Education
Education, this is optional, it is not a “whatever”
It is for people living in this “brave new world” of ours. It’s not related heavily to the Chinese situation except by accident. Ummm. You have to read on to find anything you really want. It’s for people who actually intend to educate themselves a bit.
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The best ones?
Uhhhhh.
The Industrial Revolution lecture series and the great ideas in science course are probably going to be the most beneficial things on this page for a lot of people, because they’ll help you to have a world view that is based upon the material, physical realities associated with the production and provision of goods and services, as well as in the construction and maintenance of our “built environment”. Sorry, that was a little bit of a mouthful. And they’re not too tough. They’re “accessible” for the “normals”. But “smart” enough for almost anyone.
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Also, biographies of scientists and inventors are amazing ways to learn. Men like Michael Faraday, Isambard Kingdom Brunel, Ernest Rutherford, Gregor Mendel, James Watt, Humphrey Davy, Charles Goodyear, Thomas Telford, Sir Isaac Newton, Louis Pasteur, Haber and Bosch, Watson and Crick, Karl Benz and Gottlieb Daimler, Alexander Graham Bell, Tim Berners-Lee, Johannes Gutenberg, Alexander Fleming, Robert Koch, Niels Bohr, Robert Boyle, Edmund Cartwright, and many more.
And biographies of men like Buffett, Welch, Walton, Ford, Carnegie, Gates, Jobs and many other businessmen, founders and investors can be useful. As well as at least one exposure to Peter F. Drucker (Jack Welch’s mentor). If you like the Buffet biography, then you might like to read something by Benjamin Graham (his mentor). This is all just for background and colour. But the biographies of scientists and inventors are much more useful, important and impactful.
This sort of stuff can expand your mind so much.
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Education Minister
“Xi Zhongxun was designated as Minister of the Publicity Department of the Chinese Communist Party and concurrently served as deputy director and Party Secretary of the Government Administration Council's Committee on Culture and Education.”
==> Deputy director Government Administration Council's Committee on Culture and Education
That role is “Government” not party.
Given that he is one of the “8 influential elders” at the time, and also head of the party’s “publicity department”, that makes him education minister.
He is in the Mao Zedong’s “cabinet”, and he is education minister equivalent.
The publicity department could be renamed the party committee for values, organisational culture, cadre curriculum, and censorship.
Given his other role in the publicity department, and the fact that he is the party secretary on that committee, he hight actually be the most influential member on the Government Administration Council's Committee on Culture and Education.
I just wanted to let people know that he was the equivalent of Mao Zedong’s education minister. As well as being head of propaganda.
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Collectivised Agriculture Costs Lives
“Millions of people died in the Bolshevik revolution”. No, many millions died in both the USSR and Soviet bloc states as part of the re-organisation of society in the direction of collectivised agriculture. Especially in Kazakhstan and Ukraine. They died horribly.
Was China aware that collectivised agriculture policies cost lives? I think so. And I think that the deaths expected and predicted to be caused by collectivised agriculture were considered acceptable collateral damage by leadership. But they overshot their predictions, and they had even more deaths than even they expected.
Please read the Kazakhstan article. It’s a very good one.
Here’s the link again:
It’s a must read. Please read it all the way through.
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General Education: enclosure movement
Here is some general education about the enclosure movement. In England we engaged in the forced privatisation of agriculture. We did this, and we did it for good or for ill. It is wise to read about it.
It was probably unjust, and forced people off of the land. But it greatly improved agricultural output, and fed the people.
As a side effect, a lot of the people pushed off of the land ended up in the cities, and formed a large potential labour force of people desperate for work. They were poor and needed jobs, and many ended up working in factories. It is a very important part of history. Don’t view it with modern eyes, and don’t view it with a “value laden” point of view, instead just try to understand it dispassionately and objectively.
It is an extremely important part of history, for a variety of reasons. And it isn’t hard to learn about. You can lead a lot in just 45 minutes or more. Good luck.
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BBC Radio Four: In Our Time
The Enclosures of the 18th Century
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the 18th and 19th century enclosure movement which divided the British countryside both literally and figuratively.
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Description of In Our Time, taken from Wikipedia
In Our Time is a BBC Radio 4 discussion series and podcast exploring a wide variety of historical, scientific and philosophical topics, presented by Melvyn Bragg, since 15 October 1998. It is one of Radio 4's most successful discussion programmes, acknowledged to have "transformed the landscape for serious ideas at peak listening time".
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More education about the enclosure movement and the modernisation of agriculture
I think that the enclosure movement and the modernisation of agriculture, as well as the consequences of those two things, are also briefly covered in The Industrial Revolution by Patrick N. Allitt, a course available from the great courses. This series covers a wide variety of other topics. It covers things like production of pig/wrought iron, coal, steel production, industrial textiles, Wedgwood and the pottery business (tableware), steam power and steam shipping. The lecture series is informative, but fairly easy to follow. You will learn a lot.
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About the lecturer:
Patrick N. Allitt, Emory University
"We live in a world that has created many new incentives for us to become lifelong learners. Luckily, lifelong learning is a pleasure."
Patrick N. Allitt is a Professor of American History at Emory University, where he has taught since 1988. He received his PhD in American History from the University of California, Berkeley.
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Please consider reading these
as well as listening to the Melvyn Bragg radio show:
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In China, Kazakhstan and Ukraine they engaged in the forced collectivisation of agriculture.
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Miki Matsubara
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Chinese Nobility and the Quest for Immortality
Also known as, the tragedy of Chinese civilisation
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Edit: I am lost for words. Lost for words.
What a tragic nation. A tragic people and a tragic nation. Deserving of so much pity.
They sought salvation through the consumption of elixirs made from lead and mercury and deadly mushrooms, and killed themselves again and again.
They did it to achieve metaphysical goals, and also to engage in spiritual/religious experiences, I.e. visions and hallucinations. And for drug related euphoria. But they did it to make their corpse in-corruptible. That is, to achieve salvation beyond death. Like the pharaoh of Egypt, they wanted to preserve their bones forever. But they started mummifying themselves before death.
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This is well worth reading. I read every word. I just don’t understand how anything this awful exists. If you have a Christian background, you might really benefit from this. They did awful things to themselves. For “salvation”.
People like this are worthy of pity. But I’ll explain more later. It’s worse than you can imagine!!!
See the section: hypothetical explanations, and read all the way to the end of it. And then start from the start of the pages even if you think you know it. It is mind bendingly insane. It blows my mind.
A lot of people know it, but every day new people are born. And there are 17 year olds who have no idea!
“Despite common knowledge that immortality potions could be deadly, fangshi and Daoist alchemists continued the elixir-making practice for two millennia.”
"It is almost ludicrous to assume that a Taoist (commoner or emperor) could have died from accidental elixir poisoning"
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People like this are worthy of pity. They did awful things out of fear, dogma, and because of superstition.
But you must also understand that a society this damaged will produce people with deep and all pervasive inferiority complexes, who then sublimate that into feelings of resentment towards the outside world. They are hurt so badly emotionally by the idea that maybe their culture is so screwed up that they want to show themselves as “good enough”, or worse “I am as good as you” (the attitude from Screwtape gives a toast, cs Lewis). And they may do horrible things, just to feel like they’re good enough.
They may take their own feelings of perceived inferiority, and turn them outwards to prevent their feeling bad about themselves. It happens. It’s awful.
The Wikipedia post is important. Even if you think you know it already. I grew up religious though. I was a true believer in the birth, death and resurrection of Christ, and in supernatural creation. And of literal eternal life in heaven (and/or the establishment of the kingdom of heaven on earth after the end times; in the redemption of all man kind). So my perspective may be different to yours.
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Fiction
The Dark Tower and Other Stories by C.S. Lewis
You have to click through a couple of links, and dismiss an advertisement. But you can download the pdf on the other end.
The e-book includes two other good stories: the shoddy lands (about vanity) and ministering angel (about sex work in “space”). The Dark Tower itself is about universities, and the shaping and control of human capital. The one about travelling to the moon is dull. Ten years later is okay-ish (it’s about the Trojan war and coming face-to-face with the middle aged equivalent of your “Helen of Troy”). It’s not perfectly written, and it’s unfinished, but it’s still interesting.
The short stories offer some insight into the thinking of an Oxford don from the World War Two era, who habitually wrote Christian apologetics. The collection was released posthumously.
It’s presented as a b-side posthumous collection of his unfinished short stories, but they actually are worth reading.
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This actually is compulsory reading:
Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
Brave New World is a classic.
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Brave New World Revisited is a great little easy essay written shortly before Huxley died. You’ll learn a lot from it about social engineering and the psychological and ideological engineering of society.
There is a lot in there about “sleep teaching”. That is content bombardment of ideas and feelings and themes to shape your character and personality, but they do it when you’re exhausted and your guard is down. Like TV, radio and internet, magazines and books.
C.S. Lewis and Aldous Huxley both died on the 22nd of November 1963, the same day that JFK was killed.
By the way, JFK died riddled with STI’s, suffering very badly from medical over-treatment and the side effects of STI treatment (treatments for STIs and UTIs caused him to sustain things like severe back injuries and the need for a back brace; some antibiotics weaken bones for a month or two after treatment).
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What does it mean to be a bad egg?
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Anal Sex
It damages the brain-muscle connection, or otherwise modifies and reprograms it. It re-maps it. It damages the mind-body connection as well. That is how it causes you incontinence and leakage.
I posted this because it is a public health issue. As well as a moral issue.
