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The Political Optimist
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Book Synopsis The Political Optimist by : Keith Kelsch
Download or read book The Political Optimist written by Keith Kelsch and published by Lulu.com. This book was released on 2016-02-13 with total page 268 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A political optimist imposes confidence from an elitist distance. They are outside consultants telling you have to handle an inside crisis. They look and sound close, but in truth, their heart is far from you. They speak of their capital success without any attempt to understand your concerned mind. Written for those who struggle with political people, you will love The Political Optimist. It promotes the safeguards of "being real" as a counter measure to "being political." It teaches how to stand to be corrected while still questioning authority. If you want to know the difference between political people and genuine optimists, this book with help. It teaches that the genuine optimist desires common consent while the political optimist wants central control. Because we use majority rule, political personalities easily destroy individual liberty and the voice of dissent. If you are stuck in a political situation at work or if you are struggling with political people, this book is a must read.
Book Synopsis The Political Optimist by : Keith Kelsch
Download or read book The Political Optimist written by Keith Kelsch and published by . This book was released on 2015-05-30 with total page 260 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A political optimist imposes confidence from an elitist distance. They are outside consultants telling you how to handle an inside crisis. They look and sound close, but in truth, their heart is far from you. They charge the air with their capital success without any attempt to understand your concerned mind. In a way, greater success separates the political person from the responsibility of genuine optimism.Today we use the distance of success to magically detach us from the burdens and disagreements others carry. This is opposite the genuine leader who carries those burdens and openly stands to be questioned. At every turn, political optimists produce top-down, centrally controlled organizations with no access to rise against their authority. This model places leadership at a greater distance from a genuine democracy of dissent.If you want to understand the political nature of false optimism that creates division and separation in your institutions, and if you want to get practical solutions for removing politics from your organization, your family, and even your government, then read The Political Optimists. If there is one thing this book will do, it will ignite a long overdue discussion about democracy and its tendency to spawn more centralized control and more idolatry for authority. The solution to a political world is nothing new but something lost. The political Optimist highlights our lost humanity for optimism and calls for a return to the sanity of common consent.
Book Synopsis Pessimism of the Intellect, Optimism of the Will by : Kai Nielsen
Download or read book Pessimism of the Intellect, Optimism of the Will written by Kai Nielsen and published by . This book was released on 2012 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Kai Nielsen is one of Canada's most distinguished political philosophers. In a career spanning over 40 years, he has published more than 400 papers in political philosophy, ethics, meta-philosophy, and philosophy of religion. Pessimism of the Intellect presents a thoughtful collection of Nielsen's essays complemented by an extended reflective interview with Nielsen. This collection allows the reader to grasp the systematic scope of his thought and methodology.
Book Synopsis Optimism in Politics by : Walter Laqueur
Download or read book Optimism in Politics written by Walter Laqueur and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2017-11-15 with total page 272 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This new collection by Walter Laqueur, one of the most distinguished historians and political commentators of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, vividly brings to life his perspective on fifty years of political life. The essays in this volume deal with events ranging from more than seventy years ago to some that have not yet happened, but may in years to come. Laqueur divides his writings into five main areas: optimism in politics, the topic that unites this volume; Europe; the Arab Spring; Israel and Jewish affairs; and recollections of the past. This volume addresses an increasingly important question: How much optimism do we need in politics? Some neuroscientists believe that many of our assessments rest on an excess of optimism amounting to a dangerous bias. Another school of cognitive scientists sees the main danger in being influenced too much by negative conclusions. Although these competing perspectives have been only rarely investigated, Laqueur argues that such psychological factors play a decisive role in the assessment of political trends, and they should. Laqueur also reminds readers that there is a connection between writing history and commenting on current affairs, but it is not remotely as close and simple as often thought. The idea that the historian is somehow better qualified than others to interpret the present, let alone predict the future, is certainly not borne out by the evidence. Some great historians have been good and reliable political commentators, others have been miserable failures. Laqueur definitely falls in the former camp, as these reflections attest.
