This is just one book linked here....
QuoteIt's hard work being a liberal these days. When you hate things most Americans love, it's tiring to have to endlessly correct/educate/fix/enlighten the poor dullards out there who just want to enjoy their lives. But it's not too late, liberals, to join the fun! C'mon, crack open a Bud and throw another T-bone on the grill. But kindly check your disdain at the door when it comes to:
WALMART: How about a handmade, locally sourced flat-screen television instead?
STEAKHOUSES: There's no steamed tofu on this menu. MCDONALD'S: The stranger in the playground handing out candy to children.
FLAG PINS: It's okay to love America, but not enough to wear it on your lapel.
FOOTBALL: War with cleats and pads. THE V-8 ENGINE: There's just something plain wrong about all that power and freedom under the control of one person. SUCCESS: When you make more money than the rest of us, it hurts our feelings.
THE FOUNDING FATHERS: A bunch of old white guys who are making it nearly impossible for modern government to pick our doctors, teach our children, correct our diets, and save our money. . . . and 42 other darn good reasons to lock the doors, crank up the A/C, turn on the game, and let the countdown begin. . . . 50 Things Liberals Love to Hate
http://politicalincorrectnessrunamuck.blogspot.com/ (http://politicalincorrectnessrunamuck.blogspot.com/)
I have a copy of The Courage Of A Conservative sitting here, by Reagan's Interior Secretary; James G. Watt. I'll begin reading it shortly, I hope.
It's clear that people don't read books much any more. The search for wisdom and knowledge has been to a large degree replaced by the quest for convenience and fun.
Should anyone care to join in, I have always enjoyed putting together lists of what I consider to be the top 10 best conservative books. I did this for a neighbor recently when he asked me to (he was a leftist, but not a far-leftist) and I did my best to keep it palatable for him. For instance, I left off hard-core anti-leftist books like Camp of the Saints by Jean Raspail 'cause it's too much for most leftists to swallow (any reference to protecting white cultural traditions will trigger panic response in leftists, who are often horribly burdened with deep, abiding, irrational, neurotic self-loathing when they are white). It belongs on the list but it isn't for everybody, just like good whiskey or habanero chilis aren't for everybody. Not in preferential order but numbered for reference sake.
1. Camp of the Saints - Jean Raspail (Fiction)
Makes the case that classical culture going back to antiquity has a duty to defend itself against the cacogenic onslaught by any and all means, including war and physical violence when necessary.
2. Critical Path - R. Buckminster Fuller (Biography/Philosophy/History)
One of the most prolific and innovative inventors of our time traces the history of technology and links it to his personal philosophy in a largely apolitical doctrine formed around the idea that through all ideological extremes and convulsions, technology somehow endures and embodies the advancement of human culture. He explains the foundational evolution of economic systems from ancient times to the present. He articulates the threat of unification of multinational corporations and governments. He explains his vision for a Real Wealth-based global economic system beyond both Capitalism (although enabled by it) or socialism (which he rejects as culturally regressive) and how it hold potential for realizing all of the most deeply regarded aspirations of humanitarianism by doing away with poverty and the motivation for wars of aggression by doing away with the parasitic monetary middlemen who do absolutely nothing for culture, such as investment banking firms, insurance companies, vast administrative bureaucracies which waste the wealth of the planet and perpetuate the lie that there is not enough to go around - so for one to have everything they need, someone else must be deprived of their needs. Fuller was a genius on so many levels that only a book like this can truly do justice to understanding his legacy and the enormity of his mind.
3. Intellectuals - Paul Johnson (History)
Paul Johnson uses their own writings and history to indict many of the most destructive, malicious, intellectually twisted vermin of all time including Jean Jascques Rousseau (engineer of the French Revolution and the Reign of Terror) Karl Marx, Noam Chomsky (not exactly a leftist but an avowed anti-conservative) Jean-Paul Sarte and others.
4. A Canticle for Leibowitz - Walter Miller (Science Fiction)
Walter Miller only wrote one novel in his lifetime and it was a whopper. Tracing the journey of a monk in a post-atomic war world who wants to resurrect technology in a world destroyed by it, from the discovery of a circuit diagram through the intrigues of bureaucracy and authority. Some of the most compelling imagery making the case for refraining from legalizing euthanasia I've ever read. Engaging to read and an epic moral tale with so many twists and turns it's so true-to-life with tragedy and absurdity, it's much more than a science fiction novel. This is an epic of classical morality that rends and touches the heart at times, laughing hysterically with and at Humanity in all of its magnificent folly. For anyone who has never read or enjoyed science fiction, this might be one that will work for you.
