[LPY]⇒ PDF Gratis The Men Who Stare at Goats Jon Ronson 9780743241922 Books

The Men Who Stare at Goats Jon Ronson 9780743241922 Books

Download As PDF : The Men Who Stare at Goats Jon Ronson 9780743241922 Books

The Men Who Stare at Goats Jon Ronson 9780743241922 Books

Ronson investigates the US military intelligence community’s forays into extrasensory perception (ESP) and mind control. Those who’ve seen the movie loosely based on this book will be aware of the quirky-humorous tone it takes. (If the title wasn’t enough to convey that the author was aiming for quirky humor.) Ronson’s style, favoring punchy simple sentences, offers a kind of deadpan delivery that supports the tone of the book.

That said, the book also has a sad edge as it can be seen as a commentary on military officers who came back from the war in Vietnam damaged and grasping at straws as to how to prevent history from repeating itself. It’s as if what these men experienced made some eager to believe because they so wanted to believe they could win with the mind and avoid the carnage of war.

While the book’s sixteen chapters are not divided by the author, they can be roughly divided into three parts. The first is the pursuit of ESP starting in the late 1970’s. This includes remote viewing and the titular psychokinesis (i.e. starring goats to death.)

The middle section is the resurgence of these esoteric approaches in the late 90’s and, especially, after 9-11 (also speaking to how dire blows to the psyche lead to wild approaches.) Much of this section is about mind control rather than ESP. One may remember the news story of the “I Love You, You Love Me” song from Barney [i.e. the purple dinosaur] being played over and over again to break terror suspects. The question remaining unanswered is whether there was anything else going on besides torture by Barney song (i.e. subliminal messages or sonic / ultrasonic frequencies [as used in non-lethal weapon technology.])

The latter section deals with the famous case of a scientist who jumped from a hotel room window to his death. It was later admitted that the scientist had been the unwitting victim of hallucinogen experimentation as part of the famed MKUltra project, and his death was written off as a trip gone bad. Ronson presents the story of the scientist’s son, a man who firmly believes that the story copped to was neither the full story nor the true story.

This book is interesting and entertaining, despite the fact that many of the questions that Ronson sets out to answer remain unanswered and probably always will. While the author got several key people to talk to him, the projects discussed are highly classified and the possibility of disinformation is ever-present.

Ronson manages to walk a fine line throughout the book. He presents all this quirky and bizarre activity in a way that neither comes across as mocking nor even particularly skeptical. (His punchy delivery does hint at this intention on occasion.) He lets the reader do the mocking and be the skeptic. At times he comes across as a believer. That is, while many of the happenings of the book reflect bat-shit crazy behavior / decisions, he suggests that all but the most hardened skeptics would believe that some of the people involved had inexplicable gifts.

I’d recommend this book. If you’re interested in government sponsored esoteric activities like psi and mind control and related scandals / conspiracies, you’ll find it fascinating. On the other hand, even if you’re not, it’s still an entertaining read that provides a sort of commentary on the effects of war on the psyche.


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The Men Who Stare at Goats Jon Ronson 9780743241922 Books Reviews

The writer has put together an intelligent and well integrated narrative in his story telling way. I'm aware of quite a lot of the content, previously published in many other books and videotaped documentation from first person testimony. The conclusion that the deterioration of American life and leadership lies in the many secret areas of our government rings true. It is sickening.
Jon Ronson, as always, is a joy to read. His writing is funny, entertaining, and informative, and the book is really aided by his everyman persona with an edge. Ronson compiles a huge amount of information into a fairly concise book, but he fails to dig deeper on a lot of issues. Ronson is not a journalist who finds the truth regardless of the opposition. His writing is more meandering in nature, and he doesn't always go searching for the nitty gritty details. That, however, didn't bother me. I was reading the book purely for fun, and fun it was! If you watched the movie and were wondering if you should read book...do it! The movie was entertaining but can't hold a candle to the source material. Overall, a great read!
Interesting story. Jumps around a lot. The author’s interactions with different people in the book are a bit hard to follow at times. It would be easier to read this book all at once versus a few chapters before bed multiple times a week.
It would be easier to keep track of story lines & who specifically each story line is dealing with. It is difficult to keep straight whether the author is talking WITH a specific person (as an example person X), talking ABOUT person X, or if the author is having a conversation with person Y about person X.
Other than that, the story is interesting & concepts are easy to understand. I would recommend this read.
Jon Ronson has a great touch with humor, and this book does have its funny moments. But the humor is often of a wistful, guilty sort, because it clearly comes at the expense of others. I don't mean the gullible, weak-minded patsies who give their attention and money to charismatic con artists--they deserve any derision you want to send their way. I mean those who have suffered, unjustly or at least beyond proportion, at the hands of amoral buffoons in whom too much trust and authority have been placed.