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History of Epidemics
From Professor Frank Snowden, of Yale University, via openYale.
This is one of my favourite lecture series of all time.
You will learn about disease, epidemic disease, the history of the epistemology and philology of disease. You will learn about the mass public health campaigns of the past (like small pox, but also the hunt for a cure to polio). You will also learn about the economic and social consequences of disease, and how people responded disease. Also, you will learn about religion and belief as they intersect with disease. And also how globalisation plays into the big picture.
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You can’t understand the history of the world without understanding malaria, hookworm and water borne fecal diseases such as typhoid and cholera.
In history, one way that typhoid and cholera spread is because faeces get into the water, and then people ingest it (or otherwise become infected) and then they produce voluminous, magnificent quantities of diarrhoea. Which then get back into the water supply, further effecting more people. It’s horrible. But you need to study it to understand life and how the world works.
You also can’t really understand the world or history without at least a little understanding of syphilis, AIDs, the Black Death, or smallpox. You also need to understand how the provision of clean water happens, and how the removal of waste water happens.
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HPV and Cancer
There are more than 150 different strains of human papillomavirus (HPV), a common group of viruses.
They change and evolve a bit. They can cause cancer.
If you can catch them early on, like with a cervical smear, you still have to have your cervix amputated or possibly your uterus amputated.
Note: To use the word amputated might seem a little bit over the top, but I prefer the effect of that term to a softer term like “surgically removed”.
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Short story: no moving parts by Murray F. Yaco
This is a fun metaphor for our current intellectual and technical landscape, our current mode of civilisation, it is in the form of a short story. It’s a fantastic story, and it’s really short.
In audio:
In text:
No Moving Parts by Murray F. Yaco
“A machine can be built to do any accurately described job better than any man. The superiority of a man is that he can do an unexpected, undescribed, and emergency job ... provided he hasn't been especially trained to be a machine.
MURRAY F. YACO, Unspecialist”
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Lesley and Amanda deliberately killed cupcake. My favourite little kitten/cat.
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Crash Course
Here is some education in interesting areas: especially history of science, engineering and industry. As well as epistemology (by implication). I also touch upon corporate capitalism, management, and education. It isn’t essential. It is meant to be suggestive of what you might study, rather than being a strict prescription.
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History of Science and the Industrial Revolution.
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Any 10 life stories or biographies or other histories about the following men. Actual books, not just Wikipedia entries.
Scientists, inventors and engineers
Michael Faraday
Isambard Kingdom Brunel
Ernest Rutherford
Gregor Mendel
James Watt
Humphrey Davy
Charles Goodyear
Thomas Telford
Sir Isaac Newton
Louis Pasteur
Haber and Bosch
Watson and Crick
Karl Benz and Gottlieb Daimler
Alexander Graham Bell
Tim Berners-Lee
Johannes Gutenberg
Alexander Fleming
Robert Koch
Niels Bohr
Robert Boyle
Edmund Cartwright
And anyone else similar
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A little bit about corporate capitalism, just three.
Jack: Straight from the Gut by Jack Welch
Buffett: The Making of an American Capitalist by Roger Lowenstein
And any one of these three books by Drucker:
The Effective Executive: The Definitive Guide to Getting the Right Things Done by Peter F. Drucker
The Essential Drucker by Peter F. Drucker
The Drucker Lectures: Essential Lessons on Management, Society and Economy by Peter F. Drucker (popular in China as well)
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Drucker is so important, for anywhere in the world. But especially for China and the USA. The other two give you insights into corporate capitalism and wealth management. You need at least this level of exposure to the idea of corporate capitalism, if you haven’t had this sort of exposure already. I read Drucker, Welch and both Buffet Biographies in my twenties. They’re all great. If you’ve already read half a dozen books about corporate capitalism in your life, then you might not need any of these. This is for normal people!
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A little bit about education:
Dumbing us down by John Taylor Gatto.
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Three books about the “empire of ideas” (aka the system of education and ideological control centred on universities and stuff that exists downstream of it).
Dark Tower and Other Stories by C.S. Lewis - It is so good, and so important.
Brave New World and Brave New World Revisited - Aldous Huxley
The Screwtape Letters, including Screwtape Proposes a Toast - C.S. Lewis
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One
The “empire of ideas” doesn’t like competition. Universities, and educational institutions, who shape persons for usage in corporate entities such as big businesses and government departments run as though they are corporations.
https://www.hup.harvard.edu/books/9780674737716
Two
You need to understand the concept of the limited liability company, and also you need to understand the “model” of what a corporation is. You need to understand corporations. The theory of what they are. And you need to understand “management theory”. Management and corporations.
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That’s it. Now for some elaboration.
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That’s it. Now for some elaboration.
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For understanding epistemology, this is the course to do:
Education in epistemology and the history of science
For those of you who are interested in learning about the history of science, including topics such as epistemology, philosophy, mathematics, education and how universities work, then this is the course for you.
This next section is long, because I’m just giving you the blurbs from each lecture. But it really is such a good basic series. You can skip to the next section if you want.
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Here are topic titles/blurbs for the first ten lectures (I’m trying to sell you on this course!):
Knowledge, Know-How, and Social Change
Scientific discoveries require scientific ideas. Scientific ideas primarily act on society through technology, but they also change our sense of who we are and of what the world is. Modern science is a uniquely Western cultural phenomenon, and the combination of abstract scientific knowledge with practical know-how in the 19th century made possible "techno-science," which has remained a relentless driver of social change ever since.
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Writing Makes Science Possible
Writing is a core commitment of science because scientific knowledge is an abstraction—not embodied in concrete things or processes. Cultures without writing may be quite sophisticated in other ways, and cultures can be highly literate without developing an idea of science.
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Inventing Reason and Knowledge
The idea of knowledge had to be invented. Plato and Aristotle defined knowledge as something universal, not linked to probabilities or context. For them, knowledge was timeless, universal, necessary, and certain, and their paradigm was deductive logical reasoning, as in geometry.
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The Birth of Natural Science
Plato believed that true reality was form, which exists separately from matter. Aristotle broke decisively with Plato by declaring there is only one reality, which is nature, and that all natural phenomena are to be explained within the framework of nature. Parmenides posited that reality was manifested in changeless things, while Heraclitus said reality was change or process—and the tension between these two approaches continues to this day.
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Mathematics as the Order of Nature
Pythagoras proposed a mathematical order underlying nature, and mathematics could be used to describe natural phenomena. Although Aristotle generally dismissed the value of mathematics for the study of nature, Archimedes and others followed the example of Pythagoras.
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The Birth of Techno-Science
In the 1st century B.C.E., the Roman architect Vitruvius wrote about the fruitful combination of abstract knowledge with practical know-how. Today we would call a person who combines both an engineer. Vitruvius did not originate this idea, but Roman society from his time forward experienced the first heyday of machines whose invention depended on mathematical knowledge.
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Universities Relaunch the Idea of Knowledge
In the 12th century, social pressure to make life better and to explore knowledge spawned universities across Europe. From the 12th through the 16th centuries, universities revived and extended Classical and Islamic learning in mathematics, philosophy, medicine, and science.
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The Medieval Revolution in Know-How
Parallel with the rise of universities was an explosion of technical skills supporting the development of water mills, sawmills, blast furnaces, and the like. The most famous gear-related invention of the age was the weight-driven mechanical clock. Improved sailing and navigation technologies supported increased trade. Banks and corporations were established.
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Progress Enters into History
The notion of progress did not begin with technology but with Petrarch and a concern about language. Humanist scholars developed scholarly techniques for reconstructing Classical texts then sought to surpass Classical learning. The Humanist idea of progress paved the way for the idea of social reform based on scientific reason.
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The Printed Book - Gutenberg to Galileo
Printing of texts and movable type were old technologies when Gutenberg introduced the latter to Europe. Unlike China and the Middle East, the West embraced metallic movable type and became "print drunk." The response triggered the creation of a vast sociotechnic system to supply, produce, and distribute texts. Institutions were created to protect and reward producers and increase literacy, promoting further increases in text production and distribution.
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Dr. Steven L. Goldman
Dr. Steven L. Goldman is the Andrew W. Mellon Distinguished Professor in the Humanities at Lehigh University, where he has taught for 30 years. He earned his B.S. in Physics at the Polytechnic University of New York and his M.A. and Ph.D. in Philosophy from Boston University.
Before taking his position at Lehigh, Professor Goldman taught at The Pennsylvania State University, where he was a cofounder of one of the first U.S. academic programs in science, technology, and society studies.
Professor Goldman has received the Lindback Distinguished Teaching Award from Lehigh University. A prolific author, he has written or edited eight books, including Science, Technology, and Social Progress, and he has an impressive list of scholarly articles and reviews to his credit. He has been a national lecturer for the scientific research society Sigma Xi and a national program consultant for the National Endowment for the Humanities.
It’s a really easy lecture series, but it’s excellent and very informative. It’s “brainy” enough for a university graduate to benefit from, but easy enough for a normal person to cope with. It’s one of the best (and easiest lecture series I’ve listened to). It will change the way you look at life, history and the world. And it’s a crash course on the epistemology of science from a historical perspective. It’s amazing. You still might need a primer on the “scientific method” as well, but maybe not.
This series along with the Industrial Revolution lecture series will teach you things that you didn’t know that you needed to know. It’s amazing.
It comes as highly recommended!
