Buy used:
$12.96
FREE delivery May 17 - 30. Details
Used: Good | Details
Sold by ThriftBooks-Dallas US
Condition: Used: Good
Comment: Pages can have notes/highlighting. Spine may show signs of wear. ~ ThriftBooks: Read More, Spend Less
Kindle app logo image

Download the free Kindle app and start reading Kindle books instantly on your smartphone, tablet or computer – no Kindle device required.

Read instantly on your browser with Kindle for Web.

Using your mobile phone camera, scan the code below and download the Kindle app.

QR code to download the Kindle app

Follow the author

John Ralston Saul
Follow
Something went wrong. Please try your request again later.

The Unconscious Civilization Paperback – Aug. 1 2005

by John Ralston Saul (Author)
4.5 4.5 out of 5 stars 58 ratings
See all formats and editions

Governor General's Award Winner


Tenth Anniverary Edition, with a new preface


Our society, John Ralston Saul argues in his 1995 CBC Massey Lectures, is only superficially based on the individual and democracy. Increasingly it is conformist and corporatist, a society in which legitimacy lies with specialist or interest groups and decisions are made through constant negotiations between these groups.


The paradox of our situation is that knowledge has not made us conscious. Instead, we have sought refuge in a world of illusion where language is cut off from reality. Reconnecting language to reality, clarifying what we mean by individualism and democracy, making these realities central to the citizen's life, identifying ideologies in order to control them, these are among the first elements of equilibrium which Saul proposes in these lectures.

Previous page
  1. ISBN-10
    0887847315
  2. ISBN-13
    978-0887847318
  3. Edition
    2
  4. Publisher
    House of Anansi Press
  5. Publication date
    Aug. 1 2005
  6. Language
    English
  7. Dimensions
    12.7 x 1.35 x 20.32 cm
  8. Print length
    224 pages
  9. See all details
Next page

Product description

About the Author

John Ralston Saul was elected President of International PEN in October 2009. He is author of a number of national bestsellers, including Voltaire's Bastards, The Doubter's Companion and The Unconscious Civilization, which won the Governor General's Literary Award for Non-Fiction and the Gordon Montador Award for Best Canadian Book on Social Issues. He lives in Toronto.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ House of Anansi Press; 2 edition (Aug. 1 2005)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 224 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0887847315
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0887847318
  • Item weight ‏ : ‎ 181 g
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 12.7 x 1.35 x 20.32 cm
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.5 4.5 out of 5 stars 58 ratings

About the author

Follow authors to get new release updates, plus improved recommendations.
John Ralston Saul

John Ralston Saul

Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.
Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

Discover more of the author’s books, see similar authors, read author blogs and more

Customer reviews

4.5 out of 5 stars
4.5 out of 5
58 global ratings

Top reviews from Canada

Michael F. Murphy
5.0 out of 5 stars Ahead of schedule, in excellent shape!
Reviewed in Canada on August 19, 2023
Verified Purchase
Impressed that the book arrived a day earlier than promised and was in perfect condition. The irony was that I ordered a book published in the US from a source in the UK from Toronto (also where the author lives).

