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“Reagan (or, at least, the public’s version of him) was tailor-made for the sociopathic electorate. Never again would the Boomers be told to save, or adjust the thermostat, or define themselves other than by their material possessions, to work on their families, to trust a meddlesome government, to abandon the pursuit of unrestrained individualism, or to undertake an “all-out effort” of any kind. All problems would be resolved by neoliberalism, for once the decks had been cleared of encumbering regulation and the human bilge discharged from the holds of the welfare state, things would take care of themselves: growth, jobs, inflation, consumption, all of it. The”
― A Generation of Sociopaths: How the Baby Boomers Betrayed America
― A Generation of Sociopaths: How the Baby Boomers Betrayed America
“Taxes occupy a strange position in the emotional landscape, oscillating between moments of great passion (April 15 and election days) and near-lethal boredom (every other day), and this is what makes fiddling with taxes so enticing: Politicians can always whip the electorate into a lather, winning a mandate for change, but rely on dullness and complexity to obscure the true consequences of tax adjustments. All that matters is making sure that a plurality of voters understand that they will be beneficiaries of favorable treatment (even if not the primary beneficiaries), without focusing overmuch on what the consequences will be and what others will bear them. That plurality of voters has, for many decades, been the Boomers. To”
― A Generation of Sociopaths: How the Baby Boomers Betrayed America
― A Generation of Sociopaths: How the Baby Boomers Betrayed America
“Feelings would be the great enabler, allowing Boomers to undermine the whole edifice of fact and reason in favor of personal truth, expedient and final. Henceforth, if the science of climate change commanded reduced consumption or other sacrifices incompatible with sociopathic desires, it would be denied. If basic accounting held radical and permanent tax cuts entailed a corresponding reduction in services Boomers enjoyed, Boomers would create a parallel reality furnished with a more convenient set of books. The Boomers were the first modern generation to harbor really negative feelings about reality and science, and their success in undermining these goods has been tremendous.”
― A Generation of Sociopaths: How the Baby Boomers Betrayed America
― A Generation of Sociopaths: How the Baby Boomers Betrayed America
“What I had begun to discover is that, mysteriously and in ways that are totally remote from normal experience, the grey drizzle of horror induced by depression takes on the quality of physical pain. But it is not an immediately identifiable pain, like that of a broken limb. It may be more accurate to say that despair, owing to some evil trick played upon the sick brain by the inhabiting psyche, comes to resemble the diabolical discomfort of being imprisoned in a fiercely overheated room. And because no breeze stirs this cauldron, because there is no escape from the smothering confinement, it is natural that the victim begins to think ceaselessly of oblivion”
― Darkness Visible: A Memoir of Madness
― Darkness Visible: A Memoir of Madness
“Huxley and Orwell, wrote Postman, did not predict the same future. “Orwell warns that we will be overcome by an externally imposed oppression. But in Huxley's vision, no Big Brother is required to deprive people of their autonomy, maturity, and history. As he saw it, people will come to love their oppression, to adore the technologies that undo their capacities to think,” As Postman explained: What Orwell feared were those who would ban books. What Huxley feared was that there would be no reason to ban a book, for there would be no one who wanted to read one. Orwell feared those who would deprive us of information. Huxley feared those who would give us so much that we would be reduced to passivity and egotism. Orwell feared that the truth would be concealed from us. Huxley feared the truth would be drowned in a sea of irrelevance. Orwell feared we would become a captive culture. Huxley feared we would become a trivial culture, preoccupied with some equivalent of the feelies, the orgy porgy, and the centrifugal bumblepuppy. As Huxley remarked in Brave New World Revisited, the civil libertarians and rationalists who are ever on the alert to oppose tyranny ‘failed to take into account man's almost infinite appetite for distractions.’ In 1984, Orwell added, people are controlled by inflicting pain. In Brave New World, they are controlled by inflicting pleasure.”
― Trampled by Unicorns: Big Tech's Empathy Problem and How to Fix It
― Trampled by Unicorns: Big Tech's Empathy Problem and How to Fix It
Erik’s 2024 Year in Books
Take a look at Erik’s Year in Books, including some fun facts about their reading.
1,161 books
|
144 friends
1,261 books
|
74 friends
121 books
|
183 friends
44 books
|
92 friends
612 books
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59 friends
358 books
|
122 friends
190 books
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81 friends
1,048 books
|
12 friends
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Adult Fiction, Book Club, Business, Classics, Contemporary, Crime, Ebooks, Fantasy, Fiction, History, Horror, Mystery, Non-fiction, Philosophy, Politics, Psychology, Science, Self help, Suspense, and Thriller
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