Disorders of Magnitude (Paperback or Softback)

When things get bigger its not just the scale that changes. Many other relationships, both overt and implied, are thrown out of whack. Once something increases in size by a few orders of magnitude, you will then discover the disorders of magnitude. It’s why communes work and communism does not. Many of today’s most contentious topics have a disorder of magnitude at their heart - a conflict between a small scale individual perspective and the collective imperative. Examples range from identity politics, global warming, cyber security, income inequality

Ranging across many different academic disciplines, including politics, economics, sociology, history, biology and physics, John Brodie Donald distils these disorders of magnitude into four key maxims. If you find yourself enraged by the headlines you read in an increasingly polarised society, you may find some solace in pondering how the underlying conflict is related to one of these four points.