Bøger af Max Crisp

This is the second volume of the Tao and Empire series. The series aims to recount the rise and fall of Western morals using as a basis an ancient Eastern philosophical text. In so doing, it strives to use this text as a constant, allowing the distortion of so-called conservative values for progressive means to be measured and viewed objectively. Whilst this is not a course in empirical history, and does not pretend to focus on any particular Western historical power, it does try to identify the misunderstandings that were made. From one volume to the next we see not only the chronology of the hemisphere, but also in a certain way the chronology of the individual as he/she begins to perceive the world differently moving from childhood, through adolescence and on into the wild world of adulthood. Still laden with naiveté, the Arcadian Angel uncovers the origins of the West's self-centred drive for power. Yet still in its infancy, we see how the road to hell is truly paved with the best of intentions. Follow the collective mind on its next step in this journey towards purgatory, decadence and derision. The Arcadian Angel may be your last chance to taste the sweet nectar of our long-lost but original innocence.

From the eyes of the Savage Saxon, we see the world as it was many hundreds of thousands of years ago, as primates became hunter-gatherers and came into possession of immovable wisdom. Tao and Empire is a series of new interpretations of the Dao De Jing, the ancient Chinese philosophical text, bringing revised and refreshed perspective to one of humankind's most highly regarded cannons of wisdom. As with the Emerald Tablet, every generation of scholars must choose whether to adapt its meaning to disseminate its value or conversely to encrypt it for the purposes of retaining a monopoly on that value. In a series of five volumes, Tao and Empire plays carefully with this balance. After all, the meaning of these texts is highly subjective and often somewhat opaque. The over-arching aim is to offer a series of interpretations that show how humanity has embraced the way of the empire. At the same time, it not only embodies the rise and fall of civilisations, but also of the individual. Most centrally, however, are the ideas of equality and cooperation. Understanding the tribe from the eyes of an ape, or the Empire through the eyes of a citizen, forms a right of passage for any member of the civilisation, regardless of their status.