Philosophy – Page 11 – Public Intelligence Blog

2011/06/092011/06/09

Review: Grand Strategies — Literature, Statecraft, and World Order

6 Star Top 10%, Civil Society, Culture, Research, Democracy, Diplomacy, Empire, Sorrows, Hubris, Blowback, History, Nature, Diet, Memetics, Design, Peace, Poverty, & Middle Class, Philosophy, Power (Pathologies & Utilization), Strategy, Values, Ethics, Sustainable Evolution

Charles Hill

Beyond 5 Stars–Can Frustrate, But Righteously Broad, June 9, 2011

I am sympathetic to those who are critical of the author, as I myself was frustrated at many points and also I confess feeling very ignorant about many of the literary works that were mentioned. However, and despite a rotten index and the lack of a syntopicon or annex with literature and politics and economics at least, side by side, this is for me beyond 5 stars, a category where no more than 10% of my reviewed works can be found (at Phi Beta Iota, the Public Intelligence Blog).

It is true the book is not so much about grand strategy in the classical political science or military sense, but for that I recommend Colin Gray's Modern Strategy. The book also does not address the impoverished nature of the nation-state system or how to build civilizations. There I recommend Philip Allott's The Health of Nations: Society and Law beyond the State and Richard Spady's The Leadership of Civilization Building: Administrative and civilization theory, Symbolic Dialogue, and Citizen Skills for the 21st Century.

Read to the bitter end this magnificent book is both an indictment of the nation-state system, and an ode to the role of literature as a foundation for understanding and enhancing civilization and relations among peoples rather than nations.

Continue reading “Review: Grand Strategies — Literature, Statecraft, and World Order”

2011/06/092011/06/09

Review (Guest): Brain Trust — The Hidden Connection Between Mad Cow and Misdiagnosed Alzheimer’s Disease

02 Infectious Disease, 07 Health, 07 Other Atrocities, 11 Society, 5 Star, America (Founders, Current Situation), Atrocities & Genocide, Censorship & Denial of Access, Complexity & Catastrophe, Congress (Failure, Reform), Corruption, Corruption, Country/Regional, Crime (Corporate), Crime (Government), Culture, Research, Disease & Health, Earth Intelligence, Empire, Sorrows, Hubris, Blowback, Executive (Partisan Failure, Reform), Government, Impeachment & Treason, IO Sense-Making, Justice (Failure, Reform), Military, Misinformation & Propaganda, Nature, Diet, Memetics, Design, Peace, Poverty, & Middle Class, Philosophy, Politics, Power (Pathologies & Utilization), Science & Politics of Science, Secrecy & Politics of Secrecy, Strategy, Survival & Sustainment, Threats (Emerging & Perennial), True Cost & Toxicity, Voices Lost (Indigenous, Gender, Poor, Marginalized)

Dr. Colm A. Kelleher

5.0 out of 5 stars As a neurologist, I found it frightening, November 21, 2004

By Stephen Wong (Pennsylvania, USA) – See all my reviews

As a trained neurologist working at a school of medicine, I thought I had a fairly good understanding of BSE and its human counterpart, nvCJD. But clinical knowledge is only one piece of the puzzle.

Drawing upon epidemiologic, forensic, political, medical, scientific, and historical sources, the author has provided a truly chilling account of the importation of prion disease samples from the small cannabalistic Fore tribe in New Guinea for U.S. animal experimentation in the 1950's and '60's, with credible links to the current epidemic of animal prion disease in North America (CWD or chronic wasting disease, TME or transmissible mink encephalopathy, and BSE), as well as the current epidemic of Alzheimer's disease in developed countries (i.e., those eating mass-produced livestock). The author also speculates that the cattle mutiliations in North America in the past few decades may have been programs designed for the surveillance of prions within the nation's food supply.

