Kalle Lasn

Naive, self-indulgent, and hypocritical. The author makes a couple anemic attempts at a cogent analysis of consumerism before giving up and lapsing into a loose recital of silly and self-congratulatory schemes. After reading Mediated and rel="nofollow" target="_top">Nation of Rebels, both of which offer startling insights, this book is only memorable for being aggravating.… (más)

Charmingly naive, just like I was in the 90s! History has shown that the methods in this book haven't really done anything to improve the quality of our lives and the safety of the natural world, yet they are still being advocated by liberal campaigners today. Desperate to avoid having to advocate any form of communism, they repeat the same errors that we made in the 90s, which repeated errors made back in the 60s, 70s, and 80s. This book is full of sensible information surrounded by nonsense, category errors next to solid facts, citation requirements next to well evidenced horrors, and good plans next to underpants gnomery. Despite all this Lasn is correct about so much stuff, even if he has a tendency to wrap it liberal magical thinking, and like all of us back in the 90s who were ignored and vilified for our predictions of future society, we were only wrong in that things are worse now than we thought they'd be.… (más)

There are many reasons why this is a difficult book for me to review: there are an equal number that make it an important book to read....

Kalle Lasn argues that consumerism is a blind alley, a wrong turning on the journey of man. Whilst I cannot agree with that, and I believe that the Western capitalist system will recover from the current crash: albeit over a considerable period of time and with much pain on the way, what I also believe, is that each recovery is getting harder and that we are not too far from a time when something new will need to take the place of capitalism. Human beings are creatures of habit and, since capitalism has been around for longer than any living person, we tend to the view that it has existed for time immemorial, and will continue so to do until the end of time. Well, it hasn't and it won't!

This book is clearly written for the young person; that is good. It is the young who will be forced to pick up the mess that we , and our forefathers, have made. It is a close cousin to the graphic novel, being lavishly illustrated with high quality photography and line drawings. Do not be fooled by this into thinking that it is a light read, or a naive work: it is a highly intelligent look at the system which we take for granted, and the first tentative steps to discussing its replacement.

Part of my difficulty with reading it, is that I am a chap of many summers; I am used to economics books being "'serious weighty tomes", it goes against the grain to accept the style but, it does contain many articles with real, meaty content. As one would expect, there are also essays which I find too extreme, but the main argument is very well made and, if it can get through to people who would not normally read a book suggesting that the status quo is fast becoming a non-option, then I for one applaud it. This book is not the answer, but it stimulates a discussion that needs to be had - and had quickly.

I fear that any review, but particularly my own poor effort, will not do this book justice - you'll just have to read it for yourself.....… (más)