A Book about Books

By E.H. Bernstein

This book is volume II of a planned three volume book plus supplementary website, www.bookabout books.com, which will present some books and subjects not contained in the books. A Book about Books discusses what nonfiction books and subjects the author believes are important to know about. Volume I is available from the same booksellers as this volume. Volume III will take several years before it is available. E.H. Bernstein is a former librarian turned author. The subtitle of the book describes the author's objective: "A handbook in three volumes to a choice of essential books, writers and subjects in order to understand the world we live in, about ‘big questions' and possible answers, about books and writers that may improve people's lives, about neglected writers, and other books and subjects." A Book about Books attempts to share what the author has learned from nearly 50 years of nonfiction reading and to provide the reader with samples of the most important authors and subjects from that reading. While the book is based on research, it is intended to be a handbook or guide by trying to make that research understandable to the general reader and to students, and for teachers--by pointing to what the author believes is missing from today's education. A curriculum proposal for college teachers is on the website. Note about how the volumes are related: each chapter is on a separate subject. So the chapters can be read individually, but the full message requires reading all the volumes. Volume I is important, but preliminary to the more important Volumes II and III. Note also that the book is not just about books, since other sources are also mentioned. This book tries to point to problems in how we live and to see if books have any answers. Note that the author believes we should listen to many voices, so the book draws on many types of writers from different times and countries. A contemporary writer once said that one of the purposes of writing is that books should be useful. I hope that my book will be of use.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Page Publishing, Inc.
• Release date: Apr 29, 2020
• ISBN: 9781645847151

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Copyright © 2020 E.H. Bernstein

All rights reserved

First Edition

v.1 ISBN 978-1-63568-433-9 (pbk)

v.1 ISBN 978-1-63568-434-6 (digital)

v.2 ISBN 978-1-64584-714-4 (pbk)

v.2 ISBN 978-1-64584-715-1 (digital)

Publisher’s Cataloging-in-Publication data.

Bernstein, E. H., 1953-

A book about books: a handbook in three volumes to a choice of essential books, writers and subjects in order to try to understand the world we live in, about big questions and possible answers, about books and writers that may improve people’s lives, about neglected writers, and other books and subjects / E. H. Bernstein.

Conneaut Lake, PA: Page Publishing 2020-

v.2: 386 p. 23 cm

To be complete in 3 v. See website for supplements

1. Books and reading—Handbooks, manuals, etc.

2. Libraries—Handbooks, manuals, etc.

3. Books—Quotations. I. Title.

Z1003 .B4927 2020

028.9—dc23 2019905857

Printed in the United States of America

Notes to the reader:

How the volumes of this book relate to each other: The first volume of this book is intended to be preliminary to the second and third volumes. The first volume primarily raises questions about how we live which the subsequent volumes try to answer, although some questions are raised in the other volumes as well. Each chapter is on a different subject. Consult the Table of Contents of each volume for a guide to the subjects in each volume. So while the volumes are related, the chapters can stand alone. While the completion of all volumes is necessary for me to fully present the ideas I want to present, the reader is free to choose to read it all or just the parts that interest them. For further information on the decisions I made about how I chose to write this three volume book, see the Introduction to Volume I. Some of what I said there is repeated in the Introduction to this volume.

The reader may wish to know why I selected the particular images on the cover of each volume of my book. They are all images of books I discuss in each volume. Most importantly, I want the reader to have some idea of what each volume of my book is about by looking at the cover of that volume. However, there are various reasons why I selected these particular books for the covers of my book from among the much larger number of books that I discuss in my book. In some cases, the books on the cover were most important to me, so I want the reader to look at them. In other cases, the books on the cover are simply representative of an author or representative of some of the subjects that I discuss in my book. Where it is representative of an author, I may discuss several books by that author in this or future volumes of my book. Nevertheless, there are a few books on the cover that I hardly discuss at all in my book due to time or space limitations, but I also want the reader to consider looking at those books. Some books on the cover were chosen because they are good introductions to those subjects for the general reader. Finally, note that the order of the images on the cover of each volume of my book follows the order of the subjects discussed in that volume of my book. I will follow the same format described here for all the volumes of my book.

