Surviving the Future is a story drawn from the fertile ground of the late David Fleming's extraordinary Lean Logic: A Dictionary for the Future and How to Survive It. That hardback consists of four hundred and four interlinked dictionary entries, inviting readers to choose their own path through its radical vision.
Recognizing that Lean Logic's sheer size and unusual structure can be daunting, Fleming's long-time collaborator Shaun Chamberlin has selected and edited one of these potential narratives to create Surviving the Future. The content, rare insights, and uniquely enjoyable writing style remain Fleming's, but are presented here at a more accessible paperback-length and in conventional read-it-front-to-back format.
The subtitle--Culture, Carnival and Capital in the Aftermath of the Market Economy--hints at Fleming's vision. He believed that the market economy will not survive its inherent flaws beyond the early decades of this century, and that its failure will bring great challenges, but he did not dwell on this: We know what we need to do. We need to build the sequel, to draw on inspiration which has lain dormant, like the seed beneath the snow.
Surviving the Future lays out a compelling and powerfully different new economics for a post-growth world. One that relies not on taut competitiveness and eternally increasing productivity--putting the grim into reality--but on the play, humor, conversation, and reciprocal obligations of a rich culture. Building on a remarkable breadth of intellectual and cultural heritage--from Keynes to Kumar, Homer to Huxley, Mumford to MacIntyre, Scruton to Shiva, Shakespeare to Schumacher--Fleming describes a world in which, as he says, there will be time for music.
This is the world that many of us want to live in, yet we are told it is idealistic and unrealistic. With an evident mastery of both economic theory and historical precedent, Fleming shows that it is not only desirable, but actually the only system with a realistic claim to longevity. With friendliness, humor, and charm, Surviving the Future plucks this vision out of our daydreams and shows us how to make it real.
A centuries-old secret document might unravel the origin story of America and reveal the intellectual crime of the millennia in this epic dive into our country's history to discover the first, true Declaration of Independence.
In 1819 John Adams came across a stunning story in his hometown Essex Register that he breathlessly described to his political frenemy Thomas Jefferson as one of the greatest curiosities and one of the deepest mysteries that ever occurred to me...entitled the Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence. The genuine sense of America at that moment was never so well expressed before, nor since. The story claimed that a full 14 months before Jefferson crafted his own Declaration of Independence, a misfit band of zealous Scots-Irish patriots, whiskey-loving Princeton scholars and a fanatical frontier preacher in a remote corner of North Carolina had become the first Americans to formally declare themselves free and independent from England. Composed during a clandestine all-night session inside the Charlotte courthouse, the Mecklenburg Declaration was signed on May 20, 1775--a date that's still featured on the state flag of North Carolina. A year later, in 1776, Jefferson is believed to have plagiarized the MecDec while composing his own, slightly more famous Declaration and then, as he was wont to do, covered the whole thing up. Which is exactly why Adams always insisted the MecDec needed to be thoroughly investigated and more universally made known to the present and future generation. Eleven U.S. Presidents and many of today's most respected historical scholars agree. Now, with Who's Your Founding Father?, David Fleming picks up where Adams left off, leaving no archive, no cemetery, no bizarre clue or wild character (and definitely no Dunkin' Donuts) unexplored while traveling the globe to bring to life one of the most fantastic, important--and controversial--stories in American history.In 1819 John Adams came across a stunning story in his hometown Essex Register. He breathlessly described it to his political frenemy Thomas Jefferson as one of the greatest curiosities and one of the deepest mysteries that ever occurred to me...entitled the Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence. The genuine sense of America at that moment was never so well expressed before, nor since. The story claimed that a full 14 months before Jefferson crafted his own Declaration of Independence, a misfit band of zealous Scots-Irish patriots, whiskey-loving Princeton scholars, and a fanatical frontier preacher had joined forces in a remote corner of North Carolina to become the first Americans to formally declare themselves free and independent from England. Composed during a clandestine all-night session inside the Charlotte courthouse, the Mecklenburg Declaration, aka the MecDec, was signed on May 20, 1775--a date that's still featured on the state flag of North Carolina. About a year later, in 1776, Jefferson is believed to have plagiarized the MecDec while composing his own, slightly more famous Declaration, and then, as he was wont to do, covered the whole thing up. Which is why Adams always insisted the MecDec needed to be thoroughly investigated and more universally made known to the present and future generation. Eleven U.S. Presidents and many of today's most respected historical scholars agree. Now, with Who's Your Founding Father?, David Fleming picks up where Adams' investigation left off. Fleming leaves no archive, cemetery, bizarre clue, conspiracy theory, or wild character unexplored as he travels the globe and shines new light on one of the most fantastic, important--and controversial--stories in American history.A centuries-old secret document unravels the origin story of America and reveals the intellectual crime of the millennia in this epic dive into our country's history to discover the first, true Declaration of Independence, signed May 20, 1775--published in paperback for the 250th anniversary celebration of what has come to be known as the MecDec.
