotating mass of our planet and human music. Also, megalithic mathematics produces its own musical structure. The authors conclude that there must have been an advanced people who instructed the rest of the world in science and technology. They also refer to the Masonic concept of the Great Architect of the Universe.
There are seven appendices that include further information on earth days and the megalithic year, megalithic music, the Phaistos Disc, the amazing barley seed, and the connection between megalithic principles and Freemasonry. The colour plates include approximately 20 full colour photographs and there are many black and white illustrations throughout the text. The book concludes with an index.
I also recommend Lost Civilisations Of The Stone Age by Richard Rudgley, Stone Age Soundtracks by Paul Devereux, and Forbidden Archaeology by Michael Cremo and Richard Thompson.
Amazing.......2005-02-15
I love this book and many others that Christopher Knight has written. The ideas put forth by him add a few more pieces to the puzzle of ancient history and science. It's too bad that someone expecting the book to be about something else was compelled to rate it so badly. Not to mention someone else rating it so badly due to the fact that something else is written in the old testament. Don't just read this book hoping to find an argument; read it to gain another viewpoint and some knowledge.
Book Description
A compelling new portrait of the lost realm of Lemuria, the original motherland of humanity
• Contains the most extensive and up-to-date archaeological research on Lemuria
• Reveals a lost, ancient technology in some respects more advanced than modern science
• Provides evidence that the perennial philosophies have their origin in Lemurian culture
Before the Indonesian tsunami or Hurricane Katrina’s destruction of New Orleans, there was the destruction of Lemuria. Oral tradition in Polynesia recounts the story of a splendid kingdom that was carried to the bottom of the sea by a mighty “warrior wave”--a tsunami. This lost realm has been cited in numerous other indigenous traditions, spanning the globe from Australia to Asia to the coasts of both South and North America. It was known as Lemuria or Mu, a vast realm of islands and archipelagoes that once sprawled across the Pacific Ocean. Relying on 10 years of research and extensive travel, Frank Joseph offers a compelling picture of this motherland of humanity, which he suggests was the original Garden of Eden.
Using recent deep-sea archaeological finds, enigmatic glyphs and symbols, and ancient records shared by cultures divided by great distances that document the story of this sunken world, Joseph painstakingly re-creates a picture of this civilization in which people lived in rare harmony and possessed a sophisticated technology that allowed them to harness the weather, defy gravity, and conduct genetic investigations far beyond what is possible today. When disaster struck Lemuria, the survivors made their way to other parts of the world, incorporating their scientific and mystical skills into the existing cultures of Asia, Polynesia, and the Americas. Totem poles of the Pacific Northwest, architecture in China, the colossal stone statues on Easter Island, and even the perennial philosophies all reveal their kinship to this now-vanished civilization.
Customer Reviews:
MU.......2007-08-04
excellent research on a once forgotten continent.Frank Joseph does a great job interviewing those who are native to the pacific and on getting there input on many myths and legends that are relative through out the entire pacific rim.
Good, but with a warped view of Lemuria.......2007-03-26
This book provides excellent archaeological evidence that Lemuria exsited. However, I agree with Robert Muniz's review. I too found it odd that the author made "continued emphasis on caucasians as the central agents of early civilization in every location he discussed." Edgar Cayce stated that the Lemurians were a dark/black race, and that the people of Atlantis were of the red race and white race. Why did Frank Joseph write an entire chapter around Edgar Cayce's readings of Lemuria, not mention this statement, and then imply that the inhabitants were white?
Furthermore, it is scientifically proven that polynesians migrated to oceania from Madagascar and that polynesian languages have roots in African languages. This makes Edgar Cayce's theory have weight to it, that the Lemurians were a dark/black race.
Recently, scientists have found that chicken bones of Polynesian origin in what is today Chile. The chicken bones match those of the species found in Hawaii, Samoa, Tonga, and SE Asia. Also, the Olmec statues in SE Mexico are distinctly black African in appearance.
