The Communist Manifesto
Presents a concise edition of the 1848 treatise on the economic, political, and social conditions of the working class, which served as the platform of the Communist League and subsequent Communist movement. Includes an introduction and an analysis of its impact.
Stats for nerds
6recommend
13mentions
13people
2014–2025years
46% recommend46% neutral8% critical
Mentions per year
What Hacker News says
- Yes, you are clearly confused if you think not using 'scripture' (as in ideologically driven course material) as base for the curriculum will lead to 'dumbing down' of society. Maybe you should read again what I wrote and rewrite or remove your confused and confusing answer? Here's what we discussed, in order:
YOU: Well, I mean, you are kind of less educated if you only learn from books that are.. um.. "consistent with scripture" so to speak.
[ here you state using scripture (or books consistent with it) are a poor base for a curriculum ]
ME: Howard Zinn's A People's History of the United States and similarly biased publications can be considered scripture [see also 1] in 'progressive' circles, especially those found around educational institutions. They have been used extensively for decades while educational outcomes have plummeted which proves the veracity of your claim but probably not in the way you intended.
[ here I state "indeed is a poor base, just look at the disastrous results achieved by using 'scripture'" ]
YOU: I'm confused? That seems to prove exactly what I was saying. That if you only allow kids to read the books that are "consistent with scripture" they are less educated. I'll take this opportunity to add that making any "scripture" the leading voices, leads to less educated kids. Your ideas will lead to the "dumbing down" of a society. I mean, maybe it will be a society sufficiently dumb enough to accept the doctrinal import of your preferred scriptures? But it'd still be a pretty dumb society.
[ here you repeat what I said in different words and directly after that claim that 'my ideas' (i.e. not using scripture as the base for a curriculum) will lead to 'dumbing down' of society ]
Where you probably go wrong is in the assumption that not using 'scripture' as the base for a curriculum means the doctrines of that scripture will not be discussed in any way. This is clearly mistaken since a non-doctrinal curriculum by necessity needs to explain those doctrines to explain where it differs from the doctrinal versions. Howard Zinn is a Marxist who does not like western society and culture and would like to see it succumb to some revolution or other - a doctrinal position. There is probably a similarly biased Conservative nationalist author somewhere who thinks western society and specifically the North American iteration of it is the pinnacle of human development but I can no think of a name since his books are clearly not part of the curriculum where Zinn's are. Both these authors, Zinn and the non-name Conservative nationalist produced heavily biased works which are not suitable as a base for a curriculum. That does not mean they should not be discussed, it just means they should not be leading the discussion. Reading the Communist Manifesto does not make you a Communist after all, reading Mein Kampf does not make you a National Socialist, reading the Quotations of Chairman Mao does not make you a Maoist. I say read them all and discuss their influence, show where they went wrong but also acknowledge that these works are the products of time and circumstance which created the conditions for their impact - the exploitation of industrial workers in the beginning of the industrial revolution, the single-sided blame for the first world war being put on the German Empire and the burden of the Versailles treaty weighing down the German populace, the succession of unpopular imperial dynasties and the power vacuum left after the 1911 revolution in China which the KMT/GMD failed to fill which create the stage for the next revolution.
Is there a name for the approach I favour? I think there is: the liberal arts curriculum [1]. Of course I'm referring to the original ideas behind this curriculum, not the 'modern' bastardised ideologically driven implementation of it. If it is called 'liberal' in the USA it is most likely not related to the original ideas behind either liberalism or the liberal arts curriculum - it is more likely to be the antithesis of it by being doctrinally rigid and closed to viewpoints outside the desired narrative.
- List seems to be nearly all novels, with a few plays and poems.
No Euclid's Geometry, no Herodotus Histories, no Bible or Koran, no Samuelson's Economics or Smith's Wealth of Nations, no Plato's Republic, no Communist Manifesto, no Leviathan or Rights of Man, no On the Origin of Species. Just off the top of my head.
All of those and more are arguably in the top 100 greatest books of of all time.
- This list of books may sum up my entire personhood, some I read at a young age.
Thinking Fast and Slow. After you read it take a course on statistics & probability.
The Art of Strategy
The Cambridge Handbook of Expertise and Expert Performance
Armor by John Steakley Great book of fiction, helped me understand PTSD.
Read a lot of Asimov, robot series, foundation and short stories starting with The Last Question.
