The Doubter's Companion: A Dictionary of Agressive Common Sense - Softcover

Saul, John Ralston

4.01

303 ratings by Goodreads

9780140237078: The Doubter's Companion: A Dictionary of Agressive Common Sense

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0140237070 ISBN 13: 9780140237078

Publisher: Penguin Canada, 1995

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"How are citizens to enter into a public debate if the concepts which define our society and decide the manner in which we are governed are open neither to understanding nor to questioning?"According to bestselling novelist and essayist John Ralston Saul, the ramifications of asking this question are enormous. We live in an era of specialization, where decision makers, administrators, and process-minded experts have fortified their positions of authority by insulating themselves from public accountability. An important instrument in their ascension has been language; or more precisely, a language so technically specific and laden with jargon that it has isolated the individual citizen.

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About the Author:

John Ralston Saul is Canada’s leading public intellectual. Declared a “prophet” by Time magazine, Saul has received many awards and prizes, including Chile’s Pablo Neruda Medal. He is president of PEN International, an organization dedicated to freedom of expression. He has published fourteen works, which have been translated into twenty-five languages in thirty-six countries, the most recent of which is The Comeback, an examination of the remarkable return to power of Aboriginal people in Canada. Saul lives in Toronto.

Review:

“I can hear the corporate squeals. This flagellation makes for a good read." - Ottawa Citizen

“No current book—anywhere—is as acidly lucid about the new globalized economics that are steamrolling custom, culture and civilization in the world. Fascinating, funny and best of all profoundly useful.” - Books in Canada

“A remarkably thoroughgoing critique of folly.” - Newsday

“A big, juicy mudpie in the face of conventional wisdom... a welcome handbook to the confusions of the age. It encourages people not only to doubt, but to think for themselves. A dangerous book indeed. Perhaps the authorities should burn it now.” - Maclean's

“Very wise. And very funny.” - The Vancouver Sun

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