Finding Out Compass : Reflections on a World in Crisis: Reflections on a World in Crisis

By Wright, Chris, Dr.

Book Id: WPLBN0100302244
Format Type: PDF eBook:
File Size: 1.98 MB
Reproduction Date: 11/1/2014

Title:	Finding Out Compass : Reflections on a World in Crisis: Reflections on a World in Crisis
Author:	Wright, Chris, Dr.
Volume:
Language:	English
Subject:	Non Fiction, Social Sciences, History
Collections:	Authors Community, History
Historic Publication Date:	2014
Publisher:	Booklocker

Member Page:	Chris Wright
Citation APA MLA Chicago Chris Wright, B. D. (2014). Finding Out Compass : Reflections on a World in Crisis. Retrieved from http://gutenberg.cc/

Description
In a series of freewheeling reflections and summaries of historical scholarship, this book reinterprets history and culture along anarchist lines. From a rationalistic and Marxian point of view it illuminates capitalism, economics, U.S. history, popular culture, gender relations, and human psychology, even the nature of the fascinating concepts "genius" and "greatness." Its agenda is that of the seventeenth-century Levellers: deflate the pomposities of elite authority, and bring the world down to the level of democratic reason.

Summary
"There's a time when the operation of the Machine becomes so odious, makes you so sick at heart, that you can't take part, you can't even passively take part." So said Mario Savio in 1964; so say millions of the disenfranchised now. As the apparatus of elite institutions grinds on, pushing society to the brink, protesters across the world are putting their bodies upon its gears and its wheels, to open up space for freedom and creativity unconstrained by institutional strictures. It's time we all followed their lead. In a series of freewheeling reflections and summaries of historical scholarship, this book reinterprets history and culture along anarchist lines. From a rationalistic and Marxian point of view it illuminates capitalism, economics, U.S. history, popular culture, gender relations, and human psychology, even the nature of the fascinating concepts "genius" and "greatness." Its agenda is that of the seventeenth-century Levellers: deflate the pomposities of elite authority, and bring the world down to the level of democratic reason. In the process, one hopes, we will find our way out of the crisis of the present and into a more just civilization in the future.

Excerpt
Our civilization is approaching the end. We’re peering over the precipice, and chaos boils below. The time has come to sum it all up, to take account of where we are and what we’ve done, and to pass judgment. We, the generations now living, have been lucky or unlucky enough to be present as history nears its climax; we have an abundance of human experience to survey and draw conclusions from, conclusions to pass on to posterity as it surveys the even more breathtaking ruins we’ll leave. We want to go out with some dignity, with positive lessons to impart to our descendants so that they know not all of us were idiots. We’ve lived long enough to learn life’s truths; we’ve suffered enough to be wise. Let’s cast our glance from the future to the past and grasp the threads of human thought while there is still some link between what was and what is, some memory of what is rapidly fading. Perhaps some future explorer will discover our buried treasure, our Dead Sea Scrolls, and read about lost worlds, and be carried away by tales of folly and adventure. In the meantime, a few glimmers of honesty and perspective may light up our world and reveal it to itself...

Table of Contents
Chapter 1: Social Structures and the Individual Chapter 2: Robert Brenner on Recent Economic History Chapter 3: More Notes on Economics and Neoliberalism chapter 4: Summaries of Historical Scholarship