Was he right?Is Liberal Democracy the ultimate Human System and will we never see something better?
>>24795526Gay secularized stripping down of Hegel's master-slave dialectic built upon Kojeve's interpretation that just pretends that liberalism has resolved all social contradictions, while a cabal of kleptocrat billionaires are turning the USA into a posthuman autocracy after decades of neoliberal imperialism, while China continues to rise in power and influence. Even Fukuyama wrote an entire fucking book in 2001 about technology threatening to undue liberalism via creating a biotech created caste system (Posthuman Future). Obviously 99% of people haven't read this book, haven't read Kojeve, haven't read Hegel, haven't read Posthuman Future, and are totally talking out of their asses.History is resuming and will completely snap the spine of the entire 400+ year modern era upon the axe of global war meeting technological singularity-break out point. It will end in either a global post-human totalitarian world state of either ZOG or Han-Communist form, or global annihilation.
>>24795526Technology and the internet are relentlessly exposing the unfathomable lie we were sold: that a universal, egalitarian demographic has ever existed. As this truth becomes undeniable, the system will be forced to crush foundational liberal principles like free speech, not to protect the people because they can’t even protect their own citizens, but to protect "Liberalism" itself. The ideology’s biggest issue is that it's no longer the patriotic liberalism of the past; it's a non-conforming creed that has forgotten that shared economic interests are what truly unite a society. Right now, the only thing holding the multicultural zoo of the United States together is a good economy. When the quality of life inevitably drops, even slightly, the younger generation is going to chimp out. Raised on a progressive view of history as a guaranteed upward climb, Millennials and Gen Z will turn into genuine radicals the moment that fantasy shatters. Mix their inevitable meltdown with the social friction from unassimilated third-worlders and their alienated second and third-generation children, and you are going to get some truly crazy times.
>>24795526>Is Liberal Democracy the ultimate Human SystemNo, it's inherently unsustainableLiberalism is the endgame of any civilization, it's what happens when they don't have enough enemies and get lazy, hedonistic and complacementIt's Fall of Rome
What’s the consensus on /lit/?I assume a lot of anons have read something by the realist side, but are there nominalism-enjoyers out there? Has anyone read William of Ockham or Roger bacon?
>>24795283>red would still exist as a conceptColour is a really terrible example of a universal for multiple reasons:1. It's a perception2. It has no fixed boundaries3. Wavelengths of light etc
>>24795355It's a good example for those exact reasons. Everything is like that but it's clear and obvious when it comes to light.We subjectively assign a range of wavelengths the label "red" but the range exists.We pick out the parts of reality relevant to the survival the organism, assign them significance and labels. If they weren't real we could choose anything and it would work as well.
>>24795446Sure, the range exists, but 'redness' as a consistent mind-independent entity doesn't exist. It's a name we assign to all the things we perceive as red. It's not an arbitrary label. The things it refers to are real. But I don't think we need to posit the existence of another entity to explain why they all 'participate in redness'
I figured that the problem between realism and nominalism is that nominal terms collapse everything into potential and not actual. realism would say that there's an adequation between the intellect and the signified thing, however incomplete it is, and that this adequation is mediated by the signifier, which itself is a sign that denotes the conceptual content of the signified. point being is that traveling between the nodes of the semiotic triangle all involves actuality: the thing has a sensible species that's perceived by the intellect, abstracted to an intelligible species with a meditating signifier, such that words map onto reality in actuality. once you say that signifiers are only potential, such that words are only the words that they are, and that the reference for signification is free-floating and has no basis in a 'real universal' (because existents have to be physically instantiated and can't be immanently shared features of things), potential and not actual, then you've divorced language from reality. of course, you see this play out where language games become power struggles and the meaning of language is no longer grounded in reality. but reality moves forward, humanity's hubris of thinking it can define and pilpul away external reality is a farce. there's always a correction, which is I guess what that anon up there is bemoaning about 'culture wars'. yeah no shit, once language and meaning aren't concrete, normies would rightly call that dishonesty, and people hate being lied to.
>>24794119The realism vs nominalism debate today omits a very important root aspect of forms and logoi. We act as though the discussion starts with "Yo I think these two bananas display yellow-ness that gotta like... exist separately." But in reality it's the exact other way around, the starting point is "Yo, this mystic has literally seen the eternal forms, what should we consider more real, the principles or their instances?"After realizing this it also becomes apparent that ancient people were much more prone to acknolwedging forms as real, but as mysticism vanished, so did the reason to consider forms/logoi at all and it became just a philosophical hypothesis and word game.>>24794119>Abstractions, forms and universals are the things that make cognition possible.Abstractions are the product of cognition, not its premise. We can make up as many abstractions as we want. Forms and universals are different from abstractions entirely.>Elaborate on how a particular is "real" What we call real is derived of properties of particulars, which you then by reasoning extend to abstractions, forms and whatever other level you conclude.>>24795446>but the range exists.It really doesn't. Light exists. We then reduce it to wavelength, present a spectrum and chunk it up. There is no "red" without humans.