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The Crash Course is over
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More Education
To learn more about English history, please see
HIST 251: Early Modern England: Politics, Religion, and Society under the Tudors and Stuarts by Professor Keith E. Wrightson of Yale University.
I took the liberty of linking you directly to the second lecture in the series. It is a fantastic lecture series.
If you don’t know where we came from, how can you know where we are going?
It is a challenging course (second year at Yale), and it requires a significant commitment in terms of time and effort, but it is very rewarding. It will help you to develop a great deal of general understanding. It’s not for everyone.
Link to the main page for the course:
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Book recommendation
For those who simply enjoy reading.
Merchants of Debt: KKR and the Mortgaging of American Business by George Anders, a Pulitzer Prize winning writer.
It’s just useful information, for general knowledge and education.
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Two Speeches of Mao Zedong
These are here just as a sample.
They will help you to understand China a little bit better, just to read them. And hear what his actual speeches were like.
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Think of this as just helpful terminology, where elapse can you get vocabulary? I’m not sure.
Updated:
Nerve Splicing
Define nerve splicing:
To splice is to join together. You can join rope or wires together by splicing.
What they do is splice their computers into our nervous system (the nerve tissue itself) using electro magnetic spectrum radiation (and the constructive/destructive interference points between them, as well as the highly complex relationships that are constructed out of constructive and destructive interference, along with timing, lots of timing. And triangulation. It’s complicated, but I think those are the building blocks.). They connect directly to our nerves. They splice into them. Including the optic nerve (I think).
They create “analogue” signals (or read them) inside our nerves. Our actual physical nerves. Telling them what to do, what to see. Or reading what they are feeling. Your nerves already use electrical signals, but the way. “It” hijacks your nerves by splicing itself in.
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Here is a picture of some nerves: warning, graphic!!
This is nerve tissue:
Warning, graphic. Pictures of surgery.
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Disclaimer: I’m not 100% sure of how this stuff works.
Note: I found the term “nerve splicing” in the book Neuromancer, in the first few opening pages. Neuromancer, by William Gibson is a fantastic book. It can help you to learn a lot about culture. Particularly technology, corporate culture, the weakness of Governments, and the male-female dynamic. Better than Snow Crash. Way better. (I mean, I’ve never read Snow Crash, but so what).
They “splice” their electronic nervous system into ours.
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Here is a visual metaphor of what splicing is, with wires.
They “splice” into your nervous system, through direct connection with your nerves.
By the way, the brain (evolutionarily) is kind of an outgrowth, and an extension, of the nerves and the nervous system and the nerve tissue (if I remember correctly).
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More history
Here is some history on the development of science and technology.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aether_(classical_element)
“Einstein noted that his own model which replaced these theories could itself be thought of as an aether, as it implied that the empty space between objects had its own physical properties.”
The interesting parts are in the “legacy” tab.
Science often has different names, labels and “models” at different periods in history.
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A polemic
Meditation and Eastern psychological dogma
If life is full of suffering, unsatisfactoriness, and the good things in life are temporary, and it bothers you, then why not redefine the self as non existent?
And then you take the part of your mind that reminds you of the fact that you are a discrete individual, and keeps thinking as though you are an actual person, a "self", and smother and stultify it until it gives up.
And then it doesn't bother you that life is full of suffering and unsatisfactoriness, and that the good things in life are temporary.
Meditation is a form of cognitive self mutilation, that you engage in until the part of the mind that used to be classified as the self (or the most significant part of the self) is smothered to death. It empties you out until it doesn’t bother you so much that life is not all it could be, i.e. is full of suffering and unsatisfactoriness, and that the good things in life are temporary.
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And then they turn a blind eye to prostitution, trafficking, slavery, oppression, idolatry, polytheistic spiritual practise, drugs, forced harems, women with broken feet (foot binding), corruption, occult practises, poverty, genuine disdain and contempt for women, debt, extreme usury, incredibly unjust indentured servitude (to pay off fake debts), and other social ills.
The three wise little monkeys: they see no evil, speak no evil, hear no evil.
Kumbaya.
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Confucian belief in action
For best results (if you are somewhat of a scholar), to understand the horrors of footbinding truly, you must learn to box (lightly on the balls of your feet), or failing that, to dance on your “toes” (male folk dancing of the type that creates spring and lift in the legs, feet and ankles, such as verbunkos, morris, some german). Normal western boxing is best, but Thai boxing is acceptable. Traditional “Chinese boxing” is unacceptable for these purposes, as is Japanese. This will help you to understand in a personal, experiential manner how important the feet are, and how devastating it is to destroy them in this manner. By the way, to bind them is to break them, as you must usually break a number of ligaments inside the feet. And anyone who knows anything understands that damage to the ligaments inside the feet can often be worse than breaks to the bones.
I know it is eccentric to suggest boxing, but I’m an eccentric. What of it?
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For more higher resolution images relating to foot binding, please go to my other website:
howcommunicate dot com slash feminism-images
Things like bound feet are the end game of the dogmas and superstitions of the orientals of the old far east. The orientals of the far east lives in a stratified caste society.
Ps: violence against women in Confucian China within the household was legal, acceptable and considered appropriate, link.
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A Mild Understatement
The nobility of China treated their women in really weird ways. And so did their academics and scholars. China is kinda gross. When they talk about the mistreatment of women, or of protecting women from harm, perhaps they are engaging in "projection". If you want to know more, then there are books you can read.
Definition: In psychology, psychoanalysis, and psychotherapy, projection is the mental process in which an individual attributes their own internal thoughts, beliefs, emotions, experiences, and personality traits to another person or group.
The American Psychological Association Dictionary of Psychology defines projection as follows:
"The process by which one attributes one’s own individual positive or negative characteristics, affects, and impulses to another person or group... often a defense mechanism in which unpleasant or unacceptable impulses, stressors, ideas, affects, or responsibilities are attributed to others. For example, the defense mechanism of projection enables a person conflicted over expressing anger to change “I hate them” to “They hate me.” Such defensive patterns are often used to justify prejudice or evade responsibility."
Criticism of the concept of projection:
“Research on social projection supports the existence of a false-consensus effect whereby humans have a broad tendency to believe that others are similar to themselves, and thus "project" their personal traits onto others. This applies to both good and bad traits; it is not a defense mechanism for denying the existence of the trait within the self.”
For more information on these concepts:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychological_projection
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Steel and the Great Leap Forward
Did Mao Zedong want to surpass Great Britain on steel production as a matter of national and personal pride?
Yes, Mao Zedong wanted China to surpass Great Britain in steel production, a goal he set as part of the Great Leap Forward campaign in 1958. He considered steel a symbol of political progress and economic power and mobilized the population to produce it, often through disastrous methods like backyard furnaces, which led to a devastating famine.
The Goal: Mao launched the Great Leap Forward with the ambitious aim of rapidly industrialising China to overtake Great Britain in steel production within a few years.
The Method: He insisted on mass mobilisation, with a focus on both large-scale, state-run plants and the creation of small, "backyard" furnaces. The goal was to use scrap metal from everyday objects to dramatically increase output.
The Failure: The campaign's focus on steel diverted labor from agriculture, and the focus on ideological fervor over practical expertise resulted in low-quality steel and a catastrophic famine that caused tens of millions of deaths.
The Legacy: While China eventually surpassed the UK in steel production decades later, the immediate goal was a disaster. The campaign was a major failure of Mao's leadership, and its catastrophic consequences were widely recognized.
Education Action Points:
Listen to “The Industrial Revolution” a series by Patrick N. Allitt, of Oxford University, available on the Great Courses by Amazon (formerly the teaching company). You will learn about many things, including the manufacture of steel, and the history of improvements in agriculture. You will also learn about improvements in the area of mass produced ceramic tableware and mass produced textiles.
The great courses materials come highly recommended by Bill Gates. They produce content that is smart enough for a billionaire industrialist, but easy enough for the common man. He used to watch an hour of it every day while walking on his treadmill. By the way, that’s one example of how the mega wealthy educate themselves. But you should see their reading habits! They read constantly!
Read Mao: the unknown story by Jung Chang, an excellent biography of Mao that covers his whole life, including the Great Leap Forward, the Chinese famine, the Red Guards and the cultural revolution.
A biography of Andrew Carnegie (steel magnate). Any biography will do. Perhaps his autobiography is the best option, or the David Nasaw biography might be okay (I forget which biography/history of his I read, but I remember that under his reign the price of steel plummeted in the USA and around the world).
Mao Zedong and the Great Leap Forward is a masterclass on how to get literally everything wrong in industrialisation, killing 30 million people in the process, as well as setting the stage for the mass chaos, misery and bloodshed of the cultural revolution.
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Two more books, just for personal interest
When Genius Failed: The Rise and Fall of Long-Term Capital Management - Roger Lowenstein
Merchants of Debt: KKR and the Mortgaging of American Business - George Anders
Both are great, just for general education and personal interest. I can vouch for both of these books.
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Hookworm
You need to know about hookworm.
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Try this:
Technically, it is a child’s book. But I might even buy it myself! I could do with a solid primer on this topic.
“What made workers in the American South so tired and feeble during the 19th and early 20th centuries? This exciting medical mystery uncovers the secrets of the parasite hookworm, commonly known as the "American Murderer," and is the latest title in Gail Jarrow's (YALSA Excellence in Nonfiction for Young Adults award-winning author) Medical Fiascoes series.
