Of all the classic dystopian books, I like this one best. Bradbury combines the underlying authoritarianism with the bread and circuses use of technology into something that is clearly related to what we live today in the West. He also incorporates the idea of alienation - alienation from others, alienation from the self. Isolation and medicated depression in the midst of a society of happiness. His characters also have a bit more substance, a bit more humanity than the other two books.
At the heart of the books society is an issue that is very much topical right now - the issue of identity and living with diversity. The book's solution is mindless self-replicating mass identity. (Similar idea behind the Homelands concept in "Adjustment Day".
Showing posts with label future. Show all posts
Showing posts with label future. Show all posts
Thursday, 28 June 2018
1984 - George Orwell
1984 was a better read than Brave New World for me. It comes a little closer to the rough authoritarianism that is on the rise in many places right now. You can still see how Orwell was affected by his profound disillusionment with Stalinist Russia.
It is interesting to compare the role of sex in those two books; in Brave New World it is a form of social distraction, part of the bread and circuses machine. In 1984, it is used as a form of social revolt.
This dystopian vision probably captures the experience of the poorest elements f the west, particularly in the U.S. - the grime, the poverty, the hostile authoritarian oversight.
It is interesting to compare the role of sex in those two books; in Brave New World it is a form of social distraction, part of the bread and circuses machine. In 1984, it is used as a form of social revolt.
This dystopian vision probably captures the experience of the poorest elements f the west, particularly in the U.S. - the grime, the poverty, the hostile authoritarian oversight.
Saturday, 23 June 2018
Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
Reread this old classic. I find his style a bit hard to wade through - always a tendency towards a didactic or ideological tone. Social control instruments - sex and drugs. Prescient in its own way when you look particularly at the U.S. and, to a lesser degree, Europe. I would say this book is partly the result of Huxley's encounter with American culture, particularly in California and Hollywood once he moved there. (But then, dystopias are usually more about their own time than any future time...)
His view is more valid for the years preceding 2000/2010. Right now I would say the emerging world situation is closer to the dystopias of Animal Farm, 1984 and Fahrenheit 451 - more about fear as direct social control, less about bread and circuses as social palliation.
His view is more valid for the years preceding 2000/2010. Right now I would say the emerging world situation is closer to the dystopias of Animal Farm, 1984 and Fahrenheit 451 - more about fear as direct social control, less about bread and circuses as social palliation.
Saturday, 31 March 2018
In the Shadows of the American Century - Alfred W. McCoy
A well-researched catalogue of all the conditions and geopolitical shifts that are easing the U.S. out of its position of dominance.
- a brief examination of how the US become so powerful after WW II (economics in a fractured world)
- fracturing of social cohesion at home
- American loss of status and credibility through support for oppressive regimes, use of torture, covert operations harmful to the populations of other countries
- over reliance on military threat to force other countries to acquiesce the US lead / interests
- decline in economic performance (education failure, investment failure)
-decline in share of world economic activity as other countries' economic performance grows
The sections on China are very interesting. They have a completely different approach to foreign relations. They use their enormous reserves to build infrastructure partnerships with other countries and improve economies for both partners. Some of the infrastructure projects are huge: rail lines to Europe, high speed rail lines to Europe (China to Berlin in 2 days!) Infrastructure to link Europe, China and Africa in one large trading block.
McCoy spends time at the beginning of the book exploring an old idea - Central Asia as the strategic key to world dominance. If you can control or create a network linking this area with Europe, the East and Africa, then you have the dominant economy in the world. He sees much of China's foreign policy as working towards this goal.
A book to reread, as there are many threads.
- a brief examination of how the US become so powerful after WW II (economics in a fractured world)
- fracturing of social cohesion at home
- American loss of status and credibility through support for oppressive regimes, use of torture, covert operations harmful to the populations of other countries
- over reliance on military threat to force other countries to acquiesce the US lead / interests
- decline in economic performance (education failure, investment failure)
-decline in share of world economic activity as other countries' economic performance grows
The sections on China are very interesting. They have a completely different approach to foreign relations. They use their enormous reserves to build infrastructure partnerships with other countries and improve economies for both partners. Some of the infrastructure projects are huge: rail lines to Europe, high speed rail lines to Europe (China to Berlin in 2 days!) Infrastructure to link Europe, China and Africa in one large trading block.
