How Mumbo-Jumbo Conquered the World: A Short History of Modern Delusions
- ISBN-10
- 0786723521
- ISBN-13
- 9780786723522
- Category
- Political Science
- Pages
- 416
- Language
- English
- Published
- 2005-07-06
- Publisher
- PublicAffairs
- Author
- Francis Wheen
Description
In 1979 two events occurred that would shape the next twenty-five years. In America and Britain, an era of weary consensus was displaced by the arrival of a political marriage of fiery idealists: Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher transformed politics with a combination of breezy charm and assertive "Victorian values." In Iran, the fundamentalist cleric Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini set out to restore a regime that had last existed almost 1,300 years ago. Between them they succeeded in bringing the twentieth century to a premature close. By 1989, Francis Fukuyama was declaring that we had now reached the End of History. What colonized the space recently vacated by notions of history, progress and reason? Cults, quackery, gurus, irrational panics, moral confusion and an epidemic of idiocy, the proof of which was to be found in every state, every work-place, and every library. In Idiot Proof, columnist Francis Wheen brilliantly evokes the key personalities of the post-political era—including Princess Diana and Deepak Chopra, Osama bin Laden and Nancy Reagan's astrologer—while lamenting the extraordinary rise in superstition, relativism and emotional hysteria over the past quarter of a century. In turn comic, indignant, outraged and just plain baffled by the idiocy of it all, Idiot Proof is a masterful depiction of the daftness of our times and a plea that we might just think a little more and believe a little less.
Get the book
Other editions
-
- 2012-07-10
- 368 pages
- Ebook
- HarperCollins UK
-
- 2005-07-06
- 340 pages
- Paperback
- Public Affairs
Similar books
-
Digital Cities: The Internet and the Geography of Opportunity
By Karen Mossberger, Caroline J. Tolbert, William W. FrankoTimberlake, Jeffrey M., AaronJ. Howell, and Amanda Staight. 2011. “Trends in the Suburbaniza— tion of Racial/ Ethnic Groups in U.S. Metropolitan Areas, ...
-
TVA and the Tellico Dam, 1936-1979: A Bureaucratic Crisis in Post-industrial America
By William Bruce Wheeler, Michael J. McDonaldFor example , on January 12 , 1972 , the newly - formed Timberlake Advising Boardcomposed of people from TVA , Boeing , various state agencies , and local ...
-
Encyclopedia of U.S. Political History
By Andrew Robertson, Michael A. Morrison, William G. ShadeIn 1816, Margaret married John Timberlake, a ship's purser in the U.S. Navy, but her conduct continued to be criticized. According to local gossip, ...
-
Drug Control Policy: Essays in Historical and Comparative Perspective
By William O. WalkerClark, Deliver Us From Evil, 218-23; Bonnie and Whitebread, The Marihuana Conviction, 5-15, 28, 32-45; Timberlake, Prohibition and the Progressive Movement, ...
-
Economic Politics in the United States: The Costs and Risks of Democracy
By William R. KeechNor was it to actasa centralized depository, an officeof discountfor commercialbanks, ora lender of last resort” (Timberlake 1978, p. 4).
-
Milton Friedman
By William RugerRichard Timberlake likewise thought Friedman was a “scintillating teacher” (Timberlake 1999, 22). Finally, Becker noted that “no course had anywhere near ...
-
The Libertarian Illusion: Ideology, Public Policy and the Assault on the Common Good
By William E. HudsonIdeology, Public Policy and the Assault on the Common Good William E. Hudson ... 191 Timberlake, Justin, 88 Tocqueville, Alexis de, 26 Townsend, Francis, ...
-
Taxing Choice: The Predatory Politics of Fiscal Discrimination
By William Shughart IIKrauss, Melvyn B., and Edward P. Lazear, eds. 1991. Searching for Alternatives: Drug-Control ... Paul, Randolph E. 1954. ... Timberlake, James, H. 1963.
-
A Short History of American Industrial Policies
By William R. NesterRichard H. Timberlake, The Origins of Central Banking in the United States ... Industrial Policy, and Rational Ignorance,” in Claude E. Barfield and William ...
-
The Boiling Point
By Todd WerdebaughIt 's like when someone judges you that way, and I know it 's because I 'm ... the one 's they judge and criticize have to deal with the pain they cause?