{"product_id":"progress-trap","title":"Progress Trap","description":"\u003cp\u003eThe idea of progress, one of the animating ideas of Western civilization, has now gone global. From Marxism and neoliberalism to today’s mutant identity politics, it offers a framework of knowledge and confidence: an assurance that things will get better and that history is on our side. However, in doing this it creates a form of authority that is simultaneously imaginary and dishonest, resting on confidence in a future that is really contingent and unknowable.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eIn \u003ci\u003eThe Progress Trap\u003c\/i\u003e, Ben Cobley looks at this progressive mindset as a form of power, conferring a right to act and control others. ‘Change’, ‘transformation’ and the ‘new’ are the superior values, meaning destruction of the old: people, cultures and nature. It is a trap into which nearly all of us fall at times, so attractive are its stories and familiar its techniques.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eHard-hitting but thoughtful, the book is a meditation on the sinister consequences of the progressive way of being: for ourselves, for our democracy, for our art and for the pursuit of real knowledge.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"John Wiley and Sons Ltd","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":54250192372056,"sku":"9781509567621","price":31.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0278\/1295\/4195\/files\/9781509567621.jpg?v=1777885226","url":"https:\/\/agendabookshop.com\/products\/progress-trap","provider":"Agenda Bookshop","version":"1.0","type":"link"}