In 1819 John Adams came across a stunning story in his hometown Essex Register that he breathlessly described to his political frenemy Thomas Jefferson as one of the greatest curiosities and one of the deepest mysteries that ever occurred to me...entitled the Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence. The genuine sense of America at that moment was never so well expressed before, nor since. The story claimed that a full 14 months before Jefferson crafted his own Declaration of Independence, a misfit band of zealous Scots-Irish patriots, whiskey-loving Princeton scholars and a fanatical frontier preacher in a remote corner of North Carolina had become the first Americans to formally declare themselves free and independent from England. Composed during a clandestine all-night session inside the Charlotte courthouse, the Mecklenburg Declaration, aka the MecDec, was signed on May 20, 1775--a date that's still featured on the state flag of North Carolina. About a year later, in 1776, Jefferson is believed to have plagiarized the MecDec while composing his own, slightly more famous Declaration, and then, as he was wont to do, covered the whole thing up. Which is why Adams always insisted the MecDec needed to be thoroughly investigated and more universally made known to the present and future generation. Now, with Who's Your Founding Father?, David Fleming picks up where Adams left off, leaving no archive, no cemetery, no bizarre clue or wild character (and definitely no Dunkin' Donuts) unexplored while traveling the globe to bring to life one of the most fantastic, important--and controversial--stories in American history.The incredible, untold true story of the 1952 Dallas Texans--the worst team in the craziest season in NFL history.
Rattlesnakes on the practice field, fist fights on the team plane, bounced checks, paternity suits, house bombings by the Ku Klux Klan, stadium fields covered in circus elephant dung, one-legged trainers, humiliating defeats, miraculous wins, All Pro quarterbacks getting drunk at halftime, sex in phone booths, and even a future Hall of Fame coach stealing a cab.
With 100 mind-bending puzzles ranging from easy to difficult, Extreme Sudoku is an intensely challenging puzzle book to test your mind, stretch concentration levels and stimulate problem-solving skills.
Pocket Sudoku is a fun and challenging puzzle book to test your mind, improve concentration and build problem-solving skills.
With 140 unique puzzles ranging from easy to difficult, this book is the perfect size to fit your school bag, handbag or travel bag, for sudoku on-the-go.
Travel Sudoku is a fun and challenging puzzle book to test your mind, improve concentration and build problem-solving skills.
With 160 unique puzzles ranging from easy to difficult, this book is the perfect size to fit your backpack, handbag or travel bag, for sudoku on-the-go.
East of the land of the Elves is the land of Sweet Smellums, lives a family of hedgehogs by the name of Fipple Berry. Charlie Blue Berry Fipple Berry is their only son, and he has three favorite things: eating Blue Berry muffins, fishing, and playing with his best friend, a polar bear named Norry Norris Fruit Bean. On one very special day, Charlie Blue Berry wakes up in celebration, because this day, is the last day of school before the summer!
All year long Charlie Blue Berry Fipple Berry tries to listen to his parents and to do the right thing, but it isn't easy always. Thinking that his Mother did not notice, Charlie Blue Berry Fipple Berry does something his Mother asked him not to, and spends the whole day feeling bad about it. How will Charlie Blue Berry Fipple Berry explain what he has done? Charlie Blue Berry Fipple Berry feels so bad about what he has done, he tells his self he will never do anything bad again, but then Charlie Blue Berry Fipple Berry makes another mistake...a big mistake...........Children growing up make a lot of mistakes. Learning from our mistakes and telling the truth about things that we have done is always the right thing to do! We will must never be afraid to tell our parents when we have done something wrong, they love us, and wants to show us the right way.