Book Synopsis Incorrigible Optimist by : Gareth Evans
Download or read book Incorrigible Optimist written by Gareth Evans and published by Melbourne Univ. Publishing. This book was released on 2017-10-02 with total page 386 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A colourful and central figure in Australian politics for two decades—described by Bob Hawke as having ‘the most acute mind’ of any of his ministers—Gareth Evans has also been applauded worldwide for his contributions, both as Foreign Minister and in later international roles, to conflict resolution, genocide prevention and curbing weapons of mass destruction. In this sometimes moving, often entertaining, and always lucid memoir Evans looks back over the highs and lows of his public life as a student activist, civil libertarian, law reformer, industry minister, international policymaker, educator and politician. He explains why it is that, despite multiple disappointments, he continues to believe that a safer, saner and more decent world is achievable, and why, for all its frustrations, politics remains an indispensable profession not only for megalomaniacs but idealists.
Download or read book Worldchanging written by Alex Steffen and published by ABRAMS. This book was released on 2008-03 with total page 604 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Building a better future locally and globally is the topic of this user's guide written by a diverse collaborative of innovators. "Worldchanging" demonstrates that the means for making a difference lie all around.
Book Synopsis The Optimist's Telescope by : Bina Venkataraman
Download or read book The Optimist's Telescope written by Bina Venkataraman and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2020-08-25 with total page 338 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Named a Best Book of 2019 by NPR “How might we mitigate losses caused by shortsightedness? Bina Venkataraman, a former climate adviser to the Obama administration, brings a storyteller’s eye to this question. . . . She is also deeply informed about the relevant science.” —The New York Times Book Review A trailblazing exploration of how we can plan better for the future: our own, our families’, and our society’s. Instant gratification is the norm today—in our lives, our culture, our economy, and our politics. Many of us have forgotten (if we ever learned) how to make smart decisions for the long run. Whether it comes to our finances, our health, our communities, or our planet, it’s easy to avoid thinking ahead. The consequences of this immediacy are stark: Deadly outbreaks spread because leaders failed to act on early warning signs. Companies that fail to invest stagnate and fall behind. Hurricanes and wildfires turn deadly for communities that could have taken more precaution. Today more than ever, all of us need to know how we can make better long-term decisions in our lives, businesses, and society. Bina Venkataraman sees the way forward. A journalist and former adviser in the Obama White House, she helped communities and businesses prepare for climate change, and she learned firsthand why people don’t think ahead—and what can be done to change that. In The Optimist’s Telescope, she draws from stories she has reported around the world and new research in biology, psychology, and economics to explain how we can make decisions that benefit us over time. With examples from ancient Pompeii to modern-day Fukushima, she dispels the myth that human nature is impossibly reckless and highlights the surprising practices each of us can adopt in our own lives—and the ones we must fight for as a society. The result is a book brimming with the ideas and insights all of us need in order to forge a better future.
Download or read book Hope written by Simon Wortham and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2019-11-14 with total page 184 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A colourful map of the current conflict between pessimism and optimism in Western politics and theory, Hope attempts to reveal both the deep history and contemporary necessity of political hopefulness. Starting in the 17th century with Spinoza, Wortham tells the story of the various fallacies and insights of pessimism and optimism through the 18th century with the help of Kant and Voltaire through to the famously nihilistic writings of Nietzsche and the 20th century works of thinkers such as Benjamin, Arendt, Kristeva and Fanon (to name but a few). He explores the contemporary significance of ideas such as affirmation, sovereignty, violence, therapy, existentialism and, of course, the oft maligned notion of 'hopefulness' to create a politics of optimism which avoids the pitfalls of uncritical acceptance of the status quo or the newest political idea. Short chapters written in an engaging narrative manner enable the reader to follow the story of political optimism over the last 4 centuries inspiring a new way of thinking about the transformative uses of hopefulness.
Book Synopsis The Optimistic Leftist by : Ruy Teixeira
Download or read book The Optimistic Leftist written by Ruy Teixeira and published by St. Martin's Press. This book was released on 2017-03-07 with total page 273 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Teixeira examines "the structural and economic shifts remaking advanced societies and [believes] that the left is in a far better position to advance its agenda than the right. Eventually, [he says], the right will be forced to play on the left's terms to be competitive. This is because only the left has growing, not declining, coalitional strength and only the left is willing to confront and solve capitalism's 'Piketty problem' (a vicious cycle of rising inequality, stagnating living standards, and slowing economic growth) by building a new equitable-growth 'opportunity state'"--
Download or read book Cruel Optimism written by Lauren Berlant and published by Duke University Press Books. This book was released on 2011-10-27 with total page 352 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A relation of cruel optimism exists when something you desire is actually an obstacle to your flourishing. Offering bold new ways of conceiving the present, Lauren Berlant describes the cruel optimism that has prevailed since the 1980s, as the social-democratic promise of the postwar period in the United States and Europe has retracted. People have remained attached to unachievable fantasies of the good life—with its promises of upward mobility, job security, political and social equality, and durable intimacy—despite evidence that liberal-capitalist societies can no longer be counted on to provide opportunities for individuals to make their lives “add up to something.” Arguing that the historical present is perceived affectively before it is understood in any other way, Berlant traces affective and aesthetic responses to the dramas of adjustment that unfold amid talk of precarity, contingency, and crisis. She suggests that our stretched-out present is characterized by new modes of temporality, and she explains why trauma theory—with its focus on reactions to the exceptional event that shatters the ordinary—is not useful for understanding the ways that people adjust over time, once crisis itself has become ordinary. Cruel Optimism is a remarkable affective history of the present.
