Tag: History

This has got to be the most misunderstood document in the world. People talk so much shit without having any idea what they’re talking about. This isn’t even a book; it’s less than 50 pages long. Do yourself a favor & print it out & pin it up in your bathroom so you don’t forget. Be a part of history fam. Don’t sleep on this.

“The Communist Manifesto was conceived as an outline of the basic beliefs of the Communist movement. The authors believed that the European Powers were universally afraid of the nascent movement, and were condemning as “communist,” people or activities that did not actually conform to what the Communists believed. This Manifesto, then, became a manual for their beliefs. In it we find Marx and Engel’s rehearsal of the idea that Capital has stolen away the work of the artisan and peasant by building up factories to produce goods cheaply. The efficiency of Capital depends, then, on the wage laborers who staff the factories and how little they will accept in order to have work. This concentrates power and money in a Bourgeois class that profits from the disunity of workers (Proletarians), who only receive a subsistence wage. If workers unite in a class struggle against the bourgeois, using riot and strikes as weapons, they will eventually overthrow the bourgeois and replace them as a ruling class. Communists further believe in and lay out a system of reforms to transform into a classless, stateless society, thus distinguishing themselves from various flavors of Socialism, which would be content to have workers remain the ruling class after the revolution. The Manifesto caused a huge amount of discussion for its support for a forcible overthrow of the existing politics and society. (Summary by Mark F. Smith)”

“Between 1929 and 1941, the Communist Party organized and led a radical, militantly antiracist movement in Alabama — the center of Party activity in the Depression South. Hammer and Hoe documents the efforts of the Alabama Communist Party and its allies to secure racial, economic, and political reforms. Sensitive to the complexities of gender, race, culture and class without compromising the political narrative, Robin Kelley illustrates one of the most unique and least understood radical movements in American history.

The Alabama Communist Party was built from scratch by working people who had no Euro-American radical political tradition. It was composed largely of poor blacks, most of whom were semiliterate and devoutly religious, but it also attracted a handful of whites, including unemployed industrial workers, iconoclastic youth, and renegade liberals. Kelley shows that the cultural identities of these people from Alabama’s farms, factories, mines, kitchens, and city streets shaped the development of the Party. The result was a remarkably resilient movement forged in a racist world that had little tolerance for radicals.

In the South race pervaded virtually every aspect of Communist activity. And because the Party’s call for voting rights, racial equality, equal wages for women, and land for landless farmers represented a fundamental challenge to the society and economy of the South, it is not surprising that Party organizers faced a constant wave of violence.

Kelley’s analysis ranges broadly, examining such topics as the Party’s challenge to black middle-class leadership; the social, ideological, and cultural roots of black working-class radicalism; Communist efforts to build alliances with Southern liberals; and the emergence of a left-wing, interracial youth movement. He closes with a discussion of the Alabama Communist Party’s demise and its legacy for future civil rights activism.”

Super educational show for contextualizing current events in their historical trajectory ^^ Dr. Carr is a walking encyclopedia! But FYI, the newest episodes are at the end of this playlist 🙂

“Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. is remembered today as an American hero: a bridge-builder, a shrewd political tactician, and a moral leader. Yet throughout his history-altering political career, he was often treated by U.S. intelligence and law enforcement agencies like an enemy of the state. In this virtuosic documentary, award-winning editor and director Sam Pollard (Editor, 4 LITTLE GIRLS, MO’ BETTER BLUES; Director/Producer, EYEZ ON THE PRIZE, SAMMY DAVIS, JR.: I’VE GOTTA BE ME) lays out a detailed account of the FBI surveillance that dogged King’s activism throughout the ’50s and ’60s, fueled by the racist and red-baiting paranoia of J. Edgar Hoover. In crafting a rich archival tapestry, featuring some revelatory restored footage of King, Pollard urges us to remember that true American progress is always hard-won.”

“To move forward in the United States, we must look back and confront the difficult history that has shaped widespread injustice. Revisiting a significant yet overlooked piece of the past, Hasan Kwame Jeffries emphasizes the need to weave historical context, no matter how painful, into our understanding of modern society — so we can disrupt the continuum of inequality massively affecting marginalized communities.”