Mark Carter barely has time to dump his personal belongings into his office in the administration building at Boan University when Dean Hartley's lifeless body is found lying in a pool of blood. A booming, narcissistic voice is silenced forever just as carter is about to begin his new role as provost.
While police roam the campus looking for clues as to who killed the dean, Carter attempts to seek out rationality in the often irrational world of higher education administration. Armed only with a sense of humor and an ancient cell phone, Carter steps into a universe of endless meetings, inflated egos, and inane policies and soon becomes disillusioned with a college administration more focused on a dunk-the-mascot event during spirit week than on a much-needed library renovation. The real mystery at Boan University is not, who killed Dean Hartley? it's how does anything get done and can Provost Carter survive?
It's All Academic presents a lighthearted and highly entertaining account of one man's ill-fated year as he immerses himself in the often unpredictable, image-building life that surrounds the world of higher education.
Mark Carter barely has time to dump his personal belongings into his office in the administration building at Boan University when Dean Hartley's lifeless body is found lying in a pool of blood. A booming, narcissistic voice is silenced forever just as carter is about to begin his new role as provost.
While police roam the campus looking for clues as to who killed the dean, Carter attempts to seek out rationality in the often irrational world of higher education administration. Armed only with a sense of humor and an ancient cell phone, Carter steps into a universe of endless meetings, inflated egos, and inane policies and soon becomes disillusioned with a college administration more focused on a dunk-the-mascot event during spirit week than on a much-needed library renovation. The real mystery at Boan University is not, who killed Dean Hartley? it's how does anything get done and can Provost Carter survive?
It's All Academic presents a lighthearted and highly entertaining account of one man's ill-fated year as he immerses himself in the often unpredictable, image-building life that surrounds the world of higher education.
Lean Logic is David Fleming's masterpiece, the product of more than thirty years' work and a testament to the creative brilliance of one of Britain's most important intellectuals.
A dictionary unlike any other, it leads readers through Fleming's stimulating exploration of fields as diverse as culture, history, science, art, logic, ethics, myth, economics, and anthropology, being made up of four hundred and four engaging essay-entries covering topics such as Boredom, Community, Debt, Growth, Harmless Lunatics, Land, Lean Thinking, Nanotechnology, Play, Religion, Spirit, Trust, and Utopia.
The threads running through every entry are Fleming's deft and original analysis of how our present market-based economy is destroying the very foundations--ecological, economic, and cultural-- on which it depends, and his core focus: a compelling, grounded vision for a cohesive society that might weather the consequences. A society that provides a satisfying, culturally-rich context for lives well lived, in an economy not reliant on the impossible promise of eternal economic growth. A society worth living in. Worth fighting for. Worth contributing to.
The beauty of the dictionary format is that it allows Fleming to draw connections without detracting from his in-depth exploration of each topic. Each entry carries intriguing links to other entries, inviting the enchanted reader to break free of the imposed order of a conventional book, starting where she will and following the links in the order of her choosing. In combination with Fleming's refreshing writing style and good-natured humor, it also creates a book perfectly suited to dipping in and out.
The decades Fleming spent honing his life's work are evident in the lightness and mastery with which Lean Logic draws on an incredible wealth of cultural and historical learning--from Whitman to Whitefield, Dickens to Daly, Kropotkin to Kafka, Keats to Kuhn, Oakeshott to Ostrom, Jung to Jensen, Machiavelli to Mumford, Mauss to Mandelbrot, Leopold to Lakatos, Polanyi to Putnam, Nietzsche to N ss, Keynes to Kumar, Scruton to Shiva, Thoreau to Toynbee, Rabelais to Rogers, Shakespeare to Schumacher, Locke to Lovelock, Homer to Homer-Dixon--in demonstrating that many of the principles it commends have a track-record of success long pre-dating our current society.
Fleming acknowledges, with honesty, the challenges ahead, but rather than inducing despair, Lean Logic is rare in its ability to inspire optimism in the creativity and intelligence of humans to nurse our ecology back to health; to rediscover the importance of place and play, of reciprocity and resilience, and of community and culture.