For your inquiries, reading suggestions, etc.: please e-mail

[e-mail]. Website: www.bookaboutbooks.com

Table of Contents

The Unavoidable Problem: Ecology, Part I. Ecological Illiteracy, General Surveys of Ecological Problems

The Unavoidable Problem: Ecology, Part II. Detailed Surveys of Ecological Problems: Food, Energy, Pollution, Land/Forest/Water/Biodiversity Loss

The Unavoidable Problem: Ecology, Part III. Renewable Energy Issues, Consumption, Cities

The Unavoidable Problem: Ecology, Part IV. Population, Garbage, Human/Animal Biological Wastes. Are Ecological Errors Due to Governance, Lifestyle or Beliefs? Some Alternative Lifestyles. Gary Synder. Paul Shepard

Questioning Our Beliefs: What is Philosophy and Why is it Important? Philosophical Topics. Some Introductions to Philosophy: Will Durant. Robert Solomon. Bryan Magee. Richard Taylor

Beyond Introductions to Philosophy, Part I: Will Durant cont’d. Epistemology: How Reliable is Our Knowledge? Eric Freyfogle. David W. Kidner

Beyond Introductions to Philosophy, Part II: Feminism/Feminist Philosophy/Ecofeminism/Women’s Studies. Maria Mies. Val Plumwood

Beyond Introductions to Philosophy, Part III: Political Theory. Ideology. Liberalism. Utopianism. Democracy

Beyond Introductions to Philosophy, Part IV: Isaiah Berlin. John Gray. Individualism. Freedom

chapJazz

Introduction to Volume II

This is a book about books. The Introduction to Volume I explains what I mean by a book about books, and how I plan to go about writing this book. I suggest that the reader look at Volume I. Because I don’t want this book to be any longer than necessary, I don’t want to repeat again here all of what I said in the Introduction to Volume I. However, below are some of the points I made in the Introduction to Volume I which I think are important to mention. Before continuing, I want the reader to know that I am trying in my book to point to problems in how we live and to see if books have any answers. The previous volume of this book is intended as a preliminary or foundation to Volumes II and III, not only because of the subjects discussed, but also because the attempt to try to answer questions or problems raised in Volume I is mostly in Volume II and III. I consider the subjects in Volume II and III to be the most important subjects of my book.

(1)  This is a book about books but is not limited to just discussing books since other formats such as the internet, documentary films, etc. are also mentioned. The book I am writing here will be concerned almost entirely with nonfiction but limited to certain genres that represent my interests and that lend themselves to the purposes of this book as described in the subtitle on the back cover of my book. I do not consider myself a professional, i.e. someone who studies a specialized subject and devotes their career (and much of the rest of their time) to their specialty nor am I an academic. Since I am not a professional, neither am I a professional writer. I am attempting to write for the general reader. My goal is to make the subjects I discuss understandable, even if I cannot make them easy.

(2)  Human beings have always asked certain questions, usually referred to as the big or perennial questions. Some writers have attempted to answer such questions, but for some reason, we tend to forget what they once taught, or ideas are overlooked by receiving insufficient attention. One of my purposes here is to remind whomever reads this book of some of what has been forgotten. I think some knowledge is also intentionally ignored because it questions what we are taught to believe.

(3)  I have certain audiences in mind for this book including college students, those with the power to change what needs to be changed, and those with a personal reason to be interested in the subjects I discuss, such as questions that trouble them, or those looking for guidance to lead more satisfactory lives, such as the type of guidance which certain historical figures like the Buddha tried to do. Many of those writers question what we are taught and are critical of society. If it seems that my books dwell on negative subjects, it is because if something isn’t a problem, I don’t see any reason to talk about it. Those readers who don’t like to question what they have been taught will probably not like reading my book, but there is a long history of questioning, undoubtedly beginning in prehistory but we have no written record from that time, then with the Greek philosophers, especially Socrates. I would also like to add that many readers may also be unwilling to accept whatever solutions I may be able to offer to the problems I discuss.

(4)  I will try to concentrate as much as possible on the best writers in my opinion who are the ones I recommend. Also, there are enough good writers for my purposes here, so it is unnecessary for me to try to include the others. There is one other category of book that I want to mention because it presents a problem, namely the book that has some valuable writing, but it is only a small percentage of the total. This can happen more often with anthologies of writings by several authors. I will normally omit discussing such books, simply because I don’t think the gain justifies the effort. I cannot give a specific percentage to merit discussing. If I omit the book, then I didn’t find enough to discuss.

