The Unconscious Civilization (CBC Massey Lectures) - Softcover

Saul, John R

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0887847315 ISBN 13: 9780887847318

Publisher: House of Anansi Press Inc., 2024

Synopsis

Governor General's Award Winner

Tenth Anniverary Edition, with a new preface

Our society, John Ralston Saul argues in his 1995 CBC Massey Lectures, is only superficially based on the individual and democracy. Increasingly it is conformist and corporatist, a society in which legitimacy lies with specialist or interest groups and decisions are made through constant negotiations between these groups.

The paradox of our situation is that knowledge has not made us conscious. Instead, we have sought refuge in a world of illusion where language is cut off from reality. Reconnecting language to reality, clarifying what we mean by individualism and democracy, making these realities central to the citizen's life, identifying ideologies in order to control them, these are among the first elements of equilibrium which Saul proposes in these lectures.

John Ralston Saul argues that our society is only superficially based on democracy, and that increasingly it is conformist and corporatist.

About this title

About the Author

John Ralston Saul was elected President of International PEN in October 2009. He is author of a number of national bestsellers, including Voltaire's Bastards, The Doubter's Companion and The Unconscious Civilization, which won the Governor General's Literary Award for Non-Fiction and the Gordon Montador Award for Best Canadian Book on Social Issues. He lives in Toronto.

Edition details

• Publisher: House of Anansi Press Inc.
• Publication date: 2024
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0887847315
• ISBN 13: 9780887847318
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 226