Book picks similar to
Integral Pluralism: Beyond Culture Wars by Fred R. Dallmayr
philosophy
social-science
non-fiction
nf-politics
Will you be my Facebook Friend?
Tim Chester - 2013
There are over 500 million users, half of whom use it on any given day. There is much that is good about this...social networking brings many benefits...but what about the dangers? Image, identity, idolatry and self promotion are just some of the challenges that social networking can present. Dr Tim Chester looks at these issues pastorally and biblically, in his usual clear and candid manner. He asks pertinent questions to help us tackle them head on.
Ain't It Time We Said Goodbye: The Rolling Stones on the Road to Exile
Robert Greenfield - 2014
For the Stones, nothing would ever be the same again.For ten days on that tour, the Rolling Stones traveled by train and bus to play two shows a night in many of the same small town halls and theaters where they had begun their career. Performing brand new songs like "Bitch," "Brown Sugar," "Wild Horses," and "Can't You Hear Me Knockin'" from their as-yet-unreleased album Sticky Fingers live on stage for the very first time, they also played classics like "Midnight Rambler," "Honky Tonk Women," "Satisfaction," "Street Fighting Man," and Chuck Berry's "Little Queenie" and "Let It Rock."Because only one journalist—Robert Greenfield—was allowed to accompany the Stones on this tour, there has never before been a full-length account of the landmark event that marked the end of the first chapter of the Rolling Stones' extraordinary career.In a larger sense, Ain't It Time We Said Goodbye is the story of two artists on the precipice. For Mick Jagger and Ketih Richards, as well as those who traveled with them, the Rolling Stones' farewell tour of England was the end of the innocence. No laminates. No backstage passes. No security. No sound checks and no rehearsals. Just the Rolling Stones on the road playing rock 'n' roll the way it was truly meant to be seen and heard.Based on Greenfield's first-hand account as well as new interviews with many of the key players, Ain't It Time We Said Goodbye is a vibrant and thrilling look at the way it once was and would never be again in the world according to the Rolling Stones.
Suicide of the West: How the Rebirth of Tribalism, Populism, Nationalism, and Identity Politics Is Destroying American Democracy
Jonah Goldberg - 2018
Instead we are surrendering to populism, nationalism and other forms of tribalism. Only once in the last 250,000 years have humans stumbled upon a way to lift ourselves out of the endless cycle of poverty, hunger, and war that defines most of history--in 18th century England when we accidentally discovered the miracle of liberal democratic capitalism.As Americans we are doubly blessed that those radical ideas were written into the Constitution, laying the groundwork for our uniquely prosperous society: - Our rights come from God not from the government. - The government belongs to us; we do not belong to the government. - The individual is sovereign. We are all captains of our own souls. - The fruits of our labors belong to us.In the last few decades, these political virtues have been turned into vices. As we are increasingly taught to view our traditions as a system of oppression, exploitation and "white privilege," the principles of liberty and the rule of law are under attack from left and right.At a moment when authoritarianism, tribalism, identity politics, nationalism, and cults of personality are rotting our democracy from within, Goldberg exposes the West's suicidal tendencies on both sides of the ideological aisle. For the West to survive, we must renew our sense of gratitude for what our civilization has given us and rediscover the ideals that led us out of the bloody muck of the past - or back to the muck we will go.Suicide is painless, liberty takes work.
People Patterns: A Modern Guide to the Four Temperaments
Stephen Montgomery - 2002
Stephen Montgomery presents a fresh new look at the four temperaments, the four ancient "people patterns" that are the key to personality types. In this updated and expanded 2nd edition, Dr. Montgomery cites over 250 characters from well-known movies and TV shows The Wizard of Oz, Sex and the City, Harry Potter, Star Trek, Star Wars, The Fantastic Four, The Incredibles, The Lord of the Rings, Ghost Busters, and many more to help bring the temperaments alive for a modern audience.People Patterns features an easy-to-score personality quiz, and easy-to-read chapters on dating & mating, parents & children, and talent & career (with over 750 job suggestions grouped according to type). The book begins with a brief history of the four temperaments (tracing the idea back to Hippocrates), and it ends with port
The Source: Power Of Happy Thoughts
Sirshree - 2011
Actions include his words too. And life is all about these three facets of hands, heart and head. But there is also a fourth facet that of consciousness on the background of which actions, feelings and thoughts emanate from. There is a lot said and written about these three facets. There is a lot of training given to these three areas. But what about the fourth? In engineering everybody understands the three facets of input, process and output. People understand that improving the output is not possible until process and specially input is changed. But is there a fourth aspect besides input, process and output. And the fourth aspect is the context in which workers are creating the output by changing the output through a process. Visionary thinkers have now begun thinking and impacting the fourth aspect too. They are understanding that the context or the culture in which workers operate are more important.In human engineering, actions are equivalent to output, feelings are equivalent to the process and thoughts are the input. Behaviour and actions are brought