Todd
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~~~ Must Read Books ~~~
- Thread starter Conza88
- Start date
amy31416
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- Nov 17, 2007
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A tough read...at least for me.
Worthwhile things are rarely easy. . .glad you read it.
Conza88
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It Aint nobodys business if I do- by the late Peter McWilliams
This book changed my life
http://www.amazon.com/Handbook-Higher-Consciousness-Ken-Keyes/dp/0960068880
The following is from the higher consciousness classic,
Handbook to Higher Consciousness by Ken Keyes, Jr.
which explains the Living Love system to higher consciousness.
T H E T W E L V E P A T H W A Y S
To the Higher Consciousness Planes
of Unconditional Love and Oneness
FREEING MYSELF
1. I am freeing myself from security, sensation, and power
addictions that make me try to forcefully control situations
in my life, and thus destroy my serenity and keep me from
loving myself and others.
2. I am discovering how my consciousness-dominating
addictions create my illusory version of the changing world
of people and situations around me.
3. I welcome the opportunity (even if painful) that my
minute-to-minute experience offers me to become aware of the
addictions I must reprogram to be liberated from my robot-like
emotional patterns.
BEING HERE NOW
4. l always remember that I have everything I need to enioy my
here and now -- unless I am letting my consciousness be
dominated by demands and expectations based on the dead past
or the imagined future.
5. I take full responsibility here and now for everything I
experience, for it is my own programming that creates my
actions and also influences the reactions of people around
me.
6. I accept myself completely here and now and consciously
experience everything I feel, think, say, and do (including
my emotion-backed addictions) as a necessary part of my
growth into higher consciousness.
INTERACTING WITH OTHERS
7. I open myself genuinely to all people by being willing to
fully communicate my deepest feelings, since hiding in any
degree keeps me stuck in my illusion of separateness from
other people.
8. I feel with loving compassion the problems of others without
getting caught up emotionally in their predicaments that
are offering them messages they need ior their growth.
9. I act freely when I am tuned in, centered, and loving, but
if possible I avoid acting when I am emotionally upset and
depriving myself of the wisdom that flows from love and
expanded consciousness.
DISCOVERING MY CONSCIOUS-AWARENESS
10. I am continually calming the restless scanning of my
rational mind in order to perceive the finer energies that
enable me to unitively merge with everything around me.
11. I am constantly aware of which of the Seven Centers of
Consciousness I am using, and I feel my energy,
perceptiveness, love and inner peace growing as I open all
of the Centers of Consciousness.
12. I am perceiving everyone, including myself, as an awakening
being who is here to claim his or her birthright to the
higher consciousness planes of unconditional love and oneness.
****************************************************************
The following is from a classic of the higher consciousness
frontier: The Handbook to Higher Consciousness by Ken Keyes,
Jr. which explains the Living Love system to higher
consciousness.
THE SEVEN CENTERS OF CONSCIOUSNESS
1. THE SECURITY CENTER.
This Center makes you preoccupied with food, shelter, or
whatever you equate with your personal security. This
programming forces your consciousness to be dominated by your
continuous battle to get "enough" from the world in order to
feel secure.
2. THE SENSATION CENTER.
This Center is concerned with finding happiness in life by
providing yourself with more and better pleasurable sensations
and activities. For many people, sex is the most appealing of
all sensations. Other addictive sensations may include the
sound of music, the taste of food, etc.
3. THE POWER CENTER.
When your consciousness is focused on this Center, you are
concerned with dominating people and situations and increasing
your prestige, wealth, and pride -- in addition to thousands of
more subtle forms of hierarchy, manipulation, and control.
4. THE LOVE CENTER.
At this Center you are transcending subject-object relationships
and are learning to see the world with the feelings and
harmonies of flowing acceptance. You see yourself in everyone
-- and everyone in yourself. You feel compassion for the
suffering of those caught in the dramas of security, sensation,
and power. You are beginning to love and accept everyone
unconditionally -- even yourself.
5. THE CORNUCOPIA CENTER.
When your consciousness is illuminated by this Center, you
experience the friendliness of the world you are creating. You
begin to realize that you've always lived in a perfect world.