“Humans have consumed psychedelics for at least the last 10,000 years. The outlawing of psychedelics in most of the world in the 20th century didn’t stop that, but it did put an end to promising research into their psychotherapeutic applications to treat depression, addiction, PTSD, anxiety, and trauma. Today, we’re in the midst of a psychedelic renaissance, with some psychedelics fast on their way to becoming legal medicines. One of the key players behind this movement is Rick Doblin, Ph.D.. In 01986, he founded the Multidisciplinary Association of Psychedelic Studies (MAPS), a non-profit research and educational organization that has developed the medical and legal framework for the use of psychedelics to treat mental health conditions. MAPS has distributed over $20 million to fund psychedelic research and education, and in 02017 won fast-tracked “Breakthrough Therapy” designation from the FDA for using MDMA-assisted psychotherapy to treat Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). With legalization now in sight, what is the future of psychedelic medicine?”

open the video on YouTube for timestamps on when he talks about each subject! so much material! and please don’t be turned off by the simulation shit in the first few minutes lol

“This video explores the role of psychedelic mushroom use and sun/star worship at the foundation of modern-day religion as well as our modern-day religious holidays. Written, narrated, and edited by Andrew Rutajit (Schuelein).”

Absolutely brilliant new film from Peter Joseph, my absolute #1 intellectual influence and philosophical hero. There is so much to say about this film, but it articulates the central thesis of the Zeitgeist Movement probably more effectively than any of their other work. Peter is always epically on-point in all his films and books and lectures, but the rest of his works are more strictly cerebral & analytical. True reality is very complicated, but this film manages to articulate it as clearly as I can imagine. Thanks again Peter, for illuminating the Truth for us all to see.

“InterReflections explores deep social issues. In three timelines our main story takes us into the future when ecological crisis and inequality has destabilized society. John Taylor, a defected government intelligence agent turned revolutionary leader, is captured by his former colleague and nemesis, Simon Devoe.”

Absolutely epic talk omfg.. about the need for a real Truth & Conciliation Commission in America, so that we may be able to form a common memory of our history as the only way to rebuild any sort of national community. Crucial info fam, scope this! Much respect to Mark Charles for sharing this perspective.

“The son of an American woman of Dutch heritage and a Navajo man, Mark Charles offers a unique perspective on three of the most misinterpreted words in American History. Written in the Papal Bulls of the 15th Century, embedded in our founding documents in the 18th Century, codified as legal precedent in the 19th Century and referenced by the Supreme Court in the 20th and 21st Centuries, the Doctrine of Discovery has been used throughout the history of the United States to keep “We the People” from including all the people. Mark Charles is a dynamic and thought-provoking public speaker, writer, and consultant. The son of an American woman (of Dutch heritage) and a Navajo man, he speaks with insight into the complexities of American history regarding race, culture, and faith in order to help forge a path of healing and conciliation for the nation. Mark serves as the Washington DC correspondent and regular columnist for Native News Online and is the author of the popular blog “Reflections from the Hogan.” Mark is a founding partner of a national conference for Native students called “Would Jesus Eat Frybread?” Mark’s forthcoming book on the Doctrine of Discovery entitled Truth be Told is being published by InterVarsity Press and will be available in 2019. Mark is active on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Instagram under the username: wirelesshogan.”

“Could psychedelics help us heal from trauma and mental illnesses? Researcher Rick Doblin has spent the past three decades investigating this question, and the results are promising. In this fascinating dive into the science of psychedelics, he explains how drugs like LSD, psilocybin and MDMA affect your brain — and shows how, when paired with psychotherapy, they could change the way we treat PTSD, depression, substance abuse and more.”

“The first comprehensive look at the dance music revolution Can You Feel It – How Dance Music Conquered The World is a three-part series produced for BBC Four in the UK and international sales through Eagle Rock. Each episode takes an in-depth look at one of the three pillars of a scene that, over the last thirty years, has gone from underground movement to global phenomenon. We tell the story of the origins and development of the music itself, how clubs became the most important cultural entertainment spaces of our era and finally the extraordinary rise of the DJ from awkward sideman to the world’s biggest music stars. Our cast list boasts a defining list of dance’s pioneers, innovators and biggest stars alongside a killer soundtrack. As Marshall Jefferson says, “You gotta have house music all night long”.”

“Robin of Loxley (Taron Egerton) a war-hardened Crusader and his Moorish commander (Jamie Foxx) mount an audacious revolt against the corrupt English crown in a thrilling action-adventure packed with gritty battlefield exploits, mind-blowing fight choreography, and a timeless romance.”

