Posts tagged gaudeamus igitur

I have recently finished two books that made me feel better about whatever the fuck is happening to our country, not to mention how insane everyone is, especially because it seems like everyone gets crazier by the day. So I would like to recommend them to you.

If you are the sort of person who frets about abstinence-only pledges, and endless infidelity scandals and the gross way the media slobbers all over them, and/or whether you will ever experience true love and if you did, would you even recognize it, and even then, could it last forever, because you try to be pragmatic but have read too many romance novels for your own good, then I recommend Sex at Dawn: How We Mate, Why We Stray, and What It Means for Modern Relationships by Christopher Ryan and Cacilda Jetha, which just came out in paperback. Also, if you are the sort of person who has always been super annoyed by evolutionary psychology and would like to watch somebody punch it in the mouth, I recommend the same.

If, on the other hand, you have been having actual nightmares about national default, and are still annoyed about the taxpayer-funded bailout of irresponsible financial institutions, and are SURE that Adam Smith was wrong but can’t explain why in arguments because the whole thing makes you SO ANGRY, I recommend Debt: The First Five Thousand Years by David Graeber. It’s a thoughtful and thought-provoking book that goes far beyond the average economic discussion (thankfully) and uses anthropology and a truly global outlook to think critically about our relationship to money and credit. Well, I just made it sound really boring. It’s not boring, I promise. I was lugging that big red hardcover all over town.

Read in tandem, these books restored my respect for the thousands of years of humans who came before me and reminded me that even though they did not have LOLcats, they had a lot of shit figured out that still makes modern Americans bumble around and drool on ourselves. It is also always soothing to be reminded of one’s larger place in history, which is to say, that you and I and everyone one we know are not really that important and that life will go on.

What, you don’t find that soothing?