Ask HN: Good articles or books to understand the current zeitgeist?

11 点作者 bdhe4 个月前

My classical liberal outlook (with maybe a propensity to support higher quality regulations) has been seriously rocked over the past few years culminating of course in the elections last year and the outlooks of elections to come (Trump, FPÖ, AfD, etc.)* It appears that the US and the world-at-large is moving towards an era of inward-looking nationalism, protectionism, and a return to the Great Powers carving up of the world. Where does this go?* My ability to empathize with the rise of the power of trollish dialog and rhetoric (see @elonmusk or @pmarca) and memes is fundamentally broken. What happened to Good Faith? Humility? Kindness?* What happened to the rule of law? Or even the veneer of accountability at some level?* What values do I pass on to the next generation? Those of having careful principles that you defend and practice or a cynical view of "getting what you can" because everyone's doing it at every level of society?Do I lean into philosophy? Or history? Or something else - to make sense of a very different 2025 compared to what I was seeing, in the US, a mere 20 years ago.

7 条评论

scarecrowbob4 个月前

Well, if you want some really odd stuff, the anarchist texts "Desert" and "Against His-Tory, Against Leviathan" both point... in a way.James Scott will, by contrast, sound a bit more moderate. "Two Cheers for Anarchism" and "Seeing Like a State" are interesting (to me) texts.But really, I'd suggest more direct volunteering. I am gonna go do the 10:30p-2:30a shift at my local warming shelter tonight. Food Not Bombs has a lot of jerks in it, but a lot of those same folks are really helping people who need help.Doing that kind of direct work can teach you a lot, I think. More than reading, at least. You have to approach it as if you know little about the world, though.

lapcat4 个月前

There's no such thing as zeitgeist. It's a fairy tale. And you're reading too much into election victories, which are almost always by very narrow margins. For example, the vote totals of Trump and Harris were separated by only 1.5%.I'm not sure what you thought you were seeing 20 years ago. In 2004, George W. Bush was reelected on a very nationalistic campaign, and the US had literally invaded two sovereign countries, Afghanistan and Iraq, during his first term.What happened to the rule of law and accountability? Do you remember the "War on Terror"? Do you remember the Iran-Contra scandal? Do you remember the Pentagon Papers? Perhaps you ought to lean into history.

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Terr_4 个月前

Based on some interesting quotes, They Thought They Were Free: The Germans, 1933-45 by Milton Meyer.An excerpt: <a href="https://press.uchicago.edu/Misc/Chicago/511928.htm" rel="nofollow">https://press.uchicago.edu/Misc/Chicago/511928.htm</a>> "The dictatorship, and the whole process of its coming into being, was above all diverting. It provided an excuse not to think for people who did not want to think anyway. I do not speak of your ‘little men,’ your baker and so on; I speak of my colleagues and myself, learned men, mind you. Most of us did not want to think about fundamental things and never had. There was no need to. Nazism gave us some dreadful, fundamental things to think about—we were decent people—and kept us so busy with continuous changes and ‘crises’ and so fascinated, yes, fascinated, by the machinations of the ‘national enemies,’ without and within, that we had no time to think about these dreadful things that were growing, little by little, all around us. Unconsciously, I suppose, we were grateful. Who wants to think?"

overu5894 个月前

“The Story of Civilization” may do you some good. Audio segments are on YouTube.

dinkumthinkum4 个月前

I think you just want to be reassured that your position is correct; it doesn’t seem like this is a good faith reflection. You’re saying “what happened to the rule of law” without showing evidence that it doesn’t exist anymore and tacitly implying the left has been yhr virtuous party of laws. People on the right might ask a similar question. They might wonder why a leftist DA would think someone that kills a baby and assassinates others should be given “non-carceral punishment”. I mean, come on. Can you really look at the state of the UK abs think “this is going in a great direction and we need more of what the left is doing”?

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bwb4 个月前

First, a small bit of optimism :). People hate inflation; I don't think there has been an election this year that hasn't ended with the party-in-power losing the election. Given how small the election was won by in the USA I wouldn't see that as a mandate.Background: <a href="https://www.marketplace.org/2024/11/14/incumbents-are-losing-around-the-world-not-just-the-u-s/" rel="nofollow">https://www.marketplace.org/2024/11/14/incumbents-are-losing...</a>Second, the USA has some fundamental rot at its core that both parties have ignored for the last 30 to 50 years (housing, monopolies, health care, ports, etc). This is finally coming to a head as people have grown more and more dissatisfied with the status quo. This is going to result in a fair bit of political choppiness as the masses try to find someone who will fix their pain. Historically, these types of periods give rise to fascism, popularism, and other worries. Hopefully, that won't be the case with democracies, and peaceful transfers of power will stay the norm. Democracies must deliver results to their people or people will turn on them.Third, you have this massive move to social media, podcasts, and influencers for news/truth. That is a bit terrifying, and there is no stopping it. You could say it is like the transition from newspaper to radio to TV, and it is going to produce similar carnage. It will be interesting to see how it shakes out. Will the government pass strict reforms (see what they did with TV to prohibit monopolies in TV ownership and equal airtime rules - both of which were upturned recently)? I agree with you that there is a lack of humility and kindness. I don't have any answers and feel equally frustrated. I think people are tired of slick answers that don't say anything, and for now, they are fine with raw outbursts because they are frustrated.I've interviewed some historians, experts, and authors lately. Here is what they recommended on a few subjects that you are talking about:<a href="https://shepherd.com/best-books/where-the-republican-party-might-go" rel="nofollow">https://shepherd.com/best-books/where-the-republican-party-m...</a><a href="https://shepherd.com/best-books/saving-democracy-from-populism" rel="nofollow">https://shepherd.com/best-books/saving-democracy-from-populi...</a><a href="https://shepherd.com/best-books/radicalization-and-extremism" rel="nofollow">https://shepherd.com/best-books/radicalization-and-extremism</a><a href="https://shepherd.com/best-books/talking-to-people-who-dont-agree-with-us" rel="nofollow">https://shepherd.com/best-books/talking-to-people-who-dont-a...</a>Two books I've read recently that I found illuminating are:Savage Peace: Hope and Fear in America, 1919 by Ann HagedornThis was a fantastic day-by-day account of 1919 (right after WWI as the world tried to clean up). It really helped me see the chaos and politics of that year at a slower pace, and it makes the last 10 years feel a bit less crazy. Reading about the Spanish flu, bombs going off across the country, and everything else just reminded me that stuff is always crazy. You still have to fight it, but this isn't anything new.M: Son of the Century by Antonio ScuratiThis isn't an easy read. It is historical fiction about Mussolini's rise to power. It was an illuminating look at his rise to power, using historical records and some guesses. It shows what a bunch of clowns they were and what luck was involved in it happening.

meristohm4 个月前

The Invisible Doctrine, by George Monbiot and Peter Hutchison. 4hr audiobook, concise text. If by "classical liberal" you mean "laissez-nous faire", this might be easier to be open to reading. If you mean Hayek's now-maligned term "neoliberalism", and you're still trying to find a way to justify that well-meaning (as a reaction to nazism) but flawed approach (the need for bailouts, for one, and the Hobbsian "competition all the way down" lens), this may rub you wrong.Of the two, I'd lean into history, and go way back, like 50kya.We need a new story to guide us, other than the time-tested authoritarianism/fascism, and I like a messy mix generally guided by "public luxury, private sufficiency."