“Bestselling author Tim Ferriss (Tools of Titans, The 4-Hour Workweek, etc.) probes the science, mysteries, and future of psychedelics with Dr. Roland R. Griffiths, a clinical pharmacologist at Johns Hopkins. Dr. Griffiths has been researching mood-altering compounds for more than 40 years, has published more than 370 scientific papers, and started the psilocybin (think “magic mushrooms”) research program at Johns Hopkins nearly 20 years ago. Dr. Griffiths and his colleagues have been leaders in the re-initiation of research with classic psychedelic drugs, which was blocked for a period of several decades. This session offers details and stories that can help both novices and experienced psychonauts get a better understanding of the applications of these incredible compounds.”

“Electronic Awakening is an ethnographic documentary film by Director / Producer Andrew Johner that investigates the spirituality of Electronic Dance Music culture and its ties to ancient shamanic rituals. The film features dozens of experts, visionaries, and published authors who explore the premise that “Electronic Music is spiritual technology that allows access to higher states of consciousness”. Filmed over a period of 5 years at events such as Burning Man, Earthdance, LoveFest, Moontribe, Wicked, Shambhala and the Boom Festival in Portugal, it highlights the project’s significant breadth.”

watch for $3 on Vimeo

❝ Society is broken. We can design our way to a better one.

In our interconnected world, self-interest and social-interest are rapidly becoming indistinguishable. If current negative trajectories remain, including growing climate destabilization, biodiversity loss, and economic inequality, an impending future of ecological collapse and societal destabilization will make ‘personal success’ virtually meaningless. Yet our broken social system incentivizes behavior that will only make our problems worse. If true human rights progress is to be achieved today, it is time we dig deeper―rethinking the very foundation of our social system.

In this engaging, important work, Peter Joseph, founder of the world’s largest grassroots social movement―The Zeitgeist Movement―draws from economics, history, philosophy, and modern public-health research to present a bold case for rethinking activism in the 21st century.

Arguing against the long-standing narrative of universal scarcity and other pervasive myths that defend the current state of affairs, The New Human Rights Movement illuminates the structural causes of poverty, social oppression, and the ongoing degradation of public health, and ultimately presents the case for an updated economic approach. Joseph explores the potential of this grand shift and how we can design our way to a world where the human family has become truly sustainable.

The New Human Rights Movement reveals the critical importance of a unified activism working to overcome the inherent injustice of our system. This book warns against what is in store if we continue to ignore the flaws of our socioeconomic approach, while also revealing the bright and expansive future possible if we succeed.

Will you join the movement? ❞

“Revolutions come in waves and cycles. We are again riding the crest of a revolutionary epic, much like 1848 or 1917, from the Arab Spring to movements against austerity in Greece to the Occupy movement. In Wages of Rebellion, Chris Hedges—who has chronicled the malaise and sickness of a society in terminal moral decline in his books Empire of Illusion and Death of the Liberal Class—investigates what social and psychological factors cause revolution, rebellion, and resistance. Drawing on an ambitious overview of prominent philosophers, historians, and literary figures he shows not only the harbingers of a coming crisis but also the nascent seeds of rebellion. Hedges’ message is clear: popular uprisings in the United States and around the world are inevitable in the face of environmental destruction and wealth polarization.

Focusing on the stories of rebels from around the world and throughout history, Hedges investigates what it takes to be a rebel in modern times. Utilizing the work of Reinhold Niebuhr, Hedges describes the motivation that guides the actions of rebels as “sublime madness” — the state of passion that causes the rebel to engage in an unavailing fight against overwhelmingly powerful and oppressive forces. For Hedges, resistance is carried out not for its success, but as a moral imperative that affirms life. Those who rise up against the odds will be those endowed with this “sublime madness.”

From South African activists who dedicated their lives to ending apartheid, to contemporary anti-fracking protests in Alberta, Canada, to whistleblowers in pursuit of transparency, Wages of Rebellion shows the cost of a life committed to speaking the truth and demanding justice. Hedges has penned an indispensable guide to rebellion.”

“Retired Police Officer Jack Cole is the cofounder of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP). His organization is dedicated to ending the massive failure known as the War on Drugs. In this riveting interview, Jack shares his personal history in undercover narcotics and talks about the many evils on the War on Drugs.”