If anyone has studied Huna, the ancient art of Hawaiian spiritualism, they would have known that the ancient Hawaiians were psychic.
It should also be known that in the 13th century a Japanese was shipwrecked in Hawaii and the Native Hawaiians called him the "white chief with an iron knife". For more documentation on how shipwrecked Asians were considered "white" by the polynesians, go to http://www.sacred-texts.com/pac/hhl/hhl14.htm and read about the first foreigners to Hawaii after the polynesians settled there.
I do admire the archaeological evidence of Lemuria that the author documented. Don't get me wrong. This book provides good hard evidence that the civilization existed. However, as far as race goes, I am inclined to believe that the evidence links the Native Americans, Asians, Polynesians, and people of African descent to Lemuria.
Awesome.......2007-01-25
I have read lots of books most of them pretty good in their domain, i have read books about Atlantis but not much about Lemuria, the thing about
this book is not that is about Lemuria, if it was about Egypt it would still be good, it is the writer's minds that impressed me..
Nothing is new under the sun, like Dalis said "We have not invented a thing" right after he saw the paintings in the french caves of Lascaux.
WE think we are so smart with our cellulars and computers and airplanes and radios, huh .... think again ignorant man for the sun is about to set
Assumptions about race in the book.......2006-12-31
The book presents summarizes a lot of the latest findings in what has been called "forbidden history," which are those topics and findings that contradict established historical theories and timelines. It is easy reading, and very well written.
The one thing that disturbed me when I was reading the book was the continued emphasis by the author on caucasians as the central agents of early civilization in every location he discussed. The fact that caucasian-looking mummies and skeletons have been found in North & South America and in Sinkiang really does not tell us if Caucasians originated any cultural developments -- they were perhaps just visitors to these locations. Some of the mythology of the pre-columbian American nations and the tribes of the south Pacific mention "white" people, but any reasonable person would agree that myth alone is not evidence of anything.
In contrast, there are statues in southern Mexico (I recall them being Olmec) that show faces that appear distinctively to be black African, and the same locality shows other races as well. And genetic findings of the Basque genes in South America are interesting, but a more complete survey of genetic maps (the work of Luigi Cavalli-Sforza comes to mind) show surprising genetic diversity all around the world - for example, there are some estimates that Europenas obtained 65% of their genes from Asian poipulations and 35% from Africans. A totally different worldview of civilization could be inferred from this - and who is to say it would not be correct?
The author's point that established historical and archealogical theories are promoted by careerists in academia and that contradictory evidence is frequently downplayed or supressed is extrememly plausible. However, this does not mean that we should not keep an open and discriminating mind when reviewing any alternatives, including the outlines of this book.
Definitive Look at Lemuria.......2006-08-22
I have more than a passing interest in Lemuria, and Frank Joseph's new book is a definitive look at the subject. Or I should say subjects, as the book examines a plethora of fascinating topics in a rational, almost scholarly fashion. That's refreshing, because many Lemuria books are filled with wild theories and metaphysical speculation that leave the reader frustrated. Joseph is especially strong in the areas of Yonaguni and other Japanese sites (I was surprised to read about a Mu Museum in Japan) and the mysterious Nan Modal on Pohnpei. He posits a very interesting theory explaining its magnetized basalt. Lemuria presents so many mysteries, from white races in the Pacific to the rongo rongo script of Easter Island, that one can become easily confused. Joseph is skillful in separating fact from fiction, yet he still leaves room for imaginative theories. For example, he agrees with geologists in ruling out an actual continental landmass, but makes a good case for an archipelago spanning the Pacific. I was especially intrigued by his connecting Lemurian mysticism with the ancient religion of Shinto and even the Bohn or Boenpo sect of Tibet, which was a forerunner of Buddhism. In short, this book will keep Lemuria buffs intrigued for many hours and is thoroughly recommended.
