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The Barbaric Heart: Faith, Money, and the Crisis of Nature
Smart, funny, and fresh, "The Barbaric Heart" argues that the present environmental crisis will not be resolved by the same forms of crony capitalism and managerial technocracy that created the crisis in the first place. With his trademark wit, White argues that the solution might very well come from an unexpected quarter: the arts, religion, and the realm of the moral imagination.
209 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2009
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
August 31, 2011
In this book, more explicitly than in his earlier non-fiction books, Curtis White exhibits what might be called old-fashioned beliefs: in the value of Art as a way to refresh our thinking about the world, and in the value of spiritual beliefs (though he's not preaching about God.} In The Barbaric Heart he describes capitalism as a system that is not, in any way, aesthetically enriching or enlivening to the soul. Not is it a system to bargain or negotiate with, as its heart - the barbaric heart - is primitive and bent on gain, regardless of the destruction it causes. (Here it does resemble the Tea Party, and also the Republican Party.)
While White has very severe words that are spot on about capitalism, he also turns his critical attention on environmentalist movements that try and work within capitalism, saying that, essentially, such a tack is wrong and headed for tragedy. True environmentalism becomes something much more spiritual, I gather, and rests outside capitalism completely. His nicely formulated defense of contrary thinking for positive purposes (and not just to be someone who argues against everything without offering solutions), his openness to defend art and the spirit (one of his previous books was The Spirit of Disobedience), and his dismantling of supposed alternative beliefs that have been co-opted by capitalism or greed, make this book attractive to read, think about, and argue with.
While White has very severe words that are spot on about capitalism, he also turns his critical attention on environmentalist movements that try and work within capitalism, saying that, essentially, such a tack is wrong and headed for tragedy. True environmentalism becomes something much more spiritual, I gather, and rests outside capitalism completely. His nicely formulated defense of contrary thinking for positive purposes (and not just to be someone who argues against everything without offering solutions), his openness to defend art and the spirit (one of his previous books was The Spirit of Disobedience), and his dismantling of supposed alternative beliefs that have been co-opted by capitalism or greed, make this book attractive to read, think about, and argue with.
February 25, 2013
I had mixed feelings after reading these pages and pages of thin generalizations and reappropriated Chomsky. I kept waiting for a point, and in the end it amounted to nothing-- strange, amateurish, but was nothing the point, some kind of Andy Kaufman prank on the vagueness of the Academe and social theory? So I went to Google to see if I could find some clues, and I guess I did, but not the kind of joke I envisioned.
An essay on Preditors (sic) & Editors revealed that White sat on the overseeing board of FC2, the publisher of at least one of his own books. So of course I then checked Dalkey, his publisher for 5 of his books (most of his career) and he was listed on Dalkey's overseeing board too!? This would hardly be worth mentioning if these publishers were private concerns, but they're not. These publishers receive the bulk of their funding from tax money, from places like the National Endowment for the Arts and the Illinois Arts Council.
How can a guy spend an entire book denouncing hypocrisy and crony capitalism when the vast majority of his own output is the spoils of crony capitalism/socialism? It's like he's saying, "How dare they steal from you with their right hands!" while he pickpockets your wallet with his left. It's not an Andy Kaufman prank, it's brazen intellectual dishonesty, at best.
I'm curious, over the decades, how much has your vanity cost the taxpayers, White? (It could be a tidy sum. That essay ("Fleeced by FC2") revealed FC2 alone received six figures in public money in a 5 year period (1999 - 2003). How many struggling artists lost out because you spent those public grants publishing yourself, White, again and again and again?
Hey, if you want to vanity-publish, by all means, go for it, but pay for it yourself.
For any journalist who's interested in picking up the ball and running with it, my sense is there's an interesting untold story here involving a notable amount of public funds over decades. That Preditors & Editors essay will give you a glimpse of the larger picture and would be a good place to start.
So in conclusion, folks, if you bought one of White's books, I hope you get a lot of use out of it, because there are good odds you paid for it twice.
An essay on Preditors (sic) & Editors revealed that White sat on the overseeing board of FC2, the publisher of at least one of his own books. So of course I then checked Dalkey, his publisher for 5 of his books (most of his career) and he was listed on Dalkey's overseeing board too!? This would hardly be worth mentioning if these publishers were private concerns, but they're not. These publishers receive the bulk of their funding from tax money, from places like the National Endowment for the Arts and the Illinois Arts Council.
How can a guy spend an entire book denouncing hypocrisy and crony capitalism when the vast majority of his own output is the spoils of crony capitalism/socialism? It's like he's saying, "How dare they steal from you with their right hands!" while he pickpockets your wallet with his left. It's not an Andy Kaufman prank, it's brazen intellectual dishonesty, at best.
I'm curious, over the decades, how much has your vanity cost the taxpayers, White? (It could be a tidy sum. That essay ("Fleeced by FC2") revealed FC2 alone received six figures in public money in a 5 year period (1999 - 2003). How many struggling artists lost out because you spent those public grants publishing yourself, White, again and again and again?
Hey, if you want to vanity-publish, by all means, go for it, but pay for it yourself.
