Βιβλία σαν το «Πολέμα την Ολιγαρχία»

I was furious the situation had reached this point. A relatively small group of people—many on Wall Street, some not—had gambled that the housing market would keep booming forever. It didn’t. In a normal environment, the free market would render its judgment and they could fail.

I’ve learned from these events that self-esteem plays as much a part in the destiny of nations as it does in the lives of individuals; that self-hatred leads to the need either to dominate or to be dominated; that citizens who refuse to obey anything but their own conscience can transform their countries; in short, that self-esteem is the basis of any real democracy.

My home was a mixture of tradition and chaos. My father wasn’t Ozzie Nelson, the TV ideal dad in the ‘50s and ‘60s, but he wasn’t Ozzy Osbourne either. I wrote about my late father in The O’Reilly Factor, the book, and I think it is safe to say that I had a rough-hewn upbringing. Simply put: There was plenty of tension in my house. Along with a lot of yelling and martial arts. My father was the Kung and I was the Fu.

Thomas cried. Smith comforted him. Thomas was facing the same question everyone who comes in contact with Knight faces sooner or later: Is it worth it? Does the end justify the means? He knew Knight just wanted him to be a better player. He knew Knight liked him and cared about him. He knew that if anyone ever attacked him, Knight would come to his defense. But was all that worth it for this? This was Knight at his meanest. Every player who comes to Indiana faces the screaming, raving Knight at some point in his life. Some leave because it isn’t worth it to them, but most stay. And most leave convinced Knight’s way is the right way. But now Daryl Thomas wondered. He had to wonder; he wouldn’t have been human if he hadn’t wondered, if he hadn’t cried.

The bourgeoisie cannot exist without constantly revolutionising the instruments of production, and thereby the relations of production, and with them the whole relations of society. Conservation of the old modes of production in unaltered form, was, on the contrary, the first condition of existence for all earlier industrial classes. Constant revolutionising of production, uninterrupted disturbance of all social conditions, everlasting uncertainty and agitation distinguish the bourgeois epoch from all earlier ones. All fixed, fast-frozen relations, with their train of ancient and venerable prejudices and opinions, are swept away, all new-formed ones become antiquated before they can ossify. All that is solid melts into air, all that is holy is profaned, and man is at last compelled to face with sober senses, his real conditions of life, and his relations with his kind.

Ωστόσο, η βαθύτερη ώθηση προέκυψε από μια μακρά προσωπική ερευνητική διαδρομή, που ξεκίνησε με τη διδακτορική διατριβή μου στο Πανεπιστήμιο Paris I Panthéon-Sorbonne και συνεχίστηκε αδιάκοπα μέσα από διδασκαλία, αρθρογραφία και εμπειρική έρευνα όλα τα επόμενα χρόνια. Με την έννοια αυτή, το παρόν έργο αντανακλά μια εργασία ετών· φιλοδοξεί να είναι όχι απλώς μια καταγραφή, αλλά μια θεωρητική και ερευνητική πρόταση για την κατανόηση της πολιτικής επικοινωνίας στο διεθνές περιβάλλον και ειδικότερα στην Ελλάδα της Γ΄ Ελληνικής Δημοκρατίας.