Book Description
Drawing upon Marxist, French structuralist and American pragmatist traditions, this lively and accessible introduction to the sociology of knowledge gives to its classic texts a fresh reading, arguing that various bodies of knowledge operate within culture to create powerful cultural dispositions, meanings, and categories. It looks at the cultural impact of the forms and images of mass media, the authority of science, medicine, and law as bodies of contemporary knowledge and practice. Finally, it considers the concept of "engendered knowledge" through a consideration of the complex and often troubled relationship between women and science.
The sociology of knowledge has sometimes been marginalized as a narrow academic specialization. This lucid study reclaims it as an essential tool for all serious students of culture in all its forms.
Average customer rating:
- tragedy is what most marks us if we are thinkers ...
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When Men Were the Only Models We Had: My Teachers Fadiman, Barzun, Trilling (Personal Takes)
Carolyn G. Heilbrun
Manufacturer: University of Pennsylvania Press
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ASIN: 0812236327 |
Book Description
"Once upon a time there were three men who exemplified, without knowing it, my ideal in life. All of them became famous as writers, influential thinkers, and public figures. Their names are Clifton Fadiman, Lionel Trilling, and Jacques Barzun. They met in college, they remained aware of one another as friends or, if less than friends, companions and fellow crusaders on behalf of similar ideals. Although one of them never knew of my existence, the second ignored it, and the third treated me with formal kindness, without them I would have had no concrete model in my youth of what I wanted to become. Theirs was the universe in which I wished to have my being."
With these words, Carolyn Heilbrun begins a personal, pointed, and surprisingly moving account of how a woman, destined to become one of the leading feminist critics of her day as well as one of our most popular mystery novelists, found the models for the life she aspired to in men who neither imagined nor countenanced women as their equals or colleagues. Remembering these three figures as they were when she hung upon their printed words and professorial presences, reappraising them now half a century later, Heilbrun vividly evokes what these remarkable individuals had to offer to an admiring young woman who could not acknowledge--and later would not accept--the impossibility of following in their paths.
In the admired anthologies, magazine articles, and introductions through which Fadiman transmitted the world of high culture to an educated general public, he indicated no devotion to questions of female destiny; yet long before Heilbrun could imagine the life in the academy that was denied to Fadiman but would eventually be hers, his was the career to which she privately aspired. Later, in her days as a graduate student at Columbia, it was Trilling who would have the most powerful intellectual effect upon her, formulating as he did the tensions inherent in the desire to salvage what was of worth from a sad, almost moribund culture, even if he frankly admitted to no interest in teaching women or in considering their destinies beyond the domestic sphere. Only the courtly Barzun, also a mentor at Columbia, seemed capable of respecting female accomplishment and eschewing stereotyped views of women. Yet together, all three men unconsciously made Heilbrun's life as a feminist possible, by representing both what she wished to join and what she needed to struggle against.
When Men Were the Only Models We Had is a loving, admiring, but stringent account of youthful enthusiasms, of the romance of ideas, of the intellectual brilliance of three unwitting mentors, and of the hopelessness of female ambition in the years before the feminist movement of the last three decades of the last century. And it is, in the end, a book that offers splendid proof that the models we once had are no longer the only ones before us.
Customer Reviews:
tragedy is what most marks us if we are thinkers ... .......2006-08-16
Since I took a graduate seminar course in women's memoirs in American literature, I have read several books by Heilbrun. As I was not going to specialize in autobiography/memoirs or in feminist theory, I read her more as a writer than a scholar or theorist, focusing more on how she says things than on what. In this regard, I enjoyed every book I read because her language was something unique. It is clear and concise, without being simple, authoratitive without being pedantic, seemingly aloof yet strangely persuasive. If passion is another name for talent, she is very, very passionate, but that passion is moderated with a unique kind of resignation (or perhaps, wisdom).