What made workers in the American South so tired and feeble during the 19th and early 20th centuries? This exciting medical mystery uncovers the secrets of the parasite hookworm, commonly known as the "American Murderer," and is the latest title in Gail Jarrow's (YALSA Excellence in Nonfiction for Young Adults award-winning author) Medical Fiascoes series.
Imagine microscopic worms living in the soil. They enter your body through your bare feet, travel to your intestines, and stay there for years sucking your blood like vampires. You feel exhausted. You get sick easily. It sounds like a nightmare, but that's what happened in the American South during the 1800s and early 1900s.
Doctors never guessed that hookworms were making patients ill, but zoologist Charles Stiles knew better. Working with one of the first public health organizations, he and his colleagues treated the sick and showed Southerners how to protect themselves by wearing shoes and using outhouses so that the worms didn't spread. Although hookworm was eventually controlled in the US, the parasite remains a serious health problem throughout the world. The topic of this STEM book remains relevant and will fascinate readers interested in medicine, science, history-and gross stories about bloodsucking creatures.”
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Historically, this is one of the reasons that certain societies failed to thrive. There are many diseases and health problems that cause a society to fail to thrive.
Iirc, the philanthropic community eliminated it in the southern states of the USA. Just like they dealt with yellow fever in Central America.
Sometime people groups get falsely labelled as lazy, when in fact they’re just suffering from too much disease as a society. Hookworm and malaria are the best examples.
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China and hookworm
Hookworm was once considered a major cause of illness in China, contributing to its reputation as the "sick man of Asia".
They used to use a lot of “night soil” on their crops. But they didn’t process it properly first!! You’re supposed to either hot compost it to thoroughly kill off the bugs/bacteria or parasites, or slow compost it for an extended period of time to let the parasites/microbes die. I repeat, hookworm was a huge problem, “due to the widespread practice of using human waste as fertilizer, leading to high rates of infection.”
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Uh, it is still a problem though.
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Quote ripped from google:
“While public health efforts, including those under the People's Republic of China, have reduced the prevalence of the disease significantly since its peak in the mid-20th century, it remains a public health concern today. Early 20th-century medical missionaries also played a role in introducing Western treatments, though their use was linked to colonial practices.
Pre-1949 and early 20th century
High prevalence: Hookworm was endemic and was a major factor in China's reputation as the "sick man of Asia". Infections were common in rural areas, especially those with intensive agriculture like rice cultivation.
Cause of infection: The main transmission route was contact with contaminated soil, often facilitated by the use of human waste ("night-soil") as fertilizer, which was a common agricultural practice.
Symptoms and impact: Infections contributed to poor health, with symptoms like bloody stools, anemia, and listlessness, especially in children. These issues were linked to economic underdevelopment and malnutrition.
Early medical interventions: Protestant medical missionaries introduced Western medicine, including anthelmintic drugs like santonin, to treat parasitic infections and gain public trust, notes a study on Wiley Online Library.”
End quote
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We send things like missionaries! But they’re often ignored in the past in China!! It’s so hard! So hard!
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The Rockefeller Society did a lot of good work eliminating or otherwise controlling hookworm in the southern United States of America. Just like they also did a lot of good work fighting against the mosquito spread disease yellow fever in Central America.
I have mixed feelings about billionaire philanthropists and their involvement in public health.
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The video is 4 minutes long. It’s good enough for most people, but maybe you should still take a look at:
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See also:
Already recommended elsewhere.
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Two useful concepts
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Basic History
Between them, it is maybe a 60 minute read. It’s boring, but important. The Red Army’s invasion of Hungary in 1956 was an incredibly important part of history. To know about it is one of the fundamentals of a decent history education. Next, the Lenin Boys in 1919 are simply one of many excellent examples of counter revolutionary terrorism, and a good example of why anti-semitism existed in Europe in the lead up to World War Two (I say this as a person of Jewish ancestry, and the grandson of a Jewish refugee who had to change his name from Spiegal to Solt and flee from Hungary in 1956).
These will help you to understand a bit of basic history, and to get a bit of colour.
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The Taiping Rebellion (also known as the Chinese civil war)
You need to know about the Taiping Rebellion. It’s as big as World War One, at least in terms of casualties. It was a religious war.
The Taiping Rebellion began in the southern province of Guangxi when local officials launched a campaign of religious persecution against the God Worshipping Society. It happened when Chinese officials (Jurchen, aka Manchu, aka Qing empire) started persecuting local Christians in Guangxi.
^The Chinese Empire massacred the people of Nanjing in this war (the same place the Japanese conducted the rape (and sack) of Nanjing. Nanjing was the capital of the heavenly empire of the God worshippers.
The leader of the movement was a member of the Hakka ethnic sub group, and a Christian.
Just read the articles.
And look at a few maps.
They slaughtered people on an industrial scale.
It’s just a part of history.
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For another massacre in another part of China:
See also:
The Taiping Rebellion broke out when Chinese officials (Jurchen, aka Manchu) started persecuting local Christians in Guangxi.
And then many years later, a century, the CCP massacred large numbers of Chinese (150000) in the cultural revolution. And engaged in lynchings, rape, torture, boiling alive, disemboweling and mass cannibalism. Mao knew about it, and gave his tacit approval.
Same place.
Just read the article.
And look at a few maps.
It’s just another part of history.
The Guangxi Massacre is a must read part of history. You at least need to have heard of it.
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Some excerpts from the Wikipedia page about the Taiping rebellion:
Traditionalist works like those of Confucius were burned and their sellers executed. The Taiping were especially opposed to idolatry, destroying idols wherever found with great prejudice. Though the destruction of idols was initially welcomed by foreign missionaries, missionaries eventually came to fear the zealotry of the Taiping that they had a hand in creating.
Ethnically, the Taiping army was at the outset formed largely from these groups: the Hakka, a Han Chinese subgroup; the Cantonese, local residents of Guangdong; and the Zhuang (a non-Han ethnic group). It is no coincidence that Hong Xiuquan and the other Taiping royals were Hakka.
They were marginalised economically and politically, having migrated to the regions which their descendants presently inhabit only after other Han groups were already established there. For example, when the Hakka settled in Guangdong and parts of Guangxi, Yue Chinese speakers were already the dominant regional Han group there.
The Hakka settled throughout southern China and beyond, but as latecomers they generally had to establish their communities on rugged, less fertile land scattered on the fringes of the local majority group's settlements. As their name ("guest households") suggests, the Hakka were generally treated as migrant newcomers, and often subjected to hostility and derision from the local majority Han populations.
They were often coal miners, kind of like the New Zealand coal miners descended from English chartists who formed the foundation of the NZ labour movement.
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Since the rebellion began in Guangxi, Qing forces allowed no rebels speaking its dialect to surrender.
Reportedly in the province of Guangdong, it is written that one million were executed, because after the collapse of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, the Qing dynasty launched waves of massacres against the Hakkas, that at their height killed up to 30,000 each day. These policies of mass murder of civilians occurred elsewhere in China, including Anhui and Nanjing. This resulted in a massive civilian flight and death toll with some 600 towns destroyed and other bloody policies resulting.
[Ummm. The Hakka people are a subgroup of the Han. I think that they are delineated from the main set of the Han based on dialect and clothing. The Han executed huge numbers of Hakka in the aftermath of the Taiping Rebellion. It is worth looking at. The Wikipedia page is deliberately obscure, just a little bit. But at the end of the day: China hates Christians, adores mass murder.
A century later: And then they slaughtered a bunch more people in Guangxi in 1967 for being too “rebellious”. And engaged in cannibalism. They lynched people, boiled them in pots and ate them. Also, mass rape.]
But you kind of need to read the articles.
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Georgian Era vs Victorian Era Sexual Norms and Mores
There was a massive "pendulum swing" from the Georgian era to the Victorian era. Probably because things were disgusting and got out of hand.
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Press Gangs
Impressment gangs pushing people into sex work
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This segment isn’t really “education”
B. F. Skinner
Uhhhh. You need to be aware of this guy:
I think that this article isn’t very good. Ummm. I think the system just makes it up as they go with psychology? Skinner might just be a distraction… But some understanding of psychology might be helpful. Or not. Maybe religion is better, and there is nothing of value in psychology? Or poetry, or stories, or education.
I think that the field of psychology might be just as backwards as economics, but I don’t know. My level of understanding of psychology is that I read one textbook in my youth, and plenty of criminology and sociology, and some psychotherapy books. I suspect that the field of psychology is pretty shonky. Someone other than me would know better. It’s not very good science though, that much is apparent. The study of management at a university might be more valuable.
Neuroscience seems pretty shonky. It really doesn’t seem like a very good science yet. Something about it is screwed up. Or at least the way it is used.
I get the feeling that people’s psychological worlds are based on-and-in relationship. And open and free conversation (as well as the emergent property of the “inner voice” in one’s head). And probably we also need privacy too.
Perhaps we need time to just spend socialising with at least half a dozen people we like and care about. And time to read, and also to converse with other others. Lots of conversation. Dinner, lunch, walking, talking. So much talking. It’s what made us people in the first place. We need conversation. And free and open conversation too, with those we care about and trust the most. Without it we aren’t even human. And we need privacy for the “inner voice” to develop. And it’s that inner voice that is the central core of whole and what we are. Without it, I’m not sure we function as proper people. And also that’s the part of us that solves problems, and gains genuine understanding.
I think we need to protect and nurture it.
