Pursuit of The Grander

He was trying to find out how collective life can go really well — and to learn the lessons of failures. And politics in this sense is the practical art of getting a society, as a whole, to flourish. Of course it is possible for the two kinds of politics to come together. And when they do it is a noble sight. Think of heroic parliaments and founding fathers who have been the true leaders of their societies. Despite the show at the top, the heart of politics is revealed in the actual workings of our governing institutions.

In War and Peace, Tolstoy examines the difficulty we have in focusing our attention of the real workings of societies. He says a society is a bit like a steam train. Our first inclination is to look at the clouds of dirty vapour puffing out of the chimney and think: Our inclination — without really thinking about it — is to imagine that the high drama at the top is what really counts.

Leadership battles are exciting by their very nature. But political leadership battles are in many respects very similar to those that might occur in the boardroom of a telephone company.

They are fights for who gets to make the decisions, who gets to be head of what, who is rising, whose career is beginning to decline. The human drama is there; but the actual policies and decisions at stake often, in themselves, lack real grandeur and ambition. Rather, these issues — the issues with which politics mostly deals — cover only a small fraction of what it takes to get a society to flourish.

Editorial: Passionate Pens: In Pursuit of Truth by Betty Blair

In politics there are dramatic campaigns and fights for top positions, but the underlying concerns leave one with the impression that humans have inherited no more capacities and longings than those of a shellfish clinging to a rock: We are in trouble because our system is set up to address important but basic needs and cannot perceive or address the real challenges now facing affluent countries. Expecting nothing to go particularly well in society is usually quite wise.

As far as I can tell from my own portion of it, human life in general is full of error, shortcoming, disappointment and regret. Like most of the essentially fragile creatures ornamenting the Earth we spend most of our time just trying to stop things going more uniquely wrong than normal. Nevertheless it is instructive to focus on where we feel we are doing especially badly right now as a civilization.

Pursuit Of The Grander

Near the top of the list we might put a worrying lack of long-term thinking. Like most gigantic but unfamiliar issues before they are properly understood, this worry appears as a background anxiety across a whole range of areas. We know we need a long-term view to look after the ecosystems on which we depend. And as we move into the second century of our experiment with modern democracy, it seems increasingly plausible that the processes themselves work against some of the collective capacities we most require. Most of the time none of this bothers me at all. I am caught up in a dozen smaller dramas.

Th book advocates Preservation of the species by "tag and release". Largest marlin is over pounds. This book, I am sad to say, was a terrible terrible attempt by someone that obviously is a well travelled fisherman It was terrible written and I had to throw it in the recycle bin after a few chapters. Matt Rigney, In Pursuit of Giants I could not take any more of the book and had to discard it.

Sorry, but it is the truth.

Latest Content

OMG - talk about ego. I enjoyed reading this book. But I strongly agree with one of the other reviewers that the title to the book is misleading. I expected the book to be a quest on the part of the author to tag and release a marlin weighing more than 1, pounds. Instead, it is a collection of the author's stories of fishing tournaments and boat deliveries with bluewater fishing mixed in with the delivery. There are a few tales of grander marlin mixed in.

The book reads almost like one is reading Mr. Hard core billfish anglers like myself will enjoy this book, but I would not expect it to have appeal beyond this group.

• Das Kinderbuch Ronja Räubertochter und seine Umsetzung in verschiedenen Medien (German Edition)?
• Join Kobo & start eReading today?
• Fingertips (Part 4).

Besides that my friends Guy Harvey and the late Don Tyson were not authors of the book. Overall I enjoyed this book and thought the images included were better than average. This book is a compilation from those trips and the fishing experiences that occurred. From small sportfishers to mothership life, experience the problems and the rewards of seeking out these giant fish. The author describes fishing methods and procedures with a spirit of adventure and reader participation. From the Azores to Australia, six continents, ten venues, 68 photos. With chapters of local marlin fishing in Southern California.

Read about the time, expense and organization it takes to catch and release these fish, and have fun doing it! Wealth does not always dictate who has the luck needed to hookup with one of these monsters.