This book is not my favorite, and compared to other titles such as Writing Women's Lives, it does indeed gets slow and heavy here and there. There are parts where even those in the same line of work as Heilbrun's would go, "Who cares?" or "Why bother?" Yet, largely, it is accessible and *fun*. Read as an intellectual memoir, it is a story about how Heilbrun was gratefully influenced by three men, how she resisted and embraced their influence, and how she finally grew out of it. There are many interesting anecdotes coming from her encounters with these men (Barzun, Fadiman, and Trilling) and her life as a graduate student in the 50s at one of the most highly regarded universities in the US. Students of today would gasp at the nightmarish inconvinience of having only two copies of their papers, and painfully taking turns in reading other student's papers due to the lack of copies.
Heilbrun devoted a chapter to Diana Trilling, which wasn't her plan when he planned on the book. She was fascinated and gained admiration for her in the process of research for the book, and readers would clearly see why in the chapter on her. In sum, according to Heilbrun, Diana Trilling is a woman whose insights on her life come largely from feminism ("the most successful revolution of our century," Trilling herself called it), yet who was not herself a feminist. She accepted a life of belittlements from others, while having penetrating understanding of those belittlements.
Early in the book, Heilbrun notes that perhaps one of the most palpable influences she got from Lionel Trilling would be the notion that "tragedy is what most marks us if we are thinkers." This is what Trilling shares with Freud, and this is what Heilbrun shares with Trilling, despite her distrust of Freud, and to some extent, of Trilling as well. This comment comes after an anecdote about Trilling's inspiring lecture on Henry James, from which young Heilbrun took the idea that "the essence of literature was in the tensions of the thinking life." This part of the book is strangely moving, and makes me think hard about the interplay among "tension," "thinking life," "tragedy," and "literature." A small and not really an ambitious book, but contains much fun and insights.
Book Description
• Reveals the secret teachings from the Judeo-Christian traditions that promote the use of psychedelic substances to enhance religious transcendence.
• Explains how special meditations were designed to be performed while partaking of the "psychedelic sacrament".
In The Mystery of Manna, religious historian Dan Merkur provided compelling evidence that the miraculous bread that God fed the Israelites in the wilderness was psychedelic, made from bread containing ergot--the psychoactive fungus containing the same chemicals from which LSD is made. Many religious authorities over the centuries have secretly known the identity and experience of manna and have left a rich record of their involvement with this sacred substance.
In The Psychedelic Sacrament, a companion work to The Mystery of Manna, Dan Merkur elucidates a body of Jewish and Christian writings especially devoted to this tradition of visionary mysticism. He discusses the specific teachings of Philo of Alexandria, Rabbi Moses Maimonides, and St. Bernard of Clairvaux that refer to special meditations designed to be performed while partaking of the "psychedelic sacrament." These meditations combine the revelatory power of psychedelics with the rational exercise of the mind, enabling the seeker to achieve a qualitatively enhanced state of religious transcendence. The Psychedelic Sacrament sheds new light on the use of psychedelics in the Western mystery tradition and deepens our understanding of the human desire for divine union.
Customer Reviews:
Entheogenic, rational, short-session mysticism.......2002-04-01
Merkur shows the existence of a more or less continuous tradition of psychoactive Western religion. Various separate threads of mystic techniques have sometimes come together to form an approach to the mystic altered state that is based on rational reflection, together with short-session use of visionary plants, rather than continuous long-term meditation.
This book associates a seemingly overlooked tradition of short-session meditation with the use of psychoactive, visionary plants. The use of psychoactives enables a more rationality-oriented approach and obviates the need to constantly meditate for long-term periods. This entheogen-using, short-session, rational form of mysticism is being increasingly recognized throughout Western history. Meditation, psychoactives, and rational thinking can be and historically have been brought together to augment each other.