What are some books about alchemy?
>>24795130which is the other one?I got the one with the frog poem
>>24793202The Stone, you dumb nigger, what else.
>>24795188>witnessed
>ze stone , u dumb niger. wat elze.svswx
>GIVE ME ZE SCHTÖUN, DOKTOR CHÖUNZ
If a lot of you people read the books the /lit/ hivemind thinks is good and you still believe in the modernist worldview, are insufferable envious un-constructive assholes, are leftists, etc. then I conclude that reading those books did not actually work improve your character or soul and that reading them is not as important as you say it is. And that I’m just going to read what I want instead.
>>24793263this website fucking sucks. can't read anything without getting some dumb woke twitter slop bullshit. don't get me started on the controversial, locked articles.here's a random example talking about punk:>As of 2019, the genre is still overwhelmingly represented by white males.[86] However, as sonic diversity has increased in the genre, so too has its fanbase.[87] This has helped bring greater attention to inclusivity within the scene.[88] Bands like War On Women, Limp Wrist, Gouge Away, and G.L.O.S.S. have helped bring attention to subjects like women's rights, transphobia,[89] rape,[90] mental health,[91] queer rights,[92][93] and misogyny.[94]this is fucking retarded.
>>24793294>This would be fine to me but there is definitely a backlash and a bias in academia to discredit or disparage anything Biblical. If the Bible was a goldmine of a bronze-age recollection, then a few scholars have actually treated it that way and there's a decent body of literature out there without getting into the nutters.The challenging of Biblical literalism, which is the most prominent and long-standing case of textual analysis, eventually led to the discrediting of the Bible as a historical source.
>>24795153Anyone who refers to himself as an "intellectual" is not a serious person.
Another day, another random thing right wingers are gonna cry about. When will you fags stop being such babies?
>>24795553Spoken like a midwit.
Were dead baby tree and the corpse sodomy REALLY necessary?
>>24794685That is the best section undoubtedly; kino of the highest order. I won't give too many details if you've not finished it but I greatly enjoy the denouement as it were, not the epilogue where it fully concludes but the conclusion of the Glanton gang, it is very tense and I enjoyed it a lot.
>>24792817You can't have much of an imagination if this sort of shock schlock is what you think of when you think of the depths of depravity.
>When the lambs is lost in the mountain, he said. They is cry. Sometime come the mother. Sometime the wolf.Woah...
>>24792767Read The Earth Is Weeping by Peter Cozzens. McCarthy attempts to portray the brutality and horror of this time period, but it pales in comparison to the realities. The Comanche and Apache in particular were especially heinous in their treatment of captives and combatants.
>>24794685drop it and pick up The Crossing insteadit's more like what you think you want
ITT: Books that made you drop a series.I'll start.
>>24794030at some point he killed my favorite character for literally no reason other than "lol fuck you no happy endings", then all the sudden there were these heavy infantry bitches who were of course stronger than all the men, and he had this one cunt kill some other chick and it was terribly tragic but everyone loved the cunt for some reason so they didn't tell her the truth because it would hurt her feelings (even though the cunt was entirely at fault and deserved the anguish), and then finally there was this brutal gang-rape torture scene of some dude's wife and I looked up from the book and said out loud "why the fuck am i reading this shit?" And then put it down and went to bed. i guess grimdark fantasy just ain't it for me. all the good-will of the first few books was spent by all the tragic horrible shit that kept happening.
>>24794037>at some point he killed my favorite character for literally no reason other than "lol fuck you no happy endings"Truly Game of Thrones has ruined literature.
>>24794040bro, it was so fucking infuriating. the character's entire arc was finished, his story was done, and there was already a perfectly good way for him to make his exit from the story and ride off into the sunset. and then the author literally has a mother-fucker, no joke, magically teleport behind him and stab him in the back. for no fucking reason at all. i was so fucking pissed i'm still fucking chapped by that shit like a decade later whenever i think about it.
