Aleksa's Book Review: Democracy, The God that Failed
What annoyed me most about this book is that every chapter of the book started with a paragraph or two describing what the chapter would entail, and then ended with the exact same summary. Most people would find this practical, but when listening to a book like this in a single sitting, it got old pretty fast.
Otherwise, the argumentation of deductive vs. inductive epistemology, describing high vs. low time preference, and the differences between a highwayman, medieval king and modern president. The insights on non-total war were fascinating, as were the segments on the history of money and socialisation of responsibility. Hans writes as he argues - deductively from first principles.
For me, the book is kind of like a footnote at the end of a long spell of my life (2 years) during which I held a certain set of beliefs. It's kind of like graduating from one way of looking at the world and into another: from the merely deductive and normative of the world of should, to the gritty and jaded world of is. It's a transition I don't make likely, but that proverbial ferry won't wait for me to board.
What annoyed me most about this book is that every chapter of the book started with a paragraph or two describing what the chapter would entail, and then ended with the exact same summary. Most people would find this practical, but when listening to a book like this in a single sitting, it got old pretty fast.
7/10
