Watchtower

Since public consciousness is important for the effectiveness of a democracy, it is important to know the policies of the candidates before voting. Not only a superficial knowledge, but also a critical evaluation of the policies is essential. Read More »

In his best seller novel Underworld, Don Delillo comprehensively analyzes the American culture since the Second World War. The novel consists of random narratives that ultimately converge, showing both ugly and beautiful with full realism. This analytical narrative shows the characteristics and the origins of the American culture, by the prominent events in the recent American history and by the effects of those events on the lives of the ordinary citizens. The ideas behind the culture are given in the thoughts of the characters, tracing the philosophical sources of the American culture. The reader can see that the American culture is shaped by many European thinkers, as well as the American ones. Terminologies that Karl Marx, John Stuart Mill and Friedrich Nietzsche have created are always in the language across the Atlantic from Europe. Especially Nietzsche’s way of thinking is embedded in American thought, thus in the thought of the characters of Underworld. Nietzsche discloses the realities hidden under the cultural illusions in his work Thus Spoke Zarathustra, and also offers a mindset to deal with the heavy reality, a mindset that can be called the “religion” of Zarathustra. As the illusions in the American culture are uncovered by Delillo, it becomes clear that Zarathustra’s religion has settled in the minds of the American society. Read More »

Man is a social entity that needs to interact in a group for various reasons including survival. These social structures need some kind of governing, because they are not useful without any order. Since a good administrator is the one who governs according to the needs of others, it is important to understand what the human nature is, despite its difficulty. Since the beginning of the 19th century, the thinkers have made numerous assumptions on the nature of man, and thereby derived many superstructures to govern people. Some of those assumptions have been widely accepted, and the corresponding superstructures have been put into application. Read More »