Now some people want to kill it (according to their dogmas and superstitions) through “breath focus” meditation. But then again, some people want to kill the feet by crushing and breaking them, severing ligaments and shattering toes, the vulva by slicing or scraping off large quantities of the labia and clitoris and clitoral hood. And other people want to modify their minds through the taking of pharmaceutical substances such as opium, cannabis, cocaine, methamphetemine, mushrooms or LSD. But given that the people that want to murder the inner talk through meditation also never discovered that walking to a clean well just outside of town is often superior to taking it from your courtyard’s well (too close to the cess pit). Whereas maybe the people who discovered that bathing regularly was a good idea, and that proper waste management was vital to survival, and that fresh safe water is helpful might be more worth consulting than the dogmatic, superstitious, orientals of the far east. (Also, the only reason Tibet is liveable is probably geography.)
Next, I think that those who wish to clear the mind out want to just use operant conditioning (or similar) on it for ease if control. Ummm. Kill it first, using ideas similar to those in the superstitions and dogmas of the far eastern cult of emptiness, Buddhism (which is just idol worshipping and polytheism anyway). And then condition it with pain and reward, while killing the inner voice even harder. It turns people into little cogs for control.
But think it’s nonsense. Just as wrong headed as Mao and the sparrows. I think it’s just that when everything you’ve got is a hammer (satellite em spectrum pain machine), everything looks like a nail.
I haven’t said anything tremendously ground breaking here.
Rant incoming:
The theories of mind put forward by the orientals of the far east, along with their dogmas, superstitions, psychological techniques and training methods just aren't very good. But what do you expect from people from people who break their women's feet, invite sex pest taoist elixir charlatans to live in their houses to feed them sex potions, worship idols, engage in polytheism and die young because they just have the worst public health in the world. Uhhh. They want constant drug fuelled drug orgies, and to look good in the eyes of their peers, but they don’t invest in bathing, even though they have the money? Bad water, bad sanitation, bad control over disease, and constant sickness and weakness from malaria, hookworm, smallpox, tuberculosis, typhoid, cholera. And repeated instances of Black Death. Maybe fatalism and the "suicide of the mind" (aka meditation and enlightenment) is a rational and unsurprising response to such an absurd situation.
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Maybe just try to keep the inner voice alive. That divine light, that fire of intellect. The creative element, that can seek out and find answers to problems. Perhaps the best and most valuable part of us. Or me, at least.
That observer and governor that exists in the mind might be more important than many people realise. But perhaps one people don’t have a very well developed intellect, and so haven’t learned to cherish that part of themselves. And perhaps other people have a serious inferiority complex when it comes to the intellect. And so these people are all too willing to damage something they perhaps don’t value or cherish enough. Or they have a more diffuse cognitive landscape, which is still valuable, but perhaps lacks the single point of consciousness, the focus, that other minds have?
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Tangent:
Oh, and they’re also idiots because they think that an image floating off your mind, or an emotion, constitutes the communication of a desire, or of an intention.
By the way, I wasn’t at war with them. Even though they acted like I was, and used every negative thought about them as a source of “confirmation bias”. And they weren’t willing to listen to the words that can out of my mouth. And assumed that my mind was blanked, therefore “gone”. Their psychology is pretty much inane.
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Flip side, alternative: look at the two lecture series recommended earlier, and the biographies also, and you’ll learn something about thinking. Many of the best scientists, inventors were either Christians or came from a Christian background. And they had a strong commitment to truth. Monotheists in general tend to exhibit greater clarity of thought than polytheists. See the Muslim golden age, and Judaism, and the beliefs of Zoroaster as well. Different belief sets have different results in terms of coherent and intelligent thought. But there is a lot more to it. And in particular, a culture of conversation helps. As does having a native tongue that has moved past speaking tonally, and a written script that has moved past logographs.
Uhh. Root issue is probably mission creep, or whatever.
Or inertia.
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I don’t know that I’ve said much of value here.
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Last segment…
Misc Reading
Neuromancer by William Gibson (technology, how women are used by the system, governments = hollowed out; unaccountable corporations do anything)
Sirens of Titan by Kurt Vonnegut (who runs the world? Umm. Academics. And money. There is one single throw away line in that book that I love, that and the shrine in the trees)
Cat’s Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut (ice nine, fake religion; people actually need dogma, it’s a need not a want)
The Long Earth by Terry Pratchett (elves, the simple ubiquitous technology of the stepper)
Wee Free Men by Terry Pratchett (for younger readers)
Reaper Man by Terry Pratchett (malls and consumerism, automatically spread like a weed, taking the corporate model with them, followed by universities, their ideas, and the lifestyle that goes along with that)
Plenty of pulp science fiction from the 50s
Douglas Adams, all five hitchhikers books
Pilgrims Progress by Paul Bunyan (gives perspective)
The Swiss Family Robinson by Johann David Wyss (Also gives perspective)
Heidi - Johanna Spyri (perspective, contrast fiction of the past with the present)
Space Trilogy by C.S. Lewis (too long, but good anyway)
The Dark Tower, Ministering Angels and the Shoddy Lands by C.S. Lewis (all short stories)
Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis, especially screw tape proposes a toast (crab bucket mentality, and how to create a society that drags people down to the level of the lowest common denominator)
The Napoleon of Notting Hill - G.K. Chesterton (a society based on statistics, bureaucracy long term planning )
Foundation - Isaac Asimov (boring, but important)
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I think the best ones are Neuromancer and the three short stories by C.S. Lewis. The Long Earth is also good science fiction, just in general (it is a pleasurable read).
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The Clock of the Long Now: Time and Responsibility: The Ideas Behind the World's Slowest Computer by Stewart Brand (I use some of the models and ideas from this book in my thinking, particularly the pace layers of civilisation)
Amusing ourselves to death - Neil Postman
Dumbing us down - John Taylor Gatto
Empires of Ideas: Creating the Modern University from Germany to America to China by William C. Kirby (haven’t read it, I just like the title and topic)
Structures: or why things don’t fall down - J.E. Gordon
The life and death of American cities - Jane Jacobs
The Intelligent Investor, Benjamin Graham and David Dodd (to understand the techniques and tools of fundamental analysis)
Antifragile: Things That Gain from Disorder by Nassim Nicholas Taleb
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Proverbs
Ecclesiastes
Song of Solomon
Book of Matthew
Gathas (selected verses in Zoroastrianism)
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That last bit wasn’t the last segment:
More links:
EdX ChinaX Harvard: best place for general education in China, the “staid” respectable version. I got my education from the same guys, and the same place. I got the old version though.
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America:
Turning points in history (really easy), it’s suitable if you have never done any American history at all. It’s easy, and it’s fun. And you’ll hear about things you’ve never heard of. It’s one of the series on American history I studied from. It’s so easy that anyone can do it. Just look at the lecture titles to see what’s covered.
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American Revolution (tough, but not too tough)
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Civil war and reconstruction (tough, but not too tough)
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Deep Dive
This is a deep dive: deep into the past!
Take a deep breathe!
That Hideous Strength: A Modern Fairy-Tale for Grown-Ups (also released under the title The Tortured Planet in an abridged format) is a 1945 novel by C. S. Lewis, the final book in Lewis's theological science fiction Space Trilogy. The events of this novel follow those of Out of the Silent Planet and Perelandra (also titled Voyage to Venus) and once again feature the philologist Elwin Ransom. Yet unlike the principal events of those two novels, the story takes place on Earth rather than elsewhere in the Solar System. The story involves an ostensibly scientific institute, the National Institute for Co-ordinated Experiments (N.I.C.E.), which is a front for sinister supernatural forces.
I don’t recommend reading it. Unless you’re a history buff and a fan/enthusiast of social engineering. It’s fun, but it’s probably too much outlay of time and effort. The first two in the series are okay as well. I kind of like these three books, kind of disliked them. Don’t forget that he wrote it before ww2 ended.
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I preferred “the dark tower and other stories”. The dark tower itself is an amazing short story. The stories “ministering angels” and “the shoddy lands” are incredibly instructive. They were all released posthumously.
Ps: the link works, you just have to skip a few adverts first.
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The Shoddy Lands: Another story in which Lewis explores his strange aversion to the modern woman. It's really weird. the protagonist ends up in the head of his student's fiancée and what he sees allows him to understand her and the way she sees herself and the world. He wonders at the end if other people have ended up in his mind, but the whole story is really condemning the modern woman and her obsession with clothes, shoes, jewelry, pretty things, and herself. It's interesting, to say the least, but with the drastic change (at least outwardly) that hit society in the 40s, 50s, and 60s, I can understand why Lewis would feel a bit shook.
The social engineers at Oxford wanted to keep women wrapped up in the intensely selfish and self-centred experience known as vanity, so that they would become distracted from and disconnected from other and more important aspects of life, leaving them diminished as humans.
Ministering Angels: Super weird. Someone said that, if men were to go to Mars consistently (because it would be just men, mind you), society would need to send "nice girls to Mars at regular intervals to relieve tensions and promote morale" (his name's not important). So, Lewis ran with that idea. He sets this story on Mars and has these two "nice girls" sent out to keep the men company (wink, wink) in order to tide them over during their six-month stint on Mars. Now, the two women they send...well, they symbolize two of Lewis's aversions to female behavior--an old, obese, washed-up prostitute and an educated woman who believes in science and psychology and nothing else. I can't make this stuff up. Lewis did, though.
CS Lewis was an Oxford Don and Christian apologist, and views as a kind hearted man. But he was a Judas goat for Christians in the extreme. And he also had a seat at the table for a lot of conversations about how social engineering was going to happen. These were his stories released posthumously. You have to interpret them properly. He isn’t despising the women, instead his set is using them for social engineering purposes, because they all wanted to go to “space”, I.e. satellites in the sky to maintain hegemony over the earth. Which they had wanted since even before ww2.
