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    68 views4 pages

    Economist Book Review

    Uploaded by

    jigsaw310
    book review

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
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    ne Preset en ‘Angry history Comment (25) The deep roots of modern resentment Rope & pomisions Print Wold polies Business & franco Economics Sclonce & technology Cullue loge Oabate Multimedia Prt elton per racing lst ‘An original attempt to explain today's paranoid hatreds Jan 20m 2017 @rincper vw {20 Follow The Economist Latest updates » From pigstios to prime locations: Brutalits bars and concrete cowsheds ran J ‘The Economist explains: What isthe scope ofa president's executive, The Seon expe | an Set 1022 No-tly zone: Chaos at airports as America introduces a travel ban ver an 0, 1848 ‘Age of Angor: A History of the Present. By Pankaj Mishra. Farrar Straus and Giroux; 4405 pages; $27. Allon Lane; £20, ‘SOON after the Soviet Union imploded, Pankaj Mishra reminds his readers, The Economist Dally chart: Construction of most nuclear- {ok abo to assert that "there was no serous aematve to ee-marketcapialamas theway Power rectors is bering to organise economic fe.” Yet today, the notion that a global capitalist economy hitched to @ Grmeseat lianas liberal internationalism can bring peace, progress and prosperity has taken a beating. That is evident not only in the violence in Iraq and Syria, where what used tobe called the ciulsing hand has proven incapable of stemming the bloodshed. tis evident, too, inthe Vitolc populism resurging at the heart of Western democracies—n Brexi, inthe rise of Marine Le Pen in France and in Donald Trump's tumultuous route tothe White House. Along list: What Brext and Donald Trump have in common agents etaok [on 308, 1898 No warm welcome: How Donald Trump's immigration edict wil affect. Indian-bom Me Mishra divides his time between London and a Cuvee on 30,1747 reat he ot th Healyes He cams alts 0 tolumistfor Blearbeg andh supe alte ables afta Tay sag tof madam esto rligensia, But he consis hms ony 8 “sop of th West and that lash aust detacmert Hs coodaste new book “Ag of Arg wi Choose strife: "T2 Trainspotting": a poignant sequel toa singular. Propo |an 00, 444 New histories of Istanbul “Dark', an unforgetable foue More latest updates » The case for compassion, rot empathy Init Me Mishra shocks on several levels. Fist, he sees no Tha Sundance Climate Fm rope tat 2018 right pove te high-water mark ofanger, TS Most commented cynicism and ug natnasm. need, he argues tat the ‘world will become only more divided and disorderly. As Rawr = 1 eccnonies stow, more people wie thal powerhi eles eep your nutes ave dangled the ts of material progress ont fo pul em L _ an away. Mor wilel a sense of dplacerment. ether Sguratvely within hl COU. print eon x Iteraly, because they have been forced to leave their fang states. Some wil ake tl spontaneous decision to vote for a populist who promises to tear down the system z cost. Some will make a life-altering and fatal decision for jad. Whether easy or extr angry reactions may be perverse, but they can feo exhilarating, Me Mishra sustains an angry assault on the nolion—which in his depiction risks ret ynagmzaty Jen 7iee20"7 Jon din 2017 Jan Tmaav? straw man—that progress has led in a graceful arc from the Enlightenment to the it internationalism that prevailed ntl recently. One part ofthis attack isto argue how From the print edition Jan 26th 2017 contingent was the path to free-market itemetionalism, how dangerously arrogant the dea that twas always the best ofall possible words. Ancther parts to challenge the idea that the medem apes episodes of unspeakable vclencshave been mere abeatons trom ihe Products and events march towards emancipation, dny and reason, On the conrary, war, slavery. imperialism, Test your a racism and the use of power to hoard the gain of enterprise: all have been part of the iberalTaky bor weekly news quiz to stay on top ofthe Project. Liberals who colebrate the project but cannot count the costs are stow to headines Understand resentments that heat the eauldrons of anger today. ‘Want more from The Economist? 1 fo Me Misha's most insight point Today's anger and discontent Visi The Economist e-store and you' finda range This argument {rom Islamist nilists murdering Paris concert-goers, to Trump supporters baying for Hilary _of carefully selected products for business and Clinton tobe locked up, to attacks on immigrants following Brexit—is hardly new. For many, Pleasure, Economist books and diaries, and much such outrages are unfathomable at worst, or at best caused by economic dislocation or more intornet-peddled conspiracy theories. But Mr Mishra shows how violence, ritilism and hatred ofthe “other" have ample precedents among Western iberalism's 19th- and 20th- century opponents, whether revolutionaries, anarchists or artists. ‘The grand tour of our discontents “These earlier foes of Project Eniightenment found themselves between the mute masses on ‘one hand, and aristocratic eltes ordering the world fr their own ends (even as they preached freedom) on the other, Volare, the ulra-atonalst whe argued thatthe Perfectibity of man was the tue paradise, also made a commercial