McCoy spends time at the beginning of the book exploring an old idea - Central Asia as the strategic key to world dominance. If you can control or create a network linking this area with Europe, the East and Africa, then you have the dominant economy in the world. He sees much of China's foreign policy as working towards this goal.
A book to reread, as there are many threads.
Sunday, 25 March 2018
Next: Piccolo libro sulla globalizzazione - Alessandro Baricco
Unfortunately, not translated.
Il meglio libro che ho mai letto sulla globalizzazione. Piccolo, da vero (90 pagine), ama esamina l'essenziale del fenomeno - cos'è, problemi nel disegno nella cultura popolare, effetti postivi e negativi. Insomma, l'autore non veda un globalizzazione 'pulita' come dica - i problemi della globalizzazione sono i problemi inerenti del capitalismo ama più profondi perché non c'è controlli legali del fatto che e transnazionale come fenomeno.
Ama piuttosto di smettere o disfare la globalizzazione pensa che dobbiamo andare a fondo - una globalizzazione che viene non solo dai banchi e dei manager, ama un gran movimento di globalizzazione dell'umanità - il sogno di un solo mondo.
Un'idea interessante - che la guerra era la globalizzazione del passato; il modo di dare più grande campo di attività ai soldi dei capitalisti.
Il meglio libro che ho mai letto sulla globalizzazione. Piccolo, da vero (90 pagine), ama esamina l'essenziale del fenomeno - cos'è, problemi nel disegno nella cultura popolare, effetti postivi e negativi. Insomma, l'autore non veda un globalizzazione 'pulita' come dica - i problemi della globalizzazione sono i problemi inerenti del capitalismo ama più profondi perché non c'è controlli legali del fatto che e transnazionale come fenomeno.
Ama piuttosto di smettere o disfare la globalizzazione pensa che dobbiamo andare a fondo - una globalizzazione che viene non solo dai banchi e dei manager, ama un gran movimento di globalizzazione dell'umanità - il sogno di un solo mondo.
Un'idea interessante - che la guerra era la globalizzazione del passato; il modo di dare più grande campo di attività ai soldi dei capitalisti.
Sunday, 24 September 2017
The End of Europe - James Kirchick
Subtitiled "Dictators, Demagogues, and the Coming Dark Age" Published in 2017
Kirchick looks at a number of European issues through the lens of specific countries and their problems. Some of the problems he discusses include neutrality as a stance and how it encourages Russian aggression and meddling, the rise of antisemitism and the failure to integrate Muslim immigrants into the European system of values (also seen as a failure to manage immigration as an issue in general), the desire for European wealth without European values and fiscal discipline, the failure to stand firm on state borders and state protection (again in the face of Russian aggression), the pursuit of self-interested economic gains at the expense of other EU states. Basically the failure to act as a mutually supportive group, and to blame others for the problems of one's own political culture and economy.
For me, the most troubling tendency is the rise of apologists for Russian aggression and interference. This shows a singular stupidity in relation to even recent history, especially when you see such tendencies in former East Bloc countries. True, the US has looked after its interests in helping develop the European project, but the net effect has been mutual benefit (unlike some other places where the US has been active...). People have also forgotten that Europeans have twice in the past century called on the US to help them clean up a mess of their own making, at the price of many American lives. This gives them the right to participation. The Russia project, on the other hand, has never been about mutual benefit for the larger population of other countries, something the corrupt elites in many European countries seem to have grasped. Their Russian apologist stance is based on narrow self-interest or crony interest. The Russian project has no ideological cover now - oligarchy, corruption, power.
Also the ability to suppress core social values when face with cultural relativism.
Two things that bothered me at first are the usual problems with many US political thinkers. First, they are blind to the US' use of many practices that they criticize in relation to Russia. Second, they are blindly pro-Israel and pro-Zionist, and are blind to the many machinations that Israel and Zionist groups in other countries use to stifle criticism and discussion.
While these issues are technically outside the focus of this book, they need to be acknowledged to give the criticisms levies some legitimacy. Especially true considering the current (as of publication) US president embodies many of the same issues and uses many of the same disinformation techniques discussed in the book.
Worth reading, especially alongside the recently read discussion of major US failings, Time to Start Thinking, by Edward Luce.
