Burning All Illusions: A Guide to Personal and Political Freedom
by David Edwards
On This Page
Description
This is a book about freedom. Above all about the idea that there is often no greater obstacle to freedom than the assumption that it has already been attained. What prison, after all, could be more secure than that deemed to be "the world," where boundaries of action and thought are assumed to define not the limits of the permissible, but the limits of the possible. In the past we have been prisoners of tyrants and dictators, and consequently have needed to win our freedom in very concrete, show more physical terms. We now need to free ourselves not from a slave ship or a concentration camp, but from many of the illusions fostered in our democratic society. "[A] wise and acute analysis of the way our minds are controlled, not in a totalitarian state, but in a 'democratic' one. Edwards also suggests how we can escape this control in a self-help book which, unlike other books of this genre, connects our inner world of alienation with the world outside."--Howard Zinn "[A] treatise on what freedom truly means.... Burning All Illusions is an important philosophical and psychology text that should be on every political science curriculum reading list!"--Wisconsin Book Watch show lessTags
Recommendations
Member Reviews
Not bad but kind of a lot of rehash for someone conversant in basic socialist or critical theory.
Does, however make inroads, subtly, toward a dharmic critique of late capitalism, which is what I was hoping more for.
Does, however make inroads, subtly, toward a dharmic critique of late capitalism, which is what I was hoping more for.
Ratings
Members
- Recently Added By
Lists
South End Press
35 works; 1 member
Author Information
5 Works 231 Members
Common Knowledge
- Original publication date
- 1996
- First words
- This is a book about freedom, and above all about the idea that there is often no greater obstacle to freedom than the assumption that it has already been attained.
- Last words
- (Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)Let us, then, put a last question as simply as possible - how on earth can we ever hope to answer these questions adequately, if we are not free to consider or answer them in ways that do not suit the requirements of corporate consumerism?
- Blurbers
- Zinn, Howard; Porritt, Jonathan
Classifications
- Genres
- Nonfiction, Philosophy, Sociology, General Nonfiction, Religion & Spirituality, Politics and Government
- DDC/MDS
- 303.33 — Society, government, & culture Social sciences, sociology & anthropology Social processes Coordination and control Social control
- LCC
- HM271 .E33 — Social sciences Sociology (General) Sociology These are obsolete numbers no longer used
- BISAC
Statistics
- Members
- 41
- Popularity
- 717,741
- Reviews
- 1
- Rating
- (3.63)
- Languages
- English
- Media
- Paper
- ISBNs
- 2
