How Mumbo-Jumbo Conquered the World: A Short History of Modern DelusionsPublicAffairs, 2005 M07 6 - 416 pages What characterizes our era? Cults, quacks, gurus, irrational panics, moral confusion and an epidemic of mumbo-jumbo, that's what. In How Mumbo-Jumbo Conquered the World, Francis Wheen brilliantly laments the extraordinary rise of superstition, relativism and emotional hysteria. From Middle Eastern fundamentalism to the rise of lotteries, astrology to mysticism, poststructuralism to the Third Way, Wheen shows that there has been a pervasive erosion of Enlightenment values, which have been displaced by nonsense. And no country has a more vivid parade of the bogus and bizarre than the one founded to embody Enlightenment values: the USA. In turn comic, indignant, outraged, and just plain baffled by the idiocy of it all, How Mumbo-Jumbo Conquered the World is a masterful depiction of the absurdity of our times and a plea that we might just think a little more and believe a little less. |
From inside the book
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... Enlightenment . . . ” — San Diego Union Tribune “ A forensic attack on fundamentalism ( religious and economic ) , on cul- tural and scientific relativism , on postmodernists , on pagans , on New Agers and everyone else whom Wheen ...
... Enlightenment . . . ” — San Diego Union Tribune “ A forensic attack on fundamentalism ( religious and economic ) , on cul- tural and scientific relativism , on postmodernists , on pagans , on New Agers and everyone else whom Wheen ...
Page 1
... Enlightenment?” They included the philosopher Immanuel Kant, who rose to the challenge with a vigor and clarity not always evident in his lengthier works: Enlightenment is man's emergence from his self-incurred im- maturity. Immaturity ...
... Enlightenment?” They included the philosopher Immanuel Kant, who rose to the challenge with a vigor and clarity not always evident in his lengthier works: Enlightenment is man's emergence from his self-incurred im- maturity. Immaturity ...
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... Enlightenment. The sprightly optimism of this venerable professor, then al- ready in his sixties, derived from his belief that a revolution in human history was imminent. In the Critique of Pure Reason, which had been published three ...
... Enlightenment. The sprightly optimism of this venerable professor, then al- ready in his sixties, derived from his belief that a revolution in human history was imminent. In the Critique of Pure Reason, which had been published three ...
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... Enlightenment did not make us mature adults , and we have not reached that stage yet . ” Foucault him- self fiercely opposed the Enlightenment's universalism , yet even he conceded its “ importance and effectiveness , ” arguing that it ...
... Enlightenment did not make us mature adults , and we have not reached that stage yet . ” Foucault him- self fiercely opposed the Enlightenment's universalism , yet even he conceded its “ importance and effectiveness , ” arguing that it ...
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... Enlightenment , to the trinity of English patron saints . ( Rather less credit was given to Spinoza , the seven- teenth - century Dutch philosopher who is only now beginning to receive his due . A recent study by Jonathan Israel ...
... Enlightenment , to the trinity of English patron saints . ( Rather less credit was given to Spinoza , the seven- teenth - century Dutch philosopher who is only now beginning to receive his due . A recent study by Jonathan Israel ...
Contents
1 | |
9 | |
2 Old SnakeOil New Bottles | 39 |
3 Its the End of the World as We Know It | 62 |
4 The Demolition Merchants of Reality | 75 |
5 The Catastrophists | 113 |
6 With God on Our Side | 153 |
7 Us and Them | 161 |
8 The New Romantics | 178 |
9 Forward to the Past | 206 |
10 Voodoo Revisited | 238 |
Notes | 289 |
Index | 306 |
Other editions - View all
How Mumbo-Jumbo Conquered the World: A Short History of Modern Delusions Francis Wheen Limited preview - 2005 |
How Mumbo-Jumbo Conquered the World: A Short History of Modern Delusions Francis Wheen Limited preview - 2005 |
How Mumbo-Jumbo Conquered the World: A Short History of Modern Delusions Francis Wheen Limited preview - 2012 |
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