Uhhh. Oxford is the second oldest university in the world, and the oldest in England. It provided a lot of ideological leadership in the 19th and 20th century. Even in the 18th century as well. Like Harvard, Yale and Princeton did in the 20th and 21st.
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The Dark Tower is great.
It’s all about shaping and programming foot soldier puppets on behalf of the system. It’s fantastic. It’s unfinished.
The whole scene is basically like The Time Machine with these men talking about this machine that can bring you through time. But the differences are major because the men share the experience, and they don't actually have to leave the room. The time "traveling" happens via a screen they can all watch together, and it shows them an Othertime that takes place in the Dark Tower, which the men recognize but can't place. Strange things happen in the Dark Tower, and there's a strange society and religion being played out in front of their eyes. It builds from there, and what follows is entertaining and disturbing. The tone of the book stands out as being very eerie, reminding me of the tone in THS. There's always a feeling of wrongness, even when they're not watching Othertime but talking about it. Of course, as Hooper points out, the idea of an Othertime, another dimension, essentially, to our world, comes up in the Narnia books. Technically, the Pevensies time travel, but that's not what they're actually doing. I really wish Lewis had finished this book, but I'm happy with what he wrote instead.
There is such a sense of wrongness in this story. It’s dated, but good. And it’s really short. It’s not a novel, just an unfinished short story.
Ten years later is amazing as well. It’s all about if you came face to face with the middle aged version of the women you lusted after when you were young, would you care at all. Would you even recognise them, or would they be totally irrelevant. And was the siege of Troy about a woman, or grain shipping routes? (FYI, in the Mediterranean, grain was shipped by boat within 1-2 km of shore. You had to retain line of sight of the shore, to stay safe, because the open seas were too dangerous. Which means that Troy on a high up rocky peninsula with a good vantage point represented a potential problem for grinning routes). The story is very badly written, and unfinished. But it is incredibly topical.
CS Lewis died on the same day as Huxley and JFK. You should read Huxley as well, but read his Brave New World revisited essay first, then his biggest work second. You have to be a “social engineering” geek to bother though.
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Uhhhh. Vanity and self centredness as a weapon against society, space prostitutes and unloveable feminists, middle aged blast from the past, psychology and science. It’s crazy. Universities secretly blasting mind mutilatory indoctrination into you when you least suspect it. It’s gory and awful, but amazing. It’s not subtle at all. It’s disgusting and amazing.
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Ministering angels: Space prostitute robots from the future!!
See also Neuromancer by William Gibson, set in Japan.
Weird j-pop link - creepy unc
Another j-pop - who are they appealing to here?
^ this is anthropology tbh
I am really, really trying to sell you on reading “the dark tower and other stories” by C.S. Lewis. They’re short stories, so it’s fine. Especially the Dark Tower and Ministering Angels.
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Dulles and the “peaceful evolution theory”
^Cultural changes, including consumerism.
This one will explode a lot of world views.
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This concept needs to be a part of your vocabulary.
Also, it is helpful to do at least one microeconomics paper at tertiary level. Even just through edx. It’s helpful, but not essential.
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Long term oil, gas, fresh water, top soil for grain in growing regions, fertiliser. Environmental degradation in general: poisoned land, water, air. Fisheries. Desertification of pasturelands also.
These are important issues.
Think in terms of long term reserves, scarcity, economisation, and about who controls it. I.e. whose balance sheets are these assets on?
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It could also be helpful to get a bit of education in the area of accounting. Maybe a first year accounting paper, through a MOOC, or your local university. As well as bookkeeping 101. This will help you to gain certain “thinking tools”, as well as learning a bit of “language” in the area of commerce and administration. And I do think that a lot of business and administration is kind of like learning a particular “language”. The other two areas that you might need are statistics at first year university level, and possibly management, although you might be able to get that through reading. As for second year financial accounting, just audit 25 or so lectures from coursera or edx or whatever. Or do a second year financial accounting paper, and finish it (at vic uni it costs about 1k to do a second year accounting paper).
Without this, you won’t have the thinking skills, the “language” or the fundamental knowledge, concepts, or ideas to really analyse, let alone discuss a lot of the issues that exist in the world.
It’s not for everyone, but at the same time it is just basic education.
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China and Economy
Post Mao, China got bailed out by the western world (trade deals and sweetheart currency deals [implicit], as well as the Dulles model of peaceful evolution) and they fully adopted consumer capitalism, the corporate model for structuring their society, western business school's ideas about management, as well as general business administration. It's just that they have state capitalism instead of private capitalism. And worse desecration of the environment than “capitalist” countries. Also, they ban private capital among party members. Also, they even grew their economy through a debt driven real estate bubble! That is pure Keynes! (The debt is on local government books, and last time I checked, the housing is still overvalued).
Also, look at the demographics: aging and sick, along with the environment. They sold the health of their people, and the health of their land/water/air/people for economic development. And the age thing is massive, all old out bad lungs, weak chests and tb. Umm. We we let them undercut us by having poor labour laws and environmental legislation, so that they could grow.
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Two brief assertions, provided without evidence
Foot binding existed as a form of misogynistic social control. It was all about controlling women and their mobility.
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Unironic misogyny (defined as hatred for, or contempt, for women) was the norm in the East. It was also the norm in Judaism.
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Discussion:
Foot binding breaks the ligaments in the feet, as well as breaking the toes. It does massive damage to the feet, and so I think it is okay to call it “breaking the feet” instead of foot binding. It is a horrible thing to do, and it affects every part of your life, and your health and wellbeing. As well as your personality.
And it was inextricably tied up in things like fidelity and sexual propriety and being a “proper moral woman”. It was culture.
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A brief video about Tajikistan, just for colour
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Environmentalism, Accountability and Good Stewardship
^This is just a bit of general education in geography, history, economics.
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Some questions for the inquisitive reader to answer
What is a limited liability company?
What is a corporation? And how does it work? What is the modern role of the corporation?
What is management?
What is accounting, and how does it work?
What is management accounting?
What is financial accounting?
What is auditing?
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What is education? And how does it work?
What is the university system, and how does it work? What is the history and origin of the "university".
Good luck!
Note: many of these questions can best be answered by signing up for a couple of introductory courses in accounting at a university, one first year course in management and reading a couple of books by Peter F. Drucker.
A silly short/reel on YouTube:
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In totalitarianism, the scum rises to the top
Note, I haven't fully read and checked these two articles first before recommending them. By the way, at one point Beria was responsible for the management of sex workers via the gulag system of the NKVD (the interior ministry and secret police of the USSR). Here is a history of prostitution in the USSR. It is highly informative, if a little bit dry. They were permissive at first, and then repressive.
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Of wives, concubines and mistresses
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Keeping women weak and feeble
If you destroy a woman’s feet in childhood, as the age of 8 years old, through foot binding, then she becomes weak and enfeebled for life. She never develops vigour and strength in the first place. Strength and vigour is developed through childhood by means of the activity known as “play”. But if the feet are ruined early in life, their strength tend vigour never develops at all. And she never catches up. This makes women easier to control, which is important in a society with so many mistresses and concubines and wives. Confucian scholars, and other men who were not of lower castes often had many women who belonged to them (yes, just in case you didn’t know, China was essentially a caste based society, or extremely similar. Or perhaps very “class based”, although sometimes that is a distinction without a difference).
A Confucian gentleman could easily rule over his women (physically) because they were pretty weak. Maybe. I guess. It’s sad.
She becomes flimsy because her feet were broken in childhood. It’s really sad. It’s really, really bad to have unhealthy feet! It’s such a sad situation for Chinese women in history.
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Ummm. How not to be flimsy? I’m not sure, but maybe try sports like netball, table tennis (or tennis), and plenty of walking and outdoors hiking too. But perhaps some women want to be flimsy!! Maybe it helps them in finding a husband, or improves their chances of career success, or maybe they just prefer the aesthetic. By the way, it’s lots of nations and people groups that like women who are too flimsy. But oh well.
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Kazakh Famine
For those of you who didn’t catch this article last time:
The Kazakh Famine. It’s a must read part of history.
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Bad egg^
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Another bad egg^
He was a “good friend” of Filipp
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The Kazakh Genocide
The forced collectivisation of agriculture costs lives.
The three above Wikipedia pages are all about helping people to better understand the “Kazakh genocide by means of forced collectivisation of agriculture”.
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Education
For more information (optional), please look at some of the following materials:
The first two are lecture series offered by the great courses, and the third one is an episode of the radio show In Out Time on BBC Radio Four, hosted by Melvyn Bragg. The first one and third one both talk about agriculture and related topics such as modes of land ownership. The second one provides invaluable background knowledge.
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The Club of Rome
The Club of Rome has published several notable books, including the pioneering "The Limits to Growth" (1972) and other important works.
If you are an educated man or woman, then you might want to be at least aware of them and what they're about.
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Oil, Gas, Top Soil Depletion (particularly in prime gran growing regions), access to water for irrigation, fisheries management, desertification, land ownership and usage rights, pollution of streams and water ways due to nitrogen runoff, access and price of fertiliser. Things like long term global "economisation" of things like the first three are relevant. I can't explain more at the moment. But I thought that I would just bring it up. General environmental degradation is of course an issue.
Long term "carrying capacity" is something worth knowing about.
