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Seeing Like a State: Difference between revisions
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{{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.'' | {{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, with {{author|Jane Jacobs}}’ {{br|The Death and Life of Great American Cities}}, 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''. | ||
Exactly ''why'' there is this collective affliction of [[wilful blindness]] to our administrative compulsion is a great, unexplored topic of our age. That so many, great and small, have so much to lose by exploring it may explain the mystery. | Exactly ''why'' there is this collective affliction of [[wilful blindness]] to our administrative compulsion is a great, unexplored topic of our age. That so many, great and small, have so much to lose by exploring it may explain the mystery. | ||