J

Add friend
Sign in to Goodreads to learn more about J.


Freedom
J is currently reading
bookshelves: currently-reading
Rate this book
Clear rating

progress: 
 
  (page 200 of 562)
"Franzen's use of the protagonist's "autobiography" is a nice touch." May 04, 2026 12:10PM

 
Dead Man's Walk
Rate this book
Clear rating

 
The Beautiful Thi...
J is currently reading
by Laird Barron (Goodreads Author)
bookshelves: currently-reading
Rate this book
Clear rating

progress: 
 
  (page 140 of 280)
"I want this guy to write a full detective novel set in the early part of the 20th century with all his cosmic horror mixed in." 22 hours, 14 min ago

 
Loading...
Franz Kafka
“I was ashamed of myself when I realised life was a costume party and I attended with my real face”
Franz Kafka

Mokokoma Mokhonoana
“Refusing to have a child is the highest degree of rebellion, after suicide; one of the best uses of the mind; and the best gift to the planet.”
Mokokoma Mokhonoana

George Carlin
“There's a reason that education sucks.
And it's the same reason
that it will never ever, ever be fixed.

It's never going to get any better,
don't look for it,
be happy with what you got.

Because the owners of this country don't want that.

I'm talking about the real owners now.
The real owners.
The big, wealthy business interests that control things
and make all the important decisions.

Forget the politicians.
The politicians are put there
to give you the idea that you have freedom of choice.

You don't.

You have no choice.
You have owners.
They own you.
They own everything.

They own all the important land.
They own and control the corporations.
They've long since bought and paid for the Senate,
the Congress, the state houses, and city halls.
They got the judges in their back pocket.
And they own all the big media companies
so they control just about
all of the news and information you get to hear.
They got you by the balls.

They spend billions of dollars every year lobbying,
lobbying to get what they want.
Well, we know what they want.
They want more for themselves and less for everybody else.

But I'll tell you what they don't want.
They don't want a population
of citizens capable of critical thinking.
They don't want well-informed, well-educated people,
capable of critical thinking.

They're not interested in that.
That doesn't help them.
That's against their interest.
That's right.

They don't want people who are smart enough
to figure out how badly they're getting fucked
by a system that threw them overboard 30 fucking years ago.
They don't want that.

You know what they want?
They want obedient workers.
Obedient workers.
People who are just smart enough to run the machines and do the paperwork
and just dumb enough, to passively accept all these increasingly shittier jobs,
with the lower pay, the longer hours, the reduced benefits,
the end of overtime, and the vanishing pension
that disappears the minute you go to collect it.

And now, they're coming for your Social Security money.
They want your fucking retirement money.
They want it back,
so they can give it to their criminal friends on Wall Street.

And you know something, they'll get it.
They'll get it all from you, sooner or later,
because they own this fucking place.

It's a big club, and you ain't in it.
You and I are not in the big club.”
George Carlin, Life Is Worth Losing

Coleman Hughes
“The more I have studied disparities in multicultural societies, the more I have found the language of “overrepresentation” and “underrepresentation” to be fundamentally misleading. These words assume that there is something normal or “to be expected” about seeing different ethnic groups represented at precisely their share of the total population in every domain, statistic, and occupation, when in fact nothing is more normal than for different subcultures to specialize in particular sectors and occupations and experience very different group-wide statistics as a result. The vast majority of such disparities are not plausibly explained by bigotry, systemic racism, or unfairness but by demographic and cultural differences between the groups in question at a particular time.”
Coleman Hughes, The End of Race Politics: Arguments for a Colorblind America

Mokokoma Mokhonoana
“We are good to others only because we think that that is, or will be, good for us.”
Mokokoma Mokhonoana

1177998 BACK<<<to the CLASSICS — 307 members — last activity 6 hours, 55 min ago
With a classic book, you don't need a flux capacitor you don't have to hit 88 mph and you don't even need a DeLorean to go back in time. So why not ...more
263 Existentialism — 922 members — last activity Jan 03, 2021 11:51AM
Existentialism is a philosophical movement that claims that individual human beings have full responsibility for creating the meanings of their own li ...more
173327 Non-Stupid People — 3 members — last activity Jan 19, 2016 01:16PM
Most people are stupid. This is a group for those who are not.
95230 Innovative Horror — 312 members — last activity Oct 18, 2023 01:37AM
E.T.A. Hoffman, H.P. Lovecraft, Shirley Jackson and (arguably) Clive Barker all moved horror fiction forward in their time. Who's doing so today? I t ...more
122453 The Fyodor Dostoyevsky Group — 676 members — last activity Apr 09, 2026 07:56AM
We are dedicated to discussing books by one of the greatest Russian writers ever. But 2014 will be focused on conducting a joint reading of 'The Broth ...more
More of J’s groups…
year in books
Hank1972
1,067 books | 537 friends

Lori  K...
3,176 books | 461 friends

Mark
4,718 books | 812 friends

The Con...
21,273 books | 2,948 friends

Craig
702 books | 29 friends

v
v
3,258 books | 145 friends

Gaurav ...
3,323 books | 2,720 friends

Max
Max
782 books | 395 friends

More friends…
Perfume by Patrick SüskindFoucault’s Pendulum by Umberto EcoThe Satanic Verses by Salman Rushdie
Best Books of the Decade: 1980s
2,257 books — 2,436 voters
Breakfast of Champions by Kurt Vonnegut Jr.
Best Books of the Decade: 1970s
1,957 books — 1,886 voters

More…


Polls voted on by J

Lists liked by J