Merkur helps entheogen researchers focus not only on revealing the presence of particular plants in mystic-state practices, but also on the traditions of using the plants in a shared religious framework and reflecting on the experiences produced by the visionary plants. The field of mysticism greatly needs such coverage of the important and challenging semi-secret tradition of not only entheogen use, but entheogen use combined with rational mysticism and short-session meditation.
I don't think Merkur is claiming that the mystics who combine these approaches claim that every aspect of mystic experiencing is entirely rationally explainable and conceptually tangible; the vision of the transcendent cosmic throne may still include a certain aspect that is, in a way, beyond the reach of complete, direct conceptualization.
Despite the seemingly entrenched assumptions that mysticism is inherently slow and laborious, drug-free, and non-rational, rational short-session meditation forms an effective alternative tradition or alternative view of what approach makes sense. This proposal contradicts the dominant assumptions about the techniques and conventions of mysticism: the assumption, perhaps misguided, that mysticism ideally should not use psychoactives, is not rationality-oriented, and must be conducted for extended, endlessly long meditation periods. In some semi-obscured traditions that are recently coming to light, these approaches have come together naturally and effectively.
This seems similar to the "lightning-bolt" short-path variety of Buddhist meditation technique as portrayed by James Arthur in Mushrooms and Mankind, which points out that Vajrayana was created by combining Tantric Buddhism and the native Bon shamanism of Tibet. The approach Merkur describes also seems equivalent to the evident visionary-state experiencing on tap in the Hellenistic mystery-religions, in which a person commonly undergoes a moderate number of limited-duration initiations to achieve spiritual purification and mental transformation, reshaping the mind's conception of the self by the encounter with transcendent experiencing.
Merkur, as psychologist, contrasts the experience of loss of the sense of personal freedom, which he portrays as being conventional mysticism, with a supposedly different experience of a psychoactive rational mysticism that involves panic attacks. However, I'd point out that the loss of the sense of being a metaphysically free agent is integral to a mystic-state panic attack. When the psychoactive perspective and self-sense, combined with rational analysis about our assumption of personal sovereign agency, suspends the sense of wielding metaphysically free power, that is the very cause and central vortex of the panic attack. The self-commanding part of the mind panics because the mind perceives the lack of metaphysical freedom and self-control, and sees the mind's vulnerable dependence on the mysterious uncontrollable arising of personal control-thoughts, like discovering that one's controllership is dependent on whatever happens to come up from an underground spring in a cave.
Merkur uses the Psychology interpretive paradigm, but that would be strengthened by a stronger Philosophy of Metaphysics background, including the philosophy of time and responsible control agents. The book doesn't really explain what the union with God experience, or the vision of the invisible transcendent controller on the cosmic throne above one's personal controllership level, would be like for a modern entheogenic rational mystic.
Merkur reveals the occasional conjunction of Western religion and psychoactives, and also a kind of rationality which I would call, with Ken Wilber, "vision-logic" or visionary rationality.
Fortunately, this book does not depend on identifying mystic sacraments as any one visionary plant. There is consensus in the field of the entheogen theory of religion that it is more important to identify scriptural allusions to psychoactives, and find how psychoactives were combined with meditation and visionary rationality, than to identify the main and minor entheogens used. The important point is to recognize the terms "sacrament" or "manna" as meaning visionary plants.
Subsections include The Necessity of Vision; Philo's Meditative Practices; Other Varieties of Ecstasy in Philo; The Contemplative Practice of Aristotle; Discursive Meditations in Islam; Bernard on Intellectualist Mysticism; Bernard on Trance-Based Mysticism; Death and Resurrection at Sinai; Maimonides on Meditation, and others.
Merkur provides essential coverage of primary religious experiencing at the origin and heart of Judeo-Christianity, providing highly valuable contributions that help to discovering the semi-suppressed tradition and history of entheogens in Western religion, as well as expanding our expectations about the nature of mystic experiencing. This book is a step toward covering entheogens casually as just one part, not especially novel or controversial, of a system of philosophy and religion.
