Mole Posted April 25, 2017 Posted April 25, 2017 Being just one young guy, it is difficult to get a real understanding of just how screwed up my environment really is. I have to constantly make sure I'm not projecting. I know the grass is greener on the other side. I see beauty in my dreams and in art. I can see beauty in my relationships, even if it is occasional and may last for only a couple seconds. I know something is very wrong, that is obvious. Not all ideologies can be right at the same time. The statistics indicate something is wrong. Off the top of my head, 1/4 people will have a mental illness this year, 80% of the world lives in poverty, 90% of parents hit children, 90% of the population is religious. These statistics indicate something is very wrong, but it's also very abstract. Perhaps the only way to understand the world is to first understand yourself and contrast the world to yourself. However, I hope I can reach some empathy with the world so that I can connect to it instead of living in a constant state of mild paranoia. Are there any books that talk about mental illness? The matrix? More sad statistics? Love and emotions? I understand the economic and political theories. It's time for me to understand the social theories, but this is something that I think this is not really talked about in the greater sense of things. We can talk about depression or spanking children, but what does that mean for my culture?
Xcalyba Posted April 25, 2017 Posted April 25, 2017 Sure! Study history. If you want to learn about social systems study history. Do not pick up a sociology book lol.
Mole Posted April 25, 2017 Author Posted April 25, 2017 1 minute ago, Xcalyba said: Sure! Study history. If you want to learn about social systems study history. Do not pick up a sociology book lol. Any history?
Xcalyba Posted April 25, 2017 Posted April 25, 2017 Start with WW1 and WW2. Probably the most pertinent events that have led to the present day. You have 3 'social systems' National Socialism - The Germans (fascism) Communism - The Russians (also very fascist) & Capitalism - The Allies
Xcalyba Posted April 25, 2017 Posted April 25, 2017 And don't let the world get you down <3 You have a right to exist and nobody is more important than you.
plato85 Posted April 25, 2017 Posted April 25, 2017 Ayn Rand - Atlas Shrugged - excellent novel which philosophically argues out the social problems. Easy to read but very long. I couldn't recommend it enough. Carol Quigley - Tragedy and Hope is an INTENSE world history, covering about 150years up to the 1960s. It's a real hard slog though. 1300pages of fine print. It took me nearly a year. He goes into the philosohic outlook of each country and how it relates to their past. Adam Curtis - Watch all of his documentaries. Start with Century of the Self. It's about how Freuds ideas are used to control society. Another excellent video is An Evening with John Taylor Gatto. He goes into the education system. He goes into theories about whether we're being dumbed down deliberately.
_LiveFree_ Posted April 26, 2017 Posted April 26, 2017 https://www.selfleadership.org/ifs-store.html#books Internal Family Systems Therapy -Richard Shwartz Learn about IFS then read about the French Revolution and see how our internal parts organize the external world into the same mold. If you really want to start getting a grasp on this stuff, go internal (really small) and then external (really big) and find the commonalities and patterns. Back and forth. Back and forth. Then after a few iterations of extremes, learn something that falls in the middle of that scope. When you begin to see a common pattern/thread/theme no matter the scope, then you're on to something fundamental.
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