I found this a fairly depressing read in 2017, because America's capacity for denial of clear reality, willful ignorance, and wishful magical thinking has only expanded since the days of the Iraq War. Deceitfulness, stupidity, and callous disregard are now normal, if not virtuous. Any Ghraib did at least spark seemingly genuine outrage at that time; what would the reception be today?

That's a reaction to, not a criticism of, this book. Ronson goes out of his way to give a fair hearing to wacky crackpots, and there's rarely a sense of his passing judgment based on excessive credulity, though some of the resulting exchanges are truly hilarious. Fortunately, Ronson is much less tolerant of moral failing or laziness, sparing us from insincere objectivity. This book's particular angle on some of the country's shameful acts in the wake of 9/11 is as illuminating as it is disturbing.
Ronson investigates the US military intelligence community’s forays into extrasensory perception (ESP) and mind control. Those who’ve seen the movie loosely based on this book will be aware of the quirky-humorous tone it takes. (If the title wasn’t enough to convey that the author was aiming for quirky humor.) Ronson’s style, favoring punchy simple sentences, offers a kind of deadpan delivery that supports the tone of the book.

That said, the book also has a sad edge as it can be seen as a commentary on military officers who came back from the war in Vietnam damaged and grasping at straws as to how to prevent history from repeating itself. It’s as if what these men experienced made some eager to believe because they so wanted to believe they could win with the mind and avoid the carnage of war.

While the book’s sixteen chapters are not divided by the author, they can be roughly divided into three parts. The first is the pursuit of ESP starting in the late 1970’s. This includes remote viewing and the titular psychokinesis (i.e. starring goats to death.)

The middle section is the resurgence of these esoteric approaches in the late 90’s and, especially, after 9-11 (also speaking to how dire blows to the psyche lead to wild approaches.) Much of this section is about mind control rather than ESP. One may remember the news story of the “I Love You, You Love Me” song from Barney [i.e. the purple dinosaur] being played over and over again to break terror suspects. The question remaining unanswered is whether there was anything else going on besides torture by Barney song (i.e. subliminal messages or sonic / ultrasonic frequencies [as used in non-lethal weapon technology.])

The latter section deals with the famous case of a scientist who jumped from a hotel room window to his death. It was later admitted that the scientist had been the unwitting victim of hallucinogen experimentation as part of the famed MKUltra project, and his death was written off as a trip gone bad. Ronson presents the story of the scientist’s son, a man who firmly believes that the story copped to was neither the full story nor the true story.

This book is interesting and entertaining, despite the fact that many of the questions that Ronson sets out to answer remain unanswered and probably always will. While the author got several key people to talk to him, the projects discussed are highly classified and the possibility of disinformation is ever-present.

Ronson manages to walk a fine line throughout the book. He presents all this quirky and bizarre activity in a way that neither comes across as mocking nor even particularly skeptical. (His punchy delivery does hint at this intention on occasion.) He lets the reader do the mocking and be the skeptic. At times he comes across as a believer. That is, while many of the happenings of the book reflect bat-shit crazy behavior / decisions, he suggests that all but the most hardened skeptics would believe that some of the people involved had inexplicable gifts.

I’d recommend this book. If you’re interested in government sponsored esoteric activities like psi and mind control and related scandals / conspiracies, you’ll find it fascinating. On the other hand, even if you’re not, it’s still an entertaining read that provides a sort of commentary on the effects of war on the psyche.