Average customer rating:
- Good, but not Great (3 stars)
- Reflects my values
- At last!
- Missing the point
- Connecting
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Crunchy Cons: How Birkenstocked Burkeans, gun-loving organic gardeners, evangelical free-range farmers, hip homeschooling mamas, right-wing nature lovers, ... America (or at least the Republican Party)
Rod Dreher
Manufacturer: Crown Forum
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Binding: Hardcover
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ASIN: 1400050642
Release Date: 2006-02-21 |
Book Description
When a National Review colleague teased writer Rod Dreher one day about his visit to the local food co-op to pick up a week’s supply of organic vegetables (“Ewww, that’s so lefty”), he started thinking about the ways he and his conservative family lived that put them outside the bounds of conventional Republican politics. Shortly thereafter Dreher wrote an essay about “crunchy cons,” people whose “Small Is Beautiful” style of conservative politics often put them at odds with GOP orthodoxy, and sometimes even in the same camp as lefties outside the Democratic mainstream. The response to the article was impassioned: Dreher was deluged by e-mails from conservatives across America—everyone from a pro-life vegetarian Buddhist Republican to an NRA staffer with a passion for organic gardening—who responded to say, “Hey, me too!”
In Crunchy Cons, Dreher reports on the amazing depth and scope of this phenomenon, which is redefining the taxonomy of America’s political and cultural landscape. At a time when the Republican party, and the conservative movement in general, is bitterly divided over what it means to be a conservative, Dreher introduces us to people who are pioneering a way back to the future by reclaiming what’s best in conservatism—people who believe that being a truly committed conservative today means protecting the environment, standing against the depredations of big business, returning to traditional religion, and living out conservative godfather Russell Kirk’s teaching that the family is the institution most necessary to preserve.
In these pages we meet crunchy cons from all over America: a Texas clan of evangelical Christian free-range livestock farmers, the policy director of Republicans for Environmental Protection, homeschooling moms in New York City, an Orthodox Jew who helped start a kosher organic farm in the Berkshires, and an ex-sixties hippie from Alabama who became a devout Catholic without losing his antiestablishment sensibilities.
Crunchy Cons is both a useful primer to living the crunchy con way and a passionate affirmation of those things that give our lives weight and measure. In chapters dedicated to food, religion, consumerism, education, and the environment, Dreher shows how to live in a way that preserves what Kirk called “the permanent things,” among them faith, family, community, and a legacy of ancient truths. This, says Dreher, is the kind of roots conservatism that more and more Americans want to practice. And in Crunchy Cons, he lets them know how far they are from being alone.
A Crunchy Con Manifesto
1. We are conservatives who stand outside the conservative mainstream; therefore, we can see things that matter more clearly.
2. Modern conservatism has become too focused on money, power, and the accumulation of stuff, and insufficiently concerned with the content of our individual and social character.
3. Big business deserves as much skepticism as big government.
4. Culture is more important than politics and economics.
5. A conservatism that does not practice restraint, humility, and good stewardship—especially of the natural world—is not fundamentally conservative.
6. Small, Local, Old, and Particular are almost always better than Big, Global, New, and Abstract.
7. Beauty is more important than efficiency.
8. The relentlessness of media-driven pop culture deadens our senses to authentic truth, beauty, and wisdom.
9. We share Russell Kirk’s conviction that “the institution most essential to conserve is the family.”
Customer Reviews:
Good, but not Great (3 stars).......2007-05-31
There must be something afresh in the waters of conservativism. I became a Christian about 12 years ago and immediately hopped into the "Christian Right". After a period of studying I became "disenfranchised" with many of my views and those of my friends. I slowly started to return to a more "grassroots" conservativism. A conservativism that actually sought to conserve, enjoy, and cherish local traditions, including foods, architecture, nature, and farming. I found myself at Wild Oats and Whole Foods and conversing with the "enemy" - "those tree hugging, dirty hippies". Before long, I realized I was not alone. There were many conservatives that didn't think economic expansion and big business was the only way to be conservative or Republican. For those of us who found ourselves in that boat, then this is our book. A manifesto of sorts. Actually, this book is more of a collection of stories of men and women that became "crunchy cons", people that found themselves valuing the "free-market" and many things oft association with Republicans or conservatives, but also many things assumed to be left wing - the environment, local farming, organic farming, etc.
So, for those individuals that find themselves out of the current stream and spirit of the Republican Party, although they value some of the things most often associated with it, then this is a very good book to read. A book that you can give to your liberal friends, assuming you haven't isolated yourself, and you can find MANY points of agreement. For the left, it is also a good book to read, because it breaks down many walls and barriers from conversation and might enable both sides to see that they have a lot to agree upon. For example, the book points out how government laws hurt the small farmer. Both the right and left can agree that this is bad, although they may do it for different reasons. However you look at it you cannot agree that this is the "free market" at work, because corporations and the state are preventing entry to the market. My favorite chapters deal with architecture, farming/food, and religion (despite major differences). He writes in a winsome, appealing fashion that enables almost anyone to enjoy and breeze through the book.
The draw back of the book is that it could probably be cut in half. The stories of the various crunchy cons start off interesting, but become repetitious. You get the point of each chapter about halfway through the pages and much of the supporting material is not necessary. In fact, you can read his "10 Points" and then read the opening and close of each chapter to get a good flavor for what "crunchy conservativism" is. More than buying the book I hope that many buy into the ideas of this book and begin to implement some of the practical things found herein, because it would make our local communities a more valuable and sustainable places.
