Blake
My blogs
| Location | Atlanta, Georgia, United States |
|---|---|
| Introduction | The political point of view I've developed so far in my efforts to comprehend current affairs is a species of leftism. I'm generally skeptical of governments' accounts of themselves, and I'm sympathetic to many mass movements that fight against ruling power to improve their own situation. However, my basic orientation asks whether any given state of affairs is moral, specifically just; so I have no sympathy for the crimes of the Terror under the French Revolution or of Mao Zedong's Communists, for example, or tolerance for union corruption. I also allow for the possibility that in any given instant, a government might also just be acting honest and doing the best they can in difficult circumstances. ;-) I grew up with an unexamined liberal orientation derived from my parents and whatever literature I haphazardly absorbed. A few years ago, however, I began to attempt to deliberately inform myself, attempting a version of Descartes' "doubting of everything" I thought I knew, reexamining and reevaluating and actively seeking to learn new things. In the process, it was mostly a few significant books that shaped my outlook (see below for a selection). |
| Interests | reading, political activism, legal activism |
| Favorite Books | Guns Germs and Steel - The Fates of Human Societies, Manufacturing Consent - The Political Economy of the Mass Media, The Proud Tower - A Portrait of the World Before the War 1890-1914, Lies My Teacher Told Me - Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong, Breaking the News - How the Media Undermine American Democracy, Money - Who Has How Much and Why, A People's History of the United States, A Struggle for Power, Explicit and Authentic Acts - Amending the U.S. Constitution 1776-1995 |