(5)  This book is designed to present the ideas of others. I wish to write this book that way not only because I wish to present those writers who influenced me, but there may be readers who question by what authority I present my ideas. The writers I discuss are the authority. I have chosen to rely as much as possible on the actual words of the writers I discuss in order to avoid as much as possible misrepresenting or misinterpreting what they said. This is the reason for the extensive quotations in my book. I also want to encourage the reader to read the original books, but if they don’t read them, at least they can read a sampling of those books in my book. See Chapter 8 below for my additional comments about writers and their writing style.

(6)  Another of my purposes is to discuss those writers who I think are essential. In the case of what I consider to be essential subjects, my selections are representative of those subjects. When I did the research for this book, I stopped looking for more books on a subject once I felt I found enough to make the points I wanted to make. In all cases I have tried to select books or other materials that I thought were well researched and well written.

(7)  I don’t expect all the readers of my book to read in the same way, and I think there are limits to what can be learned from books. There may be large numbers of people who simply cannot learn from books or who have never tried, which may be the fault of schools in not showing students books that are relevant to those students’ lives and experiences. I think it is important, especially for schools, to try to reach those students as well. The reader should assume that I believe that it is important to read to learn, and that is one of the reasons I am writing my book. While not all subjects I discuss are equally important, I believe there are subjects everyone should know about, even for the person who does not like to read. I do not expect all readers to be equally interested in all the subjects I talk about. I encourage the reader to find the topics that interest them. There are even books about which I know very little (see my comments on the back cover of Volume I of my book). Sometimes remembering only a fragment can still be a good beginning for further thought.

(8)  I will include secondary sources in my book. Let me clarify the difference between primary and secondary sources. Primary sources are the original writings by the original writer. Secondary sources are books about a writer’s work written by someone else, i.e., books that summarize, interpret, criticize, etc., the ideas of a particular writer. In a few cases, I have difficulty reading certain writers, the content, style, or both. So if I want to know about those writers, I have to rely on what others say about them. I also like to read some writers through the eyes of other writers that I do read and like, as I think their understanding is better than I could do myself. Even for writers that I have read in their own words, and whom I will recommend reading in their own words, I may still begin with books about those writers because I think such books are good introductions to the ideas of the writers those books talk about.

I am interested in hearing from readers as I make this book available. There will also be a website by early 2020 to accompany my book and for additional material that I already have and for future material. However, I do have a request to make of anyone who replies. I am most interested in your suggestions about writers I may have missed or books of similar quality as the books I chose to represent the subjects I discuss in my book. I may also be interested in hearing from you if you are like the reader in the movie American Splendor who contacted a writer which led to a conversation, etc. Writers have other interests besides their work. A contact e-mail address for questions or comments is on the Notes to the reader page of each volume of my book and will be on the website when it appears, however I don’t know if time will permit me to write individual replies to questions or comments about my book. For that reason, I will also place a comments section at the end of my website where I can post your comments. This section has the added advantage of allowing a reader conversation. To those who comment on my book, as in a review, please keep in mind that this book is still not complete.

Among the subjects discussed in Volume I of this book are: inequality, racism (sexism will be discussed in this Volume), the criminal justice system, law, education, history including war and its relationship to leadership, structural violence, genocide, colonialism and imperialism, slavery, and the indigenous people of the Americas: the Native Americans. Some readers may ask why I chose to discuss these subjects and why I discuss them as problems. I think many people don’t want to hear about problems. They want to hear good news, which is why the news media often does not discuss them, or does not discuss them in a useful way, because these are not subjects many people want to hear about. But I believe that unless we as a society can agree on what the problems are, I don’t see how we can go about trying to solve any of them, and one of the reasons I consider Volume I of my book to be a preliminary to this volume is because I don’t believe I can offer possible solutions to any problems without having a clear idea of the problems and their priority. I also want to mention that some problems are just too large or long term for people to comprehend. More on this in the next chapter.

Let me begin by giving some examples of what I mean by priority. For example, if people are starving or dying, that seems more pressing than mere unfairness. Also, some problems are simply inherent in all societies or have always existed throughout history or resist any total solution although the negative effects might be able to be reduced. A perfect example of all of these is inequality. The negative effects could be reduced by leadership or by law, but neither show much inclination in that direction, at least at this point in time. On the contrary, both government and law are contributing to greater extremes of inequality and have been doing so for decades. I talked extensively in Chapters 5a and 5b of Volume I about the importance of leadership. One point worth repeating from those chapters is that many societies, especially in the U.S., will not face a problem until it is a crisis. I believe we are in that same situation now. More in the next chapter on why I think so.