Kirchick looks at a number of European issues through the lens of specific countries and their problems. Some of the problems he discusses include neutrality as a stance and how it encourages Russian aggression and meddling, the rise of antisemitism and the failure to integrate Muslim immigrants into the European system of values (also seen as a failure to manage immigration as an issue in general), the desire for European wealth without European values and fiscal discipline, the failure to stand firm on state borders and state protection (again in the face of Russian aggression), the pursuit of self-interested economic gains at the expense of other EU states. Basically the failure to act as a mutually supportive group, and to blame others for the problems of one's own political culture and economy.
For me, the most troubling tendency is the rise of apologists for Russian aggression and interference. This shows a singular stupidity in relation to even recent history, especially when you see such tendencies in former East Bloc countries. True, the US has looked after its interests in helping develop the European project, but the net effect has been mutual benefit (unlike some other places where the US has been active...). People have also forgotten that Europeans have twice in the past century called on the US to help them clean up a mess of their own making, at the price of many American lives. This gives them the right to participation. The Russia project, on the other hand, has never been about mutual benefit for the larger population of other countries, something the corrupt elites in many European countries seem to have grasped. Their Russian apologist stance is based on narrow self-interest or crony interest. The Russian project has no ideological cover now - oligarchy, corruption, power.
Also the ability to suppress core social values when face with cultural relativism.
Two things that bothered me at first are the usual problems with many US political thinkers. First, they are blind to the US' use of many practices that they criticize in relation to Russia. Second, they are blindly pro-Israel and pro-Zionist, and are blind to the many machinations that Israel and Zionist groups in other countries use to stifle criticism and discussion.
While these issues are technically outside the focus of this book, they need to be acknowledged to give the criticisms levies some legitimacy. Especially true considering the current (as of publication) US president embodies many of the same issues and uses many of the same disinformation techniques discussed in the book.
Worth reading, especially alongside the recently read discussion of major US failings, Time to Start Thinking, by Edward Luce.
Corvus - Harold Johnson
Johnson is a Cree living in northern Saskatchewan. This book takes place in the future when global warming has pushed most people out of southern latitudes, and when agricultural systems are collapsing due to genetic modification and pesticide use.
It is a bit of a preachy book, a book of ideas more than of characters, but Johnson explores and contrasts different world views in an effective way. The main groups/views within the book are: corporate consumer culture; an isolated native band living a traditional way of life; a self-contained community outside the main town living communally. Issues discussed include wealth disparity, climate disaster, justice system, sustainable agriculture, native spirituality and culture, consumerism as madness.
A very interesting section at the end has a former radical protestor discussing the uselessness of protest. Some good quotes:
"Protesting against war is like standing in front of a mental hospital with a sign that says, "Stop being insane" p. 273
"What about the environment? Don't you think that is something worth protesting for?
..."If we cannot raise our level of sanity to the point that we care about other humans, about our own species, we will never learn to care about all the other species we share the planet with." p. 274
An author with some provocative ideas.
It is a bit of a preachy book, a book of ideas more than of characters, but Johnson explores and contrasts different world views in an effective way. The main groups/views within the book are: corporate consumer culture; an isolated native band living a traditional way of life; a self-contained community outside the main town living communally. Issues discussed include wealth disparity, climate disaster, justice system, sustainable agriculture, native spirituality and culture, consumerism as madness.
A very interesting section at the end has a former radical protestor discussing the uselessness of protest. Some good quotes:
"Protesting against war is like standing in front of a mental hospital with a sign that says, "Stop being insane" p. 273
"What about the environment? Don't you think that is something worth protesting for?
..."If we cannot raise our level of sanity to the point that we care about other humans, about our own species, we will never learn to care about all the other species we share the planet with." p. 274
An author with some provocative ideas.
Saturday, 24 June 2017
Time to Start Thinking - Edward Luce
A very clear, sharp analysis of the many challenges America is facing as it slowly slips into decline. A chapter on each of several issues - middle class decline, poor education system, dubious value of free trade, outdated ideologies, rise of other dynamic and innovative economic centres, bureaucracy, political dishonesty, entrenched special interest groups.
Luce is only moderately optimistic that the situation can be turned around.
Very well-done. Doesn't seem too biased in any particular direction.
Luce is only moderately optimistic that the situation can be turned around.
Very well-done. Doesn't seem too biased in any particular direction.
Saturday, 6 May 2017
Utopia for Realists - Rutger Bregman
This book opens with a set of surprising statistics that make you realize how much the world has changed in a positive way since 1900 - deaths from all causes are way down, wars are less common, major infectious diseases are disappearing, extreme poverty is down, hunger is down, literacy is up. Such a contrast to the picture you get reading the daily news media.
