Reviews for The economics of urban size

The average rating for The economics of urban size based on 2 reviews is 3 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2013-07-04 00:00:00 Tom Hofer I remember the time in my life when time had a beginning and an end. It was a bland period in the sunset world I then inhabited. Then, gradually - with much help from Jiddu Krishnamurti, and from others among those whose books I read - I learned how to escape from my dreary sunset world into Faith. Krishnamurti, though, had himself long since abandoned that dreary sunset world when this book was published... Thirty-five years ago this year, this brave and outspoken man of no fixed belief - but rather travelling on an endless adventure of seeking - started me on the road to a certainty which was a long time in coming. He's not easy to read. He'll challenge your deepest presuppositions and beliefs. But didn't Socrates do the same? And if you hold on to the Tiger - Jiddu Krishnamurti's - tail through the endlessly discomfiting vistas of a new and challenging kind of deconstruction of your high falutin attitudes and comforts, he'll show you Ordinary Reality in the end: a reality you could never previously endure... It's worth it, in the end, believe me. You'll live in a freedom you never thought possible. But be forewarned. It's a process - and never really an end. And once on that train you'll never get off. But neither will you want to. The end is only often a new beginning, and as Cesar Pavese once wisely said, new beginnings are what makes life worthwhile. You just hafta get used to riding the tiger's tail: no mean feat. This book is as good a place as any to begin! An important but difficult book about the intensely searing encounter between this modern mystic and an eminent physicist, in which both men humbly put down the apparent differences of their backgrounds to isolate the historic point at which humankind turned resolutely, but perhaps not irrevocably, down a blind alley. Into which we bitterly stumble more often than not. Both men firmly believe that there is no answer in despair; and both keep the discussion open and flexible. I find the main difficulty with K. Is that he sees so clearly our weak points (ouch!) - which we are forever reluctant to mend, being so fallibly human. But both men point out that we MUST make a start - and the beginning is in the very personal aporias we are so very reluctant to disentangle. And neither of them is SELLING us anything. But both agree we must make a beginning. And that beginning, for us, may be just the opening we need to find new meaning and purpose in our lives. One reason I gave it 5 stars is that these two gentlemen are NOT selling us anything. They're only interested in unblocking our mental roadblocks. Theirs as well. But if you take this book up, fasten your seatbelts first. Self-discovery is never easy... And this is is a Regular Roller Coaster Ride.

Review # 2 was written on 2016-03-24 00:00:00 James Wright Dialogs between David Bohm and J. Krishnamurti, enjoyable and provoking on the nature of thought, consciousness, and time. A central theme is the suggestion that humanity took a wrong turn in its history, leading to the present day sorrow, conflict, and war. I couldn't help but to feel this is an erroneous presupposition, while tempting, it seems to necessarily lead to the very desire and becoming that both Bohm and Krishnamurti are speaking against-- a psychological becoming where humanity may witness inward revolutions leading to the cessation of suffering, the very suffering caused by desire for becoming. It seems the notion of a "wrong" turn presupposes a division between what is and what could have been. That said, the discussion about time and conscious thought was incredibly insightful; so insightful, in fact, that it led me to question the central theme of humanities wrong turn.