The Communist Manifesto: Understanding Capitalism

Following the Cold War, the US has instilled (very effectively) a sense of fear and misguided understandings of Karl Marx and communism. Rather than having the typical conversation centered on everyone being equal, working the same, and being rewarded the same. Let us look at the alternative…

A society that is guided by quantifying anything and everything…what are the ramifications of defining a country’s worth or our own self worth by means of production? What happens when people are a commodity?

These are the questions that Marx dissects and explores. Before we buy into this capitalistic system, let’s explore it a little more.

The Communist Manifesto: A Whole New World

Being interested in business, I’ve always admired capitalistic principles; Gordon Gekko's "Greed is Good" speech and I, Pencil are analogous to Schumpeter’s creative destruction and Adam Smith’s invisible hand. They are what shape a lot of the world order today and I love them. That is why I am also excited to step into a new world and read about communism, a term that has become so convoluted through many propaganda campaigns despite giving hope to half the world at one point.

Wow. What an intellectual gem. Marx is a genius. Many of the issues outlined in the manifesto are real today. For example,

[The Bourgeoisie] compels all nations, on pain of extinction, to adopt the bourgeois mode of production; it compels them to introduce what it calls civilisation into their midst, i.e., to become bourgeois themselves. In one word, it creates a world after its own image.

He was spot on of with this consequence and many others. My paradigm has certainly shifted and I am curious to learn more.

Animal Farm: Tough Love

I thought the politics behind the book’s publication were interesting.

By the time when it came to be written it was obvious that there would be great difficulty in getting it published…it was refused by four publishers…One publisher actually started by accepting the book, but after making the preliminary arrangements he decided to consult the Ministry of Information, who appear to have warned him, or at any rate strongly advised him, against publishing it.

George Orwell goes on to explain how people worried about publishing something of that controversial nature. A few years later Orwell published 1984. Freedom of the press. I’m glad we have these books to remind us that it’s righteous and humane to speak controversial things especially at the worst (or best?) time.

Animal Farm: Pig vs Man, Pig Over throws Man, Pig Becomes Man

Wooooow so many things….lol first and foremost I just found this book to be hilarious. I love that the author equates the political climate of soviet Russia to animals in a farm setting. Brilliant! From the pigs, to the cows, to the chickens, to the dogs…just too funny and too real.

The entirety of this book brought to mind a quote that I have often times come to appreciate and be humbled by (if that makes sense)…

We become what we hate

From politics to personal life, watch where u point that finger. If the tables are turned, how different will things really be if we are not careful?

Metamorphosis: Accepting the Change

He suddenly became a bug. A well intentioned guy providing for his family became a bug. So what did his family do in this sudden metamorphosis? They rejected him. They let him starve to death. That’s what most of society will do. They reject the different, the foreign, the change. If he is different or new, then he is out and shunned.

What if I was crazy in the head? What if I ate human flesh? I think we should accept all and love all. The Buddha accepted a mass murderer as his disciple. Are you willing to do the same?

The Metamorphosis: Twisted sense of happiness

How depressing!!! This book brought to light how twisted our sense of happiness can become!! In the story, one of the family members turns into a bug and struggles to gain acceptance or attention from anyone. Even his own family is repulsed at the sight of him. Rather than looking at how difficult it must be for their son to be a bug and adjust to the new life style, the family is concerned with how disgusting this new creature is and how to avoid the disgustingness altogether.

Grrrr makes me soo mad that the family got their ‘happy ending’ when the bug (aka their son) died. How twisted! While I did not find this a fun read, I think it definitely makes me assess where my sense of happiness stems from and how I can be more conscious of the context of my happiness so that I am not being ignorant or apathetic to other equally important realities.

Johnathon Livingstone Seagull: Finding purpose beyond the day to day

This was suuuch a great story. It was such a light reading with so much depth behind it. Ironically enough, I went to the beach the next day and couldn’t help but wonder about the all seagulls flocking around at the shore: how many of them were just hunting for food, getting by day by day and how many of them had pursuits beyond the day to day hustle.

Seagull: Learn to Fly

"Why is it," Jonathan puzzled, "that the hardest thing in the world is to convince a bird that he is free, and that he can prove it for himself if he'd just spend a little time practicing? Why should that be so hard?"

Why is it so hard? Did you know you don't need money, food, or anything really? Its liberating. I learned that in India but haven't been able to convince anyone of it. They all seem so attached to these things.

Black Dogs: Death

It seems as if everyone is trying to understand death in their own way. We see the societal effects (orphans, nazi camps, war) and also the personal effects (purpose, ideology, meaning) all caused by this notion. The book shows many perspectives where characters rationalize it, mysticize it, ignore it, run from it, but either way they are all dramatically affected by it. What do the black dogs of death mean to you? How do they shape the way you act? How do they shape the society you live in?

Black Dogs: Misguided skepticism?

I like the way this book was written…really interesting points of view regarding reason and spirituality. How the two conflict with one another and coexist at the same time. To what extent can we mold, control, and shape our lives and society? And to what extent do we feel, embrace, and delve into the intangible? While this doesn't have a lot to do with the story itself, one quote from this book in particular stuck in my mind...

…a furious expense of nervous energy we mistook for efficiency.

I feel like that happens a lot in our world...everything is always a frenzy, a crisis, or a crisis averted. how far r we realli getting with this "nervous energy"? is it realli adding to our progress as a society?

The Prophet: Is Being Wise Knowing Nothing?

