Top Ten Books that Screwed Up The World

reply to post by thoughtsfull


Do you just troll the forums looking for semantical errors ?
cause at the moment it just looks like your trying to point out mistakes in the choice of words.rather then actually supply documented evidence that what im saying is inherently wrong ?
blessed be

Originally posted by sprocket2cog
reply to post by thoughtsfull

 

Do you just troll the forums looking for semantical errors ?
cause at the moment it just looks like your trying to point out mistakes in the choice of words.rather then actually supply documented evidence that what im saying is inherently wrong ?
blessed be

nah, was trying to be helpful and I am really sorry if I caused any offence.. however if you would prefer to picture me under a bridge mumbling to myself you are most welcome

I jumped in, perhaps to quickly, as I have always found it interesting that those defined as cunning folk where not really those who where identified by the church/witch hunters and convicted/punished as witches..

en.wikipedia.org...

Since it appears that way, then all I can assume is the whole witchcraft persecution (in England at least) was about victimising the innocents and enforcing theology while appearing to ignore those who did practice the cunning arts.

reply to post by thoughtsfull


Fair enough, just the threw me as to your true intent..
Thanks for the link.
As i am of dutch heritage , the terms toverdokters or duivelbanners might be a better choice of words for the path i follow.

This is a very interesting idea for a thread and I think the OP deserves a for the idea.

HOWEVER, I can't help but feel that this will end badly...its all fun and games until your own personal ox gets gored, so to speak...reading this feels a little like sitting on top of two crates of gasoline-soaked dynamite, one labeled "religion" and the other "politics," and insouciently chain-smoking.

Originally posted by sprocket2cog
reply to post by thoughtsfull

 

Fair enough, just the

threw me as to your true intent..
Thanks for the link.
As i am of dutch heritage , the terms toverdokters or duivelbanners might be a better choice of words

edit on 20-4-2011 by sprocket2cog because: (no reason given)

I am sorry about that.. am in a very very good mood, and if we where talking face to face I would still be grinning like a Cheshire cat.. no idea why considering the state of our planet.. Please accept my profound apologies

I do find these books deeply interesting and will probably have a crack at reading them all, as I think there is so much to learn from them.

I personally would add Sir Thomas Moores Utopia to the list.. here is a guy who coins the term, yet burns people at the stake for not believing what he does, and that seems to me to be the consistent approach to the concept of Utopia.

As i am of dutch heritage , the terms toverdokters or duivelbanners might be a better choice of words for the path i follow.

thanks for that, I will certainly have to research that my dialect/culture (Sussex) is derived from Brythonic, Saxon and old Dutch languages/culture, so would be interesting to see if there is any correlation

reply to post by thoughtsfull


toverdokters and duivelbanners can be translated as witchdoctors and devil banners
the terms are listed in the link on wiki you gave me in your previous post

Originally posted by sprocket2cog
reply to post by thoughtsfull

 

toverdokters and duivelbanners can be translated as witchdoctors and devil banners
the terms are listed in the link on wiki you gave me in your previous post

I like you dude , your not a mug your a bright guy

How did "The Fountainhead" not take #1?

Originally posted by sprocket2cog
reply to post by thoughtsfull

 

toverdokters and duivelbanners can be translated as witchdoctors and devil banners
the terms are listed in the link on wiki you gave me in your previous post

Cool I just read the bit about England before I posted the link to see if it matched the printed books I have on the cunning folk..

In my opinion it's a no-brainer as far as the number one book(s) that have screwed up the world...

1. The Bible/The Koran (tie)

reply to post by thoughtsfull


Cool if you manage to find some good information on the dutch witchdoctors, please send me a u2u for the thread if you start one, i have found that dutch religion in the early times isnt easy to find and it interests me

and thank you for the kind words solid (OP) I do try to stay ahead of the curve.
sorry for hijacking you thread btw

Worthy items on the list, for sure.

Also of the same ilk:

B.F. Skinner's

BEYOND FREEDOM AND DIGNITY.

HARRY POTTER series

Perhaps also . . . been a long time ago but . . . CATCHER IN THE RYE? . . . and similar novels . . . seemingly glorifying corrupt values?

And probably anything of any substance published by CFR members.