His central argument is how we need to rethink our relationship to work and income in this age of plenty, especially as machines become a progressively more productive part of our economy. One idea is that the time has come for a guaranteed minimum income for everyone - this includes a look at two surprising experiments with this idea back in the 60s in the US (associated with Nixon!) and Canada. The other idea is that we need to look beyond work to give meaning and purpose to our lives - the kind of socially positive activities that can be engaged in when work doesn't eat up all your time.
There are lots of other threads attached to this central idea - it is a rather dense book. Worth a reread.
His central argument is how we need to rethink our relationship to work and income in this age of plenty, especially as machines become a progressively more productive part of our economy. One idea is that the time has come for a guaranteed minimum income for everyone - this includes a look at two surprising experiments with this idea back in the 60s in the US (associated with Nixon!) and Canada. The other idea is that we need to look beyond work to give meaning and purpose to our lives - the kind of socially positive activities that can be engaged in when work doesn't eat up all your time.
There are lots of other threads attached to this central idea - it is a rather dense book. Worth a reread.
Monday, 24 April 2017
Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow - Yuval Noah Harari
A very interesting look at some of the possible important trends emerging as a result of technological change largely. A look at how human potential is shifting as technology changes.
Some main themes:
- human immortality; the possibility of drastically increasing the human life span
- the slow, step-by-step ceding of control of decisions to technology (smartphones), big data and AI; what happens if (when?) AI begins to set its own priorities
- a brutal look at how humans have manipulated biology to produce the modern meat factory; the possibility that intelligent computers could come to treat humans in a similar fashion
- the importance of the stories we tell in the evolution of humans and society
- threats to liberalism as humans become less necessary as a work force
- the concept of living beings as algorithms; problems and issues with this idea
A brief summary. A very dense book. Worth rereading.
Some main themes:
- human immortality; the possibility of drastically increasing the human life span
- the slow, step-by-step ceding of control of decisions to technology (smartphones), big data and AI; what happens if (when?) AI begins to set its own priorities
- a brutal look at how humans have manipulated biology to produce the modern meat factory; the possibility that intelligent computers could come to treat humans in a similar fashion
- the importance of the stories we tell in the evolution of humans and society
- threats to liberalism as humans become less necessary as a work force
- the concept of living beings as algorithms; problems and issues with this idea
A brief summary. A very dense book. Worth rereading.
Monday, 30 November 2015
The Water Knife - Paolo Bacigalupi
Another apocalypse novel, similar in theme to The Wind Up Girl (which I would like to reread). This time the author is exploring a future southwest US, when water has finally become so scarce that the main urban centres begin to fight amongst themselves to have control and access to what water remains. He also explores what kind of development might survive within this crisis environment using the latest technology around water recycling and waste management. As in so many apocalypse novels, there is the elite that survives and thrives no matter, and then there are the excluded, the surplus, the excess. Two societies - one militarized, one a chaos of crime bosses, gangs, criminals and paramilitaries.
A good read, but very american in structure - lots of guns, violence, the obligatory sex scene or two.
There is also a theme of what people will do, how they will change in moments of extreme crisis and threat. The breakdown of civil society and what relations and structures grow up in their place. What does facing that new reality mean?
A good read, but very american in structure - lots of guns, violence, the obligatory sex scene or two.
There is also a theme of what people will do, how they will change in moments of extreme crisis and threat. The breakdown of civil society and what relations and structures grow up in their place. What does facing that new reality mean?
Saturday, 31 October 2015
Ill Fares the Land - Tony Judt
One of his most pointed books looking at modern society, how we got here and what the serious problems are.
He looks at both how the two World Wars and, most interesting, the 60s social revolution have landed us where we are today.
He explores and defines the idea of social democracy, as opposed to socialism, and why it rose to prominence after the horrific social fallout of the two world wars. He also looks at how the 60s obsession with self-expression and individual freedom led to the demise of social democracy and the rise of social relativism.
He underlines the continuing need for strong government, and democratic participation, in the face of the challenges and social upheaval heading our way from both ecological causes and the effects of globalization. He underlines the impossibility of big business dealing with crisis issues (even like the crash in 2009 which was exclusively economic). He points out that, while we have allowed much of our economy to become global, government is still local, and cannot be any other way.