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Living standards are probably going to plummet fairly soon. We will all get much poorer, and have to cut back on resource consumption. The plan is to do something like that. I think.
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Umm. This is just basic information and education. I’ll put it into the education page also.
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Basic education:
Guangxi Massacre
If you are unaware of the Guangxi massacres, then you probably need to read about them at least once.
For best results, maybe try looking at 2-3 different sources. By the way, Mao knew about it, and gave his implicit approval. And they were eating people. And it was conservatives killing rebels. The “rebels” were poorer people. I think many of them were ethnic Hakka (although Hakka might actually be linguistic, or based on clothing and footwear. I don’t think they habitually bound women’s feet for example. Note: take a look at this link for more information about foot binding https://www.howcommunicate.com/feminism-images).
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Apropos of nothing, I think that Deng Xiaoping was an ethnic/cultural Hakka. He was pretty much the only one of the upper echelons of the CCP who was wortbwhile back in the day. And even then, only just. He basically saved China. His faction vanished with Hu Jintao, iirc afaik. But I’m no good at Chinese kremlin-ology.
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If you want to know more about China during the tenure of Mao Zedong, try reading “Mao: the unknown story” by Jung Chang.
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The Chinese people don’t tend to hold their leaders accountable. Or to control their leaders.
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Gregor Mendel
He was an Austrian Augustinian monk, born in what is now known as the Czech Republic, and a pretty big deal. He invented or created a lot of what we now call genetics.
He is someone I admire.
He took vows of poverty and chastity, as well as obedience to the church and a commitment to community life. And became a monk. While a monk, he discovered many important things about the nature of life on earth.
He is a great scientist, and is well worth knowing about.
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Foot Binding, Sex Trafficking, FGM, and other women’s issues
If you haven't seen this page, take a look at it. It talks a little bit about foot binding, trafficking, FGM and some other women's issues.
It is useful, and there for educational purposes. It's not strongly related to other stuff that I may or not be pushing for. It's just part of understanding the world.
The links are the important part, by the way.
These pictures and links will help you to understand why I’m so up in arms about particular types of social engineering, like foot binding!! (And FGM and widow burning).
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Not essential, totally optional. But I like reading about this sort of thing.
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When I use a word,’ Humpty Dumpty said in rather a scornful tone, ‘it means just what I choose it to mean — neither more nor less.’
’The question is,’ said Alice, ‘whether you can make words mean so many different things.’
’The question is,’ said Humpty Dumpty, ‘which is to be master — that’s all.
Lewis Carroll
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You should have at least heard of this book:
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And heard of this book, and the woman who wrote it:
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Enemies of democracy say, “what?”.
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Roman History
A quick overview of Roman history can be helpful, if you’ve never done it. Here is a gentle, easy introduction. You can skip the final 20 or so hours if you want. There are many, many other suitable histories of you would prefer them. But this one is more “sessionable” that they are (that is, you can binge it comfortably).
If you want to know more than his version of history, there are more books and lectures out there. The Will Durant history of the period is excellent. I also can recommend some of Dan Carlin’s materials, such as “death throes of the republic”.
You might like to learn about the emergence of the “plebian assembly”.
And ask, what might it look like to give the plebs of today’s society a voice? How could the plebs do politics? Answer, perhaps through direct democracy? To change laws that change the nature of the culture and governance of the society? Call it “the new plebian politics, by direct democracy”.
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Introduction to Ancient Greek History
If you want to know more about classics and Ancient Greek history, then check this series out by the late professor Donald Kagan, one of American’s foremost teachers of classics.
Introduction to Ancient Greek History:
It’s a good one. I loved it. It wasn’t the first exposure I had to ancient Greek history or classics.
If you are interested, then you might try listening to one lecture a day on television while taking notes. The lectures are free.
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Mass Line Ideology
Mass line ideology: invented by Mao, revived by Xi.
Effectively:
"We will do the thing in the plan, no matter what. Even if it causes massive harm. Even if it flies in the face of reality and all good sense. And we will do it because the ideology must win, it is inevitable, and we must retain power no matter what."
PS: when it comes to the actions of Chinese Marxist-Leninists, you can reframe it, and put it into your own words. Or describe and analyse it according to the effects it has, rather than define it according to the definition/s they provide.
“Many CCP leaders have attributed their attainment of power to the faithful pursuit of effective "mass line" tactics, and a "correct" mass line is supposed to be the essential prerequisite for the full consolidation of power.“
They want to end up with all of the power, and given that they want that answer, they work backwards from that, if that makes sense. The end answer in the equation is the full consolidation of power, and you work backwards from there. Even if it involves doing insane things like forced collectivisation of agriculture, or giving your entire population “mind” damage.
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Marxism, mode of production: feudalism, capitalism
Marxism was supposed to be implemented in a society that has already gone through the “capitalist” phase of development. The society was supposed to have a large, urban proletariat. And a large, industrialised manufacturing sector. And heavy industry. And it was supposed to have a lot of people working in it. It wasn’t supposed to happen in places that were agrarian societies without the capitalist development… it was designed for England!! And places like England. It was supposed to hit at a certain phase of economic development. End it was supposed to be “inevitable” or otherwise implied by the material mode of production. It was called historical materialism.
Capitalism implies rapid economic growth, and the development of _capital_. Without it, there’s not enough to steal!!
Both China and Russia were heavily agricultural societies. And not industrial enough. Especially China. Btw, nationalists and CCP were trained by user iirc. And other sets of people backed by Manchu and Japanese. And I think maybe the British did the regime change in 1910.
Marx was garbage anyway. Don’t read him. Study some real economics instead. And while you’re at it, do some accounting and statistics. Marx is just lies and nonsense designed to confuse you. Don’t let it infect your mind. Don’t let it become part of your frame of reference. Don’t let it be used as psychological “anchoring”. Study proper economics. It makes you dumber just even to read it.
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Note: I took the time to read a primer and a number of encyclopedia entries in Marxism. I actually did read some stuff about it. But I studied proper economics first.
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The story of Ruth and Boaz is well worth reading and understanding. As is the story of king Solomon and the full story of king David and his son Solomon. I could also recommend the book of Ecclesiastes and Proverbs. In Ruth and Boaz, he helps her by “spreading his cloak over her” has she humbly asked for help. A lot of marriage was altruistic like this in the past.
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“Chivalry” was a social engineering project implemented the “philosopher kings”, I.e. dregvant. The “romantics” movement was an artistic and social engineering project (I.e. psyops) pushed by the “philosopher kings”, I.e. dregvant. In a casual, conversational sense, chivalry is actually nice, and basically okay. But in a social engineering sense, it’s actually bad.
[It’s complicated. A lot of stuff happens with the chivalric movement. Some of it is nice, but some of it is just a vehicle for introducing a few new ideas as to how to do life. Like, a Trojan horse for a particular type of person to re-enter society… it puts “elite” women on pedestal, which allows them to be used as bait/currency. It’s a little obscure. But think it doesn’t necessarily hold up when you examine it in retrospect. And these women used as bait, currency, etc are used to encourage the type of society in which the normals (ie, the cattle class) are mistreated. The poor, normal people have to work very hard to support a top heavy society of people interested in courtly dances, feasts and expensive nonsense. I am deliberately avoiding speaking too plainly on this topic].
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Why did Muslims and Jewish people frown upon the consumption of pork? Sometimes it was religion, sometimes it was public health, sometimes it was about discouraging particular ways of life.
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Waste management of feces in medieval England
Waste management of feces in medieval England (roughly 5th to 15th century) was a combination of localized, manual, and sometimes surprisingly regulated systems, heavily reliant on cesspits, the "gong farmer" profession, and the reuse of waste in agriculture. Contrary to the myth of indiscriminate dumping, medieval cities often had strict regulations to prevent human waste from polluting streets and waterways, with heavy fines for violators.
Key Aspects of Medieval Fecal Waste Management:
Cesspits and Privies (Jakes): In towns, households often used privies or "jakes" which drained into cesspits—lined or unlined pits dug into the ground. These pits were not always watertight, allowing liquids to drain away while solids accumulated, requiring cleaning every few years.
Gong Farmers (Nightmen): These specialized workers, also known as "gongfermours" or "nightmen," were employed to empty cespits. Due to the stench and the foul nature of the work, they were restricted to working at night. They were relatively well-paid for this, sometimes receiving three times the wages of other unskilled laborers.
"Night Soil" Disposal: The collected waste, often called "night soil," was typically transported outside city boundaries to designated "laystalls" or dumps. From there, it was often sold to farmers to be used as fertilizer.
Waterways and Public Latrines: Many towns built public latrines, known as "houses of easement," often conveniently located over rivers or streams to carry waste away. In London, for example, public latrines were maintained on London Bridge, emptying directly into the Thames.
Castle Latrines (Garderobes): Castles used "garderobes," which were toilets built into the walls that either dropped waste into a pit (to be cleaned by gong farmers) or directly into the castle moat. In some advanced cases, rainwater was diverted from roofs to flush the waste out.
Regulation and Cleaning: Cities like London in the 14th century enforced regulations against throwing waste into the streets. Fines for dumping excrement in ditches or watercourses could be as high as £20 in 1388.
Rural Practices: In villages, human waste was often disposed of in middens or dung heaps, where it was mixed with animal manure and other organic waste to be used on fields.
Common Misconceptions:
Dumping Out Windows: While this happened occasionally, it was illegal and heavily fined, making it less common than often portrayed in popular culture.
