Monday, April 26, 2010

Books: Currently off the shelf...

I was so impressed with Dalrymple's Life at the Bottom that I got a copy of Our Culture, What's Left of It: The Mandarins and the Masses.

This one's much less thematic than the other, being a collection of essays on the slow burning of Nova Roma, and is therefore easier to dip in and out of, rather getting sucked in all at one sitting. Recommend!

6 comments:

  1. Reading Life At The Bottom now. All I can think is, That poor SOB. And, how do we get him to give a series of presentations--preferably, to Congress--about just how utterly screwed up a Welfare State is...?

    It's appalling that he has been writing about this stuff for almost 20 years, and idjits here still think this crap is a Good Idea.

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  2. That's next on the pile. I've got to return The Art of Not Being Governed and re-reserve it; only got half through it. I'll read Life at the Bottom and Brave New War more or less simultaneously.

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  3. Just finished Life At The Bottom a few days ago. It must be tough to hear the same dissociation from responsibility every day without being totally jaundiced. And without wanting to b*tch slap every single person.

    How do you de-tune a population from blame displacement into a strong sense of personal responsibility? Or is that only possible after the dust settles because we're too far down the slippery slope now?

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  4. It must be tough to hear the same dissociation from responsibility every day without being totally jaundiced. And without wanting to b*tch slap every single person.

    I think he does want to make with the bitch slapping; it's only his British decorum and stiff upper lip that hold him in check.

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  5. Try Second Opinion (available in the UK from amazon.co.uk or from the publishers, Monday Books - they ship free to the USA).

    A series of short anecdotes from his work as a doctor in the UK - utterly absorbing and brilliant.

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  6. How do you de-tune a population from blame displacement into a strong sense of personal responsibility?

    "Sink or swim."

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