Voltaire's Bastards : The Dictatorship of Reason in the West

John Saul makes the argument that when the world swung away from the faith-based beliefs of the Middle Ages to the rational thinking of the Age of Reason, it over-reacted in equating rational thinking with truth. In other words, rational arguments may lead to false conclusions. He then argues that the modern world has become so committed to rational thinking that the entire structure of Western culture is predicated on the belief that rational solutions are always best and that since rationality and efficiency go hand in hand, we downgrade anything that is deemed not efficient or less efficient. Because we do this, we denigrate intuition and common sense in the way we run the world. Saul makes powerful arguments and draws surprising conclusions about a vast array of issues, beliefs, and practices. Unfortunately, some of his generalizations are too sweeping, and he tends to imply universality in his examples, when modifiers like many, sometimes, and occasionally might have been more appropriate. Nevertheless, there is no denying his basic thesis is compelling. It is important when reading this book to keep an open mind. No book of such vast scope will find many in complete agreement. There is a tendency to shout "Nonsense!" after some of his assertions and conclusions, and then reject his entire argument, but that is a mistake. Saul seems like a "Liberal" (that despised word) social philosopher, but his critique of society is not merely of the Right, but rather of what he calls "elites" (many of whom are Liberals) who are those highly trained "technocrats" and professionals who run the modern world. Their training is to operate by the principal that there are answers to all problems, which require only the right questions to sort out, and that solutions rationally arrived at will be efficient and therefore optimal, even when they violate common sense and are sometimes even amoral. My favorite examples that he uses are of the law, where justice is no longer the objective, but the correct playing of the "game" according to the rules, which are only properly understood by lawyers. The most "efficient" lawyers win, regardless of the often nonsensical nature of the outcome. Thus it is seen as a proper outcome when an obviously guilty individual escapes punishment due to a legal technicality, while it is perfectly OK for a battered woman who kills her abusing husband to be incarcerated as a murderer. Similarly, as long as all the rational laws are observed, it is OK for a corporate raider to buy a company with borrowed money, load it down with the debt taken on to make the acquisition, and then either gut the company to raise cash or fire large number of employees in "cost cutting" moves, even though the company and its employees were profitable and productive participants in the economy prior to takeover. The impact on real people's lives is seen as immaterial because rational procedures were followed. Naturally, anyone taking on "everyone" (as

This intellectual tour-de-force by author John Ralston Saul comes quite close to mirroring my own beliefs regarding the massive, corrosive effects of the increasing domination of so-called rational thought in post-modern culture. Saul traces with both scathing sarcasm and incredible acumen the ways in which this insidious set of precepts and notions surrounding our rational word view informs our every action, behavior and disposition, and acts to rob us of a much wider and deeper set of understandings, interpretations, and recognitions regarding the world around us and our place in it. He engages in a wide-ranging analysis of contemporary society, turning all our closely-held ideals on their heads by critically examining the contexts in which these notions arose in the first place. He shows that although we describe ourselves in terms of individual freedom, we in fact live (quite unnecessarily) in a stringently conformist culture. While everyone from industrialists to government leaders to software gurus describe themselves as capitalist entrepreneurs, relatively few individuals have the power or latitude to act with any independence outside the limited confines of their highly structured organizational hierarchies. Indeed, while we debate passionately about the intrinsic power of Adam Smith's invisible hand of the market and the corollary power of market competition, in actuality there is little true competition found in the market place. We studiously ignore, for example, the many ways in which modern commerce is aided, abetted, and subsidized by federal, state, and local governments, such that these hardy entrepreneurs are given advantages as corporate entities that no individual citizen shares. Around us institutions traditionally key to past success and growth are now each stumbling and progressively failing even in this time of great prosperity and corporate wealth.Most interesting is the way in which Saul traces the blind faith we have come to place in the intrinsic value of reason as a guiding force, and in the corallary importance of what we have come to call "progress', which is usually defined in material terms,; more bread, more clothing, better shelter. etc. The author argues persuasively that this poorly constructed edifice of reason has no moral force, and in fact is no more than an administrative method designed to promote effectiveness and efficiency. In this way, tied to the rigors of math and science, we have come to view that which is both effective and efficient and somehow signifying a higher order of truth rather than recognizing it is simply a very useful operational approach toward accomplishing quite complex tasks. In this sense, we have come confuse effectiveness and efficiency on the one hand with the good and the true on the other, and Saul illustrates just how grievous such an intellectual and philosophical error this is. According to the author, this confusion had transformed western civilization into a vast, incomp

I'm finishing Voltaire's Bastards for the third time and I can honestly say that I have enjoyed the book more, and have gotten more out of it with each reading.This book is an attack on the rational system of thinking that has produced a world of technocrats and second rate managers, kept the United States in a wartime economy for 50 years and enveloped our government in a cult of secrecy. Saul's attacks- whether they be against the political system, modern culture or our convoluted economy- are dead on. As Jim Hoagland stated in his Washington Post review, "Voltaire's Bastards is a hand grenade disguised as a book."Though Saul's writing style can be a tad stilted and occasionaly repetitious, this book is very well written- despite comments to the contrary in other reviews. Whatever flaws one chooses to find in Saul's writing style, they certainly don't detract from the overall importance of this major work.I recommend that anyone who is even remotely concered with the course modern civilization is taking should read this book.

Throughout our high school years, sadly when we are at our weakest analytically, we inquired as to why we had to read books like the Handmaid's Tale or the yawning Tess of the D'Urbervilles. Ralston Saul finally answers the question. His argument, that the printing press and the novel are the driving forces behind much of the postive social change and negative propaganda, reteaches the much needed lesson, that even in the age of the perceived electronic media domination, the printed word, wrapped by a hardboard or paper cover, still contains the eloquent voice and raw power to evoke the most devastating and critical analyses of our societies. With his printed word, Ralston Saul has shown us that the true definition of the freedom of speech is not the ability to say what we want, but to question those people and institutions in power. Voltaire's Bastards does just that; it questions the rhetoric and consequences of corporatism, management schools, military dogma, false capitalism, vaucuous and inconsistent ideology, contempt of public eduction, and, in the end, our own (and his own I'm sure) participation in any or all of these areas. Too bad, I am unable, now in my role as a high school teacher, to convince so few of my students of the sheer rebelliousness of reading a novel or book such as Voltaire's Bastards. Hopefully, they will when they are ready.

This is the best book I have ever read. I've read it at least four times by now. It came at a good time for me, because I was starting to wonder why hundreds of years of financial management experience had left us with governments chronically short of money, and with institutions that have survived centuries of war and weather being destroyed by modern management techniques. If these guys are so smart, how come everything is falling apart? And why won't they accept reponsibility for their failures? After I read Voltaire's Bastards, I understood. This is a book that you will not want to lend out - you will feel disarmed without it.