To the degree that you still have addictions, the perfection
lies in giving you the experience you need to get free of your
emotion-backed demands. As you reprogram your addictions, the
perfection will be experienced as a continuous enjoyment of the
here and now in your life. As you become more loving and
accepting, the world becomes a "horn of plenty" that gives you
more than you need to be happy.
6. THE CONSClOUS-AWARENESS CENTER.
It is liberating to have a Center from which your
Conscious-awareness watches your body and mind perform on the
lower five centers. This is a meta-center from which you
non-judgmentally witness the drama of your body and mind. From
this Center of Centers, you learn to impartially observe your
social roles and life games from a place that is free from fear
and vulnerability.
7. THE COSMIC CONSCIOUSNESS CENTER.
When you live fully in the Sixth Center of Consciousness, you
are ready to transcend self-awareness and become pure awareness.
At this ultimate level, you are one with everything -- you are
love, peace, energy, beauty, wisdom, clarity, effectiveness, and
oneness.
Going to buy both I think
RCA
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http://www.amazon.com/Fast-Food-Nation-Dark-All-American/dp/0060938455
A great read if you care about health and the fast food industry, also adapted into a movie.
Also, if you are into fitness & nutrition then Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle is the most popular e-book online:
http://www.burnthefat.com/
A great read if you care about health and the fast food industry, also adapted into a movie.
Also, if you are into fitness & nutrition then Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle is the most popular e-book online:
http://www.burnthefat.com/
Conza88
Member
- Joined
- Oct 15, 2007
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- 11,472
http://www.fee.org/publications/the-freeman/article.asp?aid=8156
The Pursuit of Happiness: The Intellectual Defense of Liberty
By Walter E. Williams
Walter Williams is the John M. Olin Distinguished Professor of Economics at George Mason University.
All too often defenders of free-market capitalism base their defense on the demonstration that free markets allocate resources more efficiently and hence lead to greater wealth than socialism and other forms of statism. While that is true, as Professor Milton Friedman frequently pointed out, economic efficiency and greater wealth should be seen and praised as simply a side benefit of free markets. The intellectual defense should focus on its moral superiority. Even if free markets were not more efficient and not engines for growth, they are morally superior to other forms of human organization because they are rooted in voluntary peaceable relationships rather than force and coercion. They respect the sanctity of the individual.
The preservation of free-market capitalism requires what philosopher David Kelley has called the entrepreneurial outlook on life, which he in part describes as “a sense of self-ownership, a conviction that one’s life is one’s own, not something for which one must answer to some higher power.” If we accept as first principle that each owns himself, what constitutes just and unjust conduct is readily discovered and does not require rocket science. Unjust conduct is simply any conduct that violates an individual’s ownership rights in himself when he has not violated those same rights of others. The latter phrase—when he has not violated those same rights of others—allows for fines, imprisonment, and execution when a person has infringed the ownership rights of others.
Therefore, acts such as murder, rape, and theft, whether done privately or collectively, are unjust because they violate private property. There is broad consensus that collective or government-sponsored murder and rape are unjust; however, government-sponsored theft is another matter. Theft, being defined as forcibly taking the rightful property of one for the benefit of another, has wide support in many societies that make the pretense of valuing personal liberty. That theft, euphemistically called income redistribution or transfers, is often defended by lofty phrases such as: assisting the poor, the elderly, distressed business, college students, and other deserving segments of society. But as F. A. Hayek often admonished, “[F]reedom can be preserved only if it is treated as a supreme principle which must not be sacrificed for any particular advantage. . . .” Ultimately, the struggle to achieve and preserve freedom must take place in the habits, hearts, and minds of men. Or, as admonished in the Constitution of the state of North Carolina: “The frequent recurrence to fundamental principles is absolutely necessary to preserve the blessings of liberty.” It is moral principles that deliver economic efficiency and wealth, not the other way around. These moral principles or values are determined in the arena of civil society.