“Peter Christ retired as a police captain after a 20-year career enforcing drug laws. From the beginning, Peter believed “the drug war can never be won and it is doing more harm than good.” After retiring in 1989, Peter began speaking out publicly against that War. In 1993, he became one of the first members of “ReconsiDer”, one of the original forums on drug policy, involving speakers from many diverse backgrounds. Peter quickly developed into the group’s leading spokesperson, appearing at hundreds of venues. Peter then originated the idea of creating LEAP (Law Enforcement Against Prohibition – http://www.leap.cc/), a drug policy reform group of current and former members of law enforcement modeled on “Vietnam Veterans Against the War”. In 2002, after four years of Peter’s preparation, LEAP finally emerged as a viable international nonprofit educational organization. Christ is one of the most experienced of the LEAP speakers, having performed before hundreds of civic, professional, educational, and religious organizations, plus conducting television and radio interviews in dozens of markets. Peter speaks of the Drug War’s impact on: police/community relations; the safety of law enforcement officers and suspects; police corruption and misconduct; and the financial and human costs associated with current drug policies. These issues include the effect of drug prohibition on the judiciary, sentencing issues, prison populations and minority communities, as well as the usefulness of drug education programs in reducing drug abuse.”

this seems useful in helping people understand that we’re all one big human family <3

“It’s tough to know what happened on Earth thousands of years before anyone started writing anything down. But thanks to the amazing work of anthropologists and paleontologists like those working on National Geographic’s Genographic Project, we can begin to piece together the story of our ancestors. Here’s how early humans spread from East Africa all around the world.”

❝ In the era of colorblindness, it is no longer socially permissible to use race, explicitly, as a justification for discrimination, exclusion, and social contempt. Yet, as legal star Michelle Alexander reveals, today it is perfectly legal to discriminate against convicted criminals in nearly all the ways that it was once legal to discriminate against African Americans. Once you’re labeled a felon, the old forms of discrimination―employment discrimination, housing discrimination, denial of the right to vote, denial of educational opportunity, denial of food stamps and other public benefits, and exclusion from jury service―are suddenly legal. ❞

“South Los Angeles is home to two of America’s most infamous African-American gangs – the Crips and the Bloods. On these streets over the past 30 years, more than 15,000 people have been murdered in an ongoing cycle of gang violence that continues unabated. In Made In America, renowned documentarian Stacy Peralta blends gripping archival footage and photos with in-depth interviews of current and former gang members, historians, and experts, documenting the emergence of the Bloods and the Crips, but also offering insight as to how this ongoing tragedy might be resolved.”

“This is the FULL MOVIE! – The Internet’s Own Boy depicts the life of American computer programmer, writer, political organizer and Internet activist Aaron Swartz. It features interviews with his family and friends as well as the internet luminaries who worked with him. The film tells his story up to his eventual suicide after a legal battle, and explores the questions of access to information and civil liberties that drove his work.”

“Inspired by the imagination of P.T. Barnum, The Greatest Showman is an original musical that celebrates the birth of show business & tells of a visionary who rose from nothing to create a spectacle that became a worldwide sensation. Directed By Michael Gracey Cast: Hugh Jackman, Michelle Williams, Zac Efron, Zendaya, Rebecca Ferguson”

“Warner Bros. Pictures and Legendary Pictures are teaming up with director Brian Helgeland for “42,” the powerful story of Jackie Robinson, the legendary baseball player who broke Major League Baseball’s color barrier when he joined the roster of the Brooklyn Dodgers. “42” will star Academy Award(R) nominee Harrison Ford (“Witness”) as the innovative Dodger’s general manager Branch Rickey, the MLB executive who first signed Robinson to the minors and then helped to bring him up to the show, and Chadwick Boseman (“The Express”) as Robinson, the heroic African American who was the first man to break the color line in the big leagues.”

Vinton Cerf, Neil Gershenfeld, Elizabeth Stark, Alex Wright

❝ Disruptive technologies uproot culture, can precipitate wars & even topple empires. By this measure, human history has seen nothing like the internet. Pioneers of the digital revolution, Vinton Cerf, Neil Gershenfeld, Elizabeth Stark, & Alex Wright, examine the Internet’s brief but explosive history & reveal nascent projects that will shortly reinvent how we interact with technology—and each other. From social upheaval & ever-shifting privacy standards to self-driving cars & networked groceries, this eye-opening program provides a stunning glimpse of what’s around the corner. ❞

❝ Here anthropologist David Graeber presents a stunning reversal of conventional wisdom: he shows that before there was money, there was debt. For more than 5,000 years, since the beginnings of the first agrarian empires, humans have used elaborate credit systems to buy and sell goods—that is, long before the invention of coins or cash. It is in this era, Graeber argues, that we also first encounter a society divided into debtors and creditors.

