LiterarySummary

BooksAndArticles

Cultivating an intellectual life is a necessity of the soul.
And even those serving life sentences in the United States have realized this.

A writer and professor decided to teach History of Thought to prisoners serving life sentences in a US prison.

She started with the Enlightenment, going through Francis Bacon, Kant, Rousseau, Voltaire...

And perhaps you're wondering:
"Why would individuals who are going to die in prison be interested in studying philosophy? Or literature?"

The answer is simple: they understood that our soul needs to learn.

Roger was imprisoned at 18 and is serving a 60-year sentence.

Now, at almost 50 years old, he said:
"For better or for worse, I am a civilly dead man."

But that doesn't mean he's intellectually dead.

Roger is addicted to Foucault and Kafka.

According to Roger, those sentenced to life imprisonment are influential in prison.

Today, 1 in 7 prisoners in the US are serving life sentences.
They create the "prison code," which the prisoners follow and become a beacon of light for the men around them.
Not surprisingly, between 2015 and 2024, the Great Meadow prison in New York State attended philosophy and literature classes with punctuality and attention: the life-sentence prisoners attended the classes and got high marks on the tests.

One of the favorite courses among the prisoners was "The Atlantic World," where Professor David Bond taught about slavery and the trafficking of Africans.

One member of the group started the program as a white supremacist but changed his mind after participating in David's classroom discussions.

The students were captivated by the Iliad and the Odyssey, stories written almost 1000 years before Christ.

They identified with the wars and human emotions of the time.

One of them, who in a past life was a bricklayer, said: "If I had known these stories before, my life would certainly have taken a different turn."

Literature and philosophy change lives.

Those who read have access to deep human emotions and never feel alone.

Because no matter how you are feeling now;
surely a Russian who lived 200 years ago felt the same things as you.

![](https://m.stacker.news/119239)

Intellect: the freedom that no one can confiscate.

How the Great Rewiring of Childhood Is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness
by Jonathan Haidt


Haidt is a professor of psychology at New York University and the author of several books.

In this work, he elaborates on how our generation of children, adolescents, and young adults has become so anxious and depressed.

Haidt believes the process began in 1980 with the arrival of computers and video games in homes, but worsened significantly from 2010 onwards with access to smartphones.

What I liked most: The author provides a lot of data and research sources, along with possible solutions that we can apply to our lives.

![](https://m.stacker.news/117912)

The Anxious Generation

This book was published in 2015 and the story takes place in 2022.
In France, a Muslim president is elected with the support of the left, who voted for him because the other option was far-right.
Upon coming to power, the president decrees measures typical of a country living under an Islamic regime, and the population needs to adapt.

The book is told in the first person and narrated by a 44-year-old university professor who has a Jewish girlfriend in her 20s.

○ The protagonist, this professor, has never been involved in politics and hasn't worried about elections. For this reason, he narrates all the social changes with a certain detachment.

I found this book very interesting because it deals with a reality that is increasingly close to home: the Islamic population is the fastest growing in the world.

![](https://m.stacker.news/117637)

Submission: A Novel by Michel Houellebecq

Between 404 and 323 BC, there lived in Greece a man named Diogenes, who became known as "Diogenes the Cynic" and "Diogenes the Dog."
He was a philosopher from the city of Sinope, who was exiled to Athens. He was a beggar who took a vow of poverty.
It is said that he walked the streets of Athens carrying a lamp, looking for an honest man.
Years later, Diogenes moved to the city of Corinth, where he sought to live life according to the Cynic ideal.
Cynic?
○ Cynicism was a philosophical current whose purpose was to live in virtue, according to nature, rejecting the conventional desires for wealth, power, and fame.

This current preached that it was indeed possible to lead a simple life, free from the need for possessions. ○ The first philosopher of this current was Antisthenes, a former student of Socrates. Antisthenes taught cynicism to Diogenes in Athens.

For followers of this school of thought, happiness is self-control. The opposite of self-control is the pursuit of lust, as this prevents us from achieving self-sufficiency.

And why do they call him a dog?

Because he believed that human beings lived artificially, hypocritically, and that they could benefit from studying dogs, as they are animals capable of performing their natural bodily functions in public without embarrassment, will eat anything, and will not make a fuss about where to sleep.

Dogs, like any animal, live in the present without anxiety and do not possess the pretensions of abstract philosophy. :)

Many stories are told about Diogenes, some of them quite folkloric. But, without a doubt, this philosopher who lived more than 2000 years ago teaches us a lesson that is more than necessary for our times:

Virtue is not a theory, it is daily practice; - It's possible to live a simple life; we don't need many material possessions to live - less than we think!

- Live life as if nobody is watching. Because nobody cares that much about what you're doing. Just keep doing what you want, without hurting others or yourself.

![](https://m.stacker.news/117086)

Diogenes the Cynic and Diogenes the Dog.

A classic of French literature!

Anatole France (1844-1924) was a Nobel laureate in literature, and in this fiction told in the third person, he recounts the story of Evariste Gamelin.

Gamelin was a Jacobin painter who maintained enormous enthusiasm for the French Revolution (1789), even five years later, when many French people were disappointed with the end of the monarchy.

The painter obtained a position as a judge in the Revolutionary Tribunal, where he judged those who went to the guillotine:

traitors to the movement; people who shouted "Long live the King"; former aristocrats (bankers, owners of many properties, large landowners...).

However, anyone who disagreed with the Revolution became an enemy of France and was condemned to the guillotine.

Evariste, well-intentioned, transforms throughout the book into someone capable of condemning even his own family simply for disagreeing with him.

"Give a man power and you will see who he really is." (Machiavelli)

![](https://m.stacker.news/116904)

The Gods Are Athirst by Anatole France

My first review: The Tartar Steppe by Dino Buzzati

That’s great to know! Don’t worry, more stories are coming soon 😄

That's right! Buzzati is very interesting; he has stories full of mystery and reflection.

The Tartar Steppe

This book is an Italian classic, and for good reason.
It's a story about how we live waiting for something incredible to happen one day in our lives, without doing anything to make it happen. Without the scenario of our reality changing.

Confused? Let me explain better.

Published in 1940, this book tells the story of Giovanni Drogo, a 21-year-old sergeant sent to serve at Fort Bastiano, which is far from the city.

Initially, Giovanni doesn't want to stay there, but ends up agreeing to stay for 4 months, which extends into many years of his life.

Giovanni meets several men who live in the fort, without family, without friends other than the other soldiers, and always waiting for some war to happen.

All the men in that fort yearn for a war, as this would justify the time they "lost" in that fort for so many years.

Does the war happen, after all? Does the glorious moment arrive? Was it worth waiting so many years? Every human being lives in a fort Bastiani, a place of comfort where we wait for a revolution that will justify our futile efforts.

![](https://m.stacker.news/116750)

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