As for the book itself, which was a replacement for one misplaced or loaned to a friend, I think JRS was ahead of his time. His sprawling 1992 tome, Voltaire's Bastards, was perceptive, if a bit rambunctious. In the intervening years, I have read all four of his serious books and found he has tightened up his writing, making it more impressive (less is often more). As I survey the current state of western democracies, I wonder if things might have been a little better had more people taken heed of what this Canadian clairvoyant has to say.
Helpful
 Report
Randy Norris
5.0 out of 5 stars A Visionary
Reviewed in Canada on November 18, 2015
He wrote this years ago and the trends he describes are so true today. Sadly a visionary. Our decision makers are stumbling into a future that he describes so well. An incisive mind with ideas that too many seem unable to grasp.
One person found this helpful
Helpful
 Report
Amazon Customer
4.0 out of 5 stars Reading this book years ago changed my life. Saul ...
Reviewed in Canada on November 12, 2015
Reading this book years ago changed my life. Saul helped me stop and think about my place in society. How to be a responsible neighbour, an individual within a society. And, to realize that “romanticism is the handmaiden of ideology.”
One person found this helpful
Helpful
 Report
Amazon Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars Outrageous ideas indeed.
Reviewed in Canada on April 9, 2000
The Unconscious Civilization is a baffling book for those who are unused to questioning the received wisdom - all of the received wisdom - of our civilization. For that reason, the readership seems to be neatly split between those who consider Saul a genius and those who consider him an idiot or a traitor. This is based on how solidly the veil of received wisdom shields their minds from his incisive, world-inverting ideas.
Read this book. A mind, once stretched, never shrinks to its original dimensions.
8 people found this helpful
Helpful
 Report
Dave K
2.0 out of 5 stars Book Not as Described
Reviewed in Canada on January 28, 2024
Verified Purchase
I ordered a paperback version of this book years ago. I loved it, and became an instant fan of Saul. I lent the book to a friend and didn't get it back. So, I decided to order a hard cover version as a replacement. I bought a used hardcover version of the book described as Used - Like New. No markings or notes on the pages. The book I received is full of notes and pink highlighter. Very disappointed.
Helpful
 Report
Zlyx
4.0 out of 5 stars Challenging and eye-opening
Reviewed in Canada on August 16, 2006
"The Unconscious Civilization" is a reworking for radio of Saul's "The Doubter's Companion" (ISBN 0140237070), a book published a year prior. The "Companion" struck hard because it was laden with acerbic black humor; "Unconscious Civilization" comes across as more serious, although all the same themes are here as in the earlier work.

Saul's main theme -- a critique of Corporatism (implying not only corporate business but any incorporate group, such as labor unions, AIDS activists, raging grannies, NIMBYs, or lobbyists) -- was something of an eye-opener for me, as I'm sure it was for other readers not as well-versed in political theory. Corporatism really does describe the state of current democracy in most Western countries; it should be more than a little chilling to understand how current polities have their roots in Fascism. (No joke! See [...])

Saul's text should also explain, at least in some way, the animosity felt for Saul's wife, Adrienne Clarkson, by the Conservative government under Stephen Harper in Canada. (For those of you outside of Canada, Adrienne Clarkson was the former Governor General of Canada. She was roundly criticized by the then Opposition Conservatives as being wasteful of Canadian taxpayer's money.) That Clarkson's husband excoriates the very kind of government the Conservatives are -- and that this might have colored the the Conservative brain-trust's views of Clarkson -- shouldn't be lost on most readers.
5 people found this helpful
Helpful
 Report
John rowinski
5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent
Reviewed in Canada on October 10, 2022
Verified Purchase
Something to think about
Helpful
 Report

Top reviews from other countries

cliff
5.0 out of 5 stars How we are destroying democracy
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on May 30, 2018
Verified Purchase
Great book in good condition speedily delivered. Essential reading for people wishing to understand how we are being manipulated
One person found this helpful
 Report
Joyce
5.0 out of 5 stars Makes the complex understandable
Reviewed in the United States on November 29, 2012
Verified Purchase
Saul has unusual skill in making complex entanglements understandable, colorful, and often humorous. His satire is biting. His irony is satisfying. His writing is dense with fresh insights about difficult subjects, so reading him is challenging at times but worth the effort. In this book, Saul explores how the dictatorship of reason unbalanced by other human qualities (common sense, ethics, intuition, creativity, memory) leads to the rational but antidemocratic structures of corporatism. He lays out the historical roots of corporatist doctrines (going back to Plato) and how they are so woven into our social fabric that they threaten the practice of democracy. He notes how our civilization is blinded to its true character by sentiment and ideology and argues that while Fascism was defeated in World War II, its corporatist doctrines are powerfully influencing our society today.