forth because of the input of thought and the further power that feelings process. That is why to change behaviour, it is important to change your feelings (process) and more importantly your thoughts (input). Yes, thoughts are very important. Change in thoughts through positive thinking is essential. But the fourth dimension is even more important. Yes, the context in which actions, feelings and thoughts arise is that of consciousness silence experience of being alive. Very little has been understood about this fourth dimension. Some call it The Self. When that is accessed, then harnessing thoughts, feelings and actions is very simple and easy. When the context in an organization is changed, then inputs, processes and outputs can all take a quantum jump. What a leader in an organization has to do is to precisely do that ??? change the context. The three facets are all lying on the foundation of the fourth. As a leader leading your life, it is similarly important to understand and access the consciousness from where actions, feelings and thoughts arise from. That is why it is called the source. Imagine, not being clear about your own source. But that is what is happening most people don't know their own source. The secret of the third aspect of thoughts is not just enough. The source of the thoughts is what matters. Even in the name of spirituality, which is actually the study of the source, everything other than the fourth dimension is being focused on. The three dimensions spirituality focuses on are exercising, breathing and thinking: Yoga, Pranayama and Gyan. But the fourth dimension of silence, that of Moun is the missing link. In the name of spirituality yogic asanas or breathing exercises or concentration exercises in the name of meditation are given importance to. But until, the source is accessed, until consciousness is manifested, it is not complete. Man is always comfortable with the three dimensions of length, breath and depth. But the fourth dimension is what gives colour to his life. Spirituality talks about the three states of sleeping, awakening and dream states. But discovering the fourth state (turiya) is the missing link. Discovering this fourth state should be the highest priority in life.
What You Seek Is Seeking You
Brian Tracy - 2015
On a crisp winter morning, Richard, a successful, self-made CEO runs into Zoya, a quirky, free-spirited artist. The meeting leaves them struggling to find a balance between what they believe about life, and what is actually out there.What You Seek is Seeking You is a heart-warming tale about what happens when you are forced to question everything you ever knew to be true. Refreshingly honest, it helps you rethink some of your most fundamental beliefs – the ones that hold the very canvas of your life in place, but which in fact may be limiting you.Setting the scene with a lively fable, Azim & Brian share insightful and tangible ways to:• Invite Positive Coincidences and Attract What You Seek• Set Goals, Remain Focused and yet Stay Detached from the Outcome• Enhance Your Business AcumenBrian Tracy is one of the finest self-help speakers of all times, a bestselling author of 70 books and a human potential expert. He has consulted for more than 1,000 companies and has spoken to 5,000,000 people in 65 countries. Brian is the Chairman and CEO of Brian Tracy International and his goal is to help you achieve your personal and business goals faster and easier than you ever imagined.Azim Jamal is one of the finest inspirational life altering speakers who has spoken to more than 1,000,000 people worldwide in 26 countries and his various media messages have been heard by more than 5,000,000 people. He is the CEO and founder of Corporate Sufi Worldwide whose mission is to inspire individuals and corporations to unleash their power within and find harmony between Business, Balance and Beyond.
100 Fun Bible Facts: The Exciting way to Learn (100 Bible Facts Book 1)
Ginger Baum - 2019
This is because they are fascinated by how they can connect in a real way to these exciting truths. This is a tried-and-true motivating method that gives a clear understanding, while keeping a grasp on comprehension. This is the first book of its kind, and it keeps the awe-inspired reader continuously interested. Every person that has the privilege to absorb this kind of wisdom will hold onto it throughout their precious lives as it paves the way to an accurate road of faith and strength. This carefully crafted timeless piece will help build self-confidence, self-expression, and closeness to the Lord. Readers won't be able to hold in all of the magnificent facts that they've learned, and will quickly share their enthusiasm with others.
Liberty in the Age of Terror: A Defence of Civil Liberties and Enlightenment Values
A.C. Grayling - 2009
Starting a war 'to promote freedom and democracy' could in certain though rare circumstances be a justified act; but in the case of the Second Gulf War that began in 2003, which involved reacting to criminals hiding in one country (Al Qaeda in Afghanistan or Pakistan) by invading another country (Iraq), one of the main fronts has, dismayingly, been the home front, where the War on Terror takes the form of a War on Civil Liberties in the spurious name of security. To defend 'freedom and democracy', Western governments attack and diminish freedom and democracy in their own country. By this logic, someone will eventually have to invade the US and UK to restore freedom and democracy to them.'In this lucid and timely book, Grayling sets out what's at risk, engages with the arguments for and against examining the cases made by Isaiah Berlin and Ronald Dworkin on the one hand, and Roger Scruton and John Gray on the other, and finally proposes a different way to respond that makes defending the civil liberties on which western society is founded the cornerstone for defeating terrorism.