It is not broadly appreciated that the greater wealth produced by free markets itself contributes to a more civilized society and civilized relationships. For most of man’s existence, he has had to spend most of his time simply eking out a living. In pre-industrial society, and in many places today, the most optimistic scenario for the ordinary citizen was obtaining enough to meet his physical needs for another day. With the rise of capitalism and the concomitant rise in human productivity that yielded seemingly ceaseless economic progress, it was no longer necessary for man to spend his entire day simply providing for minimum physical needs. People were able to satisfy their physical needs with less and less time. This made it possible for them to have the time and other resources to develop spiritually and culturally. In other words, the rise of capitalism enabled the gradual extension of civilization to greater and greater numbers of people. More of them had more time available to read and become educated in the liberal arts and gain more knowledge about the world around them. The greater wealth allowed them the opportunity to attend to the arts, afford recreation, contemplate more fulfilling and interesting activities, and engage in other cultural enrichment that was formerly within the purview of only the wealthy.
Before the rise of capitalism a primary means to great wealth was through looting, plundering, and enslaving one’s fellow man. With the rise of capitalism it became possible for people to become wealthy by serving their fellow man. Men like Henry Ford and John D. Rockefeller of yesteryear, and men like Bill Gates and Steve Jobs of today, accumulated their great wealth in this way. The huge fortunes amassed by these men pale in comparison to the sum of the benefits gained by the common man.
For individual freedom to be viable, it must be a part of the shared values of a society and there must be an institutional framework to preserve it against encroachments by majoritarian or government will. Constitutions and laws alone cannot guarantee the survival of personal freedom, as is apparent where Western-type constitutions and laws were exported to countries not having a tradition of the values of individual freedom. The values of freedom are enunciated in our Declaration of Independence: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by the Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” This value statement, serving such an important role in the rebellion against England and later in the establishment of the Constitution of the United States, was the outgrowth of libertarian ideas of thinkers like John Locke, Adam Smith, Wilhelm von Humboldt, William Blackstone, and others.
Societies with a tradition of freedom, such as the United States, have found it an insufficient safeguard against encroachment by the state. Why? Compelling evidence suggests that a general atmosphere of personal freedom does not meet what might be considered its stability conditions. As is often the case, political liberty is used to stifle economic liberty, which in turn reduces political liberty.
Inadequate Explanations
The benefits of liberty and protected private property rights are often lost in discussions of how our blessings can be extended to the world’s poor nations. We often hear suggestions that it is natural resources, right population size, or geographic location that explains human betterment. The United States and Canada are population scarce, have a rich endowment of natural resources, and are wealthy. However, if natural resources and population scarcity were adequate explanations of wealth, one would expect the resource-rich and some of the population-scarce countries on the continents of Africa and South America to be wealthy. Instead, Africa and South America are home to the world’s poorest and most miserable people. A far better explanation of wealth has to do with cultural values that support liberty.
If we were to rank countries according to: (1) whether they are more or less free-market, (2) per capita income, and (3) ranking in Amnesty International’s human-rights protection index, we would find that those with a larger free-market sector tend also to be those with the higher per capita income and greater human-rights protections. People in countries with larger amounts of economic freedom, such as the United States, Canada, Australia, Hong Kong, Japan, and Taiwan, are far richer and have greater human-rights protections than people in countries with limited markets, such as Russia, Albania, China, and most countries in Africa and South America. That should tell you something.
The Pursuit of Happiness: The Intellectual Defense of Liberty
By Walter E. Williams
Walter Williams is the John M. Olin Distinguished Professor of Economics at George Mason University.
All too often defenders of free-market capitalism base their defense on the demonstration that free markets allocate resources more efficiently and hence lead to greater wealth than socialism and other forms of statism. While that is true, as Professor Milton Friedman frequently pointed out, economic efficiency and greater wealth should be seen and praised as simply a side benefit of free markets. The intellectual defense should focus on its moral superiority. Even if free markets were not more efficient and not engines for growth, they are morally superior to other forms of human organization because they are rooted in voluntary peaceable relationships rather than force and coercion. They respect the sanctity of the individual.