Some disturbing points made in the book are:

Continue reading “Review (Guest): Brain Trust — The Hidden Connection Between Mad Cow and Misdiagnosed Alzheimer's Disease”

2011/06/012011/06/01

Review: Other People’s Money by Louis Brandeis

6 Star Top 10%, America (Founders, Current Situation), Banks, Fed, Money, & Concentrated Wealth, Capitalism (Good & Bad), Civil Society, Congress (Failure, Reform), Crime (Corporate), Culture, Research, Executive (Partisan Failure, Reform), Intelligence (Public), Justice (Failure, Reform), Misinformation & Propaganda, Peace, Poverty, & Middle Class, Philosophy, Politics, Power (Pathologies & Utilization), Priorities, Public Administration, Secrecy & Politics of Secrecy, Values, Ethics, Sustainable Evolution, Voices Lost (Indigenous, Gender, Poor, Marginalized)

Louis Brandeis

Beyond 5 Stars–A Classic that Makes Justice Brandeis a Founding Father, June 1, 2011

I am shocked to not see any reviews of this book, and also shocked to see how reasonably priced the book is–this is a CLASSIC, a collector's item, and for anyone who wishes to restore the Republic in the USA, and help other countries avoid the terrible mistakes we have made in allowing bankers free rein.

The book is available free online “by the chapter” courtesy of the University of Louisville Louis D. Brandeis School of Law, but I strongly support the publishers who have provided this incredibly valuable non-fiction at such a good price. Use Inside the Book to look more closely.

Eric Hughes, whom I met at the Hackers Conference in Silicon Valley in the 1990's, created the concept of anonymous banking, and now we can move even further beyond that: we do not need banks. We certainly do not need banks outside of local communities. Resources can now be aggregated without banks, and as one of those who strongly supports Ron Paul's “End the Fed” initiative, and who has pioneered using open sources of intelligence to restore transparency and eradicate corruption, I think that both political parties should be impeached for their continuing cozy relationship with the banks at the expense of We the People.

Below are nine books and one DVD that build on the case made by Justice Brandeis. Our government–and the banks and financial institutions on Wall Street–are an axis of evil vastly more harmful to the public interest in the USA and all over the world, than any band of terrorists or dictators ever could be. The enemy is within our walls, and only an educated citizenry rooted in the philosophy of liberty and self-governance can root that enemy out. This book is a “primer” of lasting value and would also make a superb gift.

AA Mind the Gap — Vote and/or Comment on Review

2011/05/262011/05/26

Review: Rationalizations for Women Who Do Too Much While Running With the Wolves

5 Star, Civil Society, Consciousness & Social IQ, Culture, Research, Nature, Diet, Memetics, Design, Philosophy, Voices Lost (Indigenous, Gender, Poor, Marginalized)

Allison McCune (Author), Tomye B. Spears (Author)

Pioneering Book by Personable Authors, May 26, 2011

I was shocked to see the scorching negative comment on this book. I met one of the authors tonight at a Microsoft job fair, she is one of their Human Relations recruiters (probably has a broader portfolio than that), and we talked about the book, the emergence of “lists” at which this book was a pioneer, and the total concept of women as distinct from men and both the obstacles and challenges that women face, and the enormous value that women bring, best reflected for me in another book I have reviewed, Mapping the Moral Domain: A Contribution of Women's Thinking to Psychological Theory and Education.

2011/05/24

Review: Cosmic Weather Report — Notes from the Edge of the Universe

5 Star, Change & Innovation, Complexity & Resilience, Consciousness & Social IQ, Cosmos & Destiny, Culture, Research, Future, Intelligence (Collective & Quantum), Nature, Diet, Memetics, Design, Philosophy, Truth & Reconciliation, Values, Ethics, Sustainable Evolution

Mark Borax and Ellias Lonsdale

Phenomenal Starting Point for Anyone Opening Up, May 24, 2011

Disclosure: I bought this book because I am negotiating a contract with the publisher for a book in their new Manifesto series (tentative title: Manifesto for Truth–Public Intelligence in the Public Interest). I wanted to get a “sense” of where the publisher was grounded. I am also looking at (these were given to me) four of the books by Patricia Cori the most interesting to me being an early one, No More Secrets, No More Lies: A Handbook to Starseed Awakening (Sirian Revelations).

