Post-intellectualism and the decline of democracy: the failure of reason and responsibility in the twentieth century

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Westport CT; L.: Praeger, 1996. - 303 p."Provocative social-cultural theory; jeremiad; prophecy of an already arrived technocratic dystopia. This book by a senior media scholar is all these. The human condition has evolved from a cyclical oral tradition to a linear culture of written intellectualism, but events of the last 35 years indicate descent into a Web culture of postintellectualism in which electronic media are central. Wood sees postintellectualism as the fruit of deliberate counterintellectualism and distended intellectualism, the 'irresponsible, unbridled, linear extension of intellectual endeavors without consideration of ultimate consequences'...much of what he writes is important, compelling, irrefutable. Recommended for academic readers, entering students through faculty." - Choice?Provocative social-cultural theory; jeremiad; prophecy of an already arrived technocratic dystopia. This book by a senior media scholar is all these. The human condition has evolved from a cyclical oral tradition to a linear culture of written intellectualism, but events of the last 35 years indicate descent into a Web culture of postintellectualism in which electronic media are central. Wood sees postintellectualism as the fruit of deliberate counterintellectualism and distended intellectualism, the 'irresponsible, unbridled, linear extension of intellectual endeavors without consideration of ultimate consequences'...much of what he writes is important, compelling, irrefutable. Recommended for academic readers, entering students through faculty.?-Choice"Professor Wood's book is about the kind of morality that democracy stands for, how it came to be, what the dangers are to it, and how we might proceed to preserve it. To accomplish such a task, one must have a deep understanding of history as well as a keen sense of contemporary social, technological, and political trends. This is exactly the sort of knowledge Professor Wood posseses, and there is no other phrase for what he has accomplished than tour-de-force."-from the foreword by Neil Postman Chair of the Department of Culture and Communication New York University