>>24794048That's actually similar to why I dropped the book in OP. For the first book the main character is tormented by his bitchy ex wife who publicly humiliated him via cheating on him, and takes every chance to rub his face in it. He's extremely bitter and hurt and refuses to trust women again after that.Until he meets a love interest. She slowly convinces him to let her in. And they're happy. Then come the second book and the bitch randomly cheats out of nowhere, and the book's moral about that dumb sub plot is "shit happens". Like fuck you, book, I read to escape random bullshit misfortune.
>>24794036>that faggot author had to keep inserting cuckoldryWhy are burgers like this? The book is going well and out of nowhere they shoehorn cuckoldry
>Claiming morality is relative >Charging money for teaching servicesI'm so glad these beasts have been relegated to the dustbin of history!
>>24794268>Socrates criticizes the sophists for using obscure language that, once you strip it all away, says nothing and means nothingSounds like a lot of philosophers today desu
>>24794779That guy is talking out his butt, moral relativism won. We are so far down the rabbit hole that we can't even return to moral absolutism since people can no longer separate actions from actors.
The sophists were right.Saled professionals with monetary interests vs. people how gives their "teachings" for free.To collect some knowledge, let alone wisedom, takes a lot of effort. You need time you cannot spend otherwise, e.g. sport, a job.Therefor, it's curious why somebody should spend the fruits of their work for free. Except it wasn't about knowledge and wisedom but propaganda.
>>24794268Anon, I...>>24794295fpbp
>>24794316>it's
Why do we never mention the library and always talk about pirating? It's like a legal form of pirating and you can watch cool movies too with Kanopy.It it a psyop to destroy trust in communities and make posters scared to leave the house?
>>24795022You guys always talk about black people giving you a hard time for being white. Am I the only one without this issue? Older black women especially seem to adore me.
>>24795067Even when you go to the DMV?
>>24795057Trump fired the "librarian of Congress" early this year (black lady appointed by Obama), but if any fixing has been done beyond that is highly unlikely since there seem to be 3 current disputed heads right now. Most the staff is probably still fat black women who only enjoy their work space when it is Ghana dancing nights.One evening I left early because the bass was so loud, and as I was retrieving my coat the coat check lady asked if I had been dancing upstairs in the entrance hall to some Afro beat music to which I plainly replied "No, I had been reading in the main reading room." She immediately dropped my coat before she even had reached me, also dropped her fake smile, turned away and sat back on her stool going through her phone again. Combined with the fact that multiple requested books in the collection have been lost, and though I was told I could request a deeper search by a staff member (which apparently doesn't help find it anyway), I stopped going because it was so depressing.There is no need to look at reading scores, screen habits, or college courses to see how degenerated the US has become in respect to reading. Just look at the Library of Congress and see for yourself how debased our society has become. Some of the halls are still congressmen's offices, there is a Gutenberg bible there, it is across from Congress right next to the Supreme Court all connected by tunnels, but it is in total disregard. That public libraries have become day centers for kids and families, and hangouts for homeless people and AA meetings doesnt surprise me. This country doesn't care an ounce about reading beyond smut and financial self-help literature or passing some exam or fulfilling your job task.
>>24795067Most blacks treat me the same as whites do. On average, they tend to be friendlier or less stuck up than whites.I live in an area with more Indians, Filipinos. and Chinese than blacks, though. Indians are more of a mixed bag, whereas most Flips are friendly and most Chinese are aloof (if more Jewish than the Jews)
Unlike the Americans I have no complaints over the people who visit my local library. But it's a small library in a suburb with roughly 2000 items, most of which are children's books and entry-level literature. While we do have old libraries with vast collections in the city, pirating is often more convenient especially for non-fiction.
Why has fantasy never had a literary masterpiece?
>>24788445Egwene is superior though.
>>24790959Iliad is a fictionalized narrative, like, even Herodotus conceded that Homer made adjustments for the sake of an entertaining story.
bc the fantasy genre is based on what masses perceive as entertaining, on the 50 it was lord of the rings and dune, on the 2000 it was wheel of time and song of ice and fire. now it is sanderson
Tolkien will outlive every other 20th century author except maybe Joyce
>>24783338becuase its written for kids and retards
How necessary is it to read secondary literature like pic related to understand buddhism vs just reading the pali canon?
>>24795263No idea, might find my copy to see what the cover is credited as later though
>>24795255Are you doing the practice? The practice requires the scripture and the scripture demands practice.
>>24795255Pali canon is only really for Theravada, so its like reading only Assyrian Christian texts to try and understand Christianity as a whole.
>>24795583Going to correct this with to understand abrahamic religions as a whole, as Buddhism is more diverse than Christianity.
