What are you reading 2018?

[Teacher Terry]

Yes she was younger than me and what she described was so different than my childhood and my relatives.

[catherine]

I'm reading Chris Hedges' America: The Farewell Tour.

I've always been interested in him. This is the first book of his I've read. Interesting guy. Obviously, from the title you can infer that this is not a book that promises a rosy picture of the future, and he blames capitalism for most of the ills of our, in his words, hedonistic, narcissistic society--from igniting foolish wars, to exploiting the poor, to advancing consequences of climate change, to buying politicians, to warehousing and exploiting prisoners, to setting the stage for mass malaise leading to addiction.

[LDAHL]

I'm reading Chris Hedges' America: The Farewell Tour.

I've always been interested in him. This is the first book of his I've read. Interesting guy. Obviously, from the title you can infer that this is not a book that promises a rosy picture of the future, and he blames capitalism for most of the ills of our, in his words, hedonistic, narcissistic society--from igniting foolish wars, to exploiting the poor, to advancing consequences of climate change, to buying politicians, to warehousing and exploiting prisoners, to setting the stage for mass malaise leading to addiction.

A searing indictment of capitalism published by Simon and Schuster and available through Amazon.

[catherine]

A searing indictment of capitalism published by Simon and Schuster and available through Amazon.

Fighting fire with fire as it were.

[LDAHL]

Fighting fire with fire as it were.

Come the Revolution, everybody will self-publish.

[iris lilies]

Come the Revolution, everybody will self-publish.

Everyone will publish. Will anyone read?

[catherine]

Come the Revolution, everybody will self-publish.

On a serious note, I'm also compelled to buy another book that looks fantastic: The Hound of Distributism. I've talked about Distributism before as an alternative to good old conservative vs liberal politics. I'm feeling disenchanted by liberal politics these days, and I certainly don't see myself as a conservative, so I'm back to dreaming about the politics of a distributist model.

A really nice, concise definition of distributism is on the book jacket:

The essence of distributism is self-government, self-control, and self-sufficiency. The foundation of distributism is ownership. The heart of distributism is the family. The state and the marketplace must serve the family--not the other way around.

LDAHL, because this model was born out of Catholic social teaching, I'd think you'd be kind of into it.

[LDAHL]

Everyone will publish. Will anyone read?

Only those with proper state authorization.

Most librarians will be in re-education camps as a measure against deviationist tendencies.

[JaneV2.0]

Conservatives' fantasies of what Democratic Socialism actually is are a laugh riot.
Keep your eye on Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez--she's not letting grass grow under her feet.

To stay on point, I'm still enjoying The Soul of an Octopus.

[catherine]

Conservatives' fantasies of what Democratic Socialism actually is are a laugh riot.

Absolutely. It's either a laugh riot or scary, because it highlights the huge barriers to actually being able to pass laws that will improve the quality of life for everyone. I saw a show about the British monarchy last night and they said that during WWI, Edward VII changed the family name from Saxe-Coburg and Gotha to Windsor in order to distance the monarchy from Germany. The Democratic Socialists need to similarly re-brand themselves.