For Saul, one central aspect of the corporatist doctrine is its hijacking of the term "individualism," defining it as self-absorption or selfishness. Both Left and Right positions are based upon that definition. The Left agrees with the Right that individualism is selfishness, only it wants individual rights to be equally distributed and more fair. Whereas Saul talks about individualism thus: "Rights are a protection from society. But only by fulfilling their obligations to society can the individual give meaning to that protection. . . Real individualism then is the obligation to act as a citizen." And further: "The very essence of corporatism is minding your own business. And the very essence of individualism is the refusal to mind your own business. This is not a particularly pleasant or easy style of life. It is not profitable, efficient, competitive or rewarded. It often consists of being persistently annoying to others as well as being stubborn and repetitive." And further still: "Criticism is perhaps the citizen's primary weapon in the exercise of her legitimacy. That is why, in this corporatist society, conformism, loyalty, and silence are so admired and rewarded."

Saul discusses the role that four economic pillars play in either accentuating or reducing our unconscious state as citizens: (1) the marketplace, (2) technology, (3) globalization, and (4) money markets. Here is my summary of his lessons on these four. (1) The danger of using the marketplace as our guide is that we are limiting ourselves to the narrow and short-term interests of exclusion. If we wish to lead society we must calculate inclusive costs. (2) Business schools (following the "scientific management" Frederick Taylor brought to Harvard) treat men and women as mechanisms to be managed along with machines. And we are lining up students behind machines, educating them in isolation when what is really needed is to show them how they can function together in society. (3) Trade cannot in and of itself solve societal problems. The main effect of globalization has been to shift the tax burden from large corporations onto the middle class. Adam Smith's repeated admonition has been ignored. It is: high wages are essential to growth and prosperity. (4) Money is not a value in itself. Money in money markets is not available for taxation, and it doesn't really exist. It is pure speculation. We must see what is truly of value to society and reward those things.

This is only a bit of the clarity Saul's book gives us as citizens about what we are dealing with, empowering us with weaponry to overcome the Fascistic creation of corporatism.
13 people found this helpful
 Report
lumine
5.0 out of 5 stars Time to wake up!
Reviewed in the United States on February 4, 2018
Verified Purchase
Saul brings it all together and although the book is a bit dated, it is applicable to what is happening today. It's well researched and supported. As he states we must drop the ideologies instead of always replacing them with different ones that we again consider inevitable and forever. I've read four of Saul's books lately and they're all worth reading. He explains the populist aspect of the Trump presidency well before its time. He explains the university like the one I work for as a corporation and it fits what is happening there. His exposition of the times makes a whole lot of sense.
One person found this helpful
 Report
merlin
5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on November 3, 2014
Verified Purchase
Excellent product at an excellent price with an excellent service
Report
Urbanite
4.0 out of 5 stars The Individual, Individualism and Democracy: Yes,we can be more than robots or whiners
Reviewed in the United States on January 20, 2016
Verified Purchase
This book excoriates both the Right and the Left in our current political spectrum, so it's a particularly timely read for Americans in the 21st century.
John Ralston Saul looks deeply into the unchallenged assumptions on which our present society is built, and points out that it doesn't have to be this way. He is suspicious of ideologies, especially the ones arising from the self-serving interpretations of Adam Smith's writings and those of other enlightenment thinkers. He advocates skepticism of the Socratic kind. Being skeptical, not cynical. This is a book that will wake one up, and spur one to seek truth to look beyond and beneath appearances, all the while knowing that there's always more to learn. If you are already comfortable or already in despair, this book is not for you. On the other hand, if you are seeking a humane way to live a fulfilling life within or in spite of our overdeveloped civilization, this book could be just the thing. I wish though, that the author had provided more examples to make his points. Those could be found in another book of his, Voltaire's Bastards, which I also recommend. If you want a double dose, read them both in tandem.
5 people found this helpful
 Report