Chris Steller suggests 1984 by George Orwell. I'd say Animal Farm, by the same author. It is faster to read, less intricate, and less explicitly horrifying (who can forget Room 101). But it demonstrates all the hypocrisy, rationalizations, cruelty, manipulative propaganda and unfairness of the authoritarian state, or farm. And its a starter on Russian/Soviet history in the 1910-1940 era.
My parents innoculated me against fascism by recommending "It Can't Happen Here" (by Sinclair Lewis!). I don't recall if they recommended Animal Farm or 1984, but maybe those were part of the school curriculum. Later I found on my own Darkness at Noon and the God That Failed. Back then clear thinking was encouraged--we even read in high school Language in Thought and Action by S I Hayakawa, who years later became a US Senator for California. Like Orwell's essay Politics and the English Language, Hayakawa criticized propaganda and its various tools for hiding meaning. Do we innoculate our kids against group think and sloppy think anymore? Can you really question conventional wisdom without consequences. I suppose then you had to be careful about saying anything nice about communism or socialism, but here in Minneapolis have our own sacred cows now too. (deep environmentalism, anti-capitalism, moral equivalence of all cultures and religions (inc. Aztec?), anti-Republicanism). Re the last, I recall a James Ford Bell lecture last year at the U where the speaker, Thomas Cahill, ended his talk by saying the term "compassionate Republican" was an oxymoron. The crowd mostly applauded this prejudicial, intolerant and incorrect statement. But hey, that is group-think received conventional wisdom. Alan Shilepsky Downtown _______________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A Civil City Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Unsubscribe, Digest option, and more: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