Are racism and sexism also forms of inequality, subject to the same resistance I just described? When so many institutions perpetuate these forms of inequality, how much progress of any significance can be accomplished? I agree that these forms of unfairness are important and should receive attention, which is why I discussed them in Volume I, but I think, for example, that trying to reform the criminal justice system should have a higher priority because there are greater effects there, and I think there is actually a greater chance of being able to accomplish the goal of cutting the inmate population and the beneficial effects that would have on families, communities and reducing the waste of resources.

Another issue which I want to mention in connection with the problems I discussed in Volume I of my book is who is affected by them. If someone is unaffected, it is hard to see how they will take any interest in adverse effects, or support any politician who wishes to take any of these issues seriously, and to support the use of taxes to support dealing with these negative consequences of ideological beliefs, although in many cases, it is cheaper in the long run to deal with problems early, and in some cases it is not a question of needing more monies to address certain problems but instead to deal with them in a different way without needing more resources.

Finally, in connection with the problems I discussed in Volume I of my book, is the question of their consequences and who is responsible. Some readers might think that these issues are only of historical significance, and that we are not directly contributing to any of these problems. One of the hidden aspects of structural violence and structural inequality and structural racism and the structural aspects of our economic system is that even a person who has no awareness of contributing to these problems may still be a party to it. I do not mention this in order to assign individual blame, but I did mention in Chapter 6 that 50 million people die every year simply because of how we allocate world resources. It should be noted that the present system of allocation is a choice and not an inevitable part of how the world works.

The reader may or may not agree with my comments in Volume I of my book on the present state of inequality, racism (sexism will be discussed below), the criminal justice system, law, education, and war and its relationship to leadership. I described in Chapter 5b of Volume I of my book a method by which we might elect better leaders, assuming that leadership matters as I think it does. I don’t think that effecting change one person at a time, i.e. by individual changes in lifestyle, is nearly enough to address our major problems. However, even if my discussion about how to select better leaders is taken seriously, it will take decades to accomplish.

So in the meantime, in the absence of good political leadership, are there other people to whom we can look for guidance? I call such people Teachers with a capital T, meaning that by virtue of their personal qualities, training, experience, ability to influence large numbers of people, they can act as effective leaders. As I mentioned in Volume I of my book, I consider Martin Luther King and the Vietnam antiwar leaders as examples of what I am referring to here. The Vietnam war is still controversial, but in my opinion the only leadership came from below. I will not discuss Martin Luther King further here because I think his actions are well known, but I recommend reading Martin Luther King: the Inconvenient Hero, by Vincent Harding.

Part of the problem with turning to unelected leaders is the question of who to believe or what ideas to take seriously enough to adopt as a blueprint for action. As we will see in the next chapter, even when the facts are well known, facts do not necessarily acquire support or action from the people. If facts cannot rally support or action, then that leaves the uncomfortable conclusion that following a leader is a matter of faith. I think this is possible, but we should have an idea of what type of person is worthy of such faith. Catherine Ingram’s book In the Footsteps of Gandhi: Conversations with Spiritual Social Activists (Parallax Press, 1990) describes 12 such contemporary persons, many of whom are well known. In the next chapter I would like to select one of the persons discussed in Catherine Ingram’s book whose name was familiar to me, but who is less well known to others, and who I would never have thought of in that way: Gary Snyder.

Another book similar to the idea behind Catherine Ingram’s book which profiles about 100 persons is Visionaries of the 20th Century: a Resurgence Anthology, by Kumar and Whitefield (Green Books, 2014). I would also like to discuss in the next chapter one of the lesser known people profiled in Visionaries, Paul Shepard. Visionaries appears to have been published originally in 2007 with the same profiles but a different subtitle. For more information about Resurgence, see the website www.resurgence.org.

In order to better understand what Catherine Ingram meant by the footsteps of Gandhi, I would like to discuss now books about Gandhi. I want to show that Gandhi is not merely a historical figure whom we no longer need to learn about. There is much more to know about Gandhi than as the liberator of India from British colonial rule and about his belief in and practice of nonviolence as a means of political change. Because Gandhi is a complex figure, I will rely on selections from several sources in order to try to make the case that Gandhi’s ideas are entirely relevant to our time. Note that I did most of my research in anthologies because I wanted the widest possible range of opinion, and to be able to compare the interpreters and commentators on his ideas in order to find those I thought were the best ones to discuss, but I encourage the reader to look at as many sources as they wish beyond the ones I chose below.