Reflects my values.......2007-05-25
Rod Dreher has the exact same values as I do. I have the exact same feelings as he does, both because I am socially conservative like he is, and because I care about the environment and everybody's health like he does. Although I am a socially conservative Christian, I care about the environment, and until recently, I wondered if I was the only socially conservative Christian who cares about the environment and living a simple lifestyle (apart from the Old Order Mennonites and the Amish). No, I am not an Old Order Mennonite or an Amish! I am very pleased to have discovered that there are other socially conservative people (besides myself, or the Old Order Mennonites or the Amish) who care more about the environment and everybody's health than about big business, materialism, etc.!!!
At last!.......2007-03-05
As a Roman Catholic Republican, I was glad to vote GOP but wondered how I could combine my religious and political sensibilities. Rod has helped show me the way with Crunchy Cons. Since I love to cook, the parts on food were especially helpful and interesting for me.
The only two parts of the book I didn't really respond to were Rod's critiques of Catholicism (incidentially he has since left the Church and joined the Orthodox religion) and suburban life. Not that I can't stand some critiques of my religion but I thought that some of Rod's were a little much.
Missing the point.......2007-01-27
From the reviews posted here it looks like Dreher certainly and unnecessarily left himself open to easy criticism. Urban folks criticize him for urging a return to the rural, rural folks accuse him of being a rich urban yuppie, poor people criticize him for demanding people purchase expensive goods, rich people criticize him for demanding we give up material goods and live in poverty. It seems like everyone has missed the point which is that Dreher is looking to emphasize family and community and is in favor of the values that strengthen these things. Family and community used to be the soul of what we call conservativism, but it has been taken over by those forces that isolate families and destroy communities: sprawl, mass-consumerism, materialism, mass-media. The community can be urban--Drehar lived in Brooklyn and has repeatedly praised the neighborhoods there--or rural. It can even be suburban, if suburbia regains its support for small, independent, capitalism epitomized by the small business owner, and gives up the mass market, big box store, sprawling, consumerism. Corporation worshippers need to realize that big business can destroy communities, unrestrained free-marketers need to realize that the family is harmed by the values of materialism it fosters, and anti-government Republicans need to realize the the environment is worthy of protection for a good life. These are the true points of Drehar's thesis and they are not as easy to refute as his critics make out.
Connecting.......2007-01-04
Crunchy Cons is an excellent book that does not "start a movement" as some have said. Instead, it brings back an old one. I take the phrase "gun-loving organic gardeners" from the onerous and far too long subtitle. Before pesticides and gun control laws, ALL gardeners were organic gardeners, and most of them had guns. Let's bring back Teddy Roosevelt Conservatism. The man who started the National Park System, was an avid hunter, and broke up the trusts should be the mascot of the Grassroots, new-oldfangled, conservatives. Modern politicians, Republican and Democrat alike, can learn from him. Everyone, and I mean everyone, can also learn from his successor, President Taft, who, when someone threw a cabbage at him during a political rally, said "It seems one of my opponents has lost his head." We need to take a breath of fresh air (but not Air America) and take this country back from the Party of Lust and the Party of Greed
Author's Note: If Taft and Roosevelt had not split up the Republican vote and given Woodrow Wilson the presidency, Either one of them would have gotten into WW1 sooner, thus actually trying to quell the bloodshed on the Somme and at Verdun. If I recall correctly, there were more than one million casualties for each battle. If you can't contemplate that, just think of the whole St. Paul/Minneapolis region, including the suburbs and Western Wisconsin, was suddenly swallowed up by a giant crack in the ground. That is what 2 million casualties looks like.(Added 2-15-07)
Book Description
The Simplest Path, Step One: Free Your Mind delineates, in one slim volume, a complete system for achieving personal spiritual awakening, along with a straightforward, no-nonsense plan individuals and groups so enlightened can follow to awaken Humanity en masse and positively transform the world. This book contains keys to awakening. Awakening from our personal dream shatters the solid "box" of limitation memes have built around our lives, and frees us to fluidly craft our personalities, environments, relationships, careers, etc. as an artist paints a landscape or a sculptor teases form from formless clay. All of us awakening together from the shared dream of the planet will mark the birth of our species out of our current global nightmare of decline into a limitless future literally beyond our present ability to imagine, even in our "wildest dreams," indeed.
Customer Reviews:
Way Beyond "Socrates Revisited".......2007-08-22
After reading the commentary attached to the one star rating given by the young man from Texas, I feel compelled to step forward in defense of this very fine book. With only one exception, every point made in that negative review is simply wrong. Just not factually correct. The reviewer identifies himself as a young man (... "to my young mind"), and since all of his other Amazon reviews are of TV episodes on DVD, video games and rock music CDs I take him at his word. Well, I am an "old man," closing in on my sixty-third birthday, and I came to Mr. Casspriano's book after six decades of life experience, the last three of those decades a zealous practitioner of Zen Buddhism. I say this not to "brag," but simply to qualify myself as a reviewer before beginning.
I'll start where the one star reviewer closed his argument, with his statement that the simplest path reduces to two Socratic concepts: "Admit that you don't know anything" and "know yourself."