This scholarly book is clear, organized, and presents a focused and well-supported thesis -- an excellent source for researchers to cite. Merkur is a clear writer who states where he's headed, states why he's covering subjects, and summarizes what he has established.
An invaluable, much needed, must-have contribution to research in the history of mysticism, theory of mystic-state insight and experiencing, and the entheogen theory of religion.
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- "Resistance is Futitle"
- A very insightful look into modern media trends
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Last Flesh: Life in the Transhuman Era
Christopher Dewdney
Manufacturer: HarperCollins Canada
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Binding: Paperback
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ASIN: 0006384722 |
Customer Reviews:
"Resistance is Futitle".......2003-08-14
An interesting view ... interesting. Kind'a the future of humanity as Borgs. he brings some very keen points to light. For instance, after reading a section on how people separte themseleves from the people surrounding them, I can't wear earphones from my CD player anymore. I see it as rude now, where before I didn't give it a second thought.
A very insightful look into modern media trends.......1998-06-23
I found this book to contain many interesting points about how growing technology is effecting how we eat, see and look.
The layout was interesting. Every two pages or so started a new sub-topic under which a new idea was brought up and discussed which were in the forms of a short essey, all of which were reinforced with references and/or quotations.
Christopher Dewdney incorperated his immence ability to write poetry in smoothly with his essays. This is not to say that he stuck a poem in every paragraph; however, he managed to express his feelings about the subject without sacrificing the integrity of the fact that it IS an essay.
To close I must say that this is a beautifully written book full of interesting information and insites.
Customer Reviews:
Well founded, but faulted too.......2007-01-27
Very interesting book. It exposes several modern day myths for what they are--myths, and provides the scholarship and research to demonstrate the shaky foundations on which they are constructed. The book is subtitle, "The Epidemic of False Knowledge", and Thornton begins with an overview of how false knowledge permeates our society. But it is not a modern problem. He goes to the roots of it, the Romanticism and Enlightenment movements, and how they became strange bedfellows. Then he examines three particular myths in deep detail to demonstrate just how false they are and how pervasive the myths have become. However, he indulges in his own bit of false knowledge by demonstrating how little he knows about creation science by insisting it is based entirely on feelings and faith, with no empirical evidence. Also, in his hurry to dismiss the lie about goddess worship being the true religion of the past, he lets his cynical chauvinism show. So for all the good the book does, he undermines that with his own shortsightedness, looking down his nose from the pedestal he has erected, indulging in his own snideness, which he sees so clear in others but not himself.
Good, but not Thornton's best.......2006-12-13
I think this is a solid book, even if he goes overboard on occasion. He is at his best in challenging the cliches which pass for facts at many modern universities. He is criticized for not criticizing conservative theories as much but look at the class list of any modern university--there is hardly a conservative class or professor left to criticize. Over the last ten or fifteen years even moderates are becoming scarce, even in the classics departments, formerly bastions of conservativism. There needs to be a few brave souls like Thornton who will challenge the academic status quo.
Welcome to the twenty first century.......2006-10-22
I loved reading all the literary allusions, and I loved the flow of language, but, ultimately, this book should be titled "Plaques of MY Mind". Dr. Thornton commits every error of logic he criticizes other for. Intriquing though it is to think that all psychological theory is bunk, it is not true. Although it is refreshing to read someone who has carefully read Greek and Roman literature, as well as most literature before the twentieth century, I feel that one needs to have a responsible attitude towards the problems of our times. His ideas have just enough of a ring of truth about them to make them dangerously misleading.
Thornton's Plagued Mind.......2006-02-20
I'm glad I read this, at the urging of a conservative friend, but my bottom line is that I don't have much use for the thoughts of a classicist trying to reason from first principles. They're readable and sometimes interesting, but mostly polemical and based on axioms beyond question, or on attitudes beyond admission. Thornton seems to believe a debate is won to the extent that opponents have been ridiculed and insulted. Perhaps this is classicist snobbery in action? How are formal debates scored, anyway? Who knows? Who cares? That's an activity best left to lawyers in training. It would have been a nice touch to attempt at least one demolishment of an identifiably conservative idea, but this didn't seem to be in the cards.
