Tag Archives: politics

forwarding address: Utopia

As I type these words it is 5:36 p.m. Pacific Daylight Time here in North Vancouver. I watch the characters appearing crisply on my new Samsung flat-screen monitor. Out my office window to the left the light from the cloudy … Continue reading

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lots of evils to choose from

A few days ago I drafted most of a blog post on the coronavirus pandemic now swarming over Earth. I worked on it over two sessions and wrote 1,400 words. But I’m not quite happy with where I got to. … Continue reading

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Aristotle, meet Paul. . . .

On Thursday, March 7, 2019, I reached a personal milestone: I finished reading the works of Aristotle. I read them mostly from the 2 volumes of Encyclopedia Britannica’s Great Books of the Western World that contain his works: volumes 8 … Continue reading

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The 48 Laws of Power by Robert Greene: the nice need not apply

The 48 Laws of Power by Robert Greene My rating: 4 of 5 stars A comprehensive manual on how to gain worldly power. Not for the just, the kind, the ethical, or the fainthearted—but is that a surprise? I acquired … Continue reading

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The Dictator’s Handbook by Bruce Bueno de Mesquita and Alastair Smith: the black heart of politics

The Dictator’s Handbook: Why Bad Behavior is Almost Always Good Politics by Bruce Bueno De Mesquita My rating: 5 of 5 stars Finally! Someone has figured out why politics works the way it does. I first heard about this book … Continue reading

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Creating a Transparent Democracy by Shamar Rinpoche: power to the people

Creating A Transparent Democracy: A New Model by Shamar Rinpoché My rating: 4 of 5 stars My path to this book began at Christmas 2014, when I received a copy of Buddhism Today magazine in my stocking. I didn’t get … Continue reading

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The Capitalist Manifesto by Louis O. Kelso and Mortimer J. Adler: turning the 1% into the 100%

The Capitalist Manifesto by Louis O. Kelso My rating: 5 of 5 stars This mature, rational examination of what kind of economy a modern democracy needs to have is even more relevant today than it was in 1958. I bought … Continue reading

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The Prince by Nicolo Machiavelli: it’s a jungle out there

The Prince by Niccolò Machiavelli My rating: 4 of 5 stars This short textbook on how to rule a state is still the playbook for politics. Looking in my Webster’s, I see the following definition of Machiavellianism: the political theory … Continue reading

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The Republic by Plato

The Republic by Plato My rating: 4 of 5 stars This early effort to deal with the deepest problems of civilized man sets the agenda for all subsequent discussion. Knowing this to be one of the most important literary works … Continue reading

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The Commonwealth of Life by Peter G. Brown

The Commonwealth of Life: Economics for a Flourishing Earth by Peter G. Brown My rating: 4 of 5 stars An inspiring vision is presented in a technical and academic work that contains some possibly troubling implications. In January 2008 I … Continue reading

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