What's your nomination for Most Important book written in the last 471 years?

mikegrouchy

^^This picture makes me very sad.......a sad father who lost all his family because of the ignorance of others..... because racism and xenophobia are nothing but ignorance (sorry OP if this is off topic).

Ulysses............by James Joyce

reply to post by mikegrouchy




Dr. Edward Bernays is known as the father of modern public relations. This book details why and how to use and apply mass propaganda. In the very first paragraph he writes:

THE conscious and intelligent manipulation of the
organized habits and opinions of the masses is an
important element in democratic society. Those who
manipulate this unseen mechanism of society constitute
an invisible government which is the true ruling
power of our country.

The work of Dr. Bernays influenced many, including Joseph Goebbels. He was allegedly invited to join both the Nazis and the Soviets, but in a display of loyalty to the United States, he declined. These may be the reasons he later wrote the following words in an essay entitled The Engineering of Consent:

Today it is impossible to overestimate the importance of engineering consent; it
affects almost every aspect of our daily lives. When used for social purposes, it is
among our most valuable contributions to the efficient functioning of modern society.
The techniques can be subverted; demagogues can utilize the techniques for
antidemocratic purposes with as much success as can those who employ them for
socially desirable ends.

Propaganda is my nomination because it deals with the real world application of mass social conditioning, or "mind-control". Mass social conditioning influences most every faucet of both one's life and the society one is committed to. It shapes our religious beliefs, scientific minds, governing policies, civil affairs, economy, etc.

Dr. Bernays is a pioneer who taught leaders how to manufacture OUR consent for whatever purposes they desire.

reply to post by MOMof3

The Diary of Anne Frank.

Reminds us of the evil that can take over a whole nation because of war, poverty, then more war.

Good nomination! Star.

My nomination was Propaganda by Dr. Edward Bernays partly because without it the Nazis wouldn't have been able to brainwash people so effectively, and Anne Frank probably would not have had to write that diary.

mikegrouchy
It can be on any subject
in any deciphered language
obscurity does not disqualify,
and even if it is widely called a hoax
it is still admissible as your nomination for
Most Important Book written in the last 471 years.

Mike Grouchy

Webster Dictionary

just a thought.....

reply to post by mikegrouchy


Illuminatus! Trilogy by Robert Anton Wilson and Robert Shae.

Next, Principia Discordia followed by Black Iron Prison.

All hail Discordia!

The instruction manual for my car GPS unit.

You still have to have masters degree in computer programming and applied physics to operate the damned thing even with the book lol.

reply to post by mikegrouchy


Difficult, for me it would be either 1984 or The Celestine Prophecy

mikegrouchy

igloo
Why 471?

My nomination is Brave New World.

Great choice!





I chose the time limit
of 471 years so to exclude
De Revolutionibus Orbium Coelestium.

Mike Grouchy

edit on 11-4-2014 by mikegrouchy because: (no reason given)

Honestly, Chrome Yellow is a must read for those who read BNW.

If I didn't just go with a Huxley book, I'd suggest reading Ishmael/My Ishmael.

reply to post by mikegrouchy


Well.... i dunno if this passes as a book, but it might as well, since entire libraries have spanned from Albert Einstein's miracle year, he wrote four papers in one year - where each paper would normally take a lifetime to write!

Four papers that set the stage for modern physics

a reply to: mikegrouchy
The Well Tempered Clavier J.S. Bach. A musical book, changed our modern perception of sound.

Here is a shot of the title page.

originally posted by: trumpet
a reply to: mikegrouchy
The Well Tempered Clavier J.S. Bach. A musical book, changed our modern perception of sound.

I had not heard of this one before.
Thank you very much.


Mike Grouchy

Tie - 1984, Animal Farm, Brave New World, Atlas Shrugged

a reply to: mikegrouchy

It's pleasing to seem that many of the works mentioned are by British writers ( i suppose being British myself i would say that wound''t i ?)

My choice would be anything written by Shakespeare. The reason being , he added many new words ( around 1700) and sayings to the English language. Here are but a few :-

www.shakespeare-online.com...

a reply to: mikegrouchy
You're welcome! Thanks for the g-minor. I still like to pull them out and read while I listen to someone play. It's a beautiful language, both written and heard.

Johnny Got His Gun by Dalton Trumbo 1938/39. If I had read this book before enlisting in the military I would have steered myself in a different direction. I think it should be required reading.

J D salinger, catcher in the rye
A near perfect story that captures the heart and mind of an outsider so well.

“Anyway, I keep picturing all these little kids playing some game in this big field of rye and all. Thousands of little kids, and nobody's around - nobody big, I mean - except me. And I'm standing on the edge of some crazy cliff. What I have to do, I have to catch everybody if they start to go over the cliff - I mean if they're running and they don't look where they're going I have to come out from somewhere and catch them. That's all I do all day. I'd just be the catcher in the rye and all. I know it's crazy, but that's the only thing I'd really like to be.”

“It's funny. All you have to do is say something nobody understands and they'll do practically anything you want them to.”



Mary Shelly Frankenstein
The movies may have been bad but the story is incredibly deep and moving.

“Life, although it may only be an accumulation of anguish, is dear to me, and I will defend it.”

"If our impulses were confined to hunger, thirst, and desire, we might be nearly free; but now we are moved by every wind that blows and a chance word or scene that that word may convey to us.”



Don Quixote
Another master piece

"Too much sanity may be madness. And maddest of all, to see life as it is and not as it should be.”

“Virtue is persecuted by the wicked more than it is loved by the good.”