Voltaire's bastards
Voltaire's Bastards: The Dictatorship of Reason in the West is a sweeping and provocative exploration of nothing less than the political, economic, social, and cultural origins of Western society. With great daring and originality, John Ralston Saul dissects the contradictions, delusions, and illusions that have brought the world to the brink of confusion and crisis, and shatters the myths surrounding the icons and institutions that we have been taught to revere and cherish.
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- That is the problem with publicly traded companies. They exist a fiscal year at a time. No past on January 1, no future December 31st.
The underlying cause of this in western society is well explained in ‘Voltaire’s Bastards’ by John Ralston Saul. Good reading to understand our collective problem with some ideas on what to do about it. The answer isn’t clear.
I am not remotely religious, but it is a powerful force. Islam is the fastest growing religion, and while that alarms some people, it has a wonderful innovation that I think is key to our survival. Maybe it is from playing too many hours of Civ, but if I was playing with a pending climate catastrophe, I would double down on this:
‘Caring for the environment is an important teaching of Islam. The Qurʾān describes mankind as being stewards of the earth and therefore Muslims must care for the earth. It is our responsibility to care for the earth and environment. The reality of climate change requires us to rethink our lifestyles and actions and we must reflect on how our actions impact our environment. The Qurʾān highlights this point: Corruption has appeared on land and sea because of that which men’s hands have done (Q. 30: 41).‘
- Voltaire's Bastards by JR Saul is about all those things and many more. Absolutely amazing book, as are most of his others. Kind of a history of rationality since the 18th C, and how it went so wrong. Also a lot about technocrats, politics, etc etc. (About time I read it again!)
Oakeshott's Rationalism in Politics blew my mind. (He sees almost all modern political parties as dominated by this rationalism.) I was embarrassed how much I learnt from this long essay. Even a lot about piano teaching. Worth it for the ancient Chinese anecdote in the footnotes alone.
Richard Sennett The Fall of Public Man is a history of public spaces, living in cities, public politics, political charisma etc, since Paris in the 19th C.
Erving Goffman Presentation of Self in Everyday Life looks at (All these books are very hard to summarise!!) the stages, backstages, performances of life, actual stages, shops, hotels, ranks in organisations, these little worlds with rules and customs, how the rules are subverted, created, evolve.. full of fascinating stories.
EF Schumacher Small is Beautiful - definitely about government, money, society. Economics as if people mattered. When I first read this, I thought the survival of the planet depended on people reading it.
I found Mandeville's Fable of the Bees (1729) extremely funny and just as true. How everything depends on the sins of humanity. If we were all virtuous, economies would fall apart etc. Goes in detail into this argument and he's hard to argue with.
Susan Faludi's STIFFED. I learnt so much about modern work, life, society, and being a man from this. A must read.
p.s. and everything by JK Galbraith and C Wright Mills. Good luck!
- Both are a major investment of time, but have paid off:
VOLTAIRE’S BASTARDS: THE DICTATORSHIP OF REASON IN THE WEST http://www.johnralstonsaul.com/non-fiction-books/voltaires_b...
The Penguin History of the World https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/316944/the-penguin-...
- Voltaire's Bastards - The dictatorship of reason in the West
- Well, that was an irritating read. Every sentence felt manipulative, and the ones I knew something about mostly seemed misleading or wrong.
I highly recommend JR Saul's Voltaire's Bastards, which is (among many things) a history of reason and rationality, from about 1800 to the late 20th C. (Rationality isn't the good guy here that you might expect) One of the best books I've ever read. It's also about Paoli, technocrats, Nazi science, military strategy, democracy, and 50 other things. His next books after it are an attempted solution to the problems described. If it sounds dry, it's not at all. Very dark, thrilling, mind-blowing - wonderful writing.
- Have you read Voltaire's Bastards? https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6584.Voltaire_s_Bastards
It is an in depth criticism of the overly rational. A lot of it went over my head or didn't make sense because I don't have a strong background on some historical/philosophical touchpoints, but I thought it was a great read.
