Book review

Here's some books I've read. I'll try to keep it short:

Andrew Sullivan is a blogger that I read pretty frequently. I like him because he's smart, pragmatic and independent. He has some fixed political views, but never follows a party line and is really open to new information. In this book he talks about how we've lost sight of what conservatism really means. He argues that to be conservative means to recognize that in order for the US to be in such a good position, we've obviously done a lot of things right, and so change shouldn't be an end but a carefully used means. Being conservative does not mean believing that we know everything, but that the United States has thrived by calling in the free people of the world, and working hard and together to find the best solutions to the problems we face, basing our decisions on all the past decisions that the United States have made. This is opposed to being Liberal, which means coming into a situation with fixed ideas, a fixed end and pushing hard to move towards that end. Being a constitionalist or a theocrat is just as liberal as being a green party activist or anarchist. It really struck a chord with me, that even as I've drifted away from the Republican party, I've remained very conservative (or maybe there's some reverse causality there). I'm very satisfied with where my life is right now, so obviously I've made some good choices. But I also refuse to admit that I've got everything figured out, so I'm still trying to make changes while still holding to the things that got me here. Anyways, a good book.

Here's a prime example and another book I really liked. Sigmund Freud came into his practice with some fixed ideas about how the world worked, some really good ideas. But he also thought he was a lot better than everyone else, and that came through in this book, even though the author tried to be unbiased. He refused to question or doubt his ideas after he reached adulthood, and even though he doggedly pursued those ideas, he died a very unhappy man. C.S. Lewis started out with the same ideas, that God didn't exist, that we were all just slaves to our psyche, but through honest inquisition and a lack of an absolute belief that he knew everything, he found happiness, even in the face of trials and a tough life. That's how I want to be. Another worth reading.

Currently reading: 1776, David McCullough because I'm in DC and this is supposed to be a good DC book and Clive Cussler's Flood Tide, because some people have told me the Dirk Pitt books are worth reading, so I picked one up.