Voltaire's Bastards: The Dictatorship of Reason in the West - Hardcover

Saul, John Ralston

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1856191974 ISBN 13: 9781856191975

Publisher: Sinclair-Stevenson Ltd, 1992

Synopsis

In a wide-ranging, provocative anatomy of modern society and its origins, Saul explores the reasons for our deepening sense of crisis and confusion. throughout the Western world we talk endlessly of individual freedom, yet Saul shows that there has never before been such pressure for conformity. Our business leaders describe themselves as capitalists, yet most are corporate employees and financial speculators. We are obsessed with competetion, yet the single largest item of international trade is a subsidised market in armaments. We call our governments democracies, yet few of us participate in politics. We complain about 'invasive government' yet our legal, educational, financial, cultural and legislative systems are breaking down. Saul demonstrates that, far from being isolated, these problems are largely manifestations of our blind faith in the value or reason. Over the last 400 years our 'rational elites' have gradually instituted reforms in every part of social life, but have also been responsible for most of the difficulties and violence of the same period. This paradox arises from a simple truth that our elites deny: far from being a moral force, reason is no more than an administrative method. Their denial has helped turn the modern West into a vast, incomprehensible, directionless machine, run by process-minded experts, whose cult of of scientific management is bereft of both sense and morality. Whether in politics, art, business, science, finance, the military, entertainment, academia or journalism, these experts share the same outlook and methods. The result, the author maintains, is a civilisation of immense technological power whose peoples increasingly dwell in a world of illusion.

About this edition

• Publisher: Sinclair-Stevenson Ltd
• Publication date: 1992
• ISBN 10: 1856191974
• ISBN 13: 9781856191975
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 95