Originally posted by sprocket2cog
reply to post by thoughtsfull

 

Cool if you manage to find some good information on the dutch witchdoctors, please send me a u2u for the thread if you start one, i have found that dutch religion in the early times isnt easy to find and it interests me

and thank you for the kind words solid (OP) I do try to stay ahead of the curve.
sorry for hijacking you thread btw

Of course... I have started having a look, one book at Sussex Uni looks interesting.. I'll let you know if I find anything as it has my interest piqued.. BTW I think it should be me who apologises to the op for going off topic.. apologies OP.

Any book or resource can be found to be Evil, an abomination of Humanity, a treatise upon the sacrosanct, an aberration of the Devil himself! But until one observes the medium through equality and non-judgement then one will see the neutrality and equality of such ill-logical understandings,
period!

Originally posted by solid007
Books are one of our greatest resources, but many times in history books have been written which are misleading or untrue. In some cases this has lead to widescale death and destruction and evil governmental regimes.

This is a list of ten of the worst books of this type – books that have done more harm than good. The common thread in all of these books is deception – invariably not intentional, but the consequences are the same regardless.

This list is in no particular order.


9.Coming of Age in Samoa
Margaret Mead, 1928

On the list because: it turned out to be a creation of her own sexual confusions and aspirations

Margaret Mead was an American cultural anthropologist who traveled to Samoa to answer the questions on sexuality posed in America in the 1920s (particularly with reference to women). Unfortunately for Mead, the youths she interviewed in Samoa told her wild tales of sexual promiscuity and Mead reported it all as fact. One of the girls later said: “She must have taken it seriously, but I was only joking. As you know, Samoan girls are terrific liars when it comes to joking. But Margaret accepted our trumped up stories as though they were true.” If challenged by Mead, the girls would not have hesitated to tell the truth, but Mead never questioned their stories. According to Wikipedia: “The use of cross-cultural comparison to highlight issues within Western society was highly influential, and contributed greatly to the heightened awareness of Anthropology and Ethnographic study in the USA.” Interestingly, Mead was a highly regarded academic and had a large part in the formulation of the 1979 American Book of Common Prayer (Church of England).

I recall reading Margaret Mead's book about Samoa in College in the 1960's and thinking it was a fairy tale.

I was annoyed to be paying big bucks to go to a private libel arts college and being asked to take this book as a

serious work.


Later I was delighted to hear some researchers went back to Samoa to follow up with the people who had told

stories to Margaret Mead. That made sense to me, especially in light of my own experiences in remote

locations in Asia where I frequently received information that seemed to be spun to agree with whatever I

appeared to want to hear.


I was appalled to learn that I was again paying bigger bucks to send my children to college in this century only to

find that Margaret Mead's book is still on the required reading list, and with no reference to the fact that it has

been widely discredited as a scientific work in sociology

So what shall we do ? I know ! BURN THE BOOKS !

Atlas Shrugged is another mind bending piece of fiction.

But then.. there are so many.

I am disinclined to include religious works regardless of how repugnant they might be because they are essentially works which build upon a predisposed faith to accept them; therefore, anyone can refute their validity based upon bias both for and against the book.

But books which are supposed to be reflections or conclusions based upon facts ... those are most dangerous if the material is taken in 'just as one would a bible.'

I'm not sure about Catcher in the Rye. What precisely is the offense in the content? It makes no proclamations of how the world should be, it paints no moralistic outcome, it seems to be just a book. Or am I missing something?

Originally posted by BO XIAN
Worthy items on the list, for sure.
Also of the same ilk:
HARRY POTTER series

Aw...I know I'm going to regret it but how did Harry Potter books screw up the world? Please share.

reply to post by whatwasthat


Yes.... I agree... the Meade publication shows just how being the 'right' person in the 'right' position with the 'right' social standing makes you 'an expert' to be accepted without inquiry. I suspect the feminist movement was hurt to some degree by her declarations.. because they were founded upon one thing, when they were said to be founded upon another.

If we're to judge a book by the troubles they've caused, I'd like to propose the entire Harlequin Romance series as being a global cause of pain and suffering.

There should have been a prophetic notation in the Malleus Maleficarum backed by a specific Papal Bull warning of silly sexy plots.