"Intelligence is born out of the willingness to question what we are told - whatever it may be! Each chapter in this book asks us to do just that - question accepted ideas and popular opinions - and through questioning them, develop the ability to overcome the prejudices that stand between us and greater intelligence."
This book contains challenging ideas to stimulate and exercise the mind.
Please read these sample chapters, so you can decide for yourself if this is the sort of book you would enjoy reading:
Here is Wosdom
Warning: Many people find this book deeply offensive!
Political-Correctness
There is a continuing campaign, backed by many influential people, to encourage, pressure and perhaps even compel us all to abide by a variety of politically-correct views.
Don't be racist! Don't be sexist! Homosexuality is perfectly normal! Don't offend people! Don't hurt people's feelings! Don't criticise Islam! Be sensitive to people's feelings, however illogical, irrational and unreasonable they might be and pander to them, being careful never to say anything they are likely to disagree with and never, never to say anything that might suggest they are wrong about anything at all!
There are some people who still believe the drive for political-correctness is a good thing - but let's at least consider that perhaps it isn't.
A lot of "politically-correct" ideas are good ideas - not being racist or sexist for example. However they are not good ideas because they are politically-correct. They are good ideas anyway - it just so happens that they are also politically-correct in our society at this point in history. However, in other times and places, neither idea would have been politically-correct. Even in some societies today - for example, in some Islamic communities - the very idea of giving women equal rights to men might be considered to be not just politically-incorrect, but possibly even offensive.
Political-correctness essentially means to be in concert with the socially-accepted "correct" view. In pre-war and wartime Germany this would have meant hating Jews and believing they should be exterminated from the face of German society - the "politically-correct" view at the time.
The important question we need to ask ourselves is not whether we can oppose racism when this is the politically-correct thing to do, but whether we could stand up against racism when it isn't so popular to do so or when doing so might put our own well-being at risk.
The drive to be politically-correct just for the sake of it is a curse on our society. What our society really needs are people who will think for themselves and stand up for their principles, regardless of whether they happen to be popular at the time. Just as we accept that many popular views that were politically-correct in the past are now considered to be totally wrong or even reprehensible, we need to have the humility to accept that many views that are currently politically-correct might quite rightly be regarded as wrong or even reprehensible in the future.
For example, it is politically-correct in the education world to reject firm discipline in schools - yet perhaps future generations will be appalled by how we allowed several generations to be denied a good education because we refused to insist upon decent standards of behaviour in our classrooms, preferring to spout airy-fairy, 1960s-inspired hippy claptrap instead.
And it has also become politically-correct to support the idea that we should suppress freedom of speech and put people in continual fear of the consequences of saying something that might offend someone. Much of the population has become programmed to slavishly follow an unimaginative, colourless, hypocritical BBC middle-line of inane, sickeningly inoffensive and timid opinion that completely fails to address with any gusto the key political, economic and social issues of our day.
This is the sort of claptrap that continually stuffs propaganda about recycling down our throats, but dares not breathe a word in favour of windfarms for fear of upsetting a bunch of hysterical old women worried about the mythical effect on their TV reception. It is the shameful self-righteousness that bangs on about equality for women and opposes discrimination against homosexuals, yet is too fearful to tolerate the slightest criticism of any Muslims who believe that women should not be allowed to show their faces in public and that homosexuals should be stoned to death.
Unfortunately, many politically-correct views are largely nonsense, some of them are immoral, and the effects they have are often extremely damaging to our fundamental freedoms and the future of our society.
If we cast aside the misguided notion that the drive to be politically-correct for the sake of it is a worthy pursuit, then we can learn to distinguish between those politically-correct ideas that have merit and those that are little more than the propaganda of special-interest groups and an insult to our intelligence.
Popularity
Many people crave popularity. Perhaps more pertinently, they are scared stiff of the possibility of being unpopular - it is a constant fear and preoccupation hanging over their lives like the sword of Damocles (You know - that bloke with the sword dangling over his head!).
When a schoolchild is killed or dies in some appalling accident, the news cameras are quickly sent round to the school and numerous people queue up to say how popular the girl or boy who died was - not that they were kind or intelligent or thoughtful or even academically gifted, but POPULAR!
When did you ever hear of a schoolchild killed in a terrible tragedy who was very principled and stood up for what they believed in despite this making them incredibly unpopular?
It is a well-known fact that only popular people die in tragic accidents and murders. Unpopular people are immune to such occurrences. They have a sort of forcefield around them so strong that if a drunk driver drove a juggernaut into them, the vehicle would merely bounce off the forcefield, causing it to career into the nearest popular person and splatter them all over the road!
And have you noticed that there is often something terribly wrong with and sinister about popular people? People need to be reminded (more often than they are) that Hitler was popular. Some people may wish to pretend to themselves that Hitler was sustained in office merely by the brutality of the SS and the Gestapo, forcing people to obey his orders, but that would be nonsense. When he took Germany out of its economic depression and avenged their humiliation in World War I by defeating France and marching his troops up the Champs Elysees, he was wildly popular and millions of Germans thought it was wonderful that he had made Germany a great power again. None of this popularity, however, stopped him from being an evil mass-murderer.
Conversely, many great people who have brilliant ideas or stand up for worthy principles are often wildly unpopular. Look at Socrates – condemned to death! Look at Jesus – he only said it would be a good idea if people started being kind to each other and stopped being selfish money-grabbing bastards (though not in those words) – and what thanks did he get? They killed him for it.
This is not to say that is it impossible for a good man to be popular, but there does seem to be a distinct correlation between being principled and being unpopular.
This makes sense – after all, if you want to be popular, you often have to sacrifice principles whenever they do not coincide with the popular mood.
If your principles happen to coincide with popular opinion at a particular point in time, then woop-de-do-da for you, as you may experience a brief period of popularity, but since popular opinion is fickle, and your principles, if they are to count as principles, cannot change so easily, you are unlikely to remain popular for long.
If you are a good, principled person, then the popularity of your opinions will make no difference to what your opinions are. It is not something to be proud of if your values and principles are popular, since their popularity is in no way a reliable indication that they are right.
Fortunately, these days, in civilised societies, unpopularity doesn't usually carry a death sentence.
So hurray for all the deeply unpopular principled people - living into old age and completely failing to get mowed down by drunk drivers or killed by violent gangs of criminals!
- - - End of Sample - - -
Other chapters include: Intelligence - Freedom of Speech - Homosexuality - Racism - Lapdancing - Big Brother - Multiculturalism - and many more!
