ENLIGHTENMENT 2.0

From the co-author of the international bestseller The Rebel Sell comes an argument for the return to slow, rational thought in a world gone mad.

Over the last twenty years the political systems of the western world have become increasingly divided, not between right and left, but between crazy and non-crazy. And what's more, the crazies seem to be gaining the upper hand. Rational thought cannot prevail in the current social and media environment where elections are won by appealing to voters' hearts rather than their minds. The rapid-fire pace of modern politics, the hypnotic repetition of daily news items, even the multitude of visual sources of information are all contrary to the exercise of reason. So what can be done to restore sanity to our lives?

In Enlightenment 2.0, bestselling author Joseph Heath outlines a program for a second Enlightenment. The answer, he argues, lies in a new "slow politics," designed to promote slow thought, slow deliberation, and slow debate. It takes as its point of departure recent psychological and philosophical research, which identifies quite clearly the social and environmental preconditions for the exercise of rational thought. It is impossible to restore sanity merely by being sane and trying to talk in a reasonable tone of voice. The only way to restore sanity is by engaging in collective action against the social conditions that have crowded it out.