One issue he brings up that I am not sure I see the way around is that much of the social democratic benefits were enacted in a time when people had a much stronger cohesive national identity. We have to have something to build the concept of "group" on if we are going to work together as a society. Consumerism and the fragmentation of social life through the internet has tended to minimize these larger local group identities.
Worth rereading.
He looks at both how the two World Wars and, most interesting, the 60s social revolution have landed us where we are today.
He explores and defines the idea of social democracy, as opposed to socialism, and why it rose to prominence after the horrific social fallout of the two world wars. He also looks at how the 60s obsession with self-expression and individual freedom led to the demise of social democracy and the rise of social relativism.
He underlines the continuing need for strong government, and democratic participation, in the face of the challenges and social upheaval heading our way from both ecological causes and the effects of globalization. He underlines the impossibility of big business dealing with crisis issues (even like the crash in 2009 which was exclusively economic). He points out that, while we have allowed much of our economy to become global, government is still local, and cannot be any other way.
One issue he brings up that I am not sure I see the way around is that much of the social democratic benefits were enacted in a time when people had a much stronger cohesive national identity. We have to have something to build the concept of "group" on if we are going to work together as a society. Consumerism and the fragmentation of social life through the internet has tended to minimize these larger local group identities.
Worth rereading.
Monday, 31 August 2015
Disordered World - Amin Maalouf
Subtitled "Setting a New Course for the Twenty-first Century"
An interesting analysis of the current Middle East and where we find ourselves in general today. Maalouf has the advantage of having witnessed first hand the breakdown of social order and the slip into chaos in Lebanon.
He looks at how the West has misused its strength and created political and social disasters in countries in the Middle East, and indirectly helped create Islamic fundamentalism. He has a long chapter on how political leaders everywhere have lost any sense of legitimacy in the eyes of their people by being tied to narrow special interests of all stripes. He also talks about how a post-ideological world has fractured into a tribal world based on ethnicity, religion, skin colour, wealth.
He finishes the book with some chapters on how to rebuild, on how to reestablish a solidarity that can transcend cultures, ethnicities and religion. Very idealistic. Based on values of culture (I am reminded here of the effect on culture and its values of the cataclysm of WW I).
It is a nice vision, but I am more inclined to agree with Zizek's idea that change to the system will only come after collapse into chaos, probably provoked by environmental crises.
I find his non-fiction style a bit heavy and pedantic, but the ideas are interesting.
Worth rereading.
An interesting analysis of the current Middle East and where we find ourselves in general today. Maalouf has the advantage of having witnessed first hand the breakdown of social order and the slip into chaos in Lebanon.
He looks at how the West has misused its strength and created political and social disasters in countries in the Middle East, and indirectly helped create Islamic fundamentalism. He has a long chapter on how political leaders everywhere have lost any sense of legitimacy in the eyes of their people by being tied to narrow special interests of all stripes. He also talks about how a post-ideological world has fractured into a tribal world based on ethnicity, religion, skin colour, wealth.
He finishes the book with some chapters on how to rebuild, on how to reestablish a solidarity that can transcend cultures, ethnicities and religion. Very idealistic. Based on values of culture (I am reminded here of the effect on culture and its values of the cataclysm of WW I).
It is a nice vision, but I am more inclined to agree with Zizek's idea that change to the system will only come after collapse into chaos, probably provoked by environmental crises.
I find his non-fiction style a bit heavy and pedantic, but the ideas are interesting.
Worth rereading.