Book Synopsis Hope without Optimism by : Terry Eagleton
Download or read book Hope without Optimism written by Terry Eagleton and published by University of Virginia Press. This book was released on 2015-09-09 with total page 176 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In his latest book, Terry Eagleton, one of the most celebrated intellects of our time, considers the least regarded of the virtues. His compelling meditation on hope begins with a firm rejection of the role of optimism in life’s course. Like its close relative, pessimism, it is more a system of rationalization than a reliable lens on reality, reflecting the cast of one’s temperament in place of true discernment. Eagleton turns then to hope, probing the meaning of this familiar but elusive word: Is it an emotion? How does it differ from desire? Does it fetishize the future? Finally, Eagleton broaches a new concept of tragic hope, in which this old virtue represents a strength that remains even after devastating loss has been confronted. In a wide-ranging discussion that encompasses Shakespeare’s Lear, Kierkegaard on despair, Aquinas, Wittgenstein, St. Augustine, Kant, Walter Benjamin’s theory of history, and a long consideration of the prominent philosopher of hope, Ernst Bloch, Eagleton displays his masterful and highly creative fluency in literature, philosophy, theology, and political theory. Hope without Optimism is full of the customary wit and lucidity of this writer whose reputation rests not only on his pathbreaking ideas but on his ability to engage the reader in the urgent issues of life. Page-Barbour Lectures
Book Synopsis Compromise in an Age of Party Polarization by : Jennifer Wolak
Download or read book Compromise in an Age of Party Polarization written by Jennifer Wolak and published by Oxford University Press, USA. This book was released on 2020 with total page 233 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Congressional debates are increasingly defined by gridlock and stalemate, with partisan showdowns that lead to government shutdowns. Compromise in Congress seems hard to reach. But do politicians deserve all the blame? Legislators who resist concessions and stand firm to their convictions might be doing just what voters want them to do. If this is true, however, then citizens must shoulder some of the responsibility for gridlock in Congress. This book challenges this wisdom and argues that Americans value compromise as a way to resolve differences in times of partisan division. Using evidence from a variety of surveys and innovative experiments, the book demonstrates that citizens want more from politics than just ideological representation - they also care about the processes by which disagreements are settled. Americans believe that compromise is a virtuous way to resolve political disputes. Because people's desire for compromise is deeply rooted in socialized support for democratic values, principled beliefs about compromise can serve as a check on partisan thinking. Across a range of settings, people's support for compromise persists even when it comes at the cost of partisan goals and policy objectives. People give warmer evaluations to members of Congress who are willing to compromise, and view compromise legislation as more legitimate. People care about not just outcomes, but also the way decisions are reached. Winning isn't everything in politics. People also value the democratic principle of compromise."--
Book Synopsis The Idea of Decline in Western History by : Arthur Herman
Download or read book The Idea of Decline in Western History written by Arthur Herman and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 1997 with total page 538 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Enth.: "Historical and Cultural Pessimism. Jacob Burckhardt and Friedrich Nietzsche" (S. 76-108).
