The 1936 novel "The General" is a parable about the dangers of patriotism not supported by critical thinking.

Maybe more should read it...

http://www.businessinsider.com/the-g...n-kelly-2017-8


The Wall Street Journal reported Friday that Kelly picked up C.S. Forester's 1936 novel "The General" after accepting the role of chief of staff, just as he did after accepting the role of DHS chief six months prior — and just as he did every time he was promoted during and after his military career, since he was 25 (he is now 67).
It's essentially a parable about the dangers of patriotism and duty unaccompanied by critical thinking. Kelly went through it again to remind himself "of what to avoid as a leader," the Journal reported.
"The General" tells the fictional story of General Sir Herbert Curzon, a leader in the British Army during World War I. Curzon is an unremarkable man who attained his position of power largely through luck and the failings of the superiors who preceded him. He is eventually put in charge of 100,000 men during WWI, where he leads many of them to their death and loses his leg in the process. Despite his failings as a leader, he is lauded in his retirement as a military hero.

Maybe more should read it...

http://www.businessinsider.com/the-g...n-kelly-2017-8


The Wall Street Journal reported Friday that Kelly picked up C.S. Forester's 1936 novel "The General" after accepting the role of chief of staff, just as he did after accepting the role of DHS chief six months prior — and just as he did every time he was promoted during and after his military career, since he was 25 (he is now 67).
It's essentially a parable about the dangers of patriotism and duty unaccompanied by critical thinking. Kelly went through it again to remind himself "of what to avoid as a leader," the Journal reported.
"The General" tells the fictional story of General Sir Herbert Curzon, a leader in the British Army during World War I. Curzon is an unremarkable man who attained his position of power largely through luck and the failings of the superiors who preceded him. He is eventually put in charge of 100,000 men during WWI, where he leads many of them to their death and loses his leg in the process. Despite his failings as a leader, he is lauded in his retirement as a military hero. Originally Posted by WTF

What is it about this book you find so much value that more should read it?


Jim

What is it about this book you find so much value that more should read it?


Jim Originally Posted by Mr MojoRisin

If you are not to keen on critical thinking and questioning the status quo...

...then it might not be the book for some. (Not you personally)

There are many stuck in a time warp in this forum....this book is really for them but they will never get it.

I'm gonna read it.

This is the book folks should be reading. It was published in 1974, and man was the author ever prescient: The Forever War, by author Joe Haldeman.



The main character, William Mandella, is a man who is conscripted to serve in an interstellar war. These "elite recruits have IQs of 150 and above, are highly educated, healthy, and fit. Training is gruelling – first on Earth, in Missouri, and later on a planet called "Charon" beyond Pluto (written before the discovery of the actual planetoid). Several of the recruits are killed during training, due to the extreme environments and the use of live weapons" (Wiki).

The main character survives combat, but because of space travel, he ages slower than those he left behind on earth and societal norms mutate much as they are for us today.

Homosexuality is embraced by earth's government because it serves as a means of population control, and Mandella, as a white, English-speaking male, is viewed as a pariah because he is heterosexual.

Mandella's mother is denied health care not because there isn't a means to treat her, but rather because the "bean counters" in the government managed health care system have determined she is not worth the investment.

Mandella eventually "assumes the post of commanding officer of a 'strike force', commanding soldiers who speak a language largely unrecognizable to him, whose ethnicity is now nearly uniform ('vaguely Polynesian' [due to government genetic programs which control human breeding by artificial insemination] in appearance) and who are exclusively homosexual. He is disliked by his soldiers because they have to learn 21st century English to communicate with him and other senior staff, and because he is heterosexual" (Wiki).

Even though this book was published in 1974, I knew nothing about it until 2002 when I saw younger soldiers reading it while I was serving in Afghanistan.

Except for the aspects of the book recounting an interstellar war with aliens and associated space travel, Haldeman was a prophet foretelling the story of this dystopian world we live in today.

Homosexuality is embraced by earth because it serves as a means of population control, and Mandella as a white English speaking male is viewed as a pariah because he is heterosexual.





Haldeman was a prophet fore-telling the story of this dystopian world we live in.
Originally Posted by I B Hankering

He must be way ahead of his time!

I didn't know homosexuality was ever embraced and damn sure hadn't heard about it being a form of population control!

I mean those fuckers are using surrogates to have kids.


That is hardly population control....

He must be way ahead of his time!

I didn't know homosexuality was ever embraced and damn sure hadn't heard about it being a form of population control!

I mean those fuckers are using surrogates to have kids.


That is hardly population control.... Originally Posted by WTF

You weren't listening when Odumbo revealed the radical-left's master plan to make it so.

You weren't listening when Odumbo revealed the radical-left's master plan to make it so. Originally Posted by I B Hankering

Evidently I did not have a tinfoil hat on that day!

Embracing equality is not the same as embracing heterosexual or homosexuality

Evidently I did not have a tinfoil hat on that day!

Embracing equality is not the same as embracing heterosexual or homosexuality Originally Posted by WTF

Forcing the vast majority of the population to kowtow to the demands of a deviant minority is not "equality": it's tyranny.

Fuck you Corpy.

Kowtowing to a hateful mob is lunacy.

Why is it necessary to be AGAINST people? Why should be it OK to discriminate against others in a free society? What you advocate is not freedom.

Fuck you, you name-calling, white supremacist, homophobic shitheel.

Fuck you Corpy.

Kowtowing to a hateful mob is lunacy.

Why is it necessary to be AGAINST people? Why should be it OK to discriminate against others in a free society? What you advocate is not freedom.

Fuck you, you name-calling, white supremacist, homophobic shitheel. Originally Posted by Yssup Rider

No one would expect you not to defend kowtowing, you Mussulman-luvin, Hitler worshipping, lying, hypocritical, racist, cum-gobbling golem fucktard, HDDB, DEM.

Kowtowing is what puts you eye-to-'eye' with the dicks you suck at your Glory Hole, you Mussulman-luvin, Hitler worshipping, lying, hypocritical, racist, cum-gobbling golem fucktard, HDDB, DEM.

This is the book folks should be reading. It was published in 1974, and man was the author ever prescient: The Forever War, by author Joe Haldeman.


Originally Posted by I B Hankering

read that book. it also appeared as a graphic novel.

I've forgotten the details about it.

that guy really lived in a very awkward time for him culturally.

Critical thinking and SnitchFuck are mutually exclusive items.

Yep. Down goes Frazier. Down goes Frazier.

If anything i feel we are closer to orwells 1984..

No shit!

You read a book, jerkall?


Let me guess ... vacation book club!

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAA!!!