Sunday, 31 May 2015
Shop Class as Soulcraft - Matthew B. Crawford
Subtitled 'An Inquiry into the Value of Work'. An interesting book that pursues several threads:
- the mind-numbing inutility of most work in our society at both the top and the bottom end - at the bottom because it is repetitive and mindless - at the top because it deals in nebulous concepts and half-baked ideas that don't actually produce anything, and that focus on a process that often seems to go nowhere
- the intellectual value of work that focuses on engaging with things, whether it be motorcycles or children - he explores some of the same concepts as Taleb in the idea that knowledge is born of experience and working with things, not of formulae and abstract reasoning
- the relation between mindless, repetitive work and consumerism
- the contradiction of the pursuit of freedom while living in a society where we have little agency and depend completely on technology and experts to build and maintain our 'stuff'
- he also explores how university education has been perverted by its relationship with the corporate world, both in its teaching and in its very structure
To find: The Electronic Sweatshop: How Computers are Transforming the Office of the Future into the Factory of the Past - Barbara Garson
- the mind-numbing inutility of most work in our society at both the top and the bottom end - at the bottom because it is repetitive and mindless - at the top because it deals in nebulous concepts and half-baked ideas that don't actually produce anything, and that focus on a process that often seems to go nowhere
- the intellectual value of work that focuses on engaging with things, whether it be motorcycles or children - he explores some of the same concepts as Taleb in the idea that knowledge is born of experience and working with things, not of formulae and abstract reasoning
- the relation between mindless, repetitive work and consumerism
- the contradiction of the pursuit of freedom while living in a society where we have little agency and depend completely on technology and experts to build and maintain our 'stuff'
- he also explores how university education has been perverted by its relationship with the corporate world, both in its teaching and in its very structure
To find: The Electronic Sweatshop: How Computers are Transforming the Office of the Future into the Factory of the Past - Barbara Garson
Thursday, 19 March 2015
Happy City - Charles Montgomery
A book filled with fascinating observations and research about the crazy way we have come to see and live in our cities. Too many to list here. One: inhabitants of Toronto and Vancouver express less satisfaction with life than people living in small towns and backwaters such as Sherbrooke and Brantford (!!!!!)
He looks at many of the unhealthy, unhappy trends in modern urban design and living. He explores the negative outcomes of our obsessions with suburban sprawl. He looks at the politics of power and inequality in modern urban environments, from the domination of the car to gentrification.
Throughout the book I met explanations for many of the things I disliked about my suburban living experience and also that I dislike in the changes in Toronto. Why walking is so unpleasant in the suburbs. Why parks are often so uninviting. Why the ROM addition is such an abomination. Why areas like Harboufront, with their endless condos and planned recreational areas, remain lifeless and uninviting. Why I was compelled to give up riding the subway this winter (the growing stress caused by repeated unreliability combined with a lack of power to circumvent the problem).
It also filled with inspirational stories of change for the better, like Bogata, Copenhagen, neighbourhoods and local movements around the world.
Definitely worth a reread.
He looks at many of the unhealthy, unhappy trends in modern urban design and living. He explores the negative outcomes of our obsessions with suburban sprawl. He looks at the politics of power and inequality in modern urban environments, from the domination of the car to gentrification.
Throughout the book I met explanations for many of the things I disliked about my suburban living experience and also that I dislike in the changes in Toronto. Why walking is so unpleasant in the suburbs. Why parks are often so uninviting. Why the ROM addition is such an abomination. Why areas like Harboufront, with their endless condos and planned recreational areas, remain lifeless and uninviting. Why I was compelled to give up riding the subway this winter (the growing stress caused by repeated unreliability combined with a lack of power to circumvent the problem).
It also filled with inspirational stories of change for the better, like Bogata, Copenhagen, neighbourhoods and local movements around the world.
Definitely worth a reread.
Monday, 3 November 2014
Fahrenheit 451 - Ray Bradbury
Last time I read this book was probably almost 40 years ago...
The story is very prescient, especially considering it was written in 1953. His vision is somewhat similar to Orwell's and Huxley's but the basis of control is completely different - the elimination of social conflict through homogenization of society. The primacy of "fun" as a method of social control. Turns out this model is much closer to the direction of American society than the other two. Orwell and Huxley reflect more the drift of the Soviet state and its satellite states.
Bradbury is a brilliant writer. Not quite sure how, but he is. In just a few simple sentences he seems to be able to express the essence of a character, a situation, a place. You can see it in your mind's eye.
I must try some of his fantasy/science fiction works.
The story is very prescient, especially considering it was written in 1953. His vision is somewhat similar to Orwell's and Huxley's but the basis of control is completely different - the elimination of social conflict through homogenization of society. The primacy of "fun" as a method of social control. Turns out this model is much closer to the direction of American society than the other two. Orwell and Huxley reflect more the drift of the Soviet state and its satellite states.
Bradbury is a brilliant writer. Not quite sure how, but he is. In just a few simple sentences he seems to be able to express the essence of a character, a situation, a place. You can see it in your mind's eye.
I must try some of his fantasy/science fiction works.
Sunday, 31 August 2014
Al Qaeda and What It Means to be Modern - John Gray
The first part of this book presents in an organized way his ideas on the various aspects of the Enlightenment, and how they have informed not only modern capitalism, but also communism and also modern forms of extremism based on the remaking of man and society or the rule of pure reason. While I find it a bit shallower than his usual vignette style of presenting and interweaving various threads of ideas, it is presented in a clearer form.
Unfortunately, the last half of the book rambles and rants a bit. He falls into various (delirious) imaginings of the future, and it begins to sound a bit "mullah-ish", ranting with the pointer finger raised etc.
Unfortunately, the last half of the book rambles and rants a bit. He falls into various (delirious) imaginings of the future, and it begins to sound a bit "mullah-ish", ranting with the pointer finger raised etc.
Friday, 27 December 2013
More Money than Brains - Laura Penny
Full title: More Money than Brains - Why School Sucks, College is Crap and Idiots Think They're Right
A great, albeit depressing, read. One of those books that hits the nail smack on the head. She has done the scholarly research on many of the social and institutional shifts that I shake my head over and discuss when I can find someone else who is interested.
One of the great things about the book is that it cuts across partisan political lines. She talks about how both the left and the right, both the new media and the old, both the young and the not so young, both industry and your average Joe Blow have all contributed to create the new Idiocracy, as she calls it.
This book ties in with the message in the documentaries by Adam Curtis that I have been watching: All Watched Over by Loving Machines, and others.
Lots of great quotes.
Some great creative names for social trends and deformed social institutions.
Her writing style is also quite witty in general.
Tellingly, she offers no solution, no grand way out.
A book you should own.
Also a great source for further reading.
Reread January 2019
A great, albeit depressing, read. One of those books that hits the nail smack on the head. She has done the scholarly research on many of the social and institutional shifts that I shake my head over and discuss when I can find someone else who is interested.
One of the great things about the book is that it cuts across partisan political lines. She talks about how both the left and the right, both the new media and the old, both the young and the not so young, both industry and your average Joe Blow have all contributed to create the new Idiocracy, as she calls it.
This book ties in with the message in the documentaries by Adam Curtis that I have been watching: All Watched Over by Loving Machines, and others.
Lots of great quotes.
Some great creative names for social trends and deformed social institutions.
Her writing style is also quite witty in general.
Tellingly, she offers no solution, no grand way out.
A book you should own.
Also a great source for further reading.
Reread January 2019
Wednesday, 20 November 2013
Dark Age Ahead - Jane Jacobs
Jacobs is an interesting thinker in that she is writing about many of the key issues of the late 20th century, but not as an expert. She writes as a knowledgeable, thinking person who is living and acting in the context of these issues: family and social breakdown, the growing but dysfunctional urban environment more and more of us live in, perversion of public dialogue by self-seeking experts, domination of the social and political sphere by the interests of elites and the wealthy, the erosion of meaningful education.
The other think that makes her interesting is that she is writing within the context of Canada and Toronto, as well as the U.S.
While her style is at times a bit painful, the book is worth reading for its ideas.
The other think that makes her interesting is that she is writing within the context of Canada and Toronto, as well as the U.S.
While her style is at times a bit painful, the book is worth reading for its ideas.
Sunday, 27 October 2013
The Unwinding: An Inner History of the New America - George Packer
Another book on the decline of american, and by extension western, society. What is different about Packer's approach is he does it through stories - not fiction, but the stories of real people's lives, gathered through hundreds of hours of interviewing. The book is organized by decades, with each chapter starting with a collection of what looks like newspaper extracts highlighting some of the decade's key events and stories. He tells the stories of some important figures like the founder of Walmart. Three key characters, humble everyday people, he follows through several of the decades and we see how their life develops and changes shape against the backdrop of a changing society.
To be honest, I didn't read the whole book, but not because it wasn't worth reading. I think it is a very humanized way to look at some of the current issues we face as societies, rather than seeing the issues as statistics and and argument of ideas. No, I didn't read the whole thing because I'm starting to feel like I've read enough about what is going on, what is happening, how things are falling apart. My interests are shifting to questions like what to do about it, where did it come from, what are the deep forces behind this, what can we learn to help us move on.
To be honest, I didn't read the whole book, but not because it wasn't worth reading. I think it is a very humanized way to look at some of the current issues we face as societies, rather than seeing the issues as statistics and and argument of ideas. No, I didn't read the whole thing because I'm starting to feel like I've read enough about what is going on, what is happening, how things are falling apart. My interests are shifting to questions like what to do about it, where did it come from, what are the deep forces behind this, what can we learn to help us move on.
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