The preservation of free-market capitalism requires what philosopher David Kelley has called the entrepreneurial outlook on life, which he in part describes as “a sense of self-ownership, a conviction that one’s life is one’s own, not something for which one must answer to some higher power.” If we accept as first principle that each owns himself, what constitutes just and unjust conduct is readily discovered and does not require rocket science. Unjust conduct is simply any conduct that violates an individual’s ownership rights in himself when he has not violated those same rights of others. The latter phrase—when he has not violated those same rights of others—allows for fines, imprisonment, and execution when a person has infringed the ownership rights of others.
Therefore, acts such as murder, rape, and theft, whether done privately or collectively, are unjust because they violate private property. There is broad consensus that collective or government-sponsored murder and rape are unjust; however, government-sponsored theft is another matter. Theft, being defined as forcibly taking the rightful property of one for the benefit of another, has wide support in many societies that make the pretense of valuing personal liberty. That theft, euphemistically called income redistribution or transfers, is often defended by lofty phrases such as: assisting the poor, the elderly, distressed business, college students, and other deserving segments of society. But as F. A. Hayek often admonished, “[F]reedom can be preserved only if it is treated as a supreme principle which must not be sacrificed for any particular advantage. . . .” Ultimately, the struggle to achieve and preserve freedom must take place in the habits, hearts, and minds of men. Or, as admonished in the Constitution of the state of North Carolina: “The frequent recurrence to fundamental principles is absolutely necessary to preserve the blessings of liberty.” It is moral principles that deliver economic efficiency and wealth, not the other way around. These moral principles or values are determined in the arena of civil society.
It is not broadly appreciated that the greater wealth produced by free markets itself contributes to a more civilized society and civilized relationships. For most of man’s existence, he has had to spend most of his time simply eking out a living. In pre-industrial society, and in many places today, the most optimistic scenario for the ordinary citizen was obtaining enough to meet his physical needs for another day. With the rise of capitalism and the concomitant rise in human productivity that yielded seemingly ceaseless economic progress, it was no longer necessary for man to spend his entire day simply providing for minimum physical needs. People were able to satisfy their physical needs with less and less time. This made it possible for them to have the time and other resources to develop spiritually and culturally. In other words, the rise of capitalism enabled the gradual extension of civilization to greater and greater numbers of people. More of them had more time available to read and become educated in the liberal arts and gain more knowledge about the world around them. The greater wealth allowed them the opportunity to attend to the arts, afford recreation, contemplate more fulfilling and interesting activities, and engage in other cultural enrichment that was formerly within the purview of only the wealthy.
Before the rise of capitalism a primary means to great wealth was through looting, plundering, and enslaving one’s fellow man. With the rise of capitalism it became possible for people to become wealthy by serving their fellow man. Men like Henry Ford and John D. Rockefeller of yesteryear, and men like Bill Gates and Steve Jobs of today, accumulated their great wealth in this way. The huge fortunes amassed by these men pale in comparison to the sum of the benefits gained by the common man.
For individual freedom to be viable, it must be a part of the shared values of a society and there must be an institutional framework to preserve it against encroachments by majoritarian or government will. Constitutions and laws alone cannot guarantee the survival of personal freedom, as is apparent where Western-type constitutions and laws were exported to countries not having a tradition of the values of individual freedom. The values of freedom are enunciated in our Declaration of Independence: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by the Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” This value statement, serving such an important role in the rebellion against England and later in the establishment of the Constitution of the United States, was the outgrowth of libertarian ideas of thinkers like John Locke, Adam Smith, Wilhelm von Humboldt, William Blackstone, and others.
Societies with a tradition of freedom, such as the United States, have found it an insufficient safeguard against encroachment by the state. Why? Compelling evidence suggests that a general atmosphere of personal freedom does not meet what might be considered its stability conditions. As is often the case, political liberty is used to stifle economic liberty, which in turn reduces political liberty.
Inadequate Explanations
The benefits of liberty and protected private property rights are often lost in discussions of how our blessings can be extended to the world’s poor nations. We often hear suggestions that it is natural resources, right population size, or geographic location that explains human betterment. The United States and Canada are population scarce, have a rich endowment of natural resources, and are wealthy. However, if natural resources and population scarcity were adequate explanations of wealth, one would expect the resource-rich and some of the population-scarce countries on the continents of Africa and South America to be wealthy. Instead, Africa and South America are home to the world’s poorest and most miserable people. A far better explanation of wealth has to do with cultural values that support liberty.
