The worst crime of any type of state is just that it always tries to force the rich diversity of social life into definite forms and adjust it to one particular form, which allows for no wider outlook and regards the previously exciting status as finished. The stronger its supporters feel themselves, the more completely they succeed in bringing every field of social life into their service, the more crippling is their influence on the operation of all creative cultural forces, the more unwholesomely does it affect the intellectual and social development of any particular epoch.

The idea behind anarchism is the creation of a society free of unjustified restraints on human liberty, achieved without relying on hierarchical institutions such as transnationals or vanguards. Rocker’s book is a great introduction to what sorts of restraints can and can’t be justified–along with why that caveat even matters; why hierarchies compromise liberty; to the organs that would have to replace traditional components of our society. Anarchism is essentially democracy expanded to all spheres of life, coupled with a deepening of the human condition so that political involvement is natural; this is a philosophy that should be visited regardless of your ideological bend.

Is there really someone who, searching for a group of wise and sensitive persons to regulate him for his own good, would choose that group of people that constitute the membership of both houses of Congress?

Brilliant book that paints a convincing picture of a society where natural rights are taken to their conclusion when constructing institutions that are justifiable when it comes to human liberty. I wish libertarians read this book, largely because his arguments against redistribution come with the caveat that his points do not hold in societies where institutions are defined or transmogrified by unequal distribution of resources–like ours. You would have to rectify this before peeling back these outgrowths of a state. The highlighted contradictions within the thought of socialists, libertarians, conservatives, and liberals when it comes to liberties are illuminating and are still on my mind as I attempt to reconcile them or accept his argument.

The natural distribution is neither just nor unjust; nor is it unjust that persons are born into society at some particular position. These are simply natural facts. What is just and unjust is the way that institutions deal with these facts.

Regardless of whether you are a fan of Rawls, it’s impossible to not finish this book and appreciate what he is trying to do–create a complete moral theory with a set of coherent assumptions and endpoints; an ideal theory that can inform efforts at piecemeal reform as opposed to systemic overhauls. He engages and challenges the foundations of Western thought, from Locke/Rousseau to Milton and Kant in an effort to craft alternative theories for social contracts, equal liberties, and justice–or reformulate original positions to pinpoint their ideal and practical shortcomings. But most importantly, it’s readable unlike most of academic philosophy.

The underlying assumption that human nature is basically the same at all times, everywhere, and obeys eternal laws beyond human control, is a conception that only a handful of bold thinkers have dared to question.

Eight beautiful and thoughtful essays on the history of ideas that defined the 20th century. The basic theme is Kant’s quote, “Out of the crooked timber of humanity no straight thing was ever made” from which Kant undertook an ambitious moral project (that shows us the limits of rational thought) while Berlin focuses on the limitations that plague humans (to shine light on our complexity). The 20th century was marked by seductive utopianism that sought to remake human nature and institutions–no matter the cost. Berlin takes you to the perch where he watches the landscape of European history not only to highlight why these projects fail so dramatically but why all we can ultimately hope for is a pluralistic society free enough to allow humans the capacity to struggle for self-realization.

Politics is good; when it works properly, disagreements get solved without people beating each other up. But when a regime knows its days are numbered, there’s always the chance it may use its position to change the rules and make the debate it is losing irrelevant.

Not as grand as the first two, still a great story that dives into the political struggles between humans and aliens on Tines World (so an actual sequel to the first book). On the human side, it explores the worst of ourselves–how horrible acts are justified/rationalized and their costs to everyone else, even if the acts were for the cliched “greater good”. The aliens are fascinating, with their own struggles that make the entire situation tense and frustrating as a blight approaches with the potential to destroy all life. Held back by a few lulls and slightly shallower intrigue.

We’re long on high principles and short on simple human understanding.

I can count on one hand how many villains I viscerally hate and still am filled with rage by when they’re mentioned. Thomas Nau is pretty high on that list. The reason he bothers me the most, the reason why this book is a great story, is that the characters are so fleshed out that you find yourself looking for them in the real world–and learning about how evil and depraved Nau is but how consistent his world view ends up is very disturbing.

Oh, also not a sequential sequel to A Fire Upon the Deep but still connected to the story

The heart of manipulation is to empathize without being touched.

Accidentally sorta stole this book and was called out on it, didn’t realize it, wasn’t very fun. This book, however, is FUN. 100 words can’t even unpack the premise of this book!! The universe is divided into zones that determine the intelligence of a mind, the laws of physics, and the technological civilizations present. The Universe. Billions of galaxies have experiences and realities that are utterly incomprehensible when compared and the further from the center, the more exotic/godlike the civilizations and their experiences become. But even the gods are slaves to this system. So what the hell made it??

Man has gone out to explore other worlds and other civilizations without having explored his own labyrinth of dark passages and secret chambers, and without finding what lies behind doorways that he himself has sealed.

This story has a real alien. Not a re-skinned human. Not an intelligible being. An alien that you have no hope of ever understanding. You’ll never know how it thinks, how it lives, just that there is an impossible chasm between you. The story is tragic and beautiful, full of levels of miscommunication that separate it from most of science fiction. There’s miscommunication between the researchers and their subject–an intelligent ocean, between the reader and nature of the ocean; everyone is imposing their own concept of intelligence and life on one another and it fails miserably. Read it ASAP.