Today I Learned
This book was quite quick and easy to read. And to be honest, I had a bit of high expectations as it was commented by some friends.
Most of the concepts weren’t new for me. I could find connections to other books or concepts that I have already read like “Thinking Fast and Slow“, Flow, Buddhism, meditation, “The body keeps the score“, etc.
And there is a reference to Ramon y Cajal that now I fully get it:
“Todo ser humano, si se lo propone, puede ser escultor de su propio cerebro”.
I havent finished this book yet. It was something recommend from another book or autoher I follow so I bought it and started reading it. But after watching a video from one of the few authors I follow, I realized that I dont have to finish it.
The subject is interesting, but I didnt have any background about the book and I didnt expect much Antisemitism content although after reading about the author, it made sense. It is a 600+ pages book and after several chapters I realized that there were many concepts repeating. I had the feeling that most of what I was reading could be summarized in a few pages. And I struggled going through the book. I found interesting details though but I think it shouldnt be that difficult.
I have completed two out of three parts and I will get back to it step by step.
The book is divided in three parts: Antisemitism, Imperialism and Totalitarianism.
The first part was a bit more interesting for me as there were many historical facts regarding the Jew people spread around the word, culture, habits, etc. As well, about social facts in countries/emperies like Prusia, Austria-Hungary, etc. It was interested about the banking/financial influence of Jew families in several countries and for several centuries like Rothschild. And how this financial dependency on Jew families was lost. A point that is repeated many times, is the lack of integration of Jew people in the each society and the different conspiracy theories about them ruling the world… (you dont need Covid for creating conspiracies).
One figure that is highlighted is Benjamin Disraeli who was UK Prime Minister, Jewish born (although not follower) and claimed the empire for Queen Victoria.
Then in France, the Dreyfus affair, it is showed as another example of the complexity of the integration of Jew people in the societies and one of the main antisemitism acts in the early century that had the French society divided.
The second part is a focused in the next “evolution” of European societies to the Imperialism, mainly in Africa. And how the “winners” and “losers” took their role. France, UK, Belgium and Italy took most of Africa. For example, Germany had nothing… There are many interesting details about the Boer society in South Africa, how it started, how it evolved and how it ended in a war. The book says that Boer emigrants took the social structure of the local tribes and the attempt of control from the British Empire and the creation of society like in Europe was a total clash for them.
As well, in this part, there are many comments about the Nation vs State struggle. Something like the the imperialism raised the concept of Nation and defeated the state. I dont think I understanded properly. As well, there is an important point about the immigration and how was a source of problems for lack of acceptance, lack of integration, etc. So again, nothing new that we dont see nowawayds. We have learned nothing
Another point is the pan-european movements. Something like the pan-Slav (Russia) and pro-Germany movements that it seems it was one of the striking points for Far-Right regimes in Europe and the raise of Communism. And something I didnt know about the Balkans: Congress of Berlin
I have the feeling that I am missing out many details as the book is quite dense.
One of my favourite things to do is to pick up a fig from a fig tree and eat it straight away. I lucky to be able to do that a couple of times a year in Algarve. The fig trees are amazing, big, like a huge octopus, very flexible and holding hundreds of figs. And it doesn’t need much attention as much as I know neither lot of water.
But something that is even better, dried figs. I loved them when I was a kid during Christmas but the ones you can make with these natural figs, it is a totally different game.
This is how I have seen doing it. As the trees produce a lot of figs, you want to keep them somehow. If not, they will fall down and mainly wasted as even the birds and other animals can’t eat that much. So the ones you can’t eat, you leave them to dry outside. Algarve is very sunny so the nature will do that for you for free.
But I was told that you need to provide a final step. As the figs are outside, a lot of insects will feed from them. So in batches, clean them with water (they will hydrate a bit), then spread a bit of olive oil (just one/two tsp) and put them in a tray in the oven at 75C or so for 30 minutes. After that, use fresh fennel, whole threads of it, not just seeds or the bulb. That will keep insects away and give some anise flavour.
After that you can store them in a dry place (avoid sun light) for months!!!
Simple, natural, delicious.