Understanding Modern Civilization
"WhatifAlthist" | World History, Philosophy, Culture
The Complexity of Social Planning and Human Experience
This chapter investigates the unintended consequences of social planning, using examples like Brasilia and American suburbs. It highlights the ideological tensions and cultural clashes that arise from initiatives such as civil rights laws, while also exploring the influence of brain hemisphere differences on societal values.
Walking through French cities reveals a shocking architectural transformation—medieval centers abruptly give way to identical glass-and-steel modernist structures. This pattern repeats GLOBALLY from California to China. Archaeologists thousands of years from now would reasonably conclude a single empire conquered Earth after the World Wars, imposing its aesthetic everywhere simultaneously. This unacknowledged cultural revolution represents history's most profound civilizational shift that we're forbidden from questioning.
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Bibliography:
Tragedy and Hope by Carroll Quiggley
The Master and His Emissary by Ian McGhilChrist
Seeing Like a State by James C Scott
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Regime Change by Patrick Deneen
After Liberalism by Paul Gottfried
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Lost Connections by Johann Hari
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Evil by Baumeister
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Behave by Sapolsky
The Decline of the West by Oswald Spengler
Sex and Power in History by Amaury de Riencourt
The Eye of Shiva by Amaury de Riencourt
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Dominion by Tom Holland
Sapiens Yuval Noah Harari
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Atrocities by Matthew White
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The History of Manners by Norbert Elias
Ultrasociety by Peter Turchin
Millennium by Ian Mortimer
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The Pursuit of Power by William McNeill
The Knowledge Machine by Michael Strevens
Reason, Faith and the Struggle for the West by Sam Gregg
Maps of Meaning by Jordan Peterson
A Conflict of Visions by Thomas Sowell
Sexual Personae by Camille Paglia
Envy by Helmut Schoeck
Cynical Theories by James Lindsay
Intellectuals and Society by Thomas Sowell
Foragers, Farmers and Fossil Fuels by Ian Morris
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The Philosophy of History by Hegel
Stillness is the Key by Ryan Holliday
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A History of the Jews by Paul Johnson
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