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Book Summary: King Leopold’s Ghost (Hochschild)

PatMay 10, 2008

King Leopold’s Ghost
by Adam Hochshild
Houghton Mifflin (1998)
225 pages

Description of the Book
King Leopold II of Belgium’s colonial claim to the African Congo at the turn of the 18th to 19th century came amidst other colonial expansion into Africa. Through the early 20th century, the Belgian Congo expanded rapidly and became a highly profitable enterprise for Leopold, but the human cost in forced slavery, dismemberment and social wreckage only begins to speak of the cost to humanity of this period in history both for Europeans and Africans, with social ripples around the globe.

Interpretation of the Book
King Leopold’s megalomania and sociopathy are fascinating to watch, but evil to behold. The stories and photos, the historical evidence that resulted in millions of deaths and multiple millions maimed and abused establish a historical image that is powerful and a crude warning to beware and to watch out for absolute power being wielded in any form, because absolute power certainly does corrupt.

Application
This is an outstanding and horrifying book. It is not often that I read something that makes me simply ashamed to be a human being. The horror of naked pursuit of greed, power and colonialism shocks me to the core.

The rawness of this describes the brokenness of humanity more deeply than I’ve ever heard. It’s the greatest proof that we need a savior, but not just individually. The Gospel story must make an impact in culture, and it must establish justice for the outcast, the outsider, the poor and the unempowered.

The horror of greed-driven colonialism continues today, and the impact of this stage of history continues in this part of Africa today, as reports of civil war and cannibalism continue. Very little is being said at the international level at this point. The story continues.

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These Three Things

PatMay 7, 2008

I met last week for the first time with a spiritual director. The time was beneficial, and I think the relationship will grow in a great way.

These are the three things he encouraged me to pursue, based on the strands of themes that he heard me talking about and his own

1. Continue to pursue establishing my own Rule of Life, prayerfully, and being careful not to be too strict so that what I want to do becomes legalistic.

I’ll be blogging a lot more about this, but I continue to think and write about this, and find great resources to help as well.

2. Practice the spiritual discipline of sabbath.

I’m at a phase of life in which I find it difficult to make or find time to rest. Work schedule, having young kids, and being in a doctoral program means I don’t get a lot of breather time. But last weekend I took the whole weekend off except for a few email conversations, and played with my kids. It was a forced time, as my wife was on retreat, but it was a lot of fun just hanging with the kids and playing in the yard and park, mowing the lawns, weeding, wrestling with the kids, and all the other goodies we got to do.

3. Consider the practice of centering prayer.
As a meditative practice, centering prayer simply gives you a way to focus your attention on God, and rest in the presence of the Trinity. I blogged about Steve’s reference for me here.

I continue to dig deeper in these three areas, each of which has its own way of helping to shape me.

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Meme: Unwatchable actors/actresses

PatMay 1, 2008

I’m going to call in to one of my fun favorite podcasts, Delta Park Project, with a suggestion for a new playalong pop culture game. But before I do that, I thought it would be fun to post here and see if we can get a meme started.

Here’s the game. Pretend you’re at the movie rental store, browsing the shelf. You spot a movie and read the back cover. You spot an actor’s name and drop the movie, because you are pretty sure that you wouldn’t enjoy any movie that this person would be in.

Which five actors or actresses make you absolutely refuse to watch a movie that they’re in?

Mine:

Rob Schneider
Martin Short
The Rock
Meryl Streep
Jim Carrey

Your turn. All can play, but I want to hear from these five.

Linkback to this post or post a comment here linking me to your answers!

In the Coracle

Pat Loughery’s thoughts on life, faith, sports, motorcycles, photography, music and other details

Archive of "Uncategorized" Category

Book Summary: King Leopold’s Ghost (Hochschild)

These Three Things

Meme: Unwatchable actors/actresses