>>24795583This may be true but the pali canon is the closest we have to wat the buddha actually taught
New General Edition.What is this general? It's a safe haven for discussing schools of literary theory and criticism. It is not a space for receiving critique on your own creative or non-fiction writing — use the Writing General for that.If this general proves popular, a FAQ and a resource pastebin may be added to the OP over time. Posting resources, such as introductions, useful tools and websites, reading lists, and infographics, etc., is welcome and appreciated!Which school of literary criticism do you find most compelling or useful, and why?
>>24795527Probably like it already does. It's funny how the whole pill ideology is unironically both postmodern and marxist despite them screeching about those two all day. They commodify sex and talk about it in terms of economy, there's a very materialist undertone to it especially when it comes down to the genetic blackpill shit. There are cries for liberation, victimhood sentiment. Incels crafted a whole class system based on sexual activity. That's how it's marxist.It's postmodern in the sense of rejection of the grand narrative of sexual reproduction 'someone out there for everyone', instead it affirms a plurality of narratives about different modes of oppression of the unattractive male. If it was just one guy thinking all this shit up, I would say he's doing a pretty good parody of current academic millieu, but since it's literally thousands of dudes believing that crap wholeheartedly I'd say we're fucked.
>>24795507The OP really wasn't much better desu
>>24795579I am the OP
Everyone loves to bitch about postmodern literary theory but so long as it doesn't get into politics and sticks to deconstruction purely of the text as in Derrida, de Man, and Johnson, it's pretty fucking interesting. Read "Melville's Fist: The Execution of "Billy Budd""
>>24795582I stand by my statement. Priggish pseudo-intellectualism isn't any better than people spamming slurs. It just takes longer to generate.
Why do women love dark romance?
There is no hypocrisy in feminist women having violent fantasies when you realize the nature of fantasy. It's never meant to be realized outside of its safe limits. You see plenty of it on this board, just pointed in the opposite direction. The idea of women publicly expressing their own desires disgusts men because it means they too are lacking subjects instead of a mysterious unified mass.
>>24795352Weird she likes when I do it
>>24795421good answer.
>>24793937>"Dark" romance >Not a black guy
>>24794151Millennials per se, but millennial normalfags and leftists
How does one become a successful writer in current year if literacy rates are plummeting and only romanceslop sells?
>>24794418i.e. he is some influencelet who wrote a book?
>>24794455its two things, if you think you are successful/famous enough to take it to the next level you write a book. if you write a book without having any fame or success you wont become famous or successfulthis guy belongs in the first camp, most authors belong to the secondlook at a list of bestsellers in todays day, youll notice most are books written by already successful people with the rest being either industry plants or slop written by someone that won the literary lottery
>>24794063what is his book about? title?
>>24794063Make a Visual Novel.>but the visuals!Invest some money unto an artist. Don't fall for the AI trap (unless you are making porn)
>>24794455>>24795134He started an instagram 3 years ago where he basically lambasts modern architecture/art and got a million followers from it. he stole our bit and got rich from it
Will reading make me a better more intellectuel of a person?
>>24795434Learn to spell more gooder and stop playing games for children for starters. That will help.
>>24795450FPBP
>>24795450Care to extrapolate?
>>24795478Children's games such as soccer, for instance.
>>24795575this, or dibstones
Finding myself saturated with classics this bad boy was emphatically recommended to me as exemplary of what 21st century literature could muster. Well, fuck. No wonder we are steeped in shit. The only half-interesting passages to be dug were those of Johnny Truant's personal life, and had I been in his shoes I would have thrown Zampano's pastiche —the entire pompous-ass ''manuscript''— into the waste basket at first sight. Not because of its danger or presumed ''uncanniness'' but because how utterly bland it is, a tawdry piece of misery porn addled with shallow characters and faux-intellectual insights that skidds off on so many levels, growing shoddier and more painful to read through. I understand what it was going for, the whole metatextual blueprint of postmodernist fiction: and I respect ambition —but think of how poor and unengaging it all turned out, picture the reality TV antics of The Navidson Record against the mystic pull of Harold Incandenza's film (only to make use of a much treaded comparison) and it's hard not to feel swindled, disappointed and unamused.What did you personally think of it? And what novels from this century would you suggest instead? I clearly feel like I started on the wrong foot.
>>24795098Pale Fire for gay retards with mommy issues by a guy with less literary talent than Nobby's pinky
>>24795098>And what novels from this century would you suggest instead?Bolano, start with 2666.
>>24795098Against the Day
Cyclonopedia is even more pretentious if you wanna give that a go.
Céline and Nabokov