The first part is nominally true (the exception). Like Zen Buddhism, a central tenet of the simplest path is working to release the false notion we all hold that we know ourselves, other people, the world around us. But identifying and releasing our attachments to our illusions is a life's work, not some brash "I don't know nothin'!" as the young Texan seems to imply. Under normal circumstances, we go about our daily lives with no idea we are deluded about anything, as Maya (the illusion of the phenomenal world around and even inside us) is so convincing that most of us never even think to question its validity. Casspriano did not invent the notion of human beings being trapped in illusion, as this truth was known to the timeless authors of the Hindu Vedas and is central to all schools of Buddhism (not just Zen). But his scientific/spiritual exploration of the mechanism by which Maya ensnares our minds and can, with effort, be overcome is among the best "plain English" explanations of this process I have read. There is no "inscrutable mystery" in the simplest path (a criticism that has been accurately leveled toward Zen Buddhism, as a lot of Eastern thought truly does come off as "inscrutable" when translated into English and/or the metaphors of Western culture). Casspriano lays out in no-nonsense American English exactly what our brains are doing when they create the illusion we mistake for reality, then shows the reader in the same clear terms how to train his or her brain to break free of illusion and taste reality as-it-is. In just 216 pages, that is no mean feat. After thirty years of Zen practice and numerous kensho experiences (of varying depths and intensities), I can say from personal experience that Casspriano is correct. Enlightenment comes as the fruit of a long, incremental process of retraining the mind to touch reality in a new way, and the process described in the simplest path is the same as that followed in Zen practice, especially Rienzi Zen koan study (I'll have more to say about this in a later paragraph). Casspriano's approach and language is very different from traditional Zen (more "scientific," and no sitting meditation is required), which I think would appeal to Americans and other Westerners seeking to experience "awakening" without necessarily committing themselves to a religion like Buddhism, but the internal mental/spiritual process and final destination are the same.
"Know yourself," on the other hand, is not in this book at all, at least not in the way the young reviewer, or Socrates for that matter, uses the phrase. As in Buddhism, Casspriano takes pains to demonstrate that "self" is as much of an illusion as our misapprehension of the phenomenal world, and is a byproduct of exactly the same mind process that creates outer Maya. A core teaching of Buddhism is that our "self," our personality/ego, is nothing more than an aggregation of outside influences that cluster together in our minds like shiny stones gathered into a pile, and which we mistake not only for something "real," but tragically, for our essential selves. Yet this "pile" has nothing really to do with who we are at all. Buddhism teaches "no-self." Belief in the illusion of a unique and independent "self" is our greatest obstacle to enlightenment. Wasting time and energy getting to "know yourself" in the Western sense is foreign to Eastern thought. Casspriano again does a great job of translating the Buddhist concept of "no-self" into Western scientific/spiritual terminology. He shows the process by which our ego/personality aggregate "piles up," as well as how to take the pile down, stone by stone. Enlightenment is what the pile was covering up, and so it naturally appears as soon as the pile is removed - but oh how we cling to our personal pile of stones! "Self" is what we must trade for enlightenment, what must be surrendered, and Casspriano returns to this truth many times in the simplest path. My point is that the one star reviewer's reduction of the simplest path to "know yourself" has no basis at all in the actual book.
As to the book being "gimmicky": Yes, the words "The Simplest Path" recur frequently throughout the book, but not in reference to the book itself (at least that's not how I took it), but rather to the system of understanding the mind and working toward "awakening" Casspriano is describing - and it is a complete system that deserves to be considered as a whole, on its own. At times the repetition does have a feel of "branding" in the commercial sense, so I understand where the reviewer may have taken his impression. But the simplest path, while resonant with Zen Buddhism (and apparently, according to Casspriano, with the Toltec philosophy espoused by Carlos Castaneda, of which I have no personal knowledge, so I'll have to take the author's word for that) is far enough different that it needs its own "name" to set it apart from other schools of similar but not identical thought. The reviewer's criticism is like saying that every use of the term "Zen" in a book called "Zen Buddhism" should be taken as a reference to the book, and not to the larger practice of Zen Buddhism as a spiritual discipline that the book is describing. Casspriano's point in repeatedly linking The Simplest Path, Zen Buddhism and Toltec Shamanism throughout the book, at least as I understood it, is to highlight these three spiritual practices as related reliable paths through a dark forest of illusion, a forest in which many apparent (and more popular) paths, including most (all?) religious beliefs, actively vie to mislead travelers toward deeper ensnarement in the dream, rather than leading them toward "awakening."
I want to say a word about koan study in Rienzi Zen and how it relates to the simplest path. Koans are those quirky Zen sayings and stories like "what is the sound of one hand clapping?" or "what was your original face before you (or your parents) were born?" that have no rational answer, and which Zen students turn and turn in their minds like the tumblers of a combination lock until their imprisoned psyches "explode" in a "super-rational" experience of reality beyond the illusion ("irrational" would be the wrong term, as that implies "nonsense"). That "super-rational" vision of reality is called "kensho." I have experienced it myself, more than once in my lifetime. I have come to think of Casspriano's "Key Questions" in the second half of the simplest path, especially the later seven of the ten, as "cultural koans" designed to trigger "collective kensho" for the whole human race at once. Like "what is the sound of one hand clapping?", unflinching consideration of the value of human life, of how our beliefs about the future shape the present, of the true origin and destiny of life on Earth, etc., especially as seen through the lens of Casspriano's "Key Question Technique," reveals that none of these questions have rational answers, yet all require our active and immediate response. Successful resolution of these larger riddles that impact everyone will require us all to eventually "explode" into reality, together, in a "super-rational" way. We'll have to break through the illusion and wake up together, as one (which has been the goal of Mahayana Buddhism, of which Zen is a sect, since around 200 BCE). That is the "Planetary Awakening" addressed in this book, and I believe Casspriano's "Key Questions" are a concrete step in that direction. I'm glad I spent my fifteen dollars.