Like I said earlier, I don’t believe in right or wrong. The Prophet avoids erring to any extreme. Yet, with the absent position comes just that, an absence of position. So he says it all and he says nothing. It’s beautiful. It’s reality. I like it and I don’t for the same reason.

The Prophet: Not your average Prophet

I actually like this book a million times more the Dhammapada. While I disagree with Sunk about the absence of right and wrong, I can see why it would be detrimental to live in a world of absolutes. This is why I absolutely loved what The Prophet was about.

I feel like a lot of organized religions are outdated (or have changed their original philosophies to suite political climates) so a lot of the so called ‘advice’ that we end up getting becomes outdated or irrelevant (no offense). The real good stuff, the great advice that is ageless, looks beyond the absolutes and recognizes a greater dynamic in play: one that continuously demands balance and introspection rather than rigid rights and wrongs with minimal thinking. I feel like many of the religions today would condemn a lot of the advice this prophet was giving but it made a lot of sense to me. His advice on pleasure was surprising...

Oftentimes in denying yourself pleasure you do but store the desire in the recesses of your being. Who knows but that which seems omitted today, wait for tomorrow?

The Dhammapada: Life Lessons That We Shouldn’t Know Too Well

The Buddhist text focuses on the “right” path and the “wrong” path. A quote from this text sums up my feelings pretty well

Even though a speech be a thousand (of words), but made up of senseless words, one word of sense is better, which if a man hears, he becomes quiet.

As a person who doesn’t believe in the existence of a right or a wrong, much of the text seems like a bunch of senseless words. I think in our yearning for truth, Dhammapada creates these principles which in Flatland or The Little Prince’s planet don’t hold true. I just can’t accept it.

In all fairness, like the quote says above, there were some great nuggets of wisdom which do keep me quiet; so it was worthwhile.

The Dhammapada: Life lessons that we know all too well

Every time I come across some great life lessons, it seems as though the answer has been there all along. It is no mystery of how we should live, what the truths of this world are, what lessons we must learn. We have been given the answers all along: whether it is through corny little sayings that our parents repeat to us or the cheesy quotes we encounter in our day to day lives. The answers we are looking for are already there...it is a matter of how willing we are to hear the answers and carry them out in our lives. One quote in particular (because I love quotes!) was said really nicely in this reading; It is simple yet extremely powerful.



"All that we are is the result of what we have thought: it is founded on our thoughts, it is made up of our thoughts. If a man speaks or acts with an evil thought, pain follows him, as the wheel follows the foot of the ox that draws the carriage"

The Little Prince: Being concerned with matters of consequence

Wow! What a beautiful little story about a little prince and his journey to all these different planets. Instantly a favorite of mine and I ate up every word this little prince had to say! I know, I know...how can a fictional character who travels to fictional planets meeting fictional characters have any bearing on a reasonable human being? 



but wow...how precisely it mimics the very mentality we have been raised to admire, respect, and replicate! Grown ups cannot bother with matters of no consequence says the little prince,

"I know a planet where there is a certain red-faced gentleman. He has never smelled a flower. He has never looked at a star. He has never loved any one. He has never done anything in his life but add up figures. And all day he says over and over: 'I am busy with matters of consequence!'" 



But grown ups are funny like that...you must be patient with them. Growing up does not mean being a grown up, it means being able to retain the same wide-eyed wonderment, joy, curiosity, and love for life that children seem to have mastered so well!

The Little Prince: My drawing is a boa constrictor eating an elephant, duh!

The little prince, from another planet, kicks everyone’s ego. He debases their life work in an attempt to make the trivial meaningful. Because in another planet, ruling the stars is worthwhile. In another, owning the stars is. In the end, it is about your work and what it means to you. So, don’t let your beautiful drawing get criticized by these adults who are living in their own world and only deal with matters of consequence…they just won’t get it. Keep drawing.

Flatland: Viewing shapes as lines and kicking reality down a notch

Imagine walking through a world completely different. Where assumptions change. Where women are straight lines, soldiers are triangles, and the more evolved you become, the more edges you have.  This implies a whole new set of rules. Much like the axiomatic reasoning that forms the basis of all kinds of useful mathematics, Edwin A. Abbott applies the reasoning to society. As he creates an imaginary world from a new set of axioms, the reader imagines the possibilities.

This was a great start to our 30 books in 30 days challenge, because that is what I want. I want my assumptions to be challenged! My beliefs to be fought! A whole new world opening before my eyes!

Flatland: Perspectives and Assumptions, how often does yours change?

to begin with, i would like to give a shout out to my dear friend Simon, his enthusiasm and excitement for this blog has truly been an inspiration.

secondly, sunk is a buttface.

and finally, let me say that reading flatland was hmmmm, interesting. reminds me of this quote (that sunk spotted; happy sunk?):

"I went to the moon and discovered earth".

Flatland took me to another world and walked me through the the basics of this new world: their way of life, characteristics of the town, how they operated, how the inhabitants of flatland created structure and hierarchy...after reading so many serious works by academics and scholars, it was refreshing to read a work of fiction. in a way, it allowed me to step outside of our own world, and step into a world based on completely different assumptions. How often do we mistake our own assumptions for reality? How often do we step outside of our own frame of reference to experience and know truth outside of our perspective? yea i know it sounds dramatic...but hey, it is funny how we all become so involved in our own assumptions of reality that we become glued more to our assumptions than knowledge of what is possible.