Voltaire's bastards : the dictatorship of reason in the West

Dedication Epigraph Twenty Years On Part I: Argument Chapter 1: In Which the Narrator Positions Himself Chapter 2: The Theology of Power Chapter 3: The Rise of Reason Chapter 4: The Rational Courtesan Chapter 5: Voltaire's Children Chapter 6: The Flowering of Armaments Part II: Scenes From a System that Doesn't Work Chapter 7: The Question of Killing Chapter 8: Learning How to Organize Death Chapter 9: Persistent Continuity at the Heart of Power Chapter 10: In the Service of the Greater Self Chapter 11: Three Short Excursions into the Unreasonable. Chapter 12: The Art of the SecretChapter 13: The Secretive Knight Chapter 14: Of Princes and Heroes Chapter 15: The Hero and the Politics of Immortality Chapter 16: The Hijacking of Capitalism Chapter 17: The Miracle of the Loaves Part III: Surviving in Fantasy Land The Individual in the World of Reason Chapter 18: Images of Immortality or The Victory of Idolatry Chapter 19: Life in a Box -- Specialization and the Individual Chapter 20: The Stars Chapter 21: The Faithful Witness Chapter 22: The Virtue of Doubt Acknowledgments About the Author Notes Index Copyright.

in A Wide-ranging, Provocative Anatomy Of Modern Society And Its Origins, Novelist And Historian John Ralston Saul Explores The Reason 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 Competition, Yet The Single Largest Item Of International Trade Is A Subsidized 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, Social, Cultural And Legislative Systems Are Breaking Down. While Most Observers View These Problems Separately, Saul Demonstrates That They Are Largely Manifestations Of Our Blind Faith In The Value Of Reason. Over The Last 400 Years, Our Rational Elites Have Gradually Instituted Reforms In Every Phase Of Social Life. But Saul Shows That They Have Also Been Responsible For Most Of The Difficulties And Violence Of The Same Period. This Paradox Arises From A Simple Truth Which Our Elites Deny: Far From Being A Moral Force, Reason Is No More Than An Administrative Method. Their Denial Has Helped To Turn The Modern West Into A Vast, Incomprehensible, Directionless Machine, Run By Process-minded Experts - Voltaire's Bastards - Whose Cult Of Scientific Management Is Bereft Of Both Sense And Morality. Whether In Politics, Art, Business, The Military, Entertainment, Science, Finance, Academia Or Journalism, These Experts Share The Same Outlook And Methods. The Result, Saul Maintains, Is A Civilization Of Immense Technological Power Whose Peoples Increasingly Dwell In A World Of Illusion. Already Known To Millions Of Readers As The Author Of Novels Which Portray The Overwhelming Effects Of This Power On The Modern Individual By Weaving Together Interna

With a new Introduction by the author, this "erudite and brilliantly readable book" ( The Observer , London) expertly dissects the political, economic, and social origins of Western civilization to reveal a culture cripplingly enslaved to crude notions of rationality and expertise. With a new introduction by the author, this "erudite and brilliantly readable book" (The Observer, London) astutely dissects the political, economic and social origins of Western civilization to reveal a culture cripplingly enslaved to crude notions of rationality and expertise. The Western world is full of paradoxes. We talk endlessly of individual freedom, yet we've never been under more pressure to conform. Our business leaders describe themselves as capitalists, yet most are corporate employees and financial speculators. We call our governments democracies, yet few of us participate in politics. We complain about invasive government, yet our legal, educational, financial, social, cultural and legislative systems are deteriorating. All these problems, John Ralston Saul argues, are largely the result of our blind faith in the value of reason. Over the past 400 years, our "rational elites" have turned the modern West into a vast, incomprehensible, directionless machine, run by process-minded experts—"Voltaire's bastards"—whose cult of scientific management is empty of both sense and morality. Whether in politics, art, business, the military, entertain­ment, science, finance, academia or journalism, these experts share the same outlook and methods. The result, Saul maintains, is a civilization of immense technological power whose ordinary citizens are increasingly excluded from the decision-making process. In this wide-ranging anatomy of modern society and its origins—whose "pages explode with insight, style and intellectual rigor" (Camille Paglia, The Washington Post)—Saul presents a shattering critique of the political, economic and cultural estab­lishments of the West. 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.