Total Filth: While medieval cities were, by modern standards, very dirty, they were not generally filled with human, rather than animal, waste, as authorities tried to maintain cleanliness.
See also this link to the Wikipedia entry about "night soil": just google “night soil” wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Night_soil#:~:text=Industrially%20produced%20%22sanitary%20ware%22%2C,men%22%20or%20%22nightmen%22.
This is just an enjoyable part of education. The history of engineering in the Western world is all about sanitation, hygiene, clean water, bathing, sewers, public health, spacing cities out to avoid the spread of disease. Especially sewerage systems.
A fun book about some of these issues is "Dodger" by Terry Pratchett. It’s fiction, but it’s fun.
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Powdered Glass and Concentration Camps in the Boer War
The English fed powdered glass to people in concentration camps in the Boer war. They died and the English pretended that it was due to "dysentery".
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The boers were (and are) people of Dutch ancestry, as well as German and French origins. Many of them were fleeing religious persecution at the hands of the Catholic Church when they originally settled there.
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What happened is that the men fled into hills and forests, to do a guerrilla war, leaving their women and children at home. The British rounded them up, and sequestered them in camps. And fed them powdered glass to kill them. They also conducted extra judicial executions of surrendered prisoners of war among the men. The Boer war was a war of English aggression. And one of self defence on the part of the Boers. I don't think the English had even a fig leaf of justification for the wars. It's horrible.
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The Zimbabwe Situation
What "the system" did in Zimbabwe was also unconscionable. I had friends from there, refugees. ZANU-PF was supported by funding from the Chinese. And ZAPU (who later merged with ZANU) was supported by funding by the USSR. And that place has been hell for a long time. Just Google "farm murders". But it goes beyond that. Just random attacks, mugging, break ins, stabbings to steal your bike while cycling to school (my friend got stabbed in the leg on the way to school for his bike, had a scar. They also did pole through the spokes attack). Marxism has a massive flaw that Christianity doesn't. It doesn't create or allow for the option of reconciliation or the making of peace.
Not all revolutions were worth it, and not all decolonisation efforts were wise.
"ZANU-PF has historically relied on significant support from China, particularly during the liberation struggle (1960s-1980) and post-independence, while the USSR primarily supported its rival, ZAPU. This ideological and material support from Beijing allowed ZANU (led by Robert Mugabe) to cement itself as a dominant political force, with China acting as a long-term "all-weather friend" that provided military, financial, and political backing against Western sanctions."
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The Communist Manifesto, written by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, was commissioned by the London-based Communist League and published in February 1848. It served as a foundational political pamphlet for the working-class movement, advocating for the overthrow of the bourgeoisie and abolition of private property.
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Ahahahahhaha Marxism was an English psyops campaign. And the Chinese, Vietnamese and North Koreans were too dumb to see through it. Even after the Soviet experiments in Marxism had obviously failed by the year 1933.
Indonesia wasn’t taken in. Nor was Thailand or the Phillipines.
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Lavrion Ancient Silver Mines – Ancient Greece:
The Laurion (or Lavrion) silver mines, located in southeastern Attica near Athens, were the primary source of wealth for the Athenian state from the late 6th century BCE. Exploited primarily for silver (and lead) using thousands of slaves, these mines funded the construction of the Athenian navy that defeated the Persians at Salamis in 480 BCE, fueling the Golden Age of Athenian democracy.
They act like they were all that and a bag of chips. That they were the fount of all wisdom and understanding. That they were some sort of "city on a hill" a beacon of light, bringing reason to all the world. But maybe they were just built on top of a silver mine that was worked by slaves in the most horrific state and way possible.
And then once they had all that silver money, and had democratic voting among the males of the middle (including hoplite and equestrian) class, they proceeded to spend their time lifting weights, getting greased up with oil, wrestling and debating the merits of their favourite fourteen year old boys while beating and oppressing their wives (who were either mean and grouchy, or sleeping around), and visiting as many prostitutes as possible without catching the pox. And they spent their time dressed in bed sheets drinking wine and chattering away in town, blathering about nothing (debate, ha!) and calling it democracy.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mines_of_Laurion
Economics: silver mines funded the whole thing, sort of.
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The Athenians liked to act as they were “all that and a bag of chips”, but they were just built right beside a silver mine.
And then they engaged in military spending to gain naval superiority and concrete an empire. Disgusting.
Most of that is humour and silliness^. The mines did actually fund them though.
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China, famine, the Great Leap Forward, and eating the seed grain
Yes, during the Great Chinese Famine (1958-1962) caused by the Great Leap Forward, starving farmers and communities were often forced to consume their reserved seed grain—the "seed corn"—out of desperation to survive. This consumption of future planting resources, combined with extreme state procurement of grain, severely hindered agricultural recovery and exacerbated the mass starvation that resulted in over 30 million deaths.
Desperate Measures: Faced with unprecedented food shortages, rural populations were reduced to eating anything available, including soil, poisons, and seed supplies meant for the next season.
State Pressure: In addition to consuming seeds for survival, farmers were pressured to meet impossible production quotas, and the government often seized what little grain remained, leaving no, or very little, seed for planting.
Long-Term Impact: Eating the seed grain meant that when the next planting season arrived, there was insufficient or no seed to plant, creating a continuous cycle of famine and crop failure.
Yes, as part of the severe food shortages and desperate measures to survive the Great Chinese Famine (1959–1961), many people, facing extreme hunger, were forced to eat their seed grain (or "seed corn"). The famine was caused by Great Leap Forward policies, which included over-procurement of grain, resulting in over 30 million deaths.
Key Details Regarding the "Seed Corn" and Famine:
Desperation Tactics: To stay alive, people resorted to eating everything possible, including wild herbs, bark, feces, and, due to extreme scarcity, the seed grain meant for future planting.
Systemic Failure: The famine resulted from forced agricultural changes (communes) and state over-procurement, leading to widespread starvation despite some areas not initially having total crop failure.
Human Cost: The crisis, often considered the largest in human history, led to cannibalism and other desperate measures.
The consumption of seed grain exacerbated the food shortage for the following season, contributing to the prolonged, devastating nature of the famine.
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I used to study economics. And as a hobby I studied famine economics. Famine economics is fairly well understood. And study economics. And have to have proper accounting systems in place for procurement. And break hoarding of grain with “flooding”. And have granaries in advance. Get the incentives working, and always have foreign advisors. And good consultants.
I can’t explain it. You just do the job properly. You actually just do it.
That is why I am so passionate about this issue. I studied the economics of it. Economics is a science. It’s wise to study it. Yes, it’s a soft science. But it is important. And it’s not much softer of a science than psychology. And it’s also probably much more sensible. They just needed to use science and proper accounting and administrative methods. And seek out advice (perhaps either from England or the USSR). And just do better!?!?!?
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FWIW, PRC/CCP mainland China is intellectually sub par and academically second rate. And when it comes to science, they are still lagging well behind other countries (take a look at Nobel prize winners for example, PRC China has three. Compare to Jewish Nobel prize winners, or the USA). The USA is still the scientific, engineering and technological super power. China isn’t even an also ran. Japan and Germany are still ahead of China. And the UK is still very closely tied in with the academic institutions of the USA (due to things like language and similarities in how our education systems work).
Don't let things like test scores fool you.
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That being said, the education system in the rest of the world is also a bit screwed up, and is designed to "dumb you down". Don't let it some you down. Make sure to get an education in spite of your schooling. (And also try to succeed in the formal schooling system, or at least pass. Society is designed to very heavily penalise people who don't at least pass school).
As I used to say, "don't let schooling" get in the way of your education". And always be engaging in some sort of learning or education, even if you're sick or your life is going badly. As for what sort of education, you have to use your own judgement for that.
And don’t focus too much on China!! They’re a distraction! Sort of!
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The best ones?
Uhhhhh. What are the best things I recommended here?
The Industrial Revolution lecture series and the great ideas in science course are probably going to be the most beneficial things on this page for a lot of people, because they’ll help you to have a world view that is based upon the material, physical realities associated with the production and provision of goods and services, as well as in the construction and maintenance of our “built environment”. Sorry, that was a little bit of a mouthful. And they’re not too tough. They’re “accessible” for the “normals”.
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Also, biographies of scientists and inventors are amazing ways to learn. Men like Michael Faraday, Isambard Kingdom Brunel, Ernest Rutherford, Gregor Mendel, James Watt, Humphrey Davy, Charles Goodyear, Thomas Telford, Sir Isaac Newton, Louis Pasteur, Haber and Bosch, Watson and Crick, Karl Benz and Gottlieb Daimler, Alexander Graham Bell, Tim Berners-Lee, Johannes Gutenberg, Alexander Fleming, Robert Koch, Niels Bohr, Robert Boyle, Edmund Cartwright, and many more.
And biographies of men like Buffett, Welch, Walton, Ford, Carnegie, Gates, Jobs and many other businessmen, founders and investors can be useful. As well as at least one exposure to Peter F. Drucker (Jack Welch’s mentor). If you like the Buffet biography, then you might like to read something by Benjamin Graham (his mentor). This is all just for background and colour. But the biographies of scientists and inventors are much more useful, important and impactful.
This sort of stuff can expand your mind so much.
And the Dark Tower and Other Stories.
And some of the Wikipedia links.
Ps: a lot of people, particularly in leadership are well past this. They’ve already read all of this sort of thing. It was in the water when they were growing up. It was like mother’s milk to them. But if you’re a normal, maybe you missed this element of education.
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