This is my "old man" take on the simplest path, having encountered it after 30 years of Zen Buddhist practice (I'm not veering off my chosen path here, just bowing respectfully in passing toward Casspriano's). From a Buddhist perspective, the simplest path is true Dharma, though I do not get the impression from reading his book that Vincent Casspriano is himself a Buddhist or a follower of any religion. That to my mind makes his book all the more interesting.
True, but gimmicky.......2007-08-09
Casspriano's book is scientifically and philosophically sound as best as my young mind can tell, but I don't recommend this book. Its scattered with numerous pages of advertising about how his "program" works and how it compares to other religions and spiritual movements. Why must this author physically write out "The Simplest Path" in reference to his book every other page, and talk about his second volume? Perhaps because he's not out for pure truth, but for our money.
All this book comes down to after you strip away the nonsense is two things. First, admit that you don't truly know anything. Second, know yourself. Do those two things (they essentially both mean to question EVERYTHING), and you'll have Casspriano's "Planetary Awakening," with 15 bucks still in your pocket. And you'll be following the fundamental truths already said by Socrates.. so do yourself a favor and pick up Plato's "Apology" and read up on the Socratic dialogue on how to live a good life. And don't stop there, because you can't be sure he's right.
And I have 10 bucks that says these other couple of reviews were written by the book publisher. In any case, ignore the hype.
A Unique and Inspiring Wake-up Call.......2007-05-15
This is one of the most clear-headed books I've read in years on the subject of real, nitty gritty, get your hands dirty spiritual development (as opposed to the fru fru New Age variety). So much of what passes for "spirituality" in our time amounts to some author, celebrity, priest, philosopher or self-appointed guru telling us what to "believe," sight unseen, if we want to reach heaven, attain enlightenment, achieve "ascension," etc. Casspriano takes an at times startling opposite approach. For Casspriano, such unquestioned/unquestionable beliefs are not only NOT the path to spiritual awakening, they represent the chief obstacle blocking our realization of higher consciousness. And it's not just religious beliefs ("faith") he's talking about, but all our beliefs about reality, especially those that enclose our thinking in "boxes" that limit our freedom to find solutions to real-world threats like Peak Oil, overpopulation, Global Warming, etc. Though much of the book focuses on individual enlightenment, for Casspriano, these larger planetary issues are "spiritual," as well. Whether the issue is our personal inability to find happiness or Humanity's collective rush toward physical extinction, the cause is the same - our wrong-headed beliefs about what's real. The solution is the same, as well - continuous, deep questioning. Using Richard Dawkins' concept of "memes" as a central metaphor, Casspriano first breaks down the basic process of belief, showing the mechanism in our brains by which beliefs misdirect and control our psyches, then he walks the reader through an exploration of a series of ten "anti-meme questions" aimed at breaking down the walls of our mental "boxes" and setting our minds free. With each question, he supplies an exercise designed to allow the reader to attain a personal taste of reality "beyond the box," especially as flavored by that chapter's "Key Question." For the most part, this formula works very well (with a few rare moments of over-exuberance on the author's part, as already described in other reviews, though as a card carrying vegan environmentalist, I can't say I particularly minded), delivering a cumulative series of death-blows to some of the most basic "pillars" of our present human consensus reality. Beyond the walls those pillars supported lies real reality, where we are all interconnected and interdependent, and, in Casspriano's view, mutually destined for greatness, if we can just wake up and grab the reins of our runaway culture in time. This is not a book for spiritual "feel gooders" seeking soft assurances that they're perfect just they way they are and everything's going to be all right, no matter what. This is a wake up call, a tool kit and a concrete action plan for becoming individually enlightened and collectively saving the world, all rolled up into one. That, I think, is a cause well-worthy of exuberance.
Challenge Consensus Reality!.......2007-05-10
This is a thoughtful book that addresses how we may go about developing a process to question our everyday consensus reality. I suppose if I have learned anything in 49 years of life, it is that all personal and social problems stem from our fundamental views on the nature of reality itself. Vincent Casspriano uses the concept of a "meme" as a fundamental unit of ideas, assumptions, etc. that often block our understanding of reality itself. One such meme, for example, may be that we have to "fight for our freedom" or the world's a "fearful" place and hence, we have to be ready to kill to protect ourselves. I suppose you could also use the word "paradigm" here as well, but the essential point of this book is that we "unconsciously" function in our life with many limited points of view that block our ability to solve problems on both a personal and a social basis.
While Vince Casspriano is to be congradulated for producing a book that presents both a methodology and a motivation for personal transformation, there are a few pitfalls here that the potential reader should be aware of before tackling this material. The author has some rather strong views on fossil fuel consumption, meet consumption, and the role of humans in the cycle of procreation. While I generally agree with his analysis on fossil fuel consumtion and meat consumption (as I have viewed large tracks of deforrested grazing land in developing countries), these viewpoints can distract the reader from the essential point here which is to rigourously question consensus reality. Since I am single, and have no motivation to have children, I definitely disagree with his views on the necessity of human procreation on this planet, but here again, it is important to extract the essential meaning rather than get caught in the specific political/social debates that these issues may spawn.
If you are serious about personal transformation with the potential for changing our global consciousness, than this book can be an invaluable tool. I do agree with the Author that a world population of "high functioning" people can resolve every planetary problem we face today. As we systematically question our consensus reality, we will see our problems in new ways, and with this new perspective, problems can often be quickly resolved or transcended.