5. Shadow of the Torturer, Sword of the Lictor, Claw of the Conciliator, Citidel of the Autarch, Urth of the New Sun (Pentology) Gene Wolfe (Science Fiction)
Gene Wolfe is an author with technical command of the story and constructs a world as detailed and realistic as Tolkien's Middle Earth, with characters to match. The principle is Severian the Torturer, employed by the State, he is condemned for the crime of mercy. Wolfe's masterful prose makes reading about his world as realistic as a technical report. Called "our modern Melville" by Grand Master author Ursula K. Leguin, Wolfe's writing brings Science Fiction well into the realm of classical literature. Interesting that one can start the pentology at just about any point and enjoy it. I started with the second book (Sword of the Lictor) and went back to start at the beginning with Shadow of the Torturer. Another case of cheesy titles masking truly profound fiction. If you like Hemingway, Melville or classical mythology this might be a good one to try. The name of his sword with which he makes his living executing criminals and also uses in battle is called Terminus Est ( this is the line of division). Not for people who believe that everything is negotiable and that violence never solves anything Wolfe knows that when it comes to Humanity, it is violence which more often than not, is the only thing which solves anything.
6. Ender's Game - Orson Scott Card (Science Fiction)
The book is better than the movie, so if you haven't seen the feature film the Hollywood made out of the book, don't see it until after reading the book. You'll be glad you did. Even if you've seen the movie but not read the book, check it out of the library or buy a paperback at the second hand store for $1 and enjoy it. You won't be sorry. Orson Scott Card got into some trouble when the movie was made, because he was caught on video speaking about his personal opposition to homosexual marriage. That view has nothing to do with this book, but Card is a conservative and it shows in his writing. Not shy about violence and understands that sometimes when violence is needed to get a job done, even if it is a "grim horrible business" one does what must be done to win and must put morality on a lower echelon temporarily without remorse.
7. Beach Music - Pat Conroy (Fiction)
Pat just recently passed away but he left some great books behind. This is one of his novels that touches on a whole spectrum of topics, from the morality of taking cancer therapy, to Viet Nam, to suicide, to racism in ways that are sometimes astonishing in the depth of their insight into all sides of the issues. I highly recommend this to anyone trying to sort out their feelings and opinions about Viet Nam. Conroy was an extraordinary patriot in his own right and clearly at root a conservative in most ways that count.
8. My Losing Season - Pat Conroy
Conroy went to a military academy and was a great basketball player - and this is a book that is largely autobiographical. It's far more than that, as with most of his books. He explores racism, competitive spirit and team loyalty in ways that are novel and inspiring. Anyone who has ever loved competitive basketball either playing it or watching it as a fan, will relate to this story. Courage is the main thing about competitive sports that carries over into all aspects of life, war and relationships with everyone from parents to kids.
9. Any book by Ann Coulter, Joseph Sobran, William F. Buckley, David Horowitz or Michael Medved's Ten Great Lies About America or Three Great Lies About the Viet Nam War.
Hello. I am always happy to chat with other readers, especially conservative ones!
For my last birthday my father gave me the following book and I just finished reading it. Wow. When I read the founders I always come away with 1) profound respect for their wisdom (no, they are no infallible, but much wiser than any politician alive today I would bet) and 2) concern for the future of our republic.
Morris was no Jefferson, but he did write some of our Constitution and was one of the signers of it. He also helped bankroll the Revolution. It is a shame that our current degenerate culture seems to have almost forgotten him (how many people on the street would know who he was??).
https://catalog.libertyfund.org/american-founding-and-constitution/to-secure-the-blessings-of-liberty-cloth-detail.html
Surprised this thread is so sleepy. Should be oodles of titles being mentioned & hopefully studied. For example, with the 2020 riots abounding, consider Eric Hoffer's 1951 classic
The True Believer. He starts things out with this Pascal quote:
QuoteMan would fain be great and sees that he is little;
would fain be happy and sees that he is miserable;
would fain be perfect and sees that he is full of imperfections;
would fain be the object of the love and
esteem of men, and sees that his faults merit only their
aversion and contempt. The embarrassment wherein
he finds himself produces in him the most unjust and
criminal passions imaginable, for he conceives a mortal
hatred against that truth which blames him and convinces
him of his faults.
Pensees
A recent gem of a life story is Uprising by Diamond & Silk, the sisters from North Carolina who began in 2015 helping Trump get nominated & then elected.
On a very different note is The Devil and Karl Marx by that dedicated anti-communist Paul Kengor.
Briliiant Russell Kirk was a leading conservative thinker. Law & order is again in the forefront of American's thought. This is how Kirk's splendid book begins:
QuoteTwo centuries after the founding of the new nation called the United States of America, we need to renew
our understanding of the beliefs and the laws which give form to American society. Our own society, like
that of any other people, is held together by what is called an "order". The character of that order is the
subject of this book. What is "order"?
Imagine a man travelling through the night, without a guide, thinking continually of the direction he
wishes to follow. That is the image of a human being in search of order, says Simone Weil, a woman who
suffered much: "Such a traveller's way is lit by a great hope." Order is the path we follow, or the pattern
by which we live with purpose and meaning. Above even food and shelter, she continues, we must have
order. The human condition is insufferable unless we perceive a harmony, an order, in existence. "Order
is the first need of all."