Graeber shows that arguments about debt and debt forgiveness have been at the center of political debates from Italy to China, as well as sparking innumerable insurrections. He also brilliantly demonstrates that the language of the ancient works of law and religion (words like “guilt,” “sin,” and “redemption”) derive in large part from ancient debates about debt, and shape even our most basic ideas of right and wrong. We are still fighting these battles today without knowing it. ❞

❝ In their bestseller Wikinomics, Don Tapscott and Anthony Williams showed the world how mass collaboration was changing the way businesses commu­nicate, create value, and compete in the new global marketplace.

This sequel shows that in more than a dozen fields—from finance to health care, science to education, the media to the environment—we have reached a historic turning point. Collaborative innovation is revolutionizing not only the way we work, but how we live, learn, create, govern, and care for one another. The wiki revolutions of the Arab Spring were only one example of how rebuilding civilization was not only possible but necessary.

With vivid examples from diverse sectors, Macrowikinomics is a hand­book for people everywhere seeking a transformation of industry and institu­tions by embracing a new set of guiding principles, including openness and interdependence. Tapscott and Williams argue that this new communications medium, like the printing press before it, is enabling nothing less than the birth of a new civilization. ❞

❝ Does the science of evolution really prove that life, humanity, and the universe as a whole are meaningless accidents? On the contrary, as science has shown how everything in the universe is subject to evolution, including matter, life, and human culture, these very facts reveal that the process of evolution is unmistakably progressive. And, as Steve McIntosh demonstrates, when we come to see how evolution progresses, this reveals evolution’s purpose-to grow toward ever-widening realizations of beauty, truth, and goodness. McIntosh argues that the purpose of evolution is not intelligently designed or otherwise externally controlled; rather, its purpose is being creatively and originally discerned through the choices of the evolutionary creatures themselves. Without relying on spiritual authorities, the author shows how the scientific story of our origins is actually a profound and sacred teaching compatible with many forms of contemporary spirituality. Evolution’s Purpose: An Integral Interpretation of the Scientific Story of Our Origins presents a fresh and compelling view of evolutionary science and philosophy, and shows how a deeper understanding of evolution itself can lead directly to a more evolved world. ❞

❝ Wired magazine editor and bestselling author Chris Anderson takes you to the front lines of a new industrial revolution as today’s entrepreneurs, using open source design and 3-D printing, bring manufacturing to the desktop. In an age of custom-fabricated, do-it-yourself product design and creation, the collective potential of a million garage tinkerers and enthusiasts is about to be unleashed, driving a resurgence of American manufacturing. A generation of “Makers” using the Web’s innovation model will help drive the next big wave in the global economy, as the new technologies of digital design and rapid prototyping gives everyone the power to invent — creating “the long tail of things”. ❞

This is the greatest documentary of all time. This is the single most important item on this website. Please, please, please watch it. It fully articulates the true nature of our current global economic system, as well as the alternative system we must ultimately transition to in order to survive as a species. ♥Neonn

“Zeitgeist: Moving Forward (2011) focuses on “Monetary-Market Economics” and its repercussions. Chapter 1 is treatment on “Human Nature”, noting that our social traditions are out of line with what constitutes positive human development. Chapter 2 details the core flaws of our economic system and how it is destroying us and the planet. Chapter 3 begins a thought exercise where our modern scientific understanding is considered as the starting point for human decision-making and Chapter 4 sets predictions of what is to come as society becomes more destabilized due to our outdated practices.”

This is the film that launched the Zeitgeist Movement. After Peter’s first film presented a brutal ruthless criticism of everything existing without proposing an alternative system, Roxanne Meadows of the Venus Project sent him a copy of Jacque Fresco’s manifesto, The Best That Money Can’t Buy. That inspired him to make a film showing people why civilization indeed does not have to be this way. ~💜Neonn

“Zeitgeist: Addendum (2008) features former “Economic Hit-Man” and New York Times bestselling author, John Perkins, along with The Venus Project, an organization for social redesign created by Industrial Designer Jacque Fresco. Broken into four chapters, the 1st explains “Fractional Reserve Banking” and how Debt and Bankruptcy are inevitable realities. The 2nd exposes various levels of international corruption via the financial/corporate system. The 3rd then considers solutions to current social woes and the 4th gives a philosophical view with the hope to inspire change in the viewer.”

❝ In the early 1960s, computers haunted the American popular imagination. Bleak tools of the cold war, they embodied the rigid organization and mechanical conformity that made the military-industrial complex possible. But by the 1990s—and the dawn of the Internet—computers started to represent a very different kind of world: a collaborative and digital utopia modeled on the communal ideals of the hippies who so vehemently rebelled against the cold war establishment in the first place.