The Cambridge Companion to Gandhi, edited by Judith M. Brown and Anthony Parel (Cambridge University Press, 2011), is described as follows on the back cover:

Even today, six decades after his assassination in January 1948, Mahatma Gandhi is still revered as the father of the Indian nation. This book, comprising essays by leading scholars in the field, traces his extraordinary story. The first part explores Gandhi’s transformation from a small-town lawyer during his early life in South Africa into a skilled leader of civil resistance in India, while the second section is devoted to his key writings and his thinking on a broad range of topics, including religion, conflict, politics, and social relations. The final part reflects on Gandhi’s image—how he has been portrayed in literature and film—and on his legacy in India, the West, and beyond.

I recommend reading all of the Cambridge Companion to Gandhi, especially Part II, since a thorough study of Gandhi is beyond the scope of my book. However, I would like to quote from Part II: Gandhi Thinker and Activist to give an idea of the book:

"It is widely known that Gandhi did not speak with the same enthusiasm as many of his Congress colleagues did for the entire panoply of principles and codes, rights and constitutions that emerged out of the political Enlightenment. The grounds for this indifference were essentially religious. He understood what lay behind these political codes was a much more basic, indeed I would say the most basic, commitment of the Enlightenment, namely, that what is bad in us can be constrained by good politics. In other words, we can be made to be better people by being made over into citizens of a nation state. Gandhi simply did not believe this … And even more ambitiously … he was convinced that this belief in the transformation of human beings into citizens erupted from the same fault line as the transformation of the concept of nature into the concept of the natural resources. They both were the product of an outlook of modern science that, once it has desacralized the world, could not see the world itself as containing anything that made moral or normative demands on one. Nature was defined now … in terms of gains and utilities that could be imposed on the world (now conceived as natural resources and populations), shaping it to pursue these gains and utilities." (p.111-12)

Wikipedia defines The Enlightenment as an intellectual and philosophical movement that dominated the world of ideas in Europe during the 18th century and will be discussed again in Chapter 9 of this volume of my book. The Enlightenment is not just of historical interest. Its ideas are very much in evidence today. Normative means conforming to norms or standards.

"Gandhi clearly pointed out that he did not ‘draw a sharp or any distinction between economics and ethics’. For him, it was clear that standard economic doctrine failed to take account of ethical considerations, and this meant that it was illusory and had little relevance in real life. ‘The economics that disregard moral and sentimental considerations are like wax-works that being life-like still lack the life of the living flesh.’ … What exactly did the Mahatma mean? The better part of a century ago, he summed up the situation that formed the basis for a new economic thinking … where people mattered." (p.135-36)

… Gandhian economics clearly has normative, encompassing ethics as its highest principle. Diwan and Lutz point out that an integrated and holistic perspective in economics, in this case the essentials of Gandhian economics, ‘boils down to this simple injunction: never advocate actions or policies that lead to (economic) material advancement at the cost of (non-economic) social, moral, or spiritual impoverishment … Although he favoured a life of simplicity, Gandhi certainly was not in favour of grinding pauperism … For him, a high quality of life had a strong spiritual underpinning, and exploitation can never be reconciled with spiritualism. (p.141)

Stealing generally means taking something from another without their knowledge and permission. Gandhi takes the notion a lot further. Permission or no, it is stealing if we take more than we need, even if this is done inadvertently: ‘We are not always aware of our needs, and most of us improperly multiply our wants, and thus unconsciously make thieves of ourselves’ … In short, in the Gandhian scheme, ownership can be seen as a species of violence … The test for the progress of a country would not be measured by the number of millionaires, but by the well-being of the masses. Gandhi’s emphasis on non-possession is a clear indictment of a society based on a multiplication of wants and unnecessary consumption … Gandhi called his recommended method of working towards this ideal ‘trusteeship’. Under Gandhi’s theory of trusteeship, the rich will be left in possession of their wealth, and they would use what they reasonably require for their own personal needs and act as trustees for the remainder ‘to be used for the society’ … The reasoning behind Gandhi’s recommendation of trusteeship was that it corresponded with the principles of nonviolence … , that it recognized that while all had the right to equal opportunities, not everyone had the same abilities, and that it could be implemented gradually … (p.142-3)

It is evident, once again, that shortly before his death, his deep faith in the potential of trusteeship as a foundation of a just social order had crumbled, leaving behind a radically altered worldview that he did not have time to articulate systematically. (p. 184).

