Why read States of Shock?

Book cover of States of Shock: Stupidity and Knowledge in the 21st Century

Book description

In 1944 Horkheimer and Adorno warned that industrial society turns reason into rationalization, and Polanyi warned of the dangers of the self-regulating market, but today, argues Stiegler, this regression of reason has led to societies dominated by unreason, stupidity and madness. However, philosophy in the second half of the twentieth…

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Why read it?

1 author picked States of Shock as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

Tony Fry

Author

For me, Bernard Stiegler was one of the most influential thinkers of technology of the modern age. I like books that bring my own thinking into question. His book does this for me by providing an interesting and unfamiliar way of understanding the relation between technology and consumerism.

He describes consumerism as damaging our psychic sphere and destroying our desires–replacing them with ones formed and met by marketed commodities. What I found insightful was how he showed “reason” being transformed by philosophy into an object of faith.

The result: reason now travels with the unreason of an unchecked rationalization of…

From Tony's list on The best books to understand the current dynamics of the state of the world.