generated by ai

overview

braindumping tldr's from random books and random scribbles from my notebooks.

why empires fall

• Ambitious clans (families or groups) in a small region seizing opportunities from the empire to expedite economic growth
• successful empires must be unified under common legal financial and cultural constructs
• After wwii new orgs like nato was created to unite the world with common western values
• Rome slowly crippled bc it operated outside its formal borders and imported more than it exported
• As it grew it was harder to control. Increased cultural heterogeneity in surrounding regions

anti-education, nietzsche

• critiques on education
• 2 opposing forces exist:
• expansion and dissemination of education
• narrowing and weakening (elitism, state-run schools)
• context similar to modern america: state-run schools supporting elite education of pure technical caliber, ignoring the humanities
• greatest human folly: attempted imitation of geniuses but lack of willpower to do hard work. leads to mindless system following (ex: exams)
• "aucourrant" in french means treating education as a currency -- a raw utility function rather than meaningful human amelioration
• proposed solutions
• cultivate good teachers: must have "noble enthusiasm" and "pious awe" for the subject and teach students to deconstruct text to its bone
• embed the text into the students' hearts over fact-regurgitation (journalism)
• ex: "german essays" are a farce of individualization. represents the false youth perception of themselves as "finished" prematurely
• contemporary teachers chosen to match inferior students -> endless cycle of low quality
• return to the classical model of education
• promote intense study of linguistics: first principles understanding of antiquity masters

"only one natural starting point exists: artistically serious training of use of the mother tongue"

• critique on prussian law which expands schools to "keep up with times" → reduce learning as a source of honor → ultimately, to recognize the state as the highest goal (ex: highest position was a governor to serve the state)
• sarcasm on pseudo-culture

"universal development of personality within fixed, shared, rational, common human principles is disguised as german culture"

"this cultures wants to bring leaders down to its "compulsatory servitude -- or kill them entirely"