This last quote suggests that Gandhi could not get enough people to follow his lead. It might be fair to compare Gandhi’s idea of trusteeship to the foundations set up by some of today’s famous entrepreneurs, but there are certainly not enough of them. I believe Gandhi’s teachings remain relevant for all countries. Gandhi recognized that those with advantages might not be willing to relinquish any of them and that redistributing wealth involuntarily would present a problem. These problems exist everywhere today. He suggested nonviolent action as a possible response, but if the results of protests in the U.S. about inequality are any indicator, nonviolence has not been effective. Gandhi continued to think about these issues to the end, and it is worth following his thinking in The Cambridge Companion to see what he believed. However, it is my personal belief that the economic battle will be decided on ecological grounds which Gandhi anticipated, but could not entirely foresee at the time in which he lived, where the choice will be forced on us because of physical realities. That will be the subject of Chapter 7 of this volume of my book. Ethics will be discussed in Volume III of my book.

Another anthology on Gandhi which further describes his ideas is Gandhi’s Experiments with Truth: Essential Writings by and about Mahatma Gandhi, edited by Richard L. Johnson (Lexington Books, 2006). This book reprints some chapters from a 2000 anthology on Gandhi from the same publisher and adds new chapters. Below are selections starting with the Introduction:

"Gandhi … is widely revered for his practice and theory of nonviolence. Most people believe that nonviolence was the primary focus of his life, but it was not. Although nonviolent action was pivotal to Gandhi, he came to it after years of public service and religious striving, and he always believed that the deepest and most abiding meaning of his life was the pursuit of truth … He called his autobiography The Story of my Experiments with Truth to suggest how central these experiments were to him." (from the Introduction, p.xi)

Gandhi did not believe that the human mind was capable of arriving at absolute truth, only approximations to it. I like to think that all the conclusions that I offer in my book based on the books that I refer to for support for my conclusions are the closest approximations that I can arrive at. The following selections from the chapter Gandhian Freedom and Self-Rule by Anthony Parel discuss the subject of the cost of freedom, in the sense of the consequences of what is permitted by law, on society as a whole. I will return to this subject again later in this volume of my book:

The fact that Gandhi derived the notions of political and economic freedoms from the West does not mean that he accepted them without making significant modifications … Those who are nurtured in only one philosophical tradition will find Gandhi’s mixing of ideas taken from East and West rather difficult to follow. If that understandable difficulty is to be overcome, and if they are to derive some moral and intellectual benefits from his thought, they will do well to make an effort to expand their own intellectual horizons. (p.176)

Gandhi claimed that the assertion of rights without due regard for the corresponding duties would in the long run turn liberty into license. ‘Liberty cannot be secured merely by proclaiming it. An atmosphere of liberty must be created within us. Liberty is one thing, and license another. Many a time we confuse license for liberty and lose the latter. License leads one to selfishness … ’ So much for the first modification that Gandhi introduced into the theory of modern rights and freedoms. Turning now to the second modification … namely the relationship of rights to violence. That there was a historical relationship between the two was undeniable … The question was whether this relationship was necessary or only historical. Gandhi saw no reason to suppose that it should be necessary. (p.185-86)

The following selections are from the chapter Gandhi’s Politics by Ronald Terchek:

Politics is unavoidably about power and people, about how power can enable or disable people. With this in mind, Gandhi observes that ‘political power is not an end but one of the means of enabling people to better their condition in every department of life.’ … In unfolding his answers, Gandhi shares and departs from liberal-democratic views on politics as well as blends political realism and idealism to his view of what a good polity should be all about … The problems of political power are lessened but not solved by democratizing it, according to Gandhi. Distrusting the adequacy of standard ideas about democracy, he denies that voting and elections are sufficient either to assure a government based on popular consent or to safeguard the autonomy of everyone. (p.198)

One of the major impediments to democratizing any regime is the tendency of public officials simultaneously to display and hide their power. By concentrating on the ceremonial, the monumental, and the martial, they seek to invest themselves as the carriers of the nation’s best interests and security and to legitimize their use of power and the political institutions they manage. At the same time, those with power rarely bargain publicly about who is to get and who is to pay. The public debates in which they engage seldom reflect the rational, dispassionate search for solutions that is celebrated in classical conceptions of democracy … Moreover, the debates that appear open and spontaneous often mask prior decisions that are made … far from the gaze of the public. (p.207)