A Simple Cure For What's "Eating Us".......2006-11-13
I considered titling this review, "Stop Whining, Wake Up and Get Busy Saving the World," but decided "Eating Us" would be more attention-grabbing - which matters because I believe Vincent Casspriano, Jr.'s "The Simplest Path, Step One: FREE YOUR MIND" is an important book, and I want to do whatever I can to draw your attention to it. Pick the title you like best. Both very fittingly describe what you will find within the pages of this remarkable new release from New Paradigm Press.
I have selected three short quotations to explore in this review that I think best summarize Casspriano's overall message:
From Chapter One, "The Boxes We Dream In":
"Right now, this very moment, you are asleep... Even if you are reading these words in broad daylight - sitting at your desk or beside the kitchen table, your feet firmly planted on the floor, eyes open, senses alert, feeling the weight of this book in your hands as sounds of life rise and fall rhythmically around you - you are deeply asleep, and dreaming furiously"
Now, the idea that Humans are sleeping, and must therefore "awaken," is by no means unique to Casspriano's "Simplest Path" spiritual system, being the root observation underlying pretty much all Eastern religion, and a lot of Western Occultism and New Age metaphysics, as well. In fairness, Casspriano makes no claim to this as an original insight, openly supporting his assessment of the human predicament with quotations taken from Animism, Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism and Islam. He then flows seamlessly into a list of complementary illustrations from the secular realms of Quantum Physics, brain/consciousness research, and most to-the-point, the study of memes and memetics, ala Evolutionary Biologist and world's best-known cheerleader for scientific atheism, Richard Dawkins.
If you've never heard of memes or memetics, a quick Google of those terms will reveal hundreds of serious, information-rich websites devoted to this now thirty-year old science. In a nutshell, a "meme" is a sort of contagious thought-form that spreads between people by way of imitation. Obvious memes in our environment include advertising jingles, fads and fashions, etc. Casspriano somewhat radically extends the concept to include just about everything that makes up the contents of our individual brains and shared human culture. While he resists redefining the word "meme" wholesale, he decidedly expands its definition to make memes and "memeplexes" (what you get when a number of memes band together into an organic, relational unit, like a religion or cultural or political movement) the basic, fundamental building blocks of everything we habitually label "real..."
And then he demonstrates, in at times excruciating detail, the complete emptiness of the "apparent-reality" that is a byproduct of memetic activity in our brains. What we call "real" is not real at all. It's an illusion spun up by our memes. And our memes are not original to us. They are "viral invaders" assailing our minds from without. Worse - and, while even this thought is not wholly unique to Casspriano, he certainly gives it his own very effective spin - memes are by no means mere passive beliefs or simple "harmless ideas." They are, Casspriano believes, actively predatory psychic parasites whose survival depends on our buying into the illusions they create in our minds. Think of illusion (Samsara, Maya, etc.) as a web we're caught in. Memes are the spider. We are the fly. Gotcha.
One thing I like very much about Casspriano's book is that he never asks us to take anything on faith, least of all this rather ugly depiction of the human psychic/spiritual condition. He not only challenges readers to test his hypothesis firsthand in order to experience what is real and true for ourselves, he spends a large chunk of the book outlining specific exercises anyone can do to escape memetic interference and personally experience reality as-it-is. The exercises in Part II of the book are powerful medicine... But this is a digression, so let me return to the point.
Memes are the spider, and we are the fly. A better metaphor might be that memes are the farmer, and we are the cow. Domesticated and docile, we allow memes to milk us daily, to extract from our minds the potent human psychic energy which, if reclaimed by us and put to proper human use, would quickly and positively transform our lives and our world. This transformation is awakening, ascension, enlightenment, metanoia, the Buddha-like change of consciousness most religions and spiritual systems on Earth hint at, but few ever actually deliver to followers. In this analysis, Casspriano's "Simplest Path" is very much in line with Gurdjieff's "Fourth Way," Carlos Castaneda's Toltec sorcery, and a few other well known spiritual practices inhabiting a somewhat darker, though perhaps more realistic corner of the New Age. But unlike most of those other systems, Casspriano's prescription for escaping illusion and awakening to reality is remarkably, well... simple.
From Chapter Three, "Waking Up":
"The simple truth is that we are sleeping because we lack sufficient energy to wake up."
And later in the same chapter:
"The real work that brings about awakening, rather than merely granting the external appearance of "being spiritual," while actually embroiling us ever more deeply in the dream, is a rigorous, daily commitment to the identification and elimination of every self-serving belief from which our personal dream-lives are constructed."
For "belief" in the quotation above, read "meme/memeplex." Casspriano certainly does, treating the terms as largely interchangeable. In the end, this genuinely simple - at least in the sense of being uncomplicated and pragmatic - spiritual practice amounts to discovering reality as-it-actually-is less by searching for a glimpse beyond the illusion, than by systematically withdrawing our participation in, and identification with, the dream. When we disentangle our psyches from memetic illusion, only reality remains. We don't have to chase it; to a meme-free mind, reality just appears. This is "Satori" in Zen Buddhism. This is "stopping the world" in the Toltec sorcery of Castaneda and others. Casspriano's genius lies in his talent for exposing the core mechanism behind such complex and often inscrutable spiritual systems, and for putting into plain language clear instructions for unraveling the dream and achieving personal awakening. The virus-like process by which memes take over and control our human minds, as described by Casspriano is, to my mind, very complicated (but well worth struggling through). What is genuinely simple about "The Simplest Path," however, is Casspriano's prescription for breaking those bonds, once you've made the effort to understand how they are created and maintained. For Casspriano, remaining a victim of spiritual sleep and energetic exploitation by memes is a complex activity in which we unconsciously invest enormous amounts of psychic energy every day of our lives. Awakening is the product of a simple act of withdrawing that investment, which automatically re-energizes of our minds and lives. Or as Casspriano cleverly phrases it when closing Chapter Three, "Waking Up":
"Unweave the tapestry of the dream, and awakening happens."
