Reiterate Enlightenment - On an Actively Participatory Politics

Author: Bruno
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-11-01
Features: This book aims to revisit the topic of the theoretical and practical traditions of the Enlightenment. Of course, the 21st century and the 18th century are worlds apart: the past and the present are incomparable. To address the new circumstances, the Enlightenment's advocacy for intellectuals' involvement in public affairs and the ethical model it proposed to resist oppressive power structures urgently need reinterpretation. Today, the strict concept of progress has been forgotten; no organization or party can claim to represent humanity's ideals, and intellectuals often equate the university with the world. Images in television and films replace the words in books in shaping public opinion. Liberal regimes are often tainted by imperialistic ambitions and parasitic elites. Both the left and the right support authoritarianism. The global expansion of capitalism, the rise of bureaucratic states, the consolidation of media, blind consumerism, the neglect of the environment, and cultural relativism are all undermining the many ideals put forward by the Enlightenment: cosmopolitan tolerance, economic justice, democratic responsibility, and the concept of a "good society."