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Full Description
The West is declining, and Wood blames it on the self-implosion of our intellectual cultural heritage. Modernism is collapsing under its own weight, as postmodern ideals eat away at the West's twin pillars of reason and responsibility. Our media-fueled, image-driven, non-linear recasting of the good life has led to the rejection of reason, the enshrinement of greed, ecological debasement, retribalization, and the erosion of democratic mores. Wood thoughtfully explains the origins of our current cultural malaise, and argues that western culture literally becomes more unreasonable as we abandon our Enlightenment heritage and become an anti-intellectual society.
There are steps we can take to reclaim our intellectual heritage. We need a sense of balance, and affirmation of the best qualities of modernism and postmodernism. Although science and religion must be championed, there is much value in passion and spontaneity, for religion and existential faith, for tradition and for community. Some remedies Wood considers include a return to the liberal arts, environmental restoration, economic restructuring and equity, and worldwide political reform.
Contents
Acknowledgments
Figures
Introduction
The Problem: Defining What's Wrong
A Culture in Disarray
Modernism: Defining the Intellectual Roots
Intellectualism: Defining the Twin Pillars
Exploring Postmodernism
Exploring Post-Intellectualism
Three Periods of Intellectual Evolution
Two Faces of Post-Intellectualism
The Causes: How Things Got Out of Control
Inherent Contradictions of Intellectualism
Three Underlying Determinants
The Transition to Post-Intellectualism
The Real Story of the Sixties
Living in a Mediated Reality
The Effects: Six Crises of the Twenty-First Century
Discarding Individualism
Swapping Materialism for Morality
Rejecting Reason
Courting Ecological Disaster
Embracing Tribalism and Religious Fundamentalism
Giving Up on Democracy
Solutions: Several Outlandish Proposals
The Search for Values
Educational Restructuring
Environmental Restoration
Economic Reform
Global Transformation
Notes
Bibliography
Index