Before a person can live tolerably with himself or with others, he must know order. If we lack order in
the soul and order in society, we dwell "in a land of darkness, as darkness itself," the Book of Job puts it;
"and of the shadow of death, without any order, and where light is as darkness."
A good review of Uprising by Diamond & Silk:
https://stream.org/a-new-perspective-diamond-and-silk-discuss-their-new-book-the-election-and-what-it-means-for-america/ (https://stream.org/a-new-perspective-diamond-and-silk-discuss-their-new-book-the-election-and-what-it-means-for-america/)
Quote from: Skull on August 29, 2020, 09:07:11 AM
On a very different note is The Devil and Karl Marx by that dedicated anti-communist Paul Kengor.
Still reading this survey of ugly commies & their demonic system. Here is an interview with the author:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iAT4OgS25kU&t=378s
A review of Carter Page's new one - Abuse and Power:
https://thefederalist.com/2020/09/10/carter-pages-book-shows-how-the-left-will-ruin-patriots-to-get-power/ (https://thefederalist.com/2020/09/10/carter-pages-book-shows-how-the-left-will-ruin-patriots-to-get-power/)
He will be interviewed on Cspan Book TV 12 Sept. 8:40pm ET.
Already a best seller on Amazon, this will expose the intellectual roots & begin to kill the kudzu vine which is "Critical Theory".
https://quillette.com/2020/07/20/the-truth-according-to-social-justice-a-review-of-cynical-theories/ (https://quillette.com/2020/07/20/the-truth-according-to-social-justice-a-review-of-cynical-theories/)
For those younger folk who may be leaving the Left or questioning the schooling they have exposed to, here is one of many works that will help you - if your mind is truly open.
https://www.regnery.com/9781621578789/russell-kirks-concise-guide-to-conservatism/ (https://www.regnery.com/9781621578789/russell-kirks-concise-guide-to-conservatism/)
This Thinkr site provides summaries and this book looks like one I should read:
https://thinkr.org/newsletter/the-end-of-gender-debunking-the-myths-about-sex-and-identity-in-our-society (https://thinkr.org/newsletter/the-end-of-gender-debunking-the-myths-about-sex-and-identity-in-our-society)
Big sale now at ISI books. This Kengor updated gem is among the bargains:
https://isi.org/books/dupes/ (https://isi.org/books/dupes/)
Quote from: kit saginaw on October 28, 2013, 03:36:55 PM
I have a copy of The Courage Of A Conservative sitting here, by Reagan's Interior Secretary; James G. Watt. I'll begin reading it shortly, I hope.
Hey Kit, did you ever finish it?
Any title by Paul Kengor.
Anything by Paul Kengor, such as these books:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Kengor (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Kengor)
Kurt Vonnegut - Player Piano
We are all doomed by the stupid among us, no matter how hard we try....
Among the many brilliant writings of Russell Kirk this one published in 1974 is a needed profound study of the elements & history of "law & order" in our Republic.
Here is a little from chapter one:
QuoteLike many other concepts, perhaps the word "order" is best apprehended by looking at its opposite,
"disorder." A disordered existence is a confused and miserable existence. If a society falls into general
disorder, many of its members will cease to exist at all. And if the members of a society are disordered in
spirit, the outward order of the commonwealth cannot endure.
We couple the words "law and order"; and indeed they are related, yet they are not identical. Laws
arise out of a social order; they are the general rules which make possible the tolerable functioning of an
order. Nevertheless an order is bigger than its laws, and many aspects of any social order are determined
by beliefs and customs, rather than being governed by positive laws.
This word "order" means a systematic and harmonious arrangement—whether in one's own character
or in the commonwealth. Also "order" signifies the performance of certain duties and the enjoyment of
certain rights in a community: thus we use the phrase "the civil social order."
In this book, we examine the roots of order in the United States of America. Old and intricate, these
roots give life to us all. We can distinguish two sorts of roots, intertwined: the roots of the moral order, of
order in the soul; and the roots of the civil social order, of order in the republic.
[...] The "inner order" of the soul and the "outer order" of society being intimately linked, we discuss in
this book both aspects of order. Without a high degree of private moral order among the American people,
the reign of law could not have prevailed in this country. Without an orderly pattern of politics, American
private character would have sunk into a ruinous egoism.
Order is the first need of the soul. It is not possible to love what one ought to love, unless we recognize
some principles of order by which to govern ourselves.
Order is the first need of the commonwealth. It is not possible for us to live in peace with one another,
unless we recognize some principle of order by which to do justice.
The good society is marked by a high degree of order, justice, and freedom. Among these, order has
primacy: for justice cannot be enforced until a tolerable civil social order is attained, nor can freedom be
anything better than violence until order gives us laws.
By Barak Lurie from 2017 comes this examination of the long term effects of secular indifference or hostility to the sources of spiritual and religious ethics.
https://www.atheismkills.com (https://www.atheismkills.com)