{"product_id":"the-future-and-its-enemies-the-growing-conflict-over-creativity-enterprise-and-progress-9780684862699","title":"The Future and Its Enemies: The Growing Conflict Over Creativity, Enterprise, and Progress","description":"Today we have greater wealth, health, opportunity, and choice than at any time in history. Yet a chorus of intellectuals and politicians laments our current condition -- as slaves to technology, coarsened by popular culture, and insecure in the face of economic change. The future, they tell us, is dangerously out of control, and unless we precisely govern the forces of change, we risk disaster. \u003cbr\u003e In \u003ci\u003eThe Future and Its Enemies, \u003c\/i\u003e Virginia Postrel explodes the myths behind these claims. Using examples that range from medicine to fashion, she explores how progress truly occurs and demonstrates that human betterment depends not on conformity to one central vision but on creativity and decentralized, open-ended trial and error. She argues that these two opposing world-views -- \"stasis\" vs. \"dynamism\" -- are replacing \"left\" and \"right\" to define our cultural and political debate as we enter the next century. \u003cbr\u003e In this bold exploration of how civilizations learn, Postrel heralds a fundamental shift in the way we view politics, culture, technology, and society as we face an unknown -- and invigorating -- future.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eVirginia Postrel\u003c\/b\u003e is the editor of \u003ci\u003eReason\u003c\/i\u003e magazine and a columnist for \u003ci\u003eForbes\u003c\/i\u003e and its companion technology magazine, \u003ci\u003eForbes ASAP.\u003c\/i\u003e Her work also appears in \u003ci\u003eThe New York Times, \u003c\/i\u003e the \u003ci\u003eLos Angeles Times, The Wall Street Journal\u003c\/i\u003e and other major publications. She lives in Los Angeles. Her Web site is at www.dynamist.com.\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Free Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50844926083346,"sku":"9780684862699","price":13.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_dacdcd3b-4918-4851-9e4c-ed2847ce344c.jpg?v=1737336503","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/the-future-and-its-enemies-the-growing-conflict-over-creativity-enterprise-and-progress-9780684862699","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}