I was watching some video and there was mention of someone getting 1984. Upon which, a guy said that this one (one who got 1984) will end up being radicalized. I was already born into a very radical environment so no needs of books to radicalize me (although I am trying to be moderate and chill now)
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The Bible
Three Felonies a Day: How the Feds Target the Innocent
Lord of the flies
I know Lord of the Flies is an allegory for the authors experience during and after WW2, but I do think its incredibly ironic the only real life example we have of the book turned out the complete opposite
I mean 1984 did a pretty good job radicalizing me against fascism. I consider it radicalization because turns out America really likes fascism so I guess I’m in the minority.
Benjamin’s essay “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction.” Related: he quotes Marinetti’s 1909 “Manifesto of Futurism” which is still frighteningly relevant.
Island - Aldous Huxley
Less radicalized and more just opened my thinking about how society could be and how imperial forces and people’s desires get in the way constantly. More of a ‘this is why utopia can’t happen’ vs Brave New World’s ‘look at this dystopia’
Just reading about history has done that to me. I don’t really read fiction, but I read a ton of history, usually about one book per month or so. But seeing how the human history is just basically despair and misery, makes you a bit annoyed that we still haven’t gotten any better.
History books got names too!
You want something strictly relevant to all the messes we’re in today?
The Hundred Years' War on PalestineandThe Ethnic Cleansing of Palestineare must reads. Round them off withBeyond Chutzpah: On the Misuse of Anti-Semitism and the Abuse of HistoryThen read
Inventing Reality: The Politics of News MediaandManufacturing Consent(obligatory fuck pedo-associated and possibly pedo Chompsky).Take a break from reality and read a quick fiction:
The Trial.If you’re not radicalized by anger at this point, you’re one of the baddies.
I agree with this but its kinda also that we seem to be going backward big time. If you look at ww1 to ww2 and how shorta time span that was with the depression and then look back on the last quarter decade. its like. this is some bull trump.
Yeah it puts things in perspective. Sadly, lately the perspective has been “this is awful and things will become even more awful for the next decade or two at least. Probably more.”
The Ministry for the Future by Kim Stanley Robinson. I’d be shocked if every person who bought a copy isn’t on a watchlist automatically.
I’m on a big Kim Stanley Robinson kick lately (currently reading Aurora) and I haven’t heard of this one. Definitely picking that up lol
none. its honestly the right wing that is radicalizing me. I was a (ironically) and extreme agnostic. It was things like qanon which made me have to come to terms with the fact that humans will just believe and follow bullshit. Not just that but tea party and now maga. Its like an effing religion. Heck the 911 memorial stuff is kinda pissing me off because it lead to the patriot act and loss of rights and privacy. Every flag waver and republican at this point that opens their mouth is radicalizing me.
Where can I buy this book?
the book of none can be found with the real nowhere man. You can find him sitting in his nowhere land. Generally he is usually making all his nowhere plans for nobody.
1984
Animal Farm
The Jungle
Slaughterhouse Five
Brave New World
A Farewell to Arms
Blood Meridian
Guns, Germs, and Steel
To Kill A Mockingbird
Bullshit Jobs
I know I at least read Animal Farm and To Kill a Mockingbird when I was younger. I wonder how much those ended up influencing me. At the time I wouldn’t have totally agreed with them, and I don’t remember them having a particularly large influence, but they probably did affect me without me knowing. However, I also watched a lot of sci-fi and Star Trek, which probably had an even greater influence.
I wish there was a way to analyze our past and pick apart what effect different things had. It’d be really fun to know. I think when you consume something that you think really changes you, you were already primed for that change before. A lot of things lead up to that moment that you don’t even recognize.
Is last one really the title of book?
A People’s History of the United States blew my mind wide open in high school.
There was a book which I picked up from my high-school library and it really did a number on the younger me. “Green Rage” was a book written by Chris Manes in the early 90s about radical environmentalism and it gave me a new perspective on things I had not been aware of at the time. While I never actually got directly involved with any environmentalist groups, I did start to better appreciate how our Capitalist system’s need extract value at any cost from natural resources would have disastrous consequences.
Fast forward 35 years and I can’t honestly say if the author’s more dire predictions haven’t come to pass since you simply can’t trust corporate media to give unvarnished truth about anything. But I have seen and experienced things with my own eyes that give them credence. The fact that the title for this book came to mind immediately when I read this post/prompt says something about it’s impact I think.
Just read people’s history by Howard zinn and that’ll radicalize a lot of people. It’s just the rich fucking everyone over and over.
And it continues to this day.
A People’s History of the United States
No Logo by Naomi Klein.
Unfortunately, it made me really against sweatshops and child labour. But most people want to hate stuff that come with very marginal costs, rether than things that force you to rethink how you live.
“I hate structural racism!”
“Like our clothes?”
“No, no…”
