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.
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.
James, I'll have more to say on the guerilla fighters topic in a future newsletter.
I agree not all industries are destined to be dominated by large companies. There's a concept called "minimum efficient scale" that describes how large a company needs to be to effectively compete. Also, the existence of niche players (particularly in the luxury end of the market) doesn't necessarily exclude the market being dominated by big players overall. But I do believe we can be much less economically concentrated than we are today.
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.
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.
James, I'll have more to say on the guerilla fighters topic in a future newsletter.
I agree not all industries are destined to be dominated by large companies. There's a concept called "minimum efficient scale" that describes how large a company needs to be to effectively compete. Also, the existence of niche players (particularly in the luxury end of the market) doesn't necessarily exclude the market being dominated by big players overall. But I do believe we can be much less economically concentrated than we are today.