The chapter from which the above selection was made is a reprint of the chapter of the same title from Ronald Terchek’s book Gandhi: Struggling for Autonomy. The reader should also consult this book for further reading highlighting Gandhi’s ideas. Continuing with the book Gandhi’s Experiments with Truth, the final selections below are from the chapter Gandhi, Contemporary Political Thinking, and Self-Other Relations by Douglas Allen:

Modern political thinking is largely a child of the Enlightenment … It should be obvious to anyone familiar with Gandhi’s writings and his political engagement that he was very critical of most of this Enlightenment approach and its profound influence on modern political thinking. Gandhi, for example, would evaluate many of these features as expressing an unjustified and dangerous rational and scientific reductionism, an arrogant deification of the sufficiency of human reason and human progress, and a devaluing of the spiritual basis of reality. (p.307-9)

Gandhi advocates a radical reversal of the post-Cartesian or dominant modern Western philosophical, economic, political, social, and cultural orientation in which one’s starting point and foundation is the primacy of one’s own individual self … (p.321)

It is important to avoid a misunderstanding that could arise … Gandhi does uphold utopian or ideal political values, but he is always engaged politically in relative, imperfect political experiments with truth that are indispensable for understanding Gandhi’s approach to political values and political change … Gandhi often saw himself … pursuing political experiments in an elusive truth, with the intention of radically transforming politics, culture, society, the individual person, and self-other relations … Gandhi’s political experiments were sometimes successful … and sometimes failures … (p.323-24)

I think it would be fair to conclude that change is very difficult even if led by someone with special skill, there are few such persons, none that come to my mind in positions of power and even if they were, there are doubts as to whether the average citizen would support their efforts. Part of the reason for that may lie with education, not just in school, but at all levels such as media, government, etc. See my discussion of ideology in Chapter 9c below. I think it is also worth noting here two great tragedies in connection with the current world ideology of maximum growth and development. One tragedy is the abandonment by the East of its traditional values in favor of copying the West. The second tragedy is what Engels called the world historic defeat of the female sex which is also the replacement of a more positive set of values with a more negative one. This subject will be taken up again in Chapters 8 and 9b below and in Volume III of my book.

The above selections do not cover all the ideas which Gandhi talked about and which remain relevant today. I chose the above sources because of their excellent writing. There are a few other ideas which I can only mention due to limits on how much space I can devote to one subject. Douglas Allen, an editor of an anthology of writings about Gandhi, points out that in Gandhi’s view, violence is not merely physical violence. Instead, Gandhi views exploitation and inequality as forms violence which can be economic, psychological, cultural, ethical, educational, ecological, etc., and that to reduce violence will require a change in thoughts, feelings and actions.

A selection in another anthology, edited by Antony Copley and George Paxton, points to Gandhi’s concern with the consequences of what Gandhi regarded as two opposed world views: one view that denies the existence of anything beyond the physical world beyond our perception or understanding, and therefore human beings are the ultimate judge of their own actions, and the opposing view that the physical world as it appears is not all there is, and that human beings must carefully consider their actions as requiring more than mere use of the world for their own purposes.

Gandhi was also very concerned with the plight of the poor. This is alluded to in the selections above, but I want to mention the subject again. Gandhi believed that it was not a problem for some people to have more as long as everyone else has enough. This should be a guiding principle in the world but is not. Further research into Gandhi’s ideas will undoubtedly continue to be useful.

Two people not mentioned in Catherine Ingram’s book In the Footsteps of Gandhi, but who are profiled in Visionaries, are Albert Schweitzer, who was not mentioned probably because he was of an earlier era, and Prince Charles, who has not nearly received the credit he deserves for his work and writings. Albert Schweitzer’s life and work is ably discussed in Albert Schweitzer: a biography, Second Edition, by James Brabazon. Space does not permit me to discuss this book further, but I highly recommend it, particularly after the reader has read Chapters 8-9 on philosophy in this volume of my book and in Volume III of my book, as philosophy plays an important part in Schweitzer’s ideas. I had intended to include a section in this book on cities, architecture and urban planning including the work of Prince Charles because of the