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Seeing Like a State: Difference between revisions
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{{Quote|No battle — Tarutino, Borodino, or Austerlitz — takes place as those who planned it anticipated. That is an essential condition. | {{Quote|No battle — Tarutino, Borodino, or Austerlitz — takes place as those who planned it anticipated. That is an essential condition. | ||
:—Tolstoy, ''War and Peace''}} | :—Tolstoy, ''War and Peace''}} | ||
{{quote| | {{quote|In sum, the [[legibility]] of a society provides the capacity for large-scale social engineering, [[high-modernist]] ideology provides the desire, the authoritarian state provides the determination to act on that desire, and an incapacitated civil society provides the leveled social terrain on which to build. | ||
:—{{author|James C. Scott}} | :—{{author|James C. Scott}}}} | ||
This one goes to the top of [[JC]]’s 2020 lockdown re-reads. It was published in 1998, so it’s a bit late to get excited — but while it addresses the “[[high modernism]]” of 20th Century government, the read-across to the capitalist market economy, and beyond that into the interior workings of ''any'' large corporation — are you reading, boss?<ref>Boss: “Yes, [[JC]], I am. Now, [[get your coat]].”</ref> — shrieks from every page. These are profound ideas we all ''should'' recognise, and which could transform the effectiveness of what we all do, but — being, well, citizens of a “prostrate civil society” — either we can’t or we ’’won’t.’’ | This one goes to the top of [[JC]]’s 2020 lockdown re-reads. It was published in 1998, so it’s a bit late to get excited — but while it addresses the “[[high modernism]]” of 20th Century government, the read-across to the capitalist market economy, and beyond that into the interior workings of ''any'' large corporation — are you reading, boss?<ref>Boss: “Yes, [[JC]], I am. Now, [[get your coat]].”</ref> — shrieks from every page. These are profound ideas we all ''should'' recognise, and which could transform the effectiveness of what we all do, but — being, well, citizens of a “prostrate civil society” — either we can’t or we ’’won’t.’’ | ||