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Chris Gast's avatar

Lots of Neil Postman vibes reading this edition. Obviously ideas and great people play a role, but it does seem like much of society is on a rail determined by technology and economy. Even Marxism—the idea that there can be a world with zero managers—basically turned into literal death by managers.

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Clark Coleman's avatar

Burnham did not anticipate the rise of the therapeutic society because it is not primarily driven by technology, scale, managerialism, etc. Managerialism might have taken advantage of the evolution of the therapeutic, but managerialism is not the source of the changes.

Carl Trueman's book "The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self" convincingly traces the developments that include the therapeutic society. They are ideological developments, driven by ideas from Rousseau, Marx, Freud, Darwin, the Romantics, etc., that took hold in society and began even before industrialization. It really is must reading for everyone who wants to understand our world.

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