On Decline, Andrew Potter
On Decline, Andrew Potter
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On Decline
Stagnation, Nostalgia, and Why Every Year is the Worst One Ever

Author: Andrew Potter

Narrator: Tom Lute

Unabridged: 3 hr 20 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: ECW Press

Published: 06/13/2022

Synopsis

A Winnipeg Free Press Top Read of 2021 What if David Bowie really was holding the fabric of the universe together? The death of David Bowie in January 2016 was a bad start to a year that got a lot worse: war in Syria, the Zika virus, terrorist attacks in Brussels and Nice, the Brexit vote—and the election of Donald Trump. The end-of-year wraps declared 2016 “the worst … ever.” Four even more troubling years later, the question of our apocalypse had devolved into a tired social media cliché. But when COVID-19 hit, journalist and professor of public policy Andrew Potter started to wonder: what if The End isn’t one big event, but a long series of smaller ones? In On Decline, Potter surveys the current problems and likely future of Western civilization (spoiler: it’s not great). Economic stagnation and the slowing of scientific innovation. Falling birth rates and environmental degradation. The devastating effects of cultural nostalgia and the havoc wreaked by social media on public discourse. Most acutely, the various failures of Western governments in their responses to the COVID-19 pandemic. If the legacy of the Enlightenment and its virtues—reason, logic, science, evidence—has run its course, how and why has it happened? And where do we go from here?

Reviews

Goodreads review by David on August 23, 2021

I don’t think there’s too much argument about western civilization being in decline. It has clearly lost its mojo, its direction, and its momentum. At best, it’s coasting right now. But Andrew Potter’s On Decline takes such shabby aim at the issues that the book itself becomes proof that western civ......more

Goodreads review by Warren on January 13, 2022

I know the books in these series are meant to be short, so the authors cannot go into as great a depth as possible. However, the main problem with this book is a lack of going beyond what the author thinks the problem of decline is due to, to actually providing evidence that can be shown to stand up......more

Goodreads review by Robert on November 29, 2021

This is a decent rant that is often overblown but has some good points. Potter looks at environmental pollution, the slowing down of new technology and growth, population decline, Covid 19, and the failure of modern politics, especially in the West, to address any of these issues. The main point is......more

Goodreads review by Bill on December 08, 2021

This is it? Was expecting a lot from this book, but received a smattering of observations and some research. Read CIVILIZED TO DEATH as a better take on the decline of humanity.......more

Goodreads review by Matthew RC on February 07, 2022

I’m going to give this pocket sized polemic 3.5⭐️. Whilst I don’t agree with everything the author states I do feel like our species and particularly our civilizations institutions are showing signs of fatigue. Brought to their knees by social media, disinformation and the ongoing pressure of author......more

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