The best introduction to the games people play and a way to understand
them. A classic, not to miss.
Buss, David M., The Evolution of Desire, 1994, BasicBooks ISBN
0-465-07750-1
A report on studies of how we choose and lose our mates. The studies
looked
at the mating behavior of humans in 37 cultures from around the world,
and involved more than 10,000 people! The results: a shocking
similarity
of behaviors that we would like to blame on capitalism, male
oppression,
etc. in every culture. This is some of that truth which will help to
make
you free.
Gleick, James, Chaos: The Making a New Science, 1987, Viking
Penguin ISBN 0-670-81178-5
The story of how scientists came to understand that choatic processes
can
be comprehended, if not precisely pinned down. If you think about it,
you
can characterize items in the world as structured, unstructured, or
somewhere
in between. A completely structured thing is very boring; it just begs
to be broken. If you continue the breaking process down to the smallest
bits and leave everything totally unstructured, then the stuff will be
in equilibrium: if there is more than one kind of stuff or more than
one
state of stuff, then the processes making and breaking the various
types
will be in such a balance that the proportions don't change. This is
boring,
too.
But between structure and nonstructure there is a sort of
partly-structured
disorder. This is chaos. It is interesting.
Did you ever wonder why no one can accurately predict the weather? Did
you ever wonder why faucets don't drip at an absolutely steady rate?
Ever
wonder why animal populations and stock markets have "cycles" of boom
and
bust? Get your answers here, folks. Between quantum mechanics at the
smallest
scale, and cosmology at the largest scale, our universe, is dominated
by
chaotic processes. Since we live in that middle scale, Chaos is
about how our world works.
Harragan, Betty Lehan, Games Mother Never Taught You, 1977
Warner
Books ISBN 0-446-34400-1
This book tells you how to cope with the male-derived culture of
American
business. Written for women ("Corporate Gamesmanship for Women", the
cover
says), it is indispensible for all. In its umpteenth printing.
Milgram Stanley, Obedience to Authority,
1974, Harper & Row
A chilling empirical study. This is the one
where they actually persuaded ordinary citizens to deliver what they
thought
were high voltage electrical shocks to "subjects", just because
someone
told them to.
Shapiro Joan, M.D., Men --- A Translation for
Women,
1992, Avon (paperback) ISBN 0-380-72004-3
She has us men totally nailed. Extremely valuable in the therapy of
both
men and women, for therapists, clients and patients.
Waldrop, M. Mitchell, Complexity: The Emerging Science at the Edge
of Order and Chaos, 1992, Simon & Schuster ISBN 0-617-76789-5
In Chaos we learned about how the dynamics of
partly-structured
disorder rule the universe at our scale of being. Complexity is
all about how interrelated entities interact to form complex systems.
In
ecology and economics (the same subject --- the only difference is the
medium of exchange) there is an evolution toward more complex systems.
More complex systems appear more robust in response to challenges, and
they are more efficient. Here at last is the reason that capitalism
beat
communism! (Waldrop doesn't say this, but the inference is
inescapable.)
Another consequence: life is probably inevitable where it is possible.
Again: this is how the world works.
Heinlein, Robert, Citizen of the
Galaxy, originally published 1957, Del Rey re-issue 1987 ISBN:
0345342445. The single best treatise on the interrelation of freedom
and responsibility. And, as a treat, the single best capsule summary of
a book is on the cover. It is both misleading and completely true (you
must read this excellent book to see why). The summary:
SLAVE: Brought to Sargon
in chains as a child -- unwanted by all save a
one-legged beggar -- Thorby learned well the wiles of the street people
and the mysterious ways of his crippled master . . .
OUTLAW:
Hunted by the police for some unknown treasonous acts committed by his
beloved owner, Thorby risked his life to deliver a dead man's message
and found himself both guest and prisoner aboard an alien spaceship . .
.
CITIZEN: Unaware of his role in an ongoing intrigue, Thorby became
one of the freest of the free in the entire galaxy as the adopted son
of a noble space captain . . . until he became a captive in an
interstellar prison that offered everything but the hope of escape!