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The Future and Its Enemies: The Growing Conflict Over Creativity, Enterprise,
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The Future and Its Enemies: The Growing Conflict Over Creativity, Enterprise, and Progress Paperback - 1999

by Virginia I. Postrel

A passionate proponent of the dynamic approach, Postrel analyzes how true progress stems from the ideas of individuals unencumbered by nostalgia for the past or the static assumptions and bureaucratic rules of the present.


From the publisher

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.

First line

One of the most common rituals in American political life is the television debate between right and left.

Details

  • Title The Future and Its Enemies: The Growing Conflict Over Creativity, Enterprise, and Progress
  • Author Virginia I. Postrel
  • Binding Paperback
  • Edition Edition Unstated
  • Pages 288
  • Volumes 1
  • Language ENG
  • Publisher Free Press, New York, NY, U.S.A.
  • Date 1999-12-01
  • Features Bibliography, Index
  • ISBN 9780684862699 / 0684862697
  • Weight 0.75 lbs (0.34 kg)
  • Dimensions 8.5 x 5.5 x 0.9 in (21.59 x 13.97 x 2.29 cm)
  • Themes
    • Chronological Period: 20th Century
  • Library of Congress subjects Creative ability, Technological forecasting
  • Dewey Decimal Code 303.49

About the author

Virginia Postrel is the editor of Reason magazine and a columnist for Forbes and its companion technology magazine, Forbes ASAP. Her work also appears in The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, The Wall Street Journal and other major publications. She lives in Los Angeles. Her Web site is at www.dynamist.com
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