Thornton's treatment of the area of "false knowledge" of greatest interest to me, "romantic" environmentalism, provides a great example of the above. Thornton disses McKibben (with whom I'm not familiar, so cannot defend) as advocating a "flaccid" pantheism "redolent" of J F Cooper (The Prairie; Last of the Mohicans). IMHO, the use of these terms reveals a deep-seated insecurity on Thornton's part, which is enough for me to discount much of what he says. "Pantheists are pansies" is not exactly an argument that rises to the level of "classical". Presumably, bible-thumping christian soldiers are by comparison chomping at the bit to go riding out and do manly battle with nature, its predators and vicissitudes, as well as any heathens who may happen to get in the way of the glory of god. What a crock. Thornton would soil himself if he ever came face to face with angry lions or tigers or bears or aborigines, just like the rest of us. The difference is that he is so insecure about this natural reaction, that he would at least claim to relish a chance to prove he could rise to the occasion and survive it (or get a Darwin award trying). Whereas, a pantheist would stay out of sight with a camera and catch some good shots, while setting some traps if there were a legitimate threat to human settlements.
There is much about "new age" philosophy or religion to ridicule and discredit, and Thornton misses no opportunity to do so. But, like most of his arguments, this consists mainly in setting up straw man advocates that discredit themselves and then extending the conclusion to a much broader area of thought. For example, he cites Ted Kazinsky as a guru of environmentalism. That not being enough, he dredges up the purported enthusiasm of the Third Reich for environmentalism. Well, the Nazi's had enough nastiness to go around for everyone, evidently.
Does the existence of lions, tigers, and bears (or tsunamis, volcanoes, earthquakes, impacting bolides) mean that nature is "inhuman", and "unlovely"? Perhaps it depends on how one approaches it. If we were planted here out of the blue by a playful god, perhaps Thornton is right. But I'd say one can learn a great deal more about how the noble natives and goddesses have dealt more or less successfully with nature and with each other by reading Jared Diamond, rather than Thornton. That said, I am glad I gave the book a look...
Fighting False Knowledge with False Knowledge.......2005-11-06
Though I have not finished reading the book, when I got into Chapter 5 I had such a strong reaction to the argument I felt I could not wait to comment.
In answer to the author's invitation in the first paragraph of his Preface, that his "own ideas be subject to the same scrutiny", I submit what I see as one of the most glaring difficulties with this book: Bruce Thornton's use of Darwinian Evolutionary Theory to argue against Romantic Environmentalism. He appears to have swallowed--hook, line and sinker--this massive body of debatable (perhaps false) knowledge, the science of which he does not seem to question. As an antidote to this strain of the virus, I would strongly recommend a dose of Phillip E. Johnson, e.g., [...]
In spite of this flaw, I still found most of Part I to be helpful reading; especially as one who is a 'member of the choir'.
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The Cultural Dialectics of Knowledge and Desire (New Directions in Anthropological Writing)
Charles W. Nuckolls
Manufacturer: University of Wisconsin Press
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ASIN: 0299151247 |
Book Description
Why is culture a problem that can never be solved? Charles W. Nuckolls poses this question to his readers, and offers a genuinely synthetic approach to culture that is both cognitive and psychoanalytic. He develops a theory of cultural dialectics based on the concept of paradox, in which he shows how ambivalence and conflicts, and the desire to resolve them, are at the heart of all cultural knowledge systems. Nuckolls combines and synthesizes the ideas of Max Weber and Sigmund Freudmajor influences in the cognitive and psychoanalytic paradigmsand develops the concept basic to both: the dialectic. He recovers the legacy of Gregory Bateson, who provided the foundation for a theory of paradox in culture. With his integrated theory, Nuckolls explains the conflicts of knowledge and desire in a South Asian knowledge system, in particular the religious mythology and divinatory system of the Jalaris, a Telugu-speaking fishing caste on the southeastern coast of India. This provocative book allows us to rethink the relationship between the currently competing discourses in psychological and cultural anthropology, and at the same time offers a general synthetic theory of cultural dynamics.