From Counterculture to Cyberculture is the first book to explore this extraordinary and ironic transformation. Fred Turner here traces the previously untold story of a highly influential group of San Francisco Bay–area entrepreneurs: Stewart Brand and the Whole Earth network. Between 1968 and 1998, via such familiar venues as the National Book Award–winning Whole Earth Catalog, the computer conferencing system known as WELL, and, ultimately, the launch of the wildly successful Wired magazine, Brand and his colleagues brokered a long-running collaboration between San Francisco flower power and the emerging technological hub of Silicon Valley. Thanks to their vision, counterculturalists and technologists alike joined together to reimagine computers as tools for personal liberation, the building of virtual and decidedly alternative communities, and the exploration of bold new social frontiers.

Shedding new light on how our networked culture came to be, this fascinating book reminds us that the distance between the Grateful Dead and Google, between Ken Kesey and the computer itself, is not as great as we might think. ❞

This film was very important for me during my original awakening. It sent me on a long journey of discovery studying the true nature of our civilization. This film is pre-TZM, and deals with things that are not in the specific purview of TZM. It’s a controversial film that isn’t particularly relevant to the rest of Peter Joseph’s work, but if you want to peek behind the veil of the mythology of modern society & you’ve got the stomach for it, check this out. 💜 Neonn

“Zeitgeist: The Movie (2007) is a treatment on Mythology and Belief in society today presenting uncommon perspectives of common cultural issues. Chapter 1 presents historical data relating to the astronomical/astrological origins of the Judeo-Christian theology. Chapter 2 presents a alternative view of the events of Sept. 11th 2001. Chapter 3 presents a shotgun tour through the subjects of Central Banking, War Pretexts, Banking Panics, the Military Industrial Complex, Media Culture and ultimately the mental neurosis and deadly addiction known as Power.”

❝ A provocative work by medical ethicist James Hughes, Citizen Cyborg argues that technologies pushing the boundaries of humanness can radically improve our quality of life if they are controlled democratically. Hughes challenges both the technophobia of Leon Kass and Francis Fukuyama and the unchecked enthusiasm of others for limitless human enhancement. He argues instead for a third way, “democratic transhumanism,” by asking the question destined to become a fundamental issue of the twenty-first century: How can we use new cybernetic and biomedical technologies to make life better for everyone? These technologies hold great promise, but they also pose profound challenges to our health, our culture, and our liberal democratic political system. By allowing humans to become more than human – “posthuman” or “transhuman” – the new technologies will require new answers for the enduring issues of liberty and the common good. What limits should we place on the freedom of people to control their own bodies? Who should own genes and other living things? Which technologies should be mandatory, which voluntary, and which forbidden? For answers to these challenges, Citizen Cyborg proposes a radical return to a faith in the resilience of our democratic institutions. ❞

❝ Noted media pundit and author of Playing the Future Douglas Rushkoff gives a devastating critique of the influence techniques behind our culture of rampant consumerism. With a skilled analysis of how experts in the fields of marketing, advertising, retail atmospherics, and hand-selling attempt to take away our ability to make rational decisions, Rushkoff delivers a bracing account of media ecology today, consumerism in America, and why we buy what we buy, helping us recognize when we’re being treated like consumers instead of human beings. ❞

❝ From the author of the bestselling “Art and Physics” comes a new book with breathtaking implications. Making remarkable connections across a wide range of subjects, including neurology, anthropology, history, and religion, “Leonard Shlain” argues that the development of alphabetic literacy itself reinforced the human brain’s left hemisphere — linear, abstract, predominantly masculine — at the expense of its right — holistic, concrete, visual, feminine. “The Alphabet Versus the Goddess” charts the connection between alphabetic literacy and monotheism; patriarchy and misogyny, and tracks the correlations between the rise and fall of literacy and the status of women in society, mythology, and religion. ❞

❝ How does our fascination with technology intersect with the religious imagination? In TechGnosis—a cult classic now updated and reissued with a new afterword—Erik Davis argues that while the realms of the digital and the spiritual may seem worlds apart, esoteric and religious impulses have in fact always permeated (and sometimes inspired) technological communication. Davis uncovers startling connections between such seemingly disparate topics as electricity and alchemy; online roleplaying games and religious and occult practices; virtual reality and gnostic mythology; programming languages and Kabbalah. The final chapters address the apocalyptic dreams that haunt technology, providing vital historical context as well as new ways to think about a future defined by the mutant intermingling of mind and machine, nightmare and fantasy. ❞