If we were to rank countries according to: (1) whether they are more or less free-market, (2) per capita income, and (3) ranking in Amnesty International’s human-rights protection index, we would find that those with a larger free-market sector tend also to be those with the higher per capita income and greater human-rights protections. People in countries with larger amounts of economic freedom, such as the United States, Canada, Australia, Hong Kong, Japan, and Taiwan, are far richer and have greater human-rights protections than people in countries with limited markets, such as Russia, Albania, China, and most countries in Africa and South America. That should tell you something.
Conza88
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- Oct 15, 2007
- Messages
- 11,472
I've started my Ron Paul Library - and bought 17 books, costing about $450 lol. It's worth it though.
Knowledge is priceless. And II consider this an investment in myself. They are:
Title: Handbook to Higher Consciousness
Author: Ken Keyes
Title: Human Action: A Treatise on Economics
Author: Ludwig von Mises, Bettina Bien Greaves
Title: America's Great Depression
Author: Murray N. Rothbard
Title: Walden With Ralph Waldo Emerson's Essay on Thoreau (Everyman's Library)
Author: Henry David Thoreau
Title: The Road to Serfdom
Author: F. A. Hayek
Title: Common Sense, The Rights of Man and Other Essential Writings of Thomas Paine (Signet Classics)
Author: Thomas Paine
Title: The Anti-Federalist Papers and the Constitutional Convention Debates (Signet Classics)
Author: Ralph Ketcham
Title: The End of America: Letter of Warning to a Young Patriot
Author: Naomi Wolf
Title: The Constitution of Liberty
Author: F. A. Hayek
Title: The Federalist Papers (Penguin Classics)
Author: Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, John Jay
Title: Economics in One Lesson: The Shortest and Surest Way to Understand Basic Economics
Author: Henry Hazlitt
Title: The Law
Author: Frederick Bastiat
The Creature from Jekyll Island : A Second Look at the Federal Reserve
Author: E. G. Griffin
Gold, Peace, and Prosperity
Author: Ron Paul
How I Found Freedom in an Unfree World
Author: Harry Browne
Knowledge is priceless. And II consider this an investment in myself.
They are:Title: Handbook to Higher Consciousness
Author: Ken Keyes
Title: Human Action: A Treatise on Economics
Author: Ludwig von Mises, Bettina Bien Greaves
Title: America's Great Depression
Author: Murray N. Rothbard
Title: Walden With Ralph Waldo Emerson's Essay on Thoreau (Everyman's Library)
Author: Henry David Thoreau
Title: The Road to Serfdom
Author: F. A. Hayek
Title: Common Sense, The Rights of Man and Other Essential Writings of Thomas Paine (Signet Classics)
Author: Thomas Paine
Title: The Anti-Federalist Papers and the Constitutional Convention Debates (Signet Classics)
Author: Ralph Ketcham
Title: The End of America: Letter of Warning to a Young Patriot
Author: Naomi Wolf
Title: The Constitution of Liberty
Author: F. A. Hayek
Title: The Federalist Papers (Penguin Classics)
Author: Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, John Jay
Title: Economics in One Lesson: The Shortest and Surest Way to Understand Basic Economics
Author: Henry Hazlitt
Title: The Law
Author: Frederick Bastiat
The Creature from Jekyll Island : A Second Look at the Federal Reserve
Author: E. G. Griffin
Gold, Peace, and Prosperity
Author: Ron Paul
How I Found Freedom in an Unfree World
Author: Harry Browne
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Conza88
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princessredtights
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- Jun 2, 2007
- Messages
- 535
Could a mod make this a sticky?
Conza88
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- Oct 15, 2007
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BUREAUCRACY by Ludwig Von Mises
http://www.mises.org/etexts/bureaucracy.pdf
http://www.mises.org/etexts/bureaucracy.pdf
princessredtights
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- Joined
- Jun 2, 2007
- Messages
- 535
Just a side note - our meetup group is starting a book club - this list is awesome!
