Debt: the first 5000 Years, by David Graeber , is a book about the history of debt, credit, and money. It gives a detailed account of the origins of money and its development over time. Graeber argues that the development of money is closely linked to the development of debt, and that the two are … Read more
“Bullshit Jobs: A Theory” is a provocative book by anthropologist David Graeber that challenges conventional wisdom about the nature of work and employment in the modern economy. The book seeks to identify and analyze what Graeber terms “bullshit jobs,” which he defines as positions that are so utterly pointless, even the person doing the job … Read more
The Shrinking of America: Myths of Psychological Change is a very helpful resource to understand the myths of psychotherapy. Though dated, it still unpacks the many inherent problems within the psychotherapeutic world and gives an insiders view of such. Zilbergeld was a practicing therapist for many years and his book is an outgrowth of his … Read more
In his book Sham: How the Self-Help Movement Made America Helpless, Steve Salerno exposed the multi-billion dollar self-help industry as a fraud. His thesis is simple: the self-help movement has not helped Americans become more self-reliant, it has made us more helpless. In this blog post, we’ll provide a summary of Salerno’s key points and … Read more
Rene Girard: Why do you worship power? Friederich Nietzche: If one wants to create a god, one must proceed as if creating a man. One must conceive of the god as something one has never conceived before, something one has to create from nothing. One creates the idea of the god, then creates the god. … Read more
C.S. Lewis: First of all, I would like to thank the Devil for agreeing to engage in this debate with me. I must say that I am quite surprise that he is so confident in his position, given that the burden of proof rests squarely on his shoulders. Devil: Oh, I don’t mind at all. … Read more
Either/Or In ‘Either/Or’, Danish philosopher Soren Kierkegaard offers readers a detailed analysis of human existence, complete with various thought experiments and passages of dense prose. Kierkegaard opens the book with a distinction between two ways of life that he labels the aesthetic and the ethical. The former is concerned only with immediate pleasure and gratification, … Read more
In his book “The Concept of Anxiety”, Danish philosopher Soren Kierkegaard explores the nature of anxiety and how it relates to the human condition. Kierkegaard posits that anxiety is not simply a feeling or emotion, but rather a fundamental quality of existence. He goes on to argue that anxiety is what allows humans to be … Read more
While many books have been written about geopolitics, few are as insightful or controversial as “The Grand Chessboard” by Zbigniew Brzezinski. In this book, Brzezinski lays out his vision for American global hegemony. He argues that America must maintain its position as the world’s preeminent superpower at all costs, even if that means intervening militarily … Read more
In “The Sickness Unto Death”, Danish philosopher Søren Kierkegaard presents the idea that humans are in a constant state of becoming. For Kierkegaard, this process of becoming is defined by a continuous striving towards an ideal self that is never fully realized. This ideal self is what Kierkegaard calls the “authentic self”. It is only … Read more