DNF. Every time I thought about opening this again the motivation drained from my body. The premise was interesting but I quickly found the content to be overly wordy and chaotic with a lot of opinions about various people and events with little background or context. There are too many books on my shelf to slog through this.

Thought provoking. I enjoyed this book.

I don't recognize this book anymiore

This is a frustrating book. It suffers from poor editing and an overly idiosyncratic writing style. Saul can be alternately amusing or supercilious, frequently in the same paragraph. What I found fascinating is how well its themes are in general accord with ideas that are now being expressed via the so called "Intellectual Dark Web." Written in 1992, it's largely a polemic of our societal decline, the corruption of our capitalist republic and culture. It takes us to the woodshed. It's not a political rant, although I think it does explain some of the underlying dynamics that allowed for our acceptance of Trump. In essence this has been a long fall and we are collectively to blame. There are many insightful passages. It gave me fresh perspective on today's problems. I learned much. Solutions though, while expressed in grandiose generalities, such as applications of common sense and mass reeducation of civic responsibilities are, unfortunately, lacking.

This book makes a very interesting point about the unintended consequences of the age of reason. However the weakness of the book is it’s length - or rather it’s breadth of which it’s length is a consequence. The author discredits himself by being too much of a generalist. If he had stuck to the workings of international corporations, of which he had direct experience as a past senior executive, he would have produced a far more convincing work. It is a shame because I believe his central observation is a revealing lens through which to view the modern world.

I definitely needed to re-read this. It has been 15 years or so since I last read it, and it has aged really well. Being older and having have had more experience since has also helped me understand more of what the writer was trying to say. Saul's argument for how language is being controlled by specialists through re-interpretation or creation of new words is very compelling. Now at least I don't feel so guilty when I read something and decided that I can't understand what the heck it meant: because I was never meant to understand it. Most of all, I feel less guilty about adoring Joseph Conrad and not giving a whit about James Joyce.
Two thumbs up: recommends this to anyone who is interested in topics like information or thought manipulation. He covers them in a wide range of topics.

Excellent book. Saul deconstructs the socio-cultural paradigm shifts that have led to the contemporary "rational" order of the 21st century Western states. Ultimately, Saul makes clear for whom public policies are working, and whose terms. A must read.

Having read Voltaire and then reading this, I was somewhat dismayed by the rampant opinion forced by the author onto the reader someone of which was simply emotional opinion without much basis for rational logical reason.

This book changed my intellectual life forever, putting word to my vision of the world. When it first appeared Saul challenged everybody to look at the society around them and how common sense and morality had been subordinated to reason. This use and abuse of reason in the services of elites and false populism is explored in detail, as is the co-opting of language to distance people from the activities of the philosophical and political world around them. It reads as fresh to today as when it was first released twenty years ago. Recommended for thoughtful readers with a critical intellect and engagement in the society surrounding them. Highly recommended.

9/20

This book is so intense and complex, that you really have to put it down after reading a chapter (or even a few sentences), and think hard about what the author is trying to tell you. Even though he "dumps" on reason, he gives a very few alternatives to the flawed "reason of West".

This took me 21 years to read! Ok... I put it down for about 18 years but still..

I only understood about 5% of the book but that 5% was very enlightening. Ultimately I couldn't do better than 1 star for a book so inscrutable. I guess I just am not smart enough for this one. Glad I finished it either way.