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Title: The Unconscious Civilization by John Ralston Saul ISBN: 0-684-87108-4 Publisher: Free Press Pub. Date: 01 May, 1999 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.94 (16 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: A gripping & sophisticated wake-up-call, yet easy to read.
Comment: 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.
Rating: 3
Summary: Good, but had better.
Comment: This is a good book, but... It's basically a rehash of a much better (and shorter) book: "Operating Manual for Spaceship Earth," by Buckminster Fuller. Overspecialization is bad. What the individual citizen in a society can do, or should do. Same stuff, really. Bucky Fuller gave his ideas in a nice storybook manner, written very well too. This author is convoluted and difficult to follow, like that of a career "intellectual" rather than a really devoted and compassionate genius who opens your mind to seeing the Big Picture. Too much ego and cleverness for my taste. He's so proud of himself for pointing out how bad things are, how ridiculous certain of our "managerial" bodies have become (but hasn't this been true for millennia?). O.K., we all know this can be fun to read since we can ourselves laugh at the stupidity of groups in power, but in the end, there's very little real-world application for the individual reader except maybe the usual "get active in politics" spiel. Here I am, writing a review for a book, which will be published for millions of people to read. Little old me. That alone kind of wipes out some of the author's argument about how only government/politics can act as the voice of the common man. My being able to review books as an individual (as opposed to a media empire) in a global society, that's Power. Lots of things like that, good stuff, don't get their fair consideration in this book. Definitely worth a few bucks, since it is good for generating ideas, but it's kind of a chore to get through, whereas the Fuller book is a complete delight, and much more lasting in its effect upon your psyche and soul. Another Big Picture book with more "wow" factor than this book was "The Way the World Works" by some of the supply side economists (Wannisky and Novak).
Rating: 5
Summary: SAUL'S PATHWAY
Comment: THIS BOOK IS A STIRRING READ. WE ARE ALL BURIED UNDER CORPORATE PSEUDO REASON WHERE REASON IS ONLY APPLIED WHERE POWER BENEFITS. SAUL GIVES VOICE TO THE MADNESS OF THIS REASON AND ENCOURAGES US TO REACH INTO THE HEART AND FIND COURAGE TO GO WITH OUR LOGICAL FACILITIES TO EXAMINE THE NOTION OF THE "PUBLIC GOOD" I.E. THE DESIGN OF A GOOD SOCIETY.
HE APPEARS TO SEE THAT THE LEGITIMACY OF THE PUBLIC GOOD AS A SOCIAL CONTRACT, IF ADOPTED, WOULD SERVE AS AN IMPETUS TO DEBATE THE QUESTIONS LEFT OFF OF THE POWER AGENDA. I SENSE THAT HE IS LOOKING FOR A CURRENCY OTHER THAN MONEY TO CREATE AN ENERGY THAT THE POLITICIAN MUST RESPOND TO. IN THEORY ONE MAN ONE VOTE CAN BEAT ONE DOLLAR ONE VOTE. BUT MUCH OF THE SOCIAL ARCHITECTURE SUCH AS PUBLIC SCHOOLS, AN FOCUS ON THE HUMANITIES AND AN EDUCATION DESIGNED TO CREATE CITIZENS AND MORE APPRECIATION FOR PUBLIC SERVICES WILL BE RESISTED BY THE COURTIERS OF POWER.
THIS IS A VERY GOOD LAYOUT OF WHERE THE TENSIONS ARE IN MODERN CAPITALIST-democracy.
WE NEED AN EXTRAORDINARY AND SUSTAINED ACT OF IMAGINATION AND WILL BY THE POPULATION OF THE UNITED STATES, PERHAPS FUELED BY CONTRADICTION BETWEEN OUR FOUNDING PRINCIPLES AND CURRENT PRACTICE TO MAKE HEADWAY. (WONDER IF THERE ARE ANY WEALTHY BENEFACTORS WHO WOULD DONATE COPIES OF "ADBUSTERS" MAGAZINE TO A MILLION HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS? ) COMEDY SHOWS LIKE CHAPELLE, SIMPSONS, AND ESPECIALLY SOUTH PARK ARE TELLING US THAT THE FEELINGS AND ENERGY ARE OUT THERE.
THIS IS A GREAT BOOK. IT IS ALSO PAINFUL AS IT UNDERSCORES WHERE WE ARE AMISS. THE AUTHOR IS CANADIAN. ANYONE WHO WATCHED BOWLING FOR COLUMBINE AND THE SCENES ABOUT CANADA WOULD SENSE THAT A SOPHISTICATED AUTHOR FROM THAT LAND WOULD SEE WHERE THINGS ARE SO EXAGGERATED IN THIS COUNTRY. THOUGH CANADA IS HARDLY FREE FROM CORPORATIST INFLUENCE.
I LOOK FORWARD TO HIS NEXT WORK. ON EQUILIBRIUM. THOUGH IT IS HARD TO BELIEVE IN EQUILIBRIUM/ AS IN A RESTING PLACE. POLITICS WILL BE A DYNAMIC BATTLE FOR EVER. AND THE FORCES OF COMPASSION WILL BE PITCHED AGAINST THE MATRIX OF FEARS AND THE IDEALOGY THAT FEAR SPAWNS.
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Title: Voltaire's Bastards: The Dictatorship of Reason in the West by John Ralston Saul ISBN: 0679748199 Publisher: Vintage Books USA Pub. Date: 01 November, 1993 List Price(USD): $18.00 |
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Title: On Equilibrium: Six Qualities of the New Humanism by John Ralston Saul ISBN: 1568582935 Publisher: Four Walls Eight Windows Pub. Date: 01 December, 2003 List Price(USD): $26.00 |
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Title: The Doubter's Companion: A Dictionary of Aggressive Common Sense by John Ralston Saul ISBN: 0743236602 Publisher: Free Press Pub. Date: 15 January, 2002 List Price(USD): $21.95 |
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Title: Leadership and the New Science: Discovering Order in a Chaotic World Revised by Margaret J. Wheatley ISBN: 1576751198 Publisher: Berrett-Koehler Publishers Pub. Date: 15 January, 2001 List Price(USD): $19.95 |
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Title: The Betrayal of Work: How Low-Wage Jobs Fail 30 Million Americans and Their Families by Beth Shulman ISBN: 1565847334 Publisher: New Press Pub. Date: 02 September, 2003 List Price(USD): $25.95 |
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