The Second Mountain
David Brooks - 2019
Our personal fulfillment depends on how well we choose and execute these commitments. In The Second Mountain, Brooks looks at a range of people who have lived joyous, committed lives, and who have embraced the necessity of dependence. He gathers their wisdom on how to choose a partner, how to pick a vocation, how to live out a philosophy, and how we can begin to integrate our commitments into one overriding purpose.In short, this book is meant to help us all lead more meaningful lives. But it’s also a provocative social commentary. We live in a society, Brooks argues, that celebrates freedom, that tells us to be true to ourselves, at the expense of surrendering to a cause, rooting ourselves in a neighborhood, binding ourselves to others by social solidarity and love. We have taken individualism to the extreme—and in the process we have torn the social fabric in a thousand different ways. The path to repair is through making deeper commitments. In The Second Mountain, Brooks shows what can happen when we put commitment-making at the center of our lives.
The Careless Society: Community And Its Counterfeits
John McKnight - 1995
John McKnight shows how competent communities have been invaded and colonized by professionalized services -- often with devastating results. Overwhelmed by these social services, the spirit of community falters: families collapse, schools fail, violence spreads, and medical systems spiral out of control. Instead of more or better services, the basis for resolving many of America's social problems is the community capacity of the local citizens.
Ayn Rand: The Playboy Interview
Ayn Rand - 1964
It covered jazz, of course, but it also included Davis’s ruminations on race, politics and culture. Fascinated, Hef sent the writer—future Pulitzer-Prize-winning author Alex Haley, an unknown at the time—back to glean even more opinion and insight from Davis. The resulting exchange, published in the September 1962 issue, became the first official Playboy Interview and kicked off a remarkable run of public inquisition that continues today—and that has featured just about every cultural titan of the last half century.To celebrate the Interview’s 50th anniversary, the editors of Playboy have culled 50 of its most (in)famous Interviews and will publish them over the course of 50 weekdays (from September 4, 2012 to November 12, 2012) via Amazon’s Kindle Direct platform. Here is the interview with the novelist and philosopher Ayn Rand from the March 1964 issue.
Welcome to Everytown: A Journey Into the English Mind
Julian Baggini - 2007
Sympathetic but critical, serious yet witty, the book shows a country in which the familiar becomes strange, and the strange familiar.
Liquid Modernity
Zygmunt Bauman - 1999
This passage, he argues, has brought profound change to all aspects of the human condition. The new remoteness and un-reachability of global systemic structure coupled with the unstructured and under-defined, fluid state of the immediate setting of life-politics and human togetherness, call for the rethinking of the concepts and cognitive frames used to narrate human individual experience and their joint history.This book is dedicated to this task. Bauman selects five of the basic concepts which have served to make sense of shared human life - emancipation, individuality, time/space, work and community - and traces their successive incarnations and changes of meanaing.Liquid Modernity concludes the analysis undertaken in Bauman's two previous books Globalization: The Human Consequences and In Search of Politics. Together these volumes form a brilliant analysis of the changing conditions of social and political life by one of the most original thinkers writing today.
Tribe: On Homecoming and Belonging
Sebastian Junger - 2016
These are the very same behaviors that typify good soldiering and foster a sense of belonging among troops, whether they’re fighting on the front lines or engaged in non-combat activities away from the action. Drawing from history, psychology, and anthropology, bestselling author Sebastian Junger shows us just how at odds the structure of modern society is with our tribal instincts, arguing that the difficulties many veterans face upon returning home from war do not stem entirely from the trauma they’ve suffered, but also from the individualist societies they must reintegrate into.A 2011 study by the Canadian Forces and Statistics Canada reveals that 78 percent of military suicides from 1972 to the end of 2006 involved veterans. Though these numbers present an implicit call to action, the government is only just taking steps now to address the problems veterans face when they return home. But can the government ever truly eliminate the challenges faced by returning veterans? Or is the problem deeper, woven into the very fabric of our modern existence? Perhaps our circumstances are not so bleak, and simply understanding that beneath our modern guises we all belong to one tribe or another would help us face not just the problems of our nation but of our individual lives as well.Well-researched and compellingly written, this timely look at how veterans react to coming home will reconceive our approach to veteran’s affairs and help us to repair our current social dynamic.
Integral Christianity: The Spirit's Call to Evolve
Paul R. Smith - 2011
The perspectives of integral theory and practice, articulated by Ken Wilber, help uncover the integral approach that Jesus advocated and demonstrated in the metaphors of his time and that traditional Christianity has largely been unable to see. Smith incorporates elements of traditional, modern, and postmodern theological viewpoints, including progressive, New Thought, and emerging/emergent ones. However, he goes beyond all of them and moves to a Christianity that is devoted to following both the historical Jesus and the Risen Christ whose Spirit beckons to us from the future. Smith says, "The oldest thing you can say about God is that God is always doing something new. Jesus pushed his own religion to newness by including the best of its past, and transcending the worst of its present. He calls us to do the same, whatever our religion is today."