Ten years ago I would have considered this book–and those of Patricia Cori–to be off the wall, psycho-babble. Not now! Now, after a decade of being exposed to deeply grounded common sense among individuals such as Tom Atlee, Harrison Owen, Paul Hawkins, Barbara Marx-Hubbard, Peggy Holman and so many others, I find this book to be *startlingly* effective, easy to read, and full of *so many* gifted phrases. The authors, each published on their own, are strong together. Along with the other books that I list below within my ten book limit, I absolutely recommend this book as a window into the period of Awakening that begins now–2012 is not about apocalypse, it is about the death of atrocities against humanity by governments and corporations and banks, and the emergence of the human spirit and the human mind into a Whole Earth manifestation that “connects” with the larger Cosmos. I am not fully mature yet, but this book is a helpful point of reference.

Continue reading “Review: Cosmic Weather Report — Notes from the Edge of the Universe”

2011/05/22

Review: The World Sensorium — The Social Embryology of World Federation 1946

5 Star, Civil Society, Communications, Complexity & Resilience, Culture, Research, Education (Universities), Games, Models, & Simulations, Information Operations, Information Society, Intelligence (Collective & Quantum), Intelligence (Extra-Terrestrial), Intelligence (Public), Intelligence (Wealth of Networks), Nature, Diet, Memetics, Design, Peace, Poverty, & Middle Class, Philosophy, Priorities, Public Administration, Strategy, Survival & Sustainment, Water, Energy, Oil, Scarcity

Oliver L. Reiser

A Gem–Easy to Read, A Foundation Book for World Brain and Global Game, May 22, 2011

I bought this book on a whim, sensing that despite its 1946 publication date it might be inspirational and I have been *very* glad to go through this. It was a half-century ahead of its time. This book, which does cite H.G. Wells and World Brain (Adamantine Classics for the 21st Century), is a wonderful core reading for any age including high school but certainly going all the way to PhD programs. I consider it a SUPERB start to any semester of dialog in this domain.

Quick overview and appreciation by the chapter:

2011/05/172011/05/17

Review (Guest): Idiot America — How Stupidity Became a Virtue in the Land of the Free

5 Star, America (Founders, Current Situation), Complexity & Catastrophe, Consciousness & Social IQ, Country/Regional, Culture, Research, Education (General), Intelligence (Public), Misinformation & Propaganda, Nature, Diet, Memetics, Design, Peace, Poverty, & Middle Class, Philosophy, Politics, Religion & Politics of Religion, Science & Politics of Science

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Charles Pierce

5.0 out of 5 stars It's True: We See This Everyday, July 2, 2009

By K. Johnson (US/Asia) – See all my reviews

“Idiot America” is great, informative book about concepts we see everyday. Also, many of the 1-star reviews are likely biased because of some of the political and religious topics noted. I think this book is definitely a full, 5-star book.

The Following comments aren't meant to be particularly negative towards the United States and the concepts in this book aren't exclusive to the USA. The concepts in “idiot America” exist all over the entire world. “Idiot America” is a superbly covered account of something that's very prevalent in the US.

Charles Pierce provides the history of “cranks” (con artists and showmen) from the founding of the nation to current examples today in contemporary America. I focused on TV and Radio because of it's widespread impact on the populace today (even in the age of the growing Internet, which is becoming dominant). Much of TV and Talk Radio promote misinformation based on emotion, histrionics, shock, being loud, and over-the-top attempts to get ratings.

The author notes “The 3 Great Premises: and applies them to many instances in this book:

1. Any theory is valid if it moves units (rating, and making money).
2. Anything can be true if it is said loudly enough.
3. Fact is what enough people believe (the Truth is what you believe).

There are many examples in this book. Here are just a few:

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