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During these troubled, and frustrating, times, I have felt a need to get a bigger picture. To that end, I decided I’d try a new book. I began reading The Enchiridion by Epictetus. Oddly, I’ve never really read much of the Stoics, and I was immediately floored by the relevance of the first three pages. If you will pardon the long quote. I want to quote the first section in its entirety.
Wisdom from 2000 years ago. I am very much looking forward to finishing this book. Demand not that events should happen as you wish; but wish them to happen as they do happen, and you will go on well. -Epictetus | ||
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Fighting the good fight |
Well, as a fan of history books, it's not uncommon to find very close parallels between events and situations in history and current events. But yes, a lot of the classical thinkers' opinions on life are still highly relevant to life today. The surrounding details of the world may have changed, but the underlying human condition has not. | |||
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Political Cynic |
Yes. Several Tom Clancey books fit this precisely. | |||
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Spread the Disease |
1984 ________________________________________ -- Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past me I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain. -- | |||
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is circumspective |
Matt Bracken's 'Enemies, Foreign & Domestic' series & Kurt Schlichter's Kelly Turnbull series. Fiction (for now) but prescient. "We're all travelers in this world. From the sweet grass to the packing house. Birth 'til death. We travel between the eternities." | |||
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Member |
Exactly. I recently read a history of the Peloponnesian War, and couldn’t help but note the similarities of the world politics to pre-Trump U.S. foreign policy. We look a lot like Athens in the early 5th century BC. Demand not that events should happen as you wish; but wish them to happen as they do happen, and you will go on well. -Epictetus | |||
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Member |
China is the Spartans? Interesting parallels, the US democracy and naval based dominance... | |||
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Drill Here, Drill Now |
I used to do a lot of business travel for work, and routinely read two novels every business trip. I was sitting in my seat on the airplane and began reading the first novel in the Left Behind series. Not that the rapture has occurred, but it was pretty eery to be sitting on an airplane reading about pilots disappearing midflight. Tom Clancy's 1994 novel Debt of Honor had a distinct similarity to the 9/11 terrorist attacks. In the novel, the Japanese terrorist flew the 747 into a joint session of Congress and Jack Ryan becomes President. Ego is the anesthesia that deadens the pain of stupidity DISCLAIMER: These are the author's own personal views and do not represent the views of the author's employer. | |||
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Political Cynic |
Matt Brackens books are very good. | |||
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delicately calloused |
Animal Farm. Brave New World. Lord of the Flies. You’re a lying dog-faced pony soldier | |||
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Member |
I read Atlas Shrugged during the 2008 election. | |||
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Info Guru |
Yours is a good example. Also, I am currently reading "Blood Red Snow", a German soldier's personal account of his time fighting on the Eastern front in WWII. He arrived at the front in late October of 42 outside of Stalingrad, so yeah - pretty similar to the vibe going on in the US right now - impending doom. “Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passions, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence.” - John Adams | |||
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Member |
Ecclesiastes. ____________________ | |||
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my existence, while grotesque and incomprehensible to you, saves lives |
Fahrenheit 451 pretty much predicted social media ***************************** "I don't own the night, I only operate a small franchise" - Author unknown | |||
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Member |
Pretty much. The alignment of the world into two camps, the weakness of alliances, the Athenians lack of desire to sustain the losses necessary for a win, the expense of maintaining a formidable Navy, the financial effects of a protracted fight, a plague in the middle of it, the expectation that the Athenian Navy would arbitrate every fight of the satellite states, etc. Demand not that events should happen as you wish; but wish them to happen as they do happen, and you will go on well. -Epictetus | |||
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No double standards |
Seems some of those authors were quite prophetic. "Liberty lies in the hearts of men and women. When it dies there, no constitution, no law, no court can save it....While it lies there, it needs no constitution, no law, no court to save it" - Judge Learned Hand, May 1944 | |||
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When the will is strong, everything is easy |
Unintended Consequences "You can avoid reality, but you cannot avoid the consequences of avoiding reality." Ayn Rand | |||
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Member |
Any super hero comic versus evil villains, and President Trump. | |||
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Member |
Herodotus, “The Histories”. | |||
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Member |
Alas, Babylon. End of Earth: 2 Miles Upper Peninsula: 4 Miles | |||
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