/edu/ - Education

Has anyone read picrel yet? Is it any good, or just more Applebaum tier trash? Obviously I'm not expecting a Leftist take, but anything critical of the usual "the people rose up to overthrow le evil tyranny" narrative would be good, even from the right. I think I heard the WarNerd guys rexerence it, so thought maybe it's not complete shit.

How should I go around teaching a kid a new language?

I have recently started reading "Voltaire's Bastards, the Dictatorship of Reason in the West" by John Ralston Saul and I would like to start a thread to further discuss the book. I haven't read too much of it, however it does seem to possit a rather unique worldview and critique of modern (and by modern I mean last 200 years modern) political theory.

The book mainly possits that Reason, which first rose as an ideological tool to combat the divine right of the absolutist rule of the feudal monarchs, had mutated over the years into becoming the same type of tool of social control, a modern cult to justify the divine right of the technocrats. According to Ralston, this extends to all modern ideologies, as in his eyes communism, socialism, capitalism, fascism or nazism are all the same sort of ideologies of absolute solutions, trying to enforce their own types rationality and reason onto the world, while in the end reinforcing the same sort of rule of technocrats, be they soviet politburo or western business elites.

The book seems to be written from a rather idealist position, as to Ralston the main feature of the current age is the absolute dominance of Reason, which prohibits any critiques of the current order by either making it seem irrational and thus mute, or by entangling it into its own language of rationality. The book states that the worst part is that other perspectives of human thought in decision making that lay outside reason have all been marginalized - things like humanism, common sense, emotion or faith - and deemed lower than the perspective of reason.

I originally started reading the book as it seemed like it makes a good attack against the technocratic mindset of capitalism deffenders, which I rather struggled in arguing against when I encountered it, however from what I read, the book also raises claims against the validity of Marxism, and is set to lump it in together with the capitalist ideology. So, I was wondering, are there any Marxist replies to Ralston? Because what I read right now seems like a really prophetic critique of neoliberalism (the book came out right after the fall of USSR), thus its making me want to at least revisit my Marxist positions and see if they hold up.

This shit is bullshit, right? The big three (Hobbes, Locke, and Rousseau) begin their axiomatic construction of state power that we are totally atomized individuals and social interaction is constructed entirely through self interested contractual bargaining.

Is our entire western political system actually built upon these ideas? WTH?

Also: is pic related any good?

Greetings comrades, I’m searching for books about class in the states that cover history and evolution of class and present day class conditions. Any help would be greatly appreciated!

If there is an objective reality, aren't interpretations of it merely falsehoods besides 1 truthful description of reality? I understand that every perspective is innately subjective, but theoretically, if there is an objective reality, then what we call interpretations could only be falsehoods besides 1 interpretation that actually describes reality as it is.

What exactly is Charisma? How much of it can be learned? I tried looking at sources for this(Wikipedia articles for example), but most of them seem only tangentially related to the topic. Books and resources are appreciated.

how is histmat supposed to help us get to communism? are we still supposed to just support socdem movements? what especially does it mean now in the regressive post-industrial landscape of the past 40-50 years of neoliberalism, if not the entire past century since WWI?

Hey comrades, any of you know any good history books for beginners that aren't too bougie? Or just history books in general? Also textbooks if you know of any.

As always post the pdf if you have it.

"The transformation to a neo-colonial world has only begun, but it promises to be as dramatic, as disorienting a change as was the original European colonial conquest of the human race. Capitalism is again ripping apart and reconstructing the world, and nothing will be the same. Not race, not nation, not gender, and certainly not whatever culture you used to have." —from the preface

https://readsettlers.org/night-vision/text-index.html

As of 07/01/2022: Ch. 2-7 in need of formatting. All chapters in need of citation links. Needs proofreading.