Anyone can do this. Spiritual awakening, in Casspriano's view, may be hard work, but it is not complicated work. The path to enlightenment is really rather shockingly simple. Fall out of love with the dream. Reclaim your psychic energy. Wake up to reality.
The ten "Key Questions" Casspriano explores in the second section of the book are designed to put the theory laid out in Part I to practical and immediate use. Essentially, I think Casspriano sees these ten issues - why we treat enlightenment as an "airy-fairy" ideal instead of a measurable transformation of brain functioning, the excuses we make for avoiding personal responsibility and integrity along the lines of Castaneda's "impeccability," the fallacy of belief in a "separate self," etc. - as pillars of both our personal and collective human dreams. They are by no means an exhaustive listing of the memes twisting our minds. But they are primary keystones on which layers upon layers of the grand illusion are built. Topple these ten baseline pillars and the larger structure crumbles.
Casspriano explores some "Keys" more successfully than others. One downside to the book is that, especially in the "Keys," Casspriano's own memetic prejudices shine at times rather glaringly through, as when, in his discussion of the American "What Would Jesus Do?" religious fad, he characterizes the Evangelical Christian purveyors of WWJD as, "ultra-conservative, right wing ideologues." Even should the reader personally agree with such pronouncements, its hard to resist thinking, "Hey Vince! Your memes are showing!" But where he nails his point, Casspriano's prose can be downright inspiring, as with the "Key" cosmological study "Is Earth the Center of the Universe?," which explores the gap between what we know, scientifically, about the Universe and what our daily choices and behavior says we really believe, about the cosmos and about ourselves. His closing "Key" "Are We Alone?" so poetically frames the true stakes of our global human predicament - species survival VS extinction - that its hard to imagine anyone keeping their gaze glued squarely to their own self-involved navel in the wake of reading it. Of course we are not alone. There are six and a half billion of us on Planet Earth, and whether we awaken to what's best in us or follow our darkest drives over History's cliff into oblivion, we do so as one. One planet, one fate.
This notion of "oneness" and of a common, intertwined human spiritual and biological destiny is a core theme in The Simplest Path, Step One: FREE YOUR MIND that sets it apart from any spiritual book in recent memory. My final quotation from the book returns us to the opening lines of Chapter One, "The Boxes We Dream In":
"We are all aware of the challenges facing us as we enter together into the 21st Century:
· World oil supplies are running out.
· Global warming is transforming the Earth into a steamy greenhouse.
· Even as our technology connects the world, ideological extremism, terrorism and militarism divide us as never before.
· Headlines bombard us with news of war, famine, pestilence and death until we feel overwhelmed and unable to respond.
· Time is running out..."
Vincent Casspriano, Jr.'s "The Simplest Path to Personal and Planetary Transformation, Step One: FREE YOUR MIND" does not offer easy escape from these very pressing real-world human ills, but rather, a down to Earth, workable prescription for their cure. Yes, we must awaken as individuals, and, rest assured, "The Simplest Path" shows spiritual seekers exactly how to do that. But a prime message of "The Simplest Path" is that, for personal awakening to have meaning, it must occur within the context of a complete re-visioning of global culture, and a mass wrenching away of the wheel of History from the control of viral memes, that we might create a common cosmic human destiny worthy of our highest potential as a species.
Now that's a meme worth feeding.
Book Description
In recent years, scientists have begun to focus on the idea that healthy, functioning ecosystems provide essential services to human populations, ranging from water purification to food and medicine to climate regulation. Lacking a healthy environment, these services would have to be provided through mechanical means, at a tremendous economic and social cost.
Nature and the Marketplace examines the controversial proposition that markets should be designed to capture the value of those services. Written by an economist with a background in business, it evaluates the real prospects for various of nature's marketable services to "turn profits" at levels that exceed the profits expected from alternative, ecologically destructive, business activities. The author:
- describes the infrastructure that natural systems provide, how we depend on it, and how we are affecting it
- explains the market mechanism and how it can lead to more efficient resource use
- looks at key economic activities-such as ecotourism, bioprospecting, and carbon sequestration-where market forces can provide incentives for conservation
- examines policy options other than the market, such as pollution credits and mitigation banking
- considers the issue of sustainability and equity between generations
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Nature and the Marketplace presents an accessible introduction to the concept of ecosystem services and the economics of the environment. It offers a clear assessment of how market approaches can be used to protect the environment, and illustrates that with a number of cases in which the value of ecosystems has actually been captured by markets.
The book offers a straightforward business economic analysis of conservation issues, eschewing romantic notions about ecosystem preservation in favor of real-world economic solutions. It will be an eye-opening work for professionals, students, and scholars in conservation biology, ecology, environmental economics, environmental policy, and related fields.
Customer Reviews:
trading pollution permits.......2006-06-28
Heal explains how one might put a value on an ecosystem, or parts thereof. It's a relatively recent approach that attempts to avoid a tragedy of the commons with respect to the environment, be it local or even global.