Jules Verne
Mark Twain, various stories but particularly the Diary of Adam & Eve
The Jungle Book by Kipling
Lost Horizon
Robinson Crusoe
Dune Series
Enders Game and sequels.
The Odyssey
The Count of Monte Cristo
Seventh Son by Orson Scott Card because it helped me understand that a cultures internally consumed fiction tells you about its values.
The book of Ecclesiastes. The book of Job. Leviticus 25. Galatians 5:22-23. Romans 2:15. Luke 18:1-8. The minor prophets. Bible generally if you want to deep dive, I did once upon a time.
25th chapter of the First Epistle of Clement of Rome
Aristotle, Socrates.
Thus Spake Zarathustra
Through Gates of Splendor Peace Child
Let Freedom Ring. I was working illegally (as I recall) as a 15 year old teenager for Sean Hannity (as a w2 employee through a proxy) when this book came out and along with my personal interactions with him at the time it helped clarify that he is not a person whose opinion holds any weight or even much thought. I remember at the time thinking it was unbearably poor reading.
Farmer Giles of Ham. If you've already read the hobbit, LOTR, etc. it helped me understand the framing of Tolkien way better.
Then read Pride and Prejudice through the lens of Farmer Giles of Ham. Calling it a romance novel is a disservice.
A James Bond Novel. I can't remember the name but there is one in particular that describes why he always acts so overtly and not spy-ish at all. The explanation helped me understand why you should throw yourself fully into work projects and helped me get over fear of mistakes. It made me a far better consultant as well while I was doing that.
So good they can't ignore you & deep work.
How to win friends and influence people.
Run Silent, Run Deep.
The Communist Manifesto
The Christian Manifesto
From Dawn to Decadence.
Romance of the 7 kingdoms.
Life together.
There's a big yellow book about the 6 day war, it's very detailed and blow by blow, I can no longer remember its name but it impressed upon me the chance and vagaries of war.
The Free Will Defense. Alvin Plantinga (and the various philosophic revuttals/conversations)
In Defense of the Kalam Cosmological Argument. William Lane Craig (and the various philosophic revuttals/conversations)
No little people. Francis Schaeffer
The Rise and Fall of the 3rd Reich.
The Rails Way. 1st edition.
Javascript. The good parts.
Visual quick start guide to SQL.
^These three are probably the most important books I ever read, they probably changed the trajectory of my life more than any others on the list.
Midnight's Children. Rushdie
Roberts Rules of Order.
The four loves
Love languages
A once popular anti catholic tract called "The Trail of Blood".
Basically there is truth, falsehood, history, emotion and understanding in all these works, synthesizing these particular books made me who I am today. There are many others but these are the ones that come quickly to mind and whose titles I can still mostly recall.
- Mein Kampf is pretty long and, frankly, boring (unlike The Communist Manifesto that reads like a poem).
- > And no, I'm not going to read a few thousands words because you're unable to make your point yourself.
This is ridiculous. Not every matter of conversation - especially one so enormous as "what is the nature of law?" can be answered in an HN thread.
There's nothing wrong with reading a few thousand words of a crucial essay to educate yourself. That's what you need to do to be able to think clearly about big topics.
Reading the law will only just get you started. It makes sense to read The Federalist Papers, The Communist Manifesto, The Republic, and many other cornerstones of thinking about this instead of demanding that someone distill thousands of years of thought into a HN comment.
> My point is fact, and stands:
It isn't and doesn't. I asked you a simple question in my last comment that you haven't answered that, for your purposes, may well "make my point": What about a situation in which two different entities both claim to be the legitimate government? Or a society in which large numbers of people regard a government as illegitimate? Or who regard particular laws as beyond a purview which they recognize for government?
What then is "the law?" How many different places to you need to look to find this one law?
- Well, I suppose I might want to try something like Coding the Matrix: Linear Algebra through Applications to Computer Science, or a book on games programming -- if I was trying to interest the kid in math and CS subjects.
For fiction, it's damned hard to say. My own personal top influences in fiction form were the Young Wizards series by Diane Duane and, weirdly, the anime/manga Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann. It's actually very, very hard to find good fiction for kids, since you're trying to inspire or teach rather than just entertain. Terry Pratchett's Tiffany Aching arc is good for younger kids, with the later books having the star character as a young teen.
For nonfiction that isn't just math/science/technology, how about the Communist Manifesto?
