Books — Relativistic Ramblings

Why you should read 1984

1984 is the kind of book you dearly wish were pure fiction, but unfortunately isn’t.

What if the mere act of independent thought was punishable by torture and death? What if we lived in a society where you constantly had to delude yourself to keep up with the government’s public manipulation and falsification of historical records, to such an extent that you even had to forget about deluding yourself or indeed that any such forgetting ever took place?

Welcome to the dystopian world of 1984, where the constant audiovisual surveillance by the Thought Police on behalf of the all-powerful Party is all but successful in eradicating individualism – forever.

Welcome to Extremistan – don’t feed the Bell Curve

Review of “The Black Swan” by Nassim Nicholas Taleb.

According to Socrates, “the only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing.” In some respects then, Nassim Nicholas Taleb is very wise indeed, though judging by The Black Swan his ideas are better than his communication.

Summary and review of “No Place to Hide” by Glenn Greenwald

Some books are simply too important not to read.

Every now and again there comes a work – whether a book, a movie or something else – that is of such societal significance that it cannot and must not be overlooked. Glenn Greenwald’s No Place to Hide: Edward Snowden, the NSA, and the U.S. Surveillance State is just such a work.