Book Synopsis Optimism in Politics by : Walter Laqueur
Download or read book Optimism in Politics written by Walter Laqueur and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2017-12-02 with total page 272 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "This new collection by Walter Laqueur, one of the most distinguished historians and political commentators of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, vividly brings to life his perspective on fifty years of political life. The essays in this volume deal with events ranging from more than seventy years ago to some that have not yet happened, but may in years to come. Laqueur divides his writings into five main areas: optimism in politics, the topic that unites this volume; Europe; the Arab Spring; Israel and Jewish affairs; and recollections of the past.This volume addresses an increasingly important question: How much optimism do we need in politics? Some neuroscientists believe that many of our assessments rest on an excess of optimism amounting to a dangerous bias. Another school of cognitive scientists sees the main danger in being influenced too much by negative conclusions. Although these competing perspectives have been only rarely investigated, Laqueur argues that such psychological factors play a decisive role in the assessment of political trends, and they should.Laqueur also reminds readers that there is a connection between writing history and commenting on current affairs, but it is not remotely as close and simple as often thought. The idea that the historian is somehow better qualified than others to interpret the present, let alone predict the future, is certainly not borne out by the evidence. Some great historians have been good and reliable political commentators, others have been miserable failures. Laqueur definitely falls in the former camp, as these reflections attest."
Download or read book The Optimist written by Tamir Sorek and published by Stanford University Press. This book was released on 2020-07-14 with total page 314 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Tawfiq Zayyad (1929–94) was a renowned Palestinian poet and a committed communist activist. For four decades, he was a dominant figure in political life in Israel, as a local council member, mayor of Nazareth, and member of the Israeli parliament. Zayyad personified the collective struggle of the Palestinian citizens of Israel, challenging the military government following the creation of the state of Israel, leading the 1976 nationwide strike against land confiscation, and tirelessly protesting Israeli military occupation after 1967. With this book, Tamir Sorek offers the first biography of this charismatic figure. Zayyad's life was one of balance and contradiction—between his revolutionary writings as Palestinian patriotic poet and his pragmatic political work in the Israeli public sphere. He was uncompromising in his protest of injustices against the Palestinian people, but always committed to a universalist vision of Arab-Jewish brotherhood. It was this combination of traits that made Zayyad an exceptional leader—and makes his biography larger than the man himself to offer a compelling story about Palestinians and the state of Israel.
Book Synopsis Inventing Futurism by : Christine Poggi
Download or read book Inventing Futurism written by Christine Poggi and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2009 with total page 418 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 1909 the poet Filippo Tommaso Marinetti published the founding manifesto of Italian Futurism, an inflammatory celebration of "the love of danger" and "the beauty of speed" that provoked readers to take aggressive action and "glorify war--the world's only hygiene." Marinetti's words unleashed an influential artistic and political movement that has since been neglected owing to its exaltation of violence and nationalism, its overt manipulation of mass media channels, and its associations with Fascism. Inventing Futurism is a major reassessment of Futurism that reintegrates it into the history of twentieth-century avant-garde artistic movements. Countering the standard view of Futurism as naïvely bellicose, Christine Poggi argues that Futurist artists and writers were far more ambivalent in their responses to the shocks of industrial modernity than Marinetti's incendiary pronouncements would suggest. She closely examines Futurist literature, art, and politics within the broader context of Italian social history, revealing a surprisingly powerful undercurrent of anxiety among the Futurists--toward the accelerated rhythms of urban life, the rising influence of the masses, changing gender roles, and the destructiveness of war. Poggi traces the movement from its explosive beginnings through its transformations under Fascism to offer completely new insights into familiar Futurist themes, such as the thrill and trauma of velocity, the psychology of urban crowds, and the fantasy of flesh fused with metal, among others. Lavishly illustrated and unparalleled in scope, Inventing Futurism demonstrates that beneath Futurism's belligerent avant-garde posturing lay complex and contradictory attitudes toward an always-deferred utopian future.
Book Synopsis Boundless Optimism by : Patricia E. Roy
Download or read book Boundless Optimism written by Patricia E. Roy and published by UBC Press. This book was released on 2012-11-01 with total page 429 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Patricia E. Roy is the winner of the 2013 Lifetime Achievement Award, Canadian Historical Association. The first decade and a half of the twentieth century was mostly a time of unprecedented prosperity and growth in British Columbia. Although its colonial history was still etched in the public psyche, BC was coming into its own as a province of Canada and starting to realize the untapped economic potential of its natural resources. Richard McBride served four terms as BC’s premier, from 1903 to 1915, building a reputation as a charismatic and optimistic leader whose vision of a modern, industrialized, and wealthy province helped shape BC’s institutions and its place in the British world. McBride stabilized the legislature by introducing party lines, promoted provincial causes in Ottawa, and above all encouraged new railways. His fight for “Better Terms” and his association with leading federal Conservatives made him a national figure, while his support of the Imperial navy and British investment brought him attention in London and a knighthood. Boundless Optimism chronicles the brilliant career of this often-overlooked leader and the province he helped create.
