Books I Recomend You Read For One Reason or Another

Industrial Society and its Future by Ted K ---- I first read this book during the summer between my senior year of highschool and my first year college. At the time I thought this book was undeniable genius, looking back a lot of the arguments do not hold up in my opinion. Anarchism, especially the branch that Ted here follows, is based on the idea that if the system were to fall another system, that is very similar to the last, wont arise. Ted also widliley assumes, with providing little justification, that the majority of people secretly agree with his sintiments, rather I think the vast the majority of people are completley fine technological growth. Furthermore, again going against the idea of anarchism, I believe that human beings desire to do more with their lives than to gather their daily food, making the movment of civilisation away from a primative life, including technology, inevitable. Yet, after reading this book I began examin our governments and way of life through a critical lens that I would not have without it, for this reason alone id recomend reading it. This book also started my short lived anrachism/libertarion phase.

Bowling Alone by Robert D. Putnam ---- I read this book at the of my freshman year of college, and to tell you the truth I do not remeber every last detail of this book. However, what I do remeber from this book is the over all trend American society has to progressivley become more and more disconnected. I found this information both alleviating, in the sense that the lack of connecction I noticed between myself, my peers, and my family, was not neccesarily unique, but rather was the result of a failing society, aswell as disturping given the subject matter. I began to question how a country could repair such an abismal social connection without private force, a question whos answer would deeply disturb my youngerself.

The Republic ---- I might as well add every single Platonic dialoug here, but The Republic has by far been the most influential on me by far (The Timeaus is certainly a close second). So much information on a huge variety of topics is stroed in the book. I believe I have read it in its entirety in out of class around 5 times. Many people go into this text believing it to be a political text soley, I believed this intially as well. However, I now find it be primarily about the soul: how souls harmonize together and what is the best enviroment for the soul to prosper. Duty, especially to your fellow country men is a subject that is often talked about in this work, and while studying this text I finaly realized I myself, along with everyone around me, has a duty to promote the best version of the State. If one book got me out of my anarchistic slumber, it most certainly was The Republic. NOTE: this is not an intro book to Plato, do not make the mistake making this your first Platonic work.

Aristotle's Politics ---- I have read a lot of Aristotle, but this text really captured me the most. This study into the entiriety of political philosophy is extrodinarily thorough. Covering such topics ranging from the origin of politcs to the perfect land formation for a state. This text is a perfect introduction to political philosophy, as it goes over literally everything from start to finish. As a side not, the first chapter of this book is often responsilbe for people never reading anything from Aristotle again, and writing off everything he has done. Quite hilariously he both discusses "inferior" races and the role of women within society, his opinions do not impress modern people to say the least, and I have met many students and even professors who hate him because of this.