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- An excellent survey for any interested in future and prediction
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Armageddon Now
James Willis
Manufacturer: Visible Ink Press
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ASIN: 1578591686 |
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So you don’t believe we’re on the eve of destruction? Authors Jim and Barbara Willis mine the religious and secular divide as they examine the history of apocalyptic beliefs in Armageddon Now. The authors explain the various omens and prophecies as well as the actual events that may trigger the end, such as collisions with asteroids, nuclear war, the oil crisis, global warming, and famine. But as the authors point out, there have always been plenty of signs pointing to the boom in gloom: predicting the order of finish kept Nostradamus in print for centuries, and the ancient Mayans helpfully projected that calendar sales would drop to nothing after 2012. They are all part of the long history on the end of history.
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An excellent survey for any interested in future and prediction.......2006-06-23
ARMAGEDDON NOW: THE END OF THE WORLD A TO Z covers the end of everything in all belief systems; from the Rapture to scientific views of possible end of world scenarios. An A-Z arrangement looks at predictions, prophets and science side-by-side, providing extensive listings, not just paragraph listings, of theology, including many quotes from source materials. An excellent survey for any interested in future and prediction - or the history of such predictions made in the past.
Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch
Book Description
- The only book written for undergraduates about the social construction of reality that is also historical and comparative. In addition, it includes chapters on the social construction of time and space, as well as the more traditional chapters on race, class, and gender.
- This book shows how these social constructions of time, space, race, gender and class intersect with each other to produce particular social phenomena that are enduring and significant for our society. No other book for undergraduate teaching has ever done this … this is a real first!
"If the goal of this series is to broaden the students'' vision, no book is more ambitious toward attaining that goal than Making Societies. Roy helps students question the most ''natural'' of categories: time, space, gender, race, and class. Leading them through examples drawn from around the world, he shows how these categories are social constructions; historically formed, ideologically loaded, and subject to change. This may be profoundly unsettling, for students will be encouraged to question not only what they know but also the conceptual frameworks they use when they claim to understand anything. As Series Editors, it is our belief that this provocation will open new ways of thinking about the social world, how it is, and how it might be."
--Wendy Griswold, Series Editor, Northwestern University, from the foreword
"I love the organizing concept of the social construction of reality and using a cross-cultural historical comparative approach to analyzing key themes: space, time, race, gender, and class. I particularly like the focus on space and time first because it illustrates how deeply embedded the social construction of reality is."
--Joanne Defiore, University of Washington, Bothel
"The book is intellectually strong; it is driven by ideas and engages important processes of social life."
-- Lisa Brush, University of Pittsburgh
Books:
- Codependent No More: How to Stop Controlling Others and Start Caring for Yourself
- Cultural Criticism: A Primer of Key Concepts (Feminist Perspective on Communication)
- Death by Black Hole: And Other Cosmic Quandaries
- Dog Train: A Wild Ride on the Rock-and-Roll Side (Book & CD)
- Every Day, Everywhere: Global Perspectives on Popular Culture
- Every Day, Everywhere: Global Perspectives on Popular Culture
- Everyday Theology: How to Read Cultural Texts and Interpret Trends (Cultural Exegesis)
- Fast Food: Roadside Restaurants in the Automobile Age (The Road and American Culture)
- Firefly: The Official Companion: Volume Two
- Fitzpatrick's Color Atlas & Synopsis of Clinical Dermatology
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