Conza88
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- Joined
- Oct 15, 2007
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- 11,472
Oh snap!!
A Libertarian Syllabus
A friend of mine who is involved in youth politics asked me to put together a curriculum for Ron Paul libertarians, a four-year course of study that will take students from the basics of free-market economics and the Constitution into the deeper waters where theory, history, and policy meet. Here’s the tentative curriculum I’ve come up with:
Cont. Here
A pretty good list. I have the best of's already, in the later years.
I think there is some over lapping. But yes, time to begin!
A Libertarian Syllabus
A friend of mine who is involved in youth politics asked me to put together a curriculum for Ron Paul libertarians, a four-year course of study that will take students from the basics of free-market economics and the Constitution into the deeper waters where theory, history, and policy meet. Here’s the tentative curriculum I’ve come up with:
Cont. Here
A pretty good list. I have the best of's already, in the later years.
I think there is some over lapping. But yes, time to begin!
Truth Warrior
Banned
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- Dec 3, 2007
- Messages
- 18,789
Calculated Chaos: Institutional Threats to Peace and Human Survival, by Butler D. Shaffer
http://www.endervidualism.com/salon/books/shaffer.htm
http://www.endervidualism.com/salon/books/shaffer.htm
This could be of interest to some people here:
the abolition of man by c.s. lewis. The last part of the first chapter is a good idea of what you're getting into:
"we make men without chests and expect of them virtue and enterprise. we laugh at honour and are shocked to find traitors in our midst. we castrate and bid the geldings be fruitful."
oh, here's an even more interesting one:
"The process, which, if not checked, will abolish Man goes on apace Communists and Democrats no less than among Fascists. The methods may(at first) differ in brutality. But many a mild-eyed scientist in pince-nez, many a popular dramatist, many an amateur philosopher in our midst, means in the long run just the same as the Nazi rulers of Germany."
the abolition of man by c.s. lewis. The last part of the first chapter is a good idea of what you're getting into:
"we make men without chests and expect of them virtue and enterprise. we laugh at honour and are shocked to find traitors in our midst. we castrate and bid the geldings be fruitful."
oh, here's an even more interesting one:
"The process, which, if not checked, will abolish Man goes on apace Communists and Democrats no less than among Fascists. The methods may(at first) differ in brutality. But many a mild-eyed scientist in pince-nez, many a popular dramatist, many an amateur philosopher in our midst, means in the long run just the same as the Nazi rulers of Germany."
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Conza88
Member
- Joined
- Oct 15, 2007
- Messages
- 11,472
Newest orders:
Title: Imperial Hubris: Why the West is Losing the War on Terror
Author: Michael Scheuer
Title: Doubt: A History: The Great Doubters and Their Legacy of Innovation from Socrates and Jesus to Thomas Jefferson and Emily Dic...
Author: Jennifer Michael Hecht
Title: Brave New World (P.S.)
Author: Aldous Huxley
Title: A Foreign Policy of Freedom: Peace, Commerce, and Honest Friendship
Author: Ron Paul
Title: Dedication And Leadership: Philosophy
Author: Douglas Hyde
Title: Imperial Hubris: Why the West is Losing the War on Terror
Author: Michael Scheuer
Title: Doubt: A History: The Great Doubters and Their Legacy of Innovation from Socrates and Jesus to Thomas Jefferson and Emily Dic...
Author: Jennifer Michael Hecht
Title: Brave New World (P.S.)
Author: Aldous Huxley
Title: A Foreign Policy of Freedom: Peace, Commerce, and Honest Friendship
Author: Ron Paul
Title: Dedication And Leadership: Philosophy
Author: Douglas Hyde
Any 'classics' suggestions?
Like Victor Hugo, Dante's Inferno stuff?
Interested in the books that have stood the test of time.
Don Quixote, Ivanhoe, Canterbury Tales, Howard Pyle's four volume set on King Arthur..., The Broad Stone of Honour etc.
What can I say I love thems novels on chivalry. They don't have an overt political message, but fascinating otherwise.
