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In this intellectual tour de force, Saul argues that the West now toils unconsciously in the grip of a stifling "corporatist" structure that serves the needs of business managers and technocrats as it promotes the segmentation of society into competing interest groups and ethnic blocks.
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"WHO IS MORE CONTEMPTIBLE than he who scorns knowledge of himself?" Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
"WHO IS MORE CONTEMPTIBLE than he who scorns knowledge of himself?" Read the first page
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
10 of 10 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
I find myself highly recommending this book whenever the conversation turns to either the continuously eroding confidence of modern society in the public sector, or the increasing reliance on free market mechanisms as the best way to organize production and distribution in society. In this concise and convincing piece Saul argues that we are acting rather irresponsibly as citizens, abandoning the democratic institutions that can best articulate our needs and priorities as a society and allowing private sector entities to assume greater and greater control over our lives. While those who have not read the book may dismiss such arguments as anti-capitalist ideology, Saul's tone is in fact very measured and thoughtful, and the ideas he so deftly explores leave the reader with considerable food for thought. Moreover, the style of the writing is not at all academic - the book is as easy and enjoyable to read as it is thought-provoking.
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Ralston Saul has done it again--another penetrating and succinct analysis of democracy, globalisation and the state of Western civilisation. Among other things, Ralston Saul argues for a clear division between the economic and political, maintaining that economic structures such as capitalism possess of themselves no mechanisms for the protection of people's rights, the environment, or the public interest. Such systems should be subordinated to democratic political bodies whose agendas flow from the voting public, not from the interests of a private elite. Ralston Saul argues for an increase in "non-technical" education as a tool for equipping the populace to take back control of "global" affairs, and as an antidote for our society's lack of conscious awareness.
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
We first encountered this book on the radio as part of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporations' Massey Lecture series, on which this book is based. It is a gutsy and wide-ranging book that dares to criticize many of the leading ideas of current economic thought, such as (1) international currency trading is a great way to make money (except that it doesn't make any jobs) (2) all governments need to reduce deficits by cutting services. (and then what?) (3) the only meaningful value of something is it's economic value. (is an education less valuable than a golf ball?) He's an intellectual muckraker, a philosopher who went back and read what Adam Smith *really* wrote about. And it is readable, too. We recommend it.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Rage against the machine
One might say this book is a cut down version of Ralston-Saul's other main book : "Voltaire's Bastards" which being far more in depth and somewhat more complex is maybe not as... Read more
Published on 1 Dec 2009 by Frank Bierbrauer
Very impressive
Saul's works are thoroughly researched and his ideas are original, intelligent, sometimes a little depressing, but exciting and honest. Read more
Published on 10 Mar 2002 by N. Ross
Saul is a modern secular prophet!
You can add the name John Ralston Saul to those of Noam Chomsky, Ivan Illich, Franz Fanon (and who else? Read more
Published on 29 Mar 1999
Lucid and cogent review of our current social delimma
John Ralston Saul argues for commonsense oral dialogue and doubt as the best guarentors for democracy rather than reliance on structure. Read more
Published on 19 Nov 1998
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