fortune and urged the Russian empress, Catherine the Great, to teach enlightment to the Poles and Turks atthe barrel ofa gun. The spitual godfather of today’s antiberals, on the other hand, was Jean- Jacques Rousseau, Issiah Berlin's “guttersnipe of genius", Humiliated by Paris society, Rousseau grasped the moral and spiritual mpications ofa world in which the old gods are gone, society is set in turmoil and people losing ancient fxties are forced to mimic the privileged rch, As Mr Mishra puts i, Rousseau “anticipated the modern underdog with his aggravated sense of vietmhood and demand for redemption’. Many ofthe “isms invented tohheal the rossontimont (t sounds better in French}—romantiim, socialism, authortaranism, nationalism and anarchism-—can be traced back to Rousseau’s soriblings. “The molten core of Mr Mishra’s book, then, is an intellectual history of popular discontent ‘Toh, Ayatollah Khomein’s Iranian revolution owed much more o Robespiere than to the 12Shia Imams. The 1th-century resentment so keenly described by Friedrich Nietzsche prefigures the homicidal dandyism of “Jihad John’, Mohammed Emuwazi, who broadcast his victims being executed. The solfeenarcissism of Islamic Stato, ts rape of gifs and destruction of Palmyra echo "The Futurist Manifesto’ by Filippo Marinett, a misogynist Itaian poet, in 1908: ‘We want to glorify war...and contempt for women. We want to destroy museums, fbreries and academies of all kinds.” “This history is usually very welcome, but sometimes infriatingly meandering, the author's century-spanning chains of associations stretching well past the point where mary readers will want to folow. Butt is nonetheless worth sticking with, as the early chapters are the ‘worst offenders, and there is much rich reading, Itis harder to agree with his argument that modern liberalsm “les in ruins". Does it? Me Mishra associates liberalism wih what he describes, in a related essay inthe Guardian, 3s a "mechanistic and materialist way of conceiving human actions”, partly a consequence of {the primacy of free-market economics. But this implies a misreacing of liberalism. For one, Iberalism does not suppose perfect raionalty. Rather, t more modestly stives to reconcile seemingly ireconclable preferences in order for people tole together and co-operate. It requires tolerance, argument and compromise. Another hallmark isa belie, however much wrapped in doubt, n progress. Here, Mr is insuffciently generous towards loeraism's own progress. Early Iberals supportec Print edition * slavery, but then overturned it, Later alberal state tamed market abuses in the form ‘America’s robber barons. Even democracy was not alvays liberals’ ideal system, bi 20th century they came to embrace it, And out of iberalsm grew a post-war empha ciuilights, “Today, the military interventions that tied to impose demacracy—carried out by wha “a” 79" 207 danzist20\7_ dan émaot7 san 7m 2017 Edmund Fawcett, formety of The Economist and author of a history of liberalism, ca From the print edition Jan 26th 2017 “liberal warfare stale"—are distortions of lberalsm, not inevitable consequences oft. And just as overweening state powers not Iberal, noris ceding everything to the market. State ‘and market exist in tension: sometimes rivals, samelimes accomplices. Last, the conclusion in Mr Mishra's essay—that itis “a profoundly fraught emotional and social condtion—one which, aggravated by turbo-capitalism, has now become unstable" is prematurely dark, Much ofthe conf that he despais of, shocking though iti, fs not new. Indeed, beralism grew out of a response tothe upheavals of raw captaism and revolution tis net clear how his cal to make more raom for an understanding ofthe soul {and its irrational impulses isto be accommodated in any other systom, Poltio is confit: it will never each the steady state that Mr Mistva seems to yearn fr. Could the solution be Iving under his nose? Ceaseless change gave birth to lberalsm, which, for ll the mistakes ‘made ints name, continues to adapt, Despite thase mistakes, it remains the best response today, Gan Sa) wer on (2 View all comment (35) ‘ha your comment More from the Economist Seniorslammers: Roger Aquick rebuke: Judges Executive disorder Federer and Serena lock the deportation of Crowds protest against ‘Wiliams defy age atthe Muslim travelers Donalé Trump's + No warm welcome: How Donald Trump's + Dally chart: Construction of most immigration edict wil afect American nucleer-power reactors is behing tourism schedule + Nosly zone: Chaos at arports as + Choose strife: “12 Trainspotting": a ‘America intvoduews a travel ban poignant soquel toa singular British fm + Executive disorder: Crowds protest + The Feonomist asks: Thomas Friedman Donal Trump's Immigration ban Want more? Subscribe to The Economist and get the week's most relevant news and analysis. cited See Baste Democracy in America Help fercas Gane toon ema e* SSSESS, Prin waton Subscribe Markets & data Digital editions Hated thy Events The Economist debates: Jan 260 2017 Jobs.Economist.com oes fo he cere ‘The Economist ez con ier From the print edition Jan 26th 2017 Euwokinanes ‘The Economist Store Eaitoral Stat Modem Slavary Statement Timekeeper saved articles — a. foes

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