The Future and Its Enemies: The Growing Conflict Over Creativity, Enterprise,Today we have greater wealth, health, opportunity, and choice than at any time in history. Yet a chorus of intellectuals and politicians laments our current condition -- as slaves to technology, coarsened by popular culture, and insecure in the face of economic change. The future, they tell us, is dangerously out of control, and unless we precisely govern the forces of change, we risk disaster. In The Future and Its Enemies, Virginia Postrel explodes the myths behind these claims. Using examples that range from medicine to fashion, she explores how progress truly occurs and demonstrates that human betterment depends not on conformity to one central vision but on creativity and decentralized, open-ended trial and error. She argues that these two opposing world-views -- "stasis" vs. "dynamism" -- are replacing "left" and "right" to define our cultural and political debate as we enter the next century. In this bold exploration of how civilizations learn, Postrel heralds a fundamental shift in the way we view politics, culture, technology, and society as we face an unknown -- and invigorating -- future. |
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THE FUTURE AND ITS ENEMIES: The Growing Conflict Over Creativity, Enterprise, and Progress
User Review - Jane Doe - KirkusA provocative and pretentious defense of the free society, the free market, and even the free person. The old political appellations of "left" ‘ and "right" no longer carry much meaning; it's now more ... Read full review
The future and its enemies: the growing conflict over creativity, enterprise, and progress
User Review - Not Available - Book VerdictPostrel, editor of Reason magazine, believes that conflict between stasists (who urge control and favor the status quo) and dynamists will shape the future. In her opinion, the greatest threats to the ... Read full review
Contents
The Party of Life | 27 |
The Infinite Series | 55 |
The Tree of Knowledge | 83 |
The Bonds of Life | 111 |
Creating Nature | 147 |
Fields of Play | 171 |
On the Verge | 191 |
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allow American artificial beach volleyball Botkin Buchanan building central competition complex conservative create creativity criticism culture David David Gelernter decentralized dynamic processes dynamist dynamist rules E. F. Schumacher economic economist environment Esther Dyson evolution evolving experiments feedback Forbes future Gelernter genetic global goal Hayek human ideal ideas imagine immigrants improvements individuals industry infinite series innovation institutions intellectual Internet interview invention Jeremy Rifkin Joel Mokyr Jonathan Rauch Kirkpatrick Sale knowledge learning limits live ment National nature open-ended Pat Buchanan play plenitude political predictable Press problem progress promise reactionary regulations require resilience Rifkin says simply social society stability standards stasis stasist static tacit knowledge tech technocratic things tion Tom Peters trade traditional trial-and-error University verge Virginia Postrel vision Worster writes York
Bibliographic information
| Title | The Future and Its Enemies: The Growing Conflict Over Creativity, Enterprise, |
| Author | Virginia Postrel |
| Publisher | Simon and Schuster, 2011 |
| ISBN | 1439135320, 9781439135327 |
| Length | 288 pages |
| Subjects | › › History / Modern / 20th Century Political Science / Political Economy Social Science / Future Studies |
| Export Citation | BiBTeX EndNote RefMan |