For any journalist who's interested in picking up the ball and running with it, my sense is there's an interesting untold story here involving a notable amount of public funds over decades. That Preditors & Editors essay will give you a glimpse of the larger picture and would be a good place to start.
So in conclusion, folks, if you bought one of White's books, I hope you get a lot of use out of it, because there are good odds you paid for it twice.
July 16, 2010
This is a very radical book in which Curtis White offers a deep criticism of our way of life and the way we approach life and the world. He sees history as being dominated by the capitalist ethos and scientific logic, what he calls the Barbaric Heart. He criticizes the environmental movement and the very concept of sustainability for working inside of this destructive system, just placating and trying to moderate the Barbaric Heart, and isolating the environment (or ecosystem, in scientific terms) from the rest of the society. He writes:
"Environmentalism's analyses tend to be abous 'sources.' Industrial sources. Non-point sources. Urban sources. Smokestack sources. Tailpipe sources. Even natural sources. ... Okay, but why do we have all of these polluting sources? What has made them? Is it something about human nature? Our violence? Is it something about sin? Our greed? Is it something about evil? Corporate villains?" (p. 4)
The questions at the end contain hints to White's argument. Often quoting from Greek philosophers and drawing parallels to the fall of the Roman Empire, he sees the (self-) destructiveness of the Barbaric Heart. It is futile to blame individual corporations. Instead, White makes sweeping linkages between environmental destruction and the broader society and its values: constant growth, measuring the value of everything in money, competition, the demeaning and alienating form work has taken, violence as a means of politics, violence against people and against nature. He concludes that:
"The very notion of environmentalism is not much more than a way of isolating a problem from its true context. The crisis of a degraded natural world is a part of the larger problem of the crisis of thought, the crisis of faith, and the crisis of the relation of human beings to Being." (p. 176)
The Barbaric Heart is a deep and spiritual book. It may be extreme in some ways, but it is very thought provoking and forces the reader to think beyond the usual. I think everyone would benefit from reading it.
"Environmentalism's analyses tend to be abous 'sources.' Industrial sources. Non-point sources. Urban sources. Smokestack sources. Tailpipe sources. Even natural sources. ... Okay, but why do we have all of these polluting sources? What has made them? Is it something about human nature? Our violence? Is it something about sin? Our greed? Is it something about evil? Corporate villains?" (p. 4)
The questions at the end contain hints to White's argument. Often quoting from Greek philosophers and drawing parallels to the fall of the Roman Empire, he sees the (self-) destructiveness of the Barbaric Heart. It is futile to blame individual corporations. Instead, White makes sweeping linkages between environmental destruction and the broader society and its values: constant growth, measuring the value of everything in money, competition, the demeaning and alienating form work has taken, violence as a means of politics, violence against people and against nature. He concludes that:
"The very notion of environmentalism is not much more than a way of isolating a problem from its true context. The crisis of a degraded natural world is a part of the larger problem of the crisis of thought, the crisis of faith, and the crisis of the relation of human beings to Being." (p. 176)
The Barbaric Heart is a deep and spiritual book. It may be extreme in some ways, but it is very thought provoking and forces the reader to think beyond the usual. I think everyone would benefit from reading it.
June 7, 2010
cuz I needed something else to get me worked up during my commute
April 5, 2011
"If we are predominantly a culture of profit, that culture must will its own destruction in the name of a culture of life."(White, 2009: 120-21)
how to solve this riddle?
these are no two discrete things (in practice) and there's elements of a culture of life in the current culture of profit, if culture is taken as the diverse and even shizophenic(contraditions within the individual) beliefs of contemporary societies. Through this vista, I'm sympathetic to (although ultimately in disagreement with) Friedman's view (in this book) that we all have the same values, want the same things but differ on the way to get there the fastest/most comfortably etc. Surely we want different things, but there's more potential for consensus or cooperation... peaceful coexistence. While I don't want to say we need to work with the market (excuse me, i mean corporate capitalism), I do think it can be fruitful to work with liberals (i.e. humans who are committed to the same humanistic values as I am). White stands for the same. If we have the same values, we can discuss goals and means. The market has its upsides, but on balance its relatively worse than other possible systems.
Still, I could have done without this. Didn't change me, but rather confirmed me (even when White disagrees). I admire his courage to write like this, tho. And there's some nice moves in there. An aesthetic pleasure perhaps.
how to solve this riddle?
these are no two discrete things (in practice) and there's elements of a culture of life in the current culture of profit, if culture is taken as the diverse and even shizophenic(contraditions within the individual) beliefs of contemporary societies. Through this vista, I'm sympathetic to (although ultimately in disagreement with) Friedman's view (in this book) that we all have the same values, want the same things but differ on the way to get there the fastest/most comfortably etc. Surely we want different things, but there's more potential for consensus or cooperation... peaceful coexistence. While I don't want to say we need to work with the market (excuse me, i mean corporate capitalism), I do think it can be fruitful to work with liberals (i.e. humans who are committed to the same humanistic values as I am). White stands for the same. If we have the same values, we can discuss goals and means. The market has its upsides, but on balance its relatively worse than other possible systems.
Still, I could have done without this. Didn't change me, but rather confirmed me (even when White disagrees). I admire his courage to write like this, tho. And there's some nice moves in there. An aesthetic pleasure perhaps.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews