/lit/ - Literature

actually, i'm open to basically anything that will broaden my horizons. Whether it be politics, religion, ways of viewing life, etc. WHATEVER.

First: don't be taken in by psuedo-intellectual coffee-house philosophist hipsters. It's all a popularity game to them (lol I'm more well-read than you, plebian swine).

Second, I find that most schools of politics concern themselves with one thing or the other: Economy, Government, or Social Paradigms. Political Theorists seem to think that if you can get one thing right, the rest will fall into place. I think that's weird, but I'm just a shmuck, so whatever.

Now, here's a short list of authors :)

George Orwell and Aldous Huxley. For some reason, I always think of them together. They are both afraid of the suppression of humanity. The former believed it would be through such insane oppression that everything mattered, the later believed it would be making everything so trivial that nothing mattered.

Eduard Bernstein was a German Jew and one of the earliest Social Democrats. He was a socialist, yes, but also a harsh critic of "orthodox communism." He believed that the free, efficient socialist society can only be achieved through capitalism. A paper I read that helped me understand this was "Spreading the Wealth" by Peter Lorenzi.

Murray N Rothbard is considered to be a leader in the Libertarian movement, and the father of the anarcho-capitalist movement. He founded important political journals, namely "Left and Right: a Journal of Libertarian Thought." One great paper I read by him is "The Spooner-Tucker Doctrine."

There's tons of tasty knowledge out there. Honestly, the best way to find it is to scour a University library. They all have online catalogues. You could also use ProQuest, JStore, Google Scholar or other scholarly search engines.

Enjoy :)

>>912249
Religion is an easy one: look for books about Buddhism lol. There's plenty. My favorite is "The Teachings of Buddha." It might go by another name, probably containing the word "Dharma."

Also, read "Siddhartha" by Herman Hesse. It's a work of fiction, but it's oh so poignant. I love it.

Consider reading the scripture of world religions, if anything just so you can know the basis of their thought (and see that they are all hypocrites).

Also, check out Alex Grey's Wikipedia page. It has links to all kinds of cool stuff.

Oh, go to Joy of Satan.org it explains what the Left Hand Path is all about. You may be surprised :)

>>912272
don't listen to this guy

>>912265
listen to this guy
>First: don't be taken in by psuedo-intellectual coffee-house philosophist hipsters. It's all a popularity game to them (lol I'm more well-read than you, plebian swine).
that's awesome. also, it occured to me that it'd be awesome if this anon was a woman

>>912283
Those are actually both from me, and I am a man - sorry brah.

Why shouldn't he listen to the second part?

>>912265
thank you so much.
I wasn't expecting such a great answer.

I saved all of those, including the essays, so I can check them out when it's not >2 AM.

>>912283
It appears that you have failed in 4chan.

>>912241
Jesus fucking Christ. Why is it that everyone these days has to be spoonfed information when this shit is more accessible than ever? Do you have any idea how easy you have it?
You have heard of google. Use, fucking, google.

Stupid summer poster, no fucking doubt.

>>912293
You could have just not posted in this thread, but whatever, go you.

>>912292
I'm not that guy, but I'm curious as to why you say that?

Henry David Thoreau (Walden, Civil Disobedience, and other essays) was one of the main influences of Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr. Definitely check him out, along with his colleague Ralph Waldo Emerson. Thoreau is great for political ideology, which was the same as his ideology on life, and broadening horizons in general. One could call him a benevolent anarchist or anti-statist.

>>912293
Well i guess I could use google to find some books on the subject im looking for, but i thought I'd use these forums for their purpose.

Plus, I thought someone would have some suggestions based off of their experiences, and would help me weed out the bad ones before i go out and buy a bunch of books.


But thanks for giving me a hard time. You did alot of good.

>>912293
Then what do you come here for? Certainly not the conversation.

>>912299

These are great suggestions.

>>912297
I am morally bound to point out and mock idiocy wherever I see it. While partially compulsive it would be a lie to say my rantings were not also fueled by a deep emotional motivation, namely anger.

Your flippant response was also unnecessary but whatever, go you too.

>>912307
If you feel compelled to mock idiocy, then you must really hate yourself.

>>912302
Are you suggesting that, because the conversation on this board is bad, I should abandon attempts to improve its content and embrace instead the coddling of confessed idiots?
Why do you come here?

>>912307
Well, I think you mocked ignorance, which makes you quite idiotic.

>>912313
this poster is exactly what >>912265 was talking about.
> First: don't be taken in by psuedo-intellectual coffee-house philosophist hipsters. It's all a popularity game to them (lol I'm more well-read than you, plebian swine).

>>912312
I am compelled to mock it in order to try to shame people into either leaving or lurking, all in effort to try and improve this (and other) boards' quality. In the past it was simply enough to ignore those bad threads but lately the ratio between good and bad posters has become horribly skewed and active measures must be taken.

>>912313
To mock faggots like you :3

Oh, and talk about books.

>>912293
Yes, google can definitely always give precise answers to specific questions that you can trust without getting information on personal experiences or opinions. The objective, omniscient google is certainly more adept at answering a question like this than a group of supposedly well-read individuals who can discuss and exchange ideas on certain subjects. What a dishonor that someone actually tries to discuss and asks for opinions on literature on a board about literature rather than use google.

>>912318

You clearly have a very high opinion of yourself, or at least of your taste in literature.

>>912318
Well good luck with that. Way to piss in an ocean of piss.

>>912318
quit being such a negative elitist prick.

Instead of using this time to complain in a place where it is not needed, maybe you should use your time to compile something to help fix what you are talking about.
Make a thread full of suggestions and such and get it archived on 4chanarchive.org and then refer people to it when they post common questions/"bad posts".


or is it easier to just complain?

>>912322
FOOL, Google is Ayn Rand incarnate. To mock it is to mock God.

>>912316
>psuedo-intellectual coffee-house philosophist hipsters
In what way does this describe me? I never made any claim to being an intellectual, of being some philosopher, of being well-read. I simply hate to see another board, a promising board at that, fall to the same pattern as /a/, /v/, or any of the others that failed to halt the influx of ill-adapted posters.

If you are trying to say I am an elitist because I am trying to maintain some level of quality on this board than so be it, label me as one, I am just trying to prevent this place from falling to shit.

>>912327
That label fits you to a T, brah.

>>912327
Your attempts to regulate the board by mocking people who ask for opinions on literature isn't doing anything to make a literature board better.

Guys, stop feeding the troll.

>>912322
I... love... you...

I wish i could've said that as well as you just did.
I guess that's why i made this thread. To learn and workout my mind and reclaim my brain from the damage that has been done from the 3-4 years of straight video game playing and movie watching.

>>912334
I didnt finish that... whoops..


continued... so i can articulate my thoughts and put them down on paper like this anon. Recently ive had trouble even talking aloud and stumble on my thoughts and never know how to say things.

>>912327

Clearly your taste is not shared by others here, and since your taste isn't a baseline and you're not an arbiter of quality for 4chan... fuck right off.

Or contribute something useful. Stop wasting your and others' time.

Good overview book would be "The Worldly Philosophers".

>>912327
This is what you don't realize.
Complaining gets nothing done. Bringing others down gets nothing done. The best thing you can do to help /lit/ become the image board utopia you are envisioning is to help new people (like me, op) get into /lit/erature.

http://njuikop.angelfire.com/sitemap.html
http://polkimju.angelfire.com/sitemap.html
http://ikmjuyh.tripod.com/sitemap.html
http://uytdh.happyhost.org/sitemap.html
http://mjuyhnber.tripod.com/sitemap.html
http://jhgfdfth.happyhost.org/sitemap.html
http://xfhx.far.ru/sitemap.html
http://edrfvbg.321webs.com/sitemap.html
http://sdgxdy.dax.ru/sitemap.html
http://eearsawrse.hop.ru/sitemap.html

>>912338
>>912335
>>912334
You're a good guy, OP :) Don't worry, even the highest of intellectuals can be a little sloppy with words. Trying to "sharpen your mind tools" is one of the most honorable of pursuits, so showing passion for it is indicative of strong character.

The Mismeasure of Man - Stephen Jay Gould
Armageddon in Retrospect - Kurt Vonnegut (or Vonnegut in general even)
The Book: On the Taboo Against Knowing Who You Are - Alan Watts
and, assuming you haven't read much
Ishmael - Daniel Quinn (inb4 underrated, it's a good stepping stone)

>>912322
>>912334

This is the problem with people today, they expect something else, someone ELSE, to do all the work for them, be it google or otherwise. It is simply a tool, a powerful one yes but one you must learn to use properly. Part of becoming involved with a culture is learning how to access that information on your own in order to one day be a contributor and not just a leach. What really gets me about these recommendation threads is that all information already exists elsewhere online and with just a little bit of effort or knowhow they can be readily accessed.
When people make a rec thread they are effectively saying "sorry guys, I can't be arsed to search but your time certainly isn't worth a dime so spoon feed me". And inevitably, they will come back thinking rec threads are okay, and then more people will see that these threads are okay and make more, and more, stomping out any real content the board might have.
Really any bad threads from "rate my poem plx" to "Lol, Ayn Rand Vs Twighlight trollolol" work this way. See /a/ or /v/, these places became shit holes because of complacency.

>>912352
Ok, I can understand that but you just went full retard in your earlier posts, so it's pretty obvious that nobody took you seriously.

OP, if you want some good source materials (the essentials) for Anarchical literature, try:

Anarchism and Other Essays by Emma Goldman
The Conquest of Bread by Peter Kroptokin

>>912352
OP here.

Ok i feel your frustration with the whole 'board becoming overwhelmed with suggestion threads' concern.

This is why i suggested you use your anger in a positive way and make a thread and create an archive of common suggestions, and try to either get it stickied or atleast get it archived so you and other people can refer people to that instead. /fa/ did this and it was successful.

If there is no stream of new posters, this board will die. Use suggestion threads in a positive way. Suggest good books. Itll keep those people coming back and adding to conversation.

>>912338
I am not trying to create a /lit/opia, I am trying to keep it from going to shit both in the interest of this board and also others from potential spillover.

>>912325
What is broken, what need fixing, are the bad posters which is something which certainly not easy to fix.

>>912337
Perhaps I am not a baseline but all the same I am a user and a part of this community, just like what you are doing now with me I feel obligated to try and prune this place into good shape, or at least what I consider to be acceptable.

We have boards like /r/ and /adv/ for a reason. The op clearly was not looking for a discussion and was merely requesting suggestions. Why you protect him I do not understand.

>>912352
I recommended Henry David Thoreau earlier. I've already read Henry David Thoreau. It's my opinion that it fits the author's criteria. It took me at most 20 seconds to write out my response, recommending Henry David Thoreau. Such terribly rigorous work that the author imposed upon me, I know. I doubt anyone here has done any "work" other than recommend things that they already personally know. It's not like someone is out here scouring through journals and literary magazines to do this guy's "work." We're just recommending literature we already know and that we find the author would want. Now, I have spent much more time doing the work of explaining to you simple rules of interaction and discussion as well as common sense than I have recommending literature to someone who asked.

>>912341
Thanks very much anon. really... i appreciate it.
For now, i'm going to go sleep.
Thanks everyone for your suggestions. I have saved all of them in a .doc and will order some of them tomorrow. I'm also going to bookmark this thread incase it doesnt die by the time I wake up tomorrow (which i dont think it will, because from the looks of things, /lit/ is slow.) so i can see if anyone made any additional suggestions.


Thanks again everyone.

>>912359
>>912362
Look, read your posts over again, this is exactly what begins rotting a board.

First, any cultural cohesion melts away.
>you just went full retard in your earlier posts, so it's pretty obvious that nobody took you seriously.
This should not have happened. If we were all on the same page you would have understood my frustrations. I did not go "full retard" in my previous posts, the content was not different from what I am stating now. The only difference is that you required an explanation to understand what I was saying. This confusion and misunderstanding is frustrating at the least and not at all conducive to a healthy board.

And op,
>This is why i suggested you use your anger in a positive way and make a thread and create an archive of common suggestions, and try to either get it stickied or atleast get it archived so you and other people can refer people to that instead. /fa/ did this and it was successful.
Perhaps you did not fully read my posts but this is what I am trying to avoid. You expect me and others, again, to coddle you. Instead of simply lurking there is a feeling of entitlement, that I somehow owe you this tutorial and that it is okay to expect it. People become dependent on the crutch of others and content becomes stagnant, I mean look at /b/ today. These children cannot even operate mspaint let alone the wondrous photoshop works of old. Is this a future you want for /lit/?

>>912370
The only thing I hear is that you're too lazy and would rather complain than do something about it. THAT is the problem with people today. Also, slippery slope fallacy; someone asks for literature recommendations on /lit/, we're turning into /b/!

>>912370
The point is, nothing you have said contributed to the thread in a meaningful way AT ALL. All you've done is whine, complain, put people down, and generally make a dripping cunt out of yourself.

Whatever your intentions were, whatever kind of ubermensch you make yourself out to be, all you've done is act like an asshole and all you are is an asshole.

>>912370
By full retard I meant that you were trying to insult. That's just not helping a board in any way. Anyway, I'm out. Bye.

Admittedly I've posted my fare share of request threads but I like to think I give it back - giving suggestions in this thread and others for example - with equal or greater force/effort.

>>912378
Don't forget to write.

Or do forget, that way we won't have to deal with you anymore.

>>912298
>>912285
I still want answers to these questions lol.

>>912384
My bet's on that said anon(s) left a while ago.

>>912384
He's afraid of intelligent discussion. The very thing he was "fighting" for.

>>912387
I don't think that was the same guy as Mr. Blue-Anon, but if it was, it makes sense :P

>>912390
Whoops, for some reason i thought it was the same person. upon further inspection i realized it wasnt.

post deleted. carry on!

Wha...? What happened to the post?

very well argued there opponent of op.

op seems to be what he himself describes as a 'psuedo-intellectual coffee-house philosophist hipster'. He seems quite keen to get involved in a 'popularity game' where op and his buddies are most popular and his opponents aint.

>>912382
It's not the same person.

>>912393
A fucking intellectual train-wreck. There were some casualties.

Ah, rightio

Well >>912348 was my contribution, hope it was somewhere near the line/s you had hoped for.

>>912398
Holy shit i lol'd.

>>912352
>>912396
samefag

>>912399
Brah, as long as you made actual suggestions, you're a fucking happy helper :P

>>912397
Who isn't?

>>912377
You are absolutely correct, I did not contribute to this thread's content and did not address op's topic directly. That is why I was saging and not bumping this thread with my posts. You were all perfectly free to ignore what I wrote but chose not to, derailment really falls into your hands, not mine.

>>912376
It is not merely a theory, it is observed fact. Look at /a/, look at /v/.

>>912379
This only cements my point, request threads beget more request threads.

>>912378
>>912382
Would you, and op, happen to be female by any chance? Not accusing, just curious.

Why is anyone still responding to this aspie after he implied he visits /a/?

>>912465
I will do you better than an implication, I will declare that I used to visit /a/, quite frequently in fact. But that was before the /a/ /jp/ split.

I also notice that you do not confront me about visiting /v/, a board in arguably much worse condition. Evidenced by this fact and your misuse of the label "aspie" I guess I can assume you frequent that silly board.

>>912477
No, I'm not from /v/. I frequent here and I will sparingly browse /ck/.

Point is, you are not the arbitrator of /lit/. We get plenty of these threads asking for recommendations and no one seems to mind (if they do, they're clearly in the minority). The only request threads people tend to hate are the lazy assholes who just come in and say something like "hey, give me a book."

A thread asking for something specific is, in my eyes, absolutely fine. Sure, OP could just use google, but to what affect? Here he will get (almost) real time response by people who may actually have knowledge in the field. They're people who may have been through exactly what OP is about to undertake and share their experiences.

When it comes down to it, the people of /lit/ will have the final say on the worth of these threads. We're not going to be governed by some overweight neckbeard from /a/ who pisses and moans while slamming his cheeto encrusted fists on his keyboard.

>>912477
>>912405
Thanks for exhuming and raping the corpse of this thread with more of your drivel.
>>912511
I fucking lost it at the "cheeto encrusted fists" bit.

>>912511
As I stated, I am not from /a/. In fact, like you, I am a person of /lit/, and as you have mentioned I get a say in /lit/'s content, just like you. No, I am not an arbitrator of /lit/ but my interests as a user of this board are worth voicing, just as you think yours are.

Google will net an individual instant feedback and its potential is limited by the abilities of the user, abilities that can either be grown or squandered. I am trying to help these people, show them some basic methods required to be a positive, functioning member of this board. You are inhibiting this by allowing such content to continue.

You say "what book should I read" threads are acceptable but "what sci-fi" or "what romantic" or "what political book should I read" threads are acceptable? What kind of principle is that?

And perhaps you did not bother to read my past posts, or maybe you simply skimmed over them too quickly (they do seem to be a bit preachy) but you seem to have failed to grasp the core of any of my arguments; you have missed the all important "why".

Further, to try and advance an argument by calling me an overweight neck-beard who enjoys cheetos is hardly beneficial on your part. Attacking an individual's person, especially when over an anonymous imageboard on the internet using unoriginal mimetic phrases, reflects poorly on you, not me.

>>912272
Seconding Siddhartha. Tao of Pooh/Te of Piglet are both pretty good, I'd recommend Tao of Pooh over Te of Piglet though.

>>912522
I did not "exhume" this thread at all, everything I wrote in this thread was posted using sage.

>>912511
This individual was the one to bump it back up to the front, not me.

>>912549
>>912544
lol relax, homo.
>>912511
>>912546
are you two the same guy? If so, I offer you my digital blow-jobs.

>>912556
In your mind does calling me a homo somehow relive you of your ignorant remark? How did homo even make sense as an insult. As far as relaxing goes, I was under the impression that we were having a relaxed conversation, when did this escalate?

>>912405
>>912465
>>912477
Blue Anonymous...was he talking to himself?

>>912584
He must be. No one else gives a shit about his retarded posts.

>>912567
Figure it out.

>>912589
>>912584
Sorry, Blue Anonymous? Are you talking about having an entry in the E-mail field? Those were sages, anyone can do them. Just like this, watch.

>>912567
Go to bed, faggot.

>>912595
Lol and sageing somehow cancels out the fact that you keep rising to every little jab?

>>912596
I simply do not understand, I offered no evidence as to my sexual orientation and yet am called a faggot and homo.

This man,
>>912556
clearly states his willingness, even fervor, to suck on penises and yet remains immune to such childish name-calling. What is the deal?

>>912241
The essential book on Marxism is "Wages, Price and Profit".
The essential texts on Leninism are "What is to be Done?" and "Left Wing Communism: An Infantile Disorder" but you're probably incapable of reading LWC:AID because of the high levels of context it assumes.
The essential text on anarchism I'd recommend would be UKLG's The Dispossessed (a novel).
The essential text for contemporary class struggle I'd recommend would be Andy Anderson's Hungary '56 and Andy Anderson's The Enemy is Middle Class ( http://libcom.org/library/hungary-56-andy-anderson )

>>912603
Lol, everyone disregard his posts, he sucks cocks.

>>912598
In case you weren't aware, sages function as a method to post a message without bumping the thread. I sage my posts because largely my posts are not directly related to the topic, are not worth a thread bump, and this thread died long ago. For some reason, you people think it is essential to see this dead thread on the front page and continually bump in your responses.

>>912613
You are beyond reasoning with, good sir.

>>912544
>As I stated, I am not from /a/. In fact, like you, I am a person of /lit/, and as you have mentioned I get a say in /lit/'s content, just like you.

My "say" was representative of what's shown on the board. People don't mind these threads, so they continue.

You had your say hours ago. No one cared. Point taken; neckbeardo doesn't like these threads, yet the rest of /lit/ doesn't seem to mind. So rather than going on whining for hours about how you can't get your way and /lit/ is going to come down in fiery ruin because of it, how about you just go whack off to your little girl cartoons? Or, you know, post in a /lit/ thread that interests you.

>>912556
No, >>912546 was not me.

>>912616
>>912614
I feel like I'm arguing with my little brother.

If he was a raging cunt and sucked cocks.

>>912556
Nah, I'm just me. I'm staying wayyyyyyy the fuck away from all the shit slinging going on in here.

>>912628
Thank you for your input, you are really furthering and enriching this conversation.

>>912626
When posting on a website as big as 4chan I hardly think my opinion is unique. Also, as much as you might not like it, as many times as I have to say this, I am one of those "people" you keep mentioning that use this board. If I come off as whiny it is only out of frustration, my intentions are genuine as are my concerns.
Also, please do not try to hyperbolize my arguments, scale is rather important here. /lit/ will not "go down in fiery ruin" and if I hinted at that than I apologize for giving off the wrong impression. It will, very gradually, begin to degrade along with its userbase. Slowly, posts will become worse and worse at a rate that will not be apparent to people who frequent and from the inside this place will fall apart. It is an entropy, not an implosions.
Insults do nothing to further your argument.

While not related to your inquiry, I'd suggest reading Adam Smith. Read his book on morality as a companion piece to Wealth of Nations - I haven't been able to do that yet, but I hear it gives quite a different picture of how he envisioned capitalism.
Also, look up Tolstoy's book on Christian Anarchism - he was quite influential with his political views (inspiration to Gandhi and everything).

>>912241

I'm going to try and get this thread back on track. I'll provide you with a list of required readings in University courses in Political Philosophy in several parts. I'll also include a few other books.

The Art of War, by Sun Tzu
Apology, by Plato
The Republic, by Plato
Laws, by Plato
Nicomachean Ethics, Aristotle
Politics, by Aristotle
City of God, by St. Augustine
Treatise on Law (1274), by St. Thomas Aquinas
Utopia (1516), by Sir Thomas More
The Prince (1532), by Niccolo Machiavelli
Leviathan (1651), by Thomas Hobbes

>>913019

Second Treatise on Government (1689), by John Locke
The Spirit of the Laws (1748), by Montesquie
The Social Contract (1762), by Jean-Jacques Rosseau
Common Sense (1776), by Thomas Paine
The Wealth of Nations (1776), by Adam Smith
The Federalist Papers (1788), by Alexander Hamilton and James Madison
Reflections on the Revolution in France (1790), by Edmund Burke
A Vindication of the Rights of Men (1790), by Mary Wollstone Craft
The Phenomenology of Spirit (1807), by G.W.F. Hegel
The Age of Reason (1807), by Thomas Paine
Elements of the Philosophy of Right (1820), by G.W.F. Hegel
Lectures on the Philosophy of History (1837), by G.W.F. Hegel
Democracy in America (1840), by Alexis de Tocqueville
A General View of Positivism (1848), by August Comte

>>913023

The Communist Manifesto (1848), by Karl Marx
Selected Writings, by Karl Marx
Civil Disobedience (1849), by Henry David Thoreau
Social Statics: The Man Versus the State (1851), by Herbert Spencer
On Liberty (1859), by J.S. Mill
Utilitarianism (1863), by J.S. Mill
On the Advantage and Disadvantage of History for Life (1874), by Friedrich Nietzsche
The Origin of the Family (1884), by Friedrich Engels
On the Genealogy of Morality (1887), by Friedrich Nietzsche
Anarchism and Other Essays (1910), by Emma Goldman
The State and Revolution (1917), by Vladimir Lenin

Anarchism and Other Essays (1910), by Emma Goldman
The State and Revolution (1917), by Vladimir Lenin
The Economic Consequences of the Peace (1919), by John Maynard Keynes
The end of Laissez-Faire (1926), by John Maynard Keynes
Brave New World (1932), by Aldous Huxley
The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money (1936), by John Maynard Keynes
On Guerrilla Warfare (1937), by Mao Zedong
Homage to Catalonia (1938), by George Orwell
Animal Farm (1945), by George Orwell
The Second Sex (1949), by Simone de Beauvoir
Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949), by George Orwell
The Origins of Totalitarianism (1951), by Hannah Arendt
The Rebel (1951), by Albert Camus
The Wretched of the Earth (1961), by Frantz Fanon
Guerrilla Warfare (1961), by Che Guevara
Capitalism and Freedom (1962), by Milton Friedman

>>913029

Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil (1963), by Hannah Arendt
The Autobiography of Malcolm X (1965)
The Dialectic of Sex: The Case for Feminist Revolution (1970), by Shulamith Firestone
Deschooling Society (1971), by Ivan Illich
A Theory of Justice (1971), by John Rawls
Fear and Loathing: On the Campaign Trail '72 (1973), by Hunter S. Thompson
A People's History of the United States (1980), by Howard Zinn
Economics in One Lesson (1988), by Henry Hazlitt
Che Guevara: A Revolutionary Life (1997), by Jon Lee Anderson
Environmentalism: A global history (2000), by Ramachandra Guha
The Ralph Nader Reader (2000), by Ralpha Nader
The Politics of Genocide (2009), by Edward S. Herman and David Peterson
Why Your World Is About to Get a Whole Lot Smaller: Oil and the End of Globalization (2009), by Jeff Rubin
Chomsky on Anarchism (2005), by Noam Chomsky

>>913032

If you read all of the books on these lists then you should have a good understanding of some of the following:
Warfare, Political Constitutions, Laws, Economics, Revolution, Feminism, Democracy, Aristocracy, Oligarchy, Monarchy, History, Sociology, Communism, Civil Disobedience, Utilitarianism, Morality, Anarchy, Revolution, Guerrilla Warfare, Totalitarianism, Capitalism and a whole lot more. However, you don't have to read every single book on that list, but they're all quite important texts. I forgot to add Rules For Radicals (1972), by Saul D. Alinsky.

You should also look into the A Very Short Introduction series published by Oxford Press. They publish good informative books on a wide variety of topics. I'd recommend the one on The Cold War because it's a conflict that pitted conflicting ideologies against one another and a lot of the policies employed by nations during that conflict shape the way they interact in the world today. Some good links to check out are:

http://www.freedocumentaries.org/
http://www.politicalcompass.org/reading
http://www.chomsky.info/index.htm

>>913070
Thanks.

>>912249

I'm currently studying English Lit./minoring in Political Science. I'd recommend checking out Classics of Western Philosophy (7th ed.), by Steven M. Cahn. It's used in some first year philosophy courses and covers a lot of ground. I'm currently on Meditations On First Philosophy by Rene Descartes.

(Same guy who posted all the political readings).

>>913092

And I have to confess. I have not read every single book on the list that I have compiled, although I have gone through a lot of them. I've recently made lists of books in a wide variety of topics that I plan on reading the bulk of before I'm 24 or 25 (currently 18).

>>913096
Will I be a more intelligent person by reading all these books?

>>913125

Most likely.

>>913125

You'll definitely understand politics a whole lot more and the way the world works.

>>912241
Broadening your political horizons by reading communism, socialism and anarchy?

Whaaaaaat?

Some good stuff

>>913152
POLITICAL SYSTEMS
YOU GOTTA CATCH'EM ALL

>>912327
You forgot your sage.

http://library.nothingness.org/articles/SI/en/pub_contents/5
OP read this. Discard the rest.

>>912360
>>912360
>>912360
>>912360


THIS! DO YOUR SELF A FAVOR AND READ SOME KROPOTKIN!

also try out : The Wretched of the Earth by Frantz Fanon

>>913152
ignorant american.

don't feed the trolls
read all the books suggested
form your own opinions

have fun /lit/fag

>>913019
>>913023
>>913028
>>913029
>>913032
If one were to read all these, would it be at all beneficial to read them in order?

http://www.law.harvard.edu/faculty/unger/

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>>913458
Damn, that actually looks like some good stuff.

>>913019
>>913023
>>913028
>>913029
>>913032
>>913070
>>913458

Shit, too much to handle.

>>913491
unger is required reading as far as i am concerned.

>>913432

Yes and no. Some things can be read on their own. Usually it's nice to read things in a sequence because something written at a later date may respond to something written prior to it. It's also nice to see how political thought has developed over time.

>>913458

Added to my favourites. I'm ashamed that I haven't heard of him before.

>>913518

Check out the A Very Short Introduction series.

http://ukcatalogue.oup.com/category/academic/series/general/vsi.do

I'd recommend The Turner Diaries for anarchism, Except for its' essentially boiling everyhting down to being racially motivated.

Socialism an Economic and Sociological analysis by Ludwig Von Mises

>>912238
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zn iye pgs vodirjnyu g pbsxlddfralt bozemgo

OP here, very glad i bookmarked this thread.
Lot of good stuff was suggested since i went to sleep.


Thanks again to those who made suggestions.

>>913901

You should copypasta all of the suggested readings and links into a notepad and save the file in case the thread is ever deleted.

>>914104
already done :)

Your ideas about the labour liberation movement, slobs, are about as exact as mine about ancient china. Throw a look on the labour law where you live and in europe. When did what appear? What do they discuss in the parliament now?

The campus leftards are plotting the next proletarian revolution (in breaks between their orgies) are, I'm sorry, nothing but pathetic. Are there any trade unions around? Are there any worker's parties? Get involved.

Kropotkin writes about the harmony that natives and wolves live in during winter in Siberia. If you're a social darwinist your mind will be blown, if not - you will be totally the elite intellectual in your gang of anachronist losers. And Emma Goldman will help you to write snappy punker rock lyrics.

As to what concerns Marxists - remember what Stalin said about the importance of the pope: 'how many battalions does he have?' How many battalions does Marxism have? Or do you really believe it was the science of history, anon? funky that. do learn it, raise your socialist consciousness. Dialectics, stagism, capitalist encirclement, proletarian state, leninist vanguardism etc. - once you're done, maybe you'll find a job in North Korea. They still hold much of this 'science' there, they say.

TBC
field too long

Philosophy relates to the real world as masturbation to sex, so said Marx. Study business, marketing or public relations and they you go as an officer in the industrial army. Get used to their inner mechanics, acquire some capital, invest it somewhere in the developing world - and voilà! you've a better thing than the myriads of wankers in their blogs and demonstrations.

Activism in the west is the new dress of the charity balls of the baroque. It is pretense to fuck. Fuck for ... uh ... Tibet! Fuck against war! Fuck against Corporate Something Something! That will stroke your conscience, if you conscience itches really bad, do rub it off by studying, say, law and joining, say, some Starving Lawyer's Association. Helps bums, illegals, whores, the slum bacteriae etc..

To truly make a change, conquer the mail and the telegraph. May I presume your Red Army is ready and armed? Let's brain storm some revolutionary slogans then! Let's prepare the decrees! Are the namelists ready? Those with the enemies of the people? May I be your people's commissar, anon?

STICKY THIS SHIT

>>914363
cynicism is bad. although starving lawlyers association is ace. card carrying member here!

Well every political ideology is based on a theory of human nature, so a good place to start would be books on human nature like:

The Moral Animal by Robert Wright

Non-Zero by Robert Wright

The Blank Slate by Steven Pinker

Then applying our current knowledge about human nature to politics:

A Darwinian Left: Politics, Evolution and Cooperation by Peter Singer

Darwinian Conservatism by Larry Arnhart

>>912241
marxist archive
anarchist archive

One last bump before i let this thread slide into deletion.

>>915854
Good idea. If only it weren't for the pointless banter towards the beginning/middle.


If you guys want, i can copy all the good stuff out of this thread, make a new thread, and we can all vote for it on 4chanarchive.org?

Does this board even have any admins? Would they be willing to help create a sticky with some ground rules/general suggestions so the same suggestion thread isnt posted many times over?

>>916380
No, it doesn't. It's a slow, mostly peaceful board, so it doesn't get much attention.

Also, I don't think a sticky would be a good idea. There's no way to give anything resembling a definitive answer to questions like "What's a good book? I don't read much, but I want to, so give me a book!" Plus, there's so much bile that gets tossed back and forth between the anarcho-capitalists and collectivists, that we probably won't be able to settle on a good list of political books.

Also, the politics and economics threads are the better ones on /lit/, and we'd see less of them if there was a stickied list covering the basics. Usually, someone asking for basic political books is what starts these kinds of long, informative threads.

Days Of War, Nights Of Love by Crimethinc Ex-Worker's Collective
>http://www.daysofwarnightsoflove.com/
Anarchism And Other Essays - Emma Goldman
God And The State - Mikhail Bakunin
Man And Socialism - Ernesto "Che" Guevara
Mutual Aide by Peter Kropotkin

Is anarcho-capitalism a legitimate political economic philosophy, or is it some strange internet creation tailor-made for shitholes like /new/?

>>916534
the latter.

>>916380
If this board did have janitors than this thread would not exist.

True story.

>>916534
It's a legitimate political theory. However, I surely don't approve of it as a viable form of anarchism.

>>916547
I thought so.

I remember my American Lit. class a couple of months ago when our teacher had us do characterizations on the main chars. in The Great Gatsby.

I thought characterization is how an author develops his many characters through his texts, not something high schoolers have to do.

"Your characterizations for The Great Gatsby are due tomorrow!"

I'm confused /lit/

>>916583
tee hee

>>916583
Damn it. I thought I created my own thread.

>>912299

Yes.

Also The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck.

>>916606
>>916583
You're albe to delete it and make that thread.