A very useful idea described is the trading of pollution permits. The latter are rights to pollute. The premise is that instead of a government trying to mandate a minimum pollution level, it lets a free market determine this, by giving monetary value to permits. So that a company has incentive to develop or use innovative ways to minimise its pollution. Hence being able to sell any net gains to others. This also avoids the government trying to set a value on a permit.
The book suggests that carbon permits might be crucial in battling global warming.
Book Description
The book aims at disclosing a fascinating connection between optimal stopping problems in probability and free-boundary problems in analysis using minimal tools and focusing on key examples.
The general theory of optimal stopping is exposed at the level of basic principles in both discrete and continuous time covering martingale and Markovian methods. Methods of solution explained range from classic ones (such as change of time, change of space, change of measure) to more recent ones (such as local time-space calculus and nonlinear integral equations).
A detailed chapter on stochastic processes is included making the material more accessible to a wider cross-disciplinary audience. The book may be viewed as an ideal compendium for an interested reader who wishes to master stochastic calculus via fundamental examples.
Areas of application where examples are worked out in full detail include financial mathematics, financial engineering, mathematical statistics, and stochastic analysis.
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Max Weber and the Problems of Value-Free Social Science: A Critical Examination of the Werturteilsstreit
Jay A. Ciaffa
Manufacturer: Bucknell University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
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Value-Free Science?: Purity and Power in Modern Knowledge
Robert Proctor
Manufacturer: Harvard University Press
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ASIN: 067493170X |
Book Description
Why have scientists shied away from politics, or defended their work as value free? How has the ideal of neutrality come to dominate the world of science? These are some of the central questions that Robert Proctor addresses in his study of the politics of modern science.
Value-Free Science? emphasizes the importance of understanding the political origins and impact of scientific ideas. Proctor lucidly demonstrates how value-neutrality is a reaction to larger political developments, including the use of science by government and industry, the specialization of professional disciplines, and the efforts to stifle intellectual freedoms or to politicize the world of the academy.
The first part of the book traces the origins of value-neutrality prior to the eighteenth century. Plato and Aristotle saw contemplative thought as superior to practical action, and this separation of theory and practice is still invoked today in defense of "neutral science." In the seventeenth century the Baconian search for useful knowledge allowed a new and closer tie between theory and practice, but it also isolated moral knowledge from natural philosophy. Another version of neutrality was introduced by the mechanical conception of the universe, in which the idea of a benevolent, human-centered cosmos was replaced with a "devalorized" view of nature.
The central part of the book explores the exclusion of politics and morals with the emergence of the social sciences. Proctor highlights the case of Germany, where the ideal of value-neutrality was first articulated in modern form by social scientists seeking to attack or defend Marxism, feminism, and other social movements. He traces the rise and fall of positivist ethical and economic theory, showing that arguments for value-free science often mask concrete political maneuvers. Finally, he reviews critiques of science that have been voiced in recent debates over critical issues in agricultural science, military research, health and medicine, and biological determinism.
This provocative book will interest anyone seeking ways to reconcile the ideals of scientific freedom and social responsibility.
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Free Boundary Problems: Theory and Applications (International Series of Numerical Mathematics)
Pierluigi Ed. Colli
Manufacturer: Springer-Verlag
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
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Differential Equations
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ASIN: 3764321938 |
Book Description
Many phenomena of interest for applications are represented by differential equations which are defined in a domain whose boundary is a priori unknown, and is accordingly named a "free boundary". A further quantitative condition is then provided in order to exclude indeterminacy. Free boundary problems thus encompass a broad spectrum which is represented in this state-of-the-art volume by a variety of contributions of researchers in mathematics and applied fields like physics, biology and material sciences. Special emphasis has been reserved for mathematical modelling and for the formulation of new problems.
Book Description
In this tightly researched and incendiary book, "communications rottweiler" Sharon Beder exposes how our community values have been sacrificed by economic and political power brokers--today’s free market missionaries--on the altar of free market economics. Beder shows how throughout the twentieth century business associations and coalitions coordinated mass propaganda campaigns that combined public relations techniques developed in twentieth century America with revitalized free market ideology originating in eighteenth century Europe.
The aim was to persuade people that it was in their interests to eschew their own power as workers and citizens, and forego their democratic power to restrain and regulate business activity. These campaigns were augmented during the 1970s and â€~80s by the more sophisticated efforts of corporate funded think tanks to promote free enterprise and business-friendly policies.
Today’s free market missionaries seek to change individual and institutional values using bolder strategies such as the expansion of share ownership and the manipulation of wider public concerns. In the end the outcome is the same, the triumph of business values over community values and the manipulation of democracy. This book is an intellectual call-to-arms and the choice is clear: fight back or be converted to the ideology of the corporate free market missionaries.
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Free and Moving Boundary Problems (Oxford Science Publications)
John Crank
Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
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ASIN: 0198533705 |
Book Description
Free and moving boundary problems occur in such varied subjects as hydrology, heat flow, metallurgy, molecular diffusion, flame propagation, steel and glass production, and oil drilling and mathematical finance. This book presents a comprehensive account of the mathematical formulation of such problems and many new methods of solution. Computer methods, which allow multi-dimensional, multi-phase practical problems to be solved, are discussed. This book was written because of the upsurge of interest and research in this field. It bridges the gap between the various interested parties (including mathematicians, numerical and financial analysts, hydrologists, mechanical and chemical engineers, soil scientists, molecular biologists, physicists, metallurgists, and material scientists). The examples given are drawn from a variety of these fields. "... a broad but detailed account on mathematical and numerical methods for free and moving boundary problems that will be accessible to researchers both in the applied sciences and in applied mathematics.", C M Elliot, SIAM, Dec. 1988
Customer Reviews:
a classic book.......2000-10-04
Crank's book on free and moving boundary problems is a classic one. The ideas and methodology presented in this book are lasting and instructive.
