{"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\u003cb\u003eBinding Type:\u003c\/b\u003e Paperback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Free Press\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 12\/08\/1999\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN:\u003c\/b\u003e 9780684862699\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 288\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 0.75lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 8.50h x 5.50w x 0.90d","brand":"Virginia Postrel","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":36639967215772,"sku":"9780684862699","price":16.14,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0473\/0804\/6492\/products\/img_cef6845b-590f-494c-b8fc-fcc1072722c2.jpg?v=1603851044","url":"https:\/\/pastforward.org\/products\/the-future-and-its-enemies-the-growing-conflict-over-creativity-enterprise-and-progress-9780684862699","provider":"Past Forward","version":"1.0","type":"link"}