A wake up call to what we are loosing in the west.

No relentlessly pessimistic with a few practical answers to the problems this book is worth a listen to because it will wake you up to some of the areas that we all need to pay more attention to.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

A must read for anyone who cares about their future.

A very concise and accurate portrayal of the meta trends at work. I think to get a more accurate picture one also has to take into account the other historical cycles at play. Read Wheeler, Armstrong, Harari, Davison and Rees-Mogg + Howe and Strauss to get a really accurate understanding of how the coming neo-Feudalism fits into the changing epoc of human interaction; the Information Age.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

A unifying book for left and right

This book outlines what all sensible people knew to be true but didn’t have the educational background to piece together to understand the problems we see in society holistically. It’s none ideological, and brings in a much needed historical account of the past which coupled with its evidence of today, predicts the future.

It reminds us that, those who are ignorant of history, often become it’s victims.

Amazing book.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

Great read

A must read, explanations for much of what is transpiring right now. Knowledge is power

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

Well read book with some good information.

I enjoyed this book its well narrated and there is some good information but I'd recommend it more for people that havnt followed modern politics too closely. it didn't really tell me anything I didn't already know.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

An important topic poorly examined.

I agree with the two main themes; there is a worrying concentration of wealth, and anti climate change measures are disproportionately harming the poor.

However, the author used a lot of rhetorical fallacies, including presenting stat's and quotes to "prove" arguments without context or nuance. The author's personal and cognitive biases pepper this book.

I'd say this reads like someone trying to bludgeon the audience into accepting what they feel is right rather than an examination of ideas.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

interesting and insightful but has some flaws

Kotkin's overview of current society, raises several points suggest a decline of the middle class in importance, prosperity and morality. It also makes a point of a moral collapse. This seems deeply flawed leading to a "young people suck these days" argument which damages the overall thesis. it adds fuel to the misnomer that the media keeps peddling serving as a distraction to what unabashed captial disparity is doing to our soceity. There also seems a lack of engagement with where we should go from here, other than to try a revert back fifty years. Something that seems complete pipe dream since Reagan and Thatcher. It however still has some very accurate points of a economic trend which is certainly happening. His historical summaries are also fairly insightful. Worth a read if this stuff is of interest to you- it probably should be but take it with a pinch of salt. He values the middle class above all which gets laughably bizarre at some points, as if he is correct its already far too late and ultimately inevitable.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

3 people found this helpful

An important book

This is a really important book that’s beyond simple left or right ideology and instead discusses inequality in all its ghastly forms.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

The Maladies of our Times

As a sketch of the maladies of our times, this is pretty successful. He has coined a phrase, neo-feudalism, and it does capture much of the current anxiety of our times and what seems to be in our near-future. It largely is a tour of the facts of our extraordinary inequality and the potential consequences of a concentration of wealth - and therefore power - becoming entrenched in the hands of a few. The facts are stark, and the template for the future plausible

I do think the term is a bit overworked here though. One characteristic of feudalism is the formal structure of vassalage, but he doesn't present anything comparable to that beyond a severe shrinking of economic power. He's also highly focused on Big Tech, but extreme inequality predates the internet and the underlying drivers were neoliberal reforms to Keynesian economics, the unleashing of globalisation and the enablement of increasing share of returns to capital at the expense of labour.

I also didn't fully buy into the notion of the clerisy as a single supportive force for orthodoxy comparable to the Church back in the day. He describes Piketty's characterisation of the Brahmin Left and Merchant Right, acknowledges their differences but then tries to bring them together as a single institution. But these two sides don't exactly collude in their support for trickle-down economics or Big Tech's Brave New World. He tries to bring in wokeism but it doesn't sit right in the critique here either, as it doesn't amount to a quasi-religious justification of inequality. For all the intellectual incoherence of the full woke stack of ideas, you can at least say that it is not a church of inequality.

Overall, this was a thought provoking book and well worth a look.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

very educational and eyes opening

Very educational and eyes opening, what our children are facing in their near future, problems which have been brought upon us by the greed and will to multiply the profits on the cost of the rest of the society

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

2 people found this helpful