Book Description
The slogan "Marxism is dead" was proclaimed almost immediately after the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991. Very soon after, a strange ideological inversion occurred. In place of the "inevitable victory of the proletariat" espoused by Marx, there was the "inevitable process of globalization," a line now adopted by corporations, politicians and the media the world over. John McMurtry unravels the moral contradictions inherent in this "new world order," and argues that it cannot succeed because it is based on essentially inhuman values. Connecting across a broad spectrum of issues including the Iraq and Balkan wars, the Asian and Russian meltdowns, ecological collapse, the privatization and deregulation of public institutions, and the principles of technology, neoclassical and Marxian economics, McMurtry's compelling study lays bare the battle lines of an emerging global ethical war.
Tracking social uprisings across continents from the rural landless and women's movements of the South to the workers, students and civil alliances marching in the North, the author's original "life-ground ethics" explains the unseen bonds uniting people across cultural and class divisions. Defining the clear choices available to us, and taking apart the official line of "no alternative," John McMurtry offers a devastating philosophical critique of the global market paradigm and a pathbreaking manifesto for global economic reform.
Customer Reviews:
The inherent immorality of capitalism.......2004-06-30
"Value Wars" by John McMurtry offers what may be one of the most effective and scathing critiques of capitalism written in recent memory. Mr. McMurtry penetrates the palliatives offered up by corporate propagandists to expose the wanton greed of the privileged class and the inherent immorality of capitalism. Importantly, the author also offers a thoughtful and compelling package of socio-economic reforms that, if implemented, might well help secure a measure of real social, economic and environmental justice.
Mr. McMurtry is a Professor of Philosophy at the University of Guelph in Ontario, Canada. His works have been published in over 150 journals and books, including the classic "The Cancer Stage of Capitalism" (1999). The author is recognized as a leader in the anti-globalization and peace movements. His prior life experiences as a football player, journalist and world traveler combine to create probably one of the most original, humane and articulate voices in North America today.
The Preface to "Value Wars" compares the fanaticism of the 9/11 hijackers with the corporate value-set. The author contends that the close ties among the business community, the U.S. government and many of the terrorists exemplifies the moral crisis. That the incident has provided a pretext for the U.S. to systematically repress its citizens who are opposed to globalization and to actively colonize strategic nations such as Afghanistan and Iraq merely compounds the situation.
"Value Wars" is divided into three sections, as follows:
Part I describes "The New World Order" of global capitalism. Mr. McMurtry deconstructs the "inversions of meaning" used by the powerful to gain popular acquiesence for the neoliberal agenda. Corporate control of government and the mass media has resulted in a loss of meaningful dialogue and debate; instead, the fanatical pursuit of private wealth accumulation is proclaimed to be the only viable "choice" for society. But even as social and environmental costs escalate as a consequence of the neoliberal agenda, the state increasingly collaborates with capital in a deliberate manner by negotiating and enforcing pro-corporate trade deals, social program cuts, the sale of state assets, and the application of police and military force.
Part II is entitled "Unlocking the Invisible Prison". Mr. McMurtry's writing is in top form as he explores the methods by which the finance capital system colonizes the minds and bodies of its subjects. Advertising induces consumption through garish "repetitions of mind-shackling misrepresentations" while the media projects false "images of dream-like omnipotence" of the materialist lifestyle. When the social sciences fail to manipulate and condition citizens to behave in the properly prescribed manner, the prison is used to enforce subservience; meanwhile, the author contends that the "real capital criminals" are rewarded with success in the corporate sector.
Part III is "The Paradigm Turn: The Life Economy Principles from Where We Stand". Mr. McMurtry devotes 100 pages to a detailed discussion of a "Life Economy Manifesto" that could help restore equity and sanity to the world. Throughout the discussion, the author's knowledge of history, economics and philosophy helps him build a very credible case for reform. Mr. McMurtry is particularly effective when he shows how really existing capitalism has strayed from its professed principles; the author highlights the contradictions of neoliberal dogma and argues that his proposals offer a better way to achieve peace and prosperity for all. While many of Mr. McMurtry's ideas have been stated elsewhere -- for example, the author advocates taxes on speculative investments, greater public accountability of corporations and the media, reductions in military spending, and so on -- his ability to effectively compare and contrast the corporate "death" economy with his "life" economy alternative frames the discussion in an interesting and uniquely compelling manner.
I strongly recommend this powerful and visionary book to everyone.
Books:
- Earthquake in the Early Morning (Magic Tree House #24) (A Stepping Stone Book(TM))
- Elements of Chemical Reaction Engineering (4th Edition) (Prentice Hall International Series in the Physical and Chemical Engineering Sciences)
- Encyclopedia of Computers and Computer History
- Environmental Microbiology
- Feedback Control of Dynamic Systems (5th Edition)
- Field and Wave Electromagnetics (2nd Edition)
- Finite Mathematics for Business, Economics, Life Sciences and Social Sciences (11th Edition)
- Fountain Pens : United States of America and United Kingdom
- From Erdös to Kiev: Problems of Olympiad Caliber (Dolciani Mathematical Expositions)
- Fundamentals of Differential Equations, Sixth Edition
Books Index
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