{"product_id":"desire-and-fate","title":"Desire and Fate","description":"\u003cp\u003e\"Ours is an ill-mannered society that wears those bad manners as a badge not just of its moral rectitude but of its millenarian ethical ambitions. At the same time, in no society in recent memory have people been so easily affronted.\" \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eAt a time when political writing and cultural criticism have come to be dominated by an insipid and unthinking moralism, David Rieff's essays offer a bracing antidote. As well as being one of the English-speaking world's most perceptive commentators on global politics, Rieff has in recent years been one of its most courageous and outspoken critics of the pathologies of identity politics--in particular, its grossly simplistic understanding of what it means to belong to a culture or a community, its fundamental failure to grasp the real value of the creative arts, and its increasing disregard for due process and freedom of expression. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eThe essays that appear in \u003ci\u003eDesire and Fate\u003c\/i\u003e serve both as a crucial record of and a fierce protest against these developments. Covering topics as diverse as censorship in contemporary publishing, the cultural ubiquity of the notion of trauma, and the future of democracy on a global level, they are all characterised by an incisive intelligence and a refreshing lack of wishful thinking. Together they confirm Rieff's status as an indispensable writer and thinker.\u003cdiv style=\"display:none\"\u003eISBN-10: 1912475383\u003cbr\u003eISBN-13: 9781912475384\u003cbr\u003eAuthor: Rieff, David, Banville, John\u003cbr\u003ePublisher: Eris\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Eris","offers":[{"title":"Paperback (Jan 2025)","offer_id":46080778404037,"sku":"9781912475384","price":22.8,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0708\/6414\/2533\/files\/9781912475384.jpg?v=1776040241","url":"https:\/\/www.inveni.store\/products\/desire-and-fate","provider":"Inveni","version":"1.0","type":"link"}