Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
5/5
Audiobook13 hours
What Is to Be Done: Political Engagement and Saving the Planet
Written by Barry Jones
Narrated by Grant Cartwright
Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
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About this audiobook
When Sleepers, Wake! was released in Australia, it immediately became influential around the world. Now its author, the polymath and former politician Barry Jones, turns his attention to what has happened since—especially to politics, health, and our climate in the digital age—and to the challenges faced by increasingly fragile democracies and public institutions.
Jones sees climate change as the greatest problem of our time, but political leaders have proved incapable of dealing with complex, long-term issues of such magnitude. The Trump phenomenon overturns the whole concept of critical thinking and analysis. Meanwhile, technologies such as the smartphone and the ubiquity of social media have reinforced the realm of the personal. This has weakened our sense of, or empathy with, 'the other', the remote, and the unfamiliar, and all but destroyed our sense of community, of being members of broad, inclusive groups.
In the post-truth era, politicians invent 'facts' and ignore or deny the obvious, while business and the media are obsessed with marketing and consumption for the short term. What Is to Be Done is a long-awaited work from Jones on the challenges of modernity and what must be done to meet them.
Jones sees climate change as the greatest problem of our time, but political leaders have proved incapable of dealing with complex, long-term issues of such magnitude. The Trump phenomenon overturns the whole concept of critical thinking and analysis. Meanwhile, technologies such as the smartphone and the ubiquity of social media have reinforced the realm of the personal. This has weakened our sense of, or empathy with, 'the other', the remote, and the unfamiliar, and all but destroyed our sense of community, of being members of broad, inclusive groups.
In the post-truth era, politicians invent 'facts' and ignore or deny the obvious, while business and the media are obsessed with marketing and consumption for the short term. What Is to Be Done is a long-awaited work from Jones on the challenges of modernity and what must be done to meet them.
Author
Barry Jones
Retired scientist (Ph.D Wales). Named Industrial Scientist of the Year 1998 by Tennessee Academy of Science. Also, part time professional soccer coach (held USSF "A" Licence. 2003 inductee into Tennessee State Soccer Hall of Fame). Storyteller with Explorastory in Hendersonville, Tn. Now a writer. Books are 'Words Upon a Tombstone', a collection of short stories and 'Rusted Rails', an historical novel.
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