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Recognizing that Lean Logic's sheer size and unusual structure could be daunting, Fleming's long-time collaborator Shaun Chamberlin has also selected and edited one of the potential pathways through the dictionary to create a second, stand-alone volume, Surviving the Future: Culture, Carnival and Capital in the Aftermath of the Market Economy. The content, rare insights, and uniquely enjoyable writing style remain Fleming's, but presented at a more accessible paperback-length and in conventional read-it-front-to-back format.
East of the land of the Elves is the land of Sweet Smellums, lives a family of hedgehogs by the name of Fipple Berry. Charlie Blue Berry Fipple Berry is their only son, and he has three favorite things: eating Blue Berry muffins, fishing, and playing with his best friend, a polar bear named Norry Norris Fruit Bean. On one very special day, Charlie Blue Berry wakes up in celebration, because this day, is the last day of school before the summer!
All year long Charlie Blue Berry Fipple Berry tries to listen to his parents and to do the right thing, but it isn't easy always. Thinking that his Mother did not notice, Charlie Blue Berry Fipple Berry does something his Mother asked him not to, and spends the whole day feeling bad about it. How will Charlie Blue Berry Fipple Berry explain what he has done? Charlie Blue Berry Fipple Berry feels so bad about what he has done, he tells his self he will never do anything bad again, but then Charlie Blue Berry Fipple Berry makes another mistake...a big mistake...........Children growing up make a lot of mistakes. Learning from our mistakes and telling the truth about things that we have done is always the right thing to do! We will must never be afraid to tell our parents when we have done something wrong, they love us, and wants to show us the right way.
Examines the relationship of civic discourse to built environments through a case study of the Cabrini Green urban revitalization project in Chicago.
Combining a detailed case study of Chicago's Cabrini Green urban revitalization project with the concerns of modern political philosophy and rhetorical education, David Fleming examines the relationship between public discourse and the built environment in the contemporary United States. For more than half a century, low-income African American residents of the Cabrini Green public housing project have struggled against the extreme spatial inequality of their metropolitan region. The author examines three different options considered as part of revitalization efforts for the neighborhood: the dispersal of the project's residents into the largely white suburbs of Chicago; the building of a low-rise, mixed-income urban village on the same site; and the conversion of one of the original buildings into a democratically governed, not-for-profit housing cooperative.
The author argues that each of these projects involves imagining the physical, socioeconomic, and rhetorical community of the contemporary city in dramatically different ways. Considered together, the projects provide evidence that places still matter in human flourishing, but show that the places of our contemporary landscape are unequal in resources and opportunities, and that our public philosophies support this inequality. Fleming reminds us, however, that these arrangements are plastic and can be redesigned to reflect a more equitable sharing of public problems and resources.
Examines the relationship of civic discourse to built environments through a case study of the Cabrini Green urban revitalization project in Chicago.
Combining a detailed case study of Chicago's Cabrini Green urban revitalization project with the concerns of modern political philosophy and rhetorical education, David Fleming examines the relationship between public discourse and the built environment in the contemporary United States. For more than half a century, low-income African American residents of the Cabrini Green public housing project have struggled against the extreme spatial inequality of their metropolitan region. The author examines three different options considered as part of revitalization efforts for the neighborhood: the dispersal of the project's residents into the largely white suburbs of Chicago; the building of a low-rise, mixed-income urban village on the same site; and the conversion of one of the original buildings into a democratically governed, not-for-profit housing cooperative.
The author argues that each of these projects involves imagining the physical, socioeconomic, and rhetorical community of the contemporary city in dramatically different ways. Considered together, the projects provide evidence that places still matter in human flourishing, but show that the places of our contemporary landscape are unequal in resources and opportunities, and that our public philosophies support this inequality. Fleming reminds us, however, that these arrangements are plastic and can be redesigned to reflect a more equitable sharing of public problems and resources.
Pocket Sudoku Vol 2 is a fun and challenging puzzle book to test your mind, improve concentration and build problem-solving skills. With 140 unique puzzles ranging from easy to difficult, this book is the perfect size to fit your school bag, handbag or travel bag, for sudoku on-the-go.