Free to Be Human Pb [Paperback]

David Edwards (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 1995

This is a book about freedom, and above all about the idea that there is often no greater obstacle to freedom than the assumption that it has already been fully attained. While in the West few individuals today suffer physical restraint by the state, we are still constrained by powerful psychological chains - which are in many ways far more effective, if only because they are so difficult to perceive. Influential writers such as Noam Chomsky and Edward Herman have shown that the corporately controlled mass media of Western democracies serve as a giant filter system favouring powerful state and business interests: what we receive as 'objective news' about domestic politics, human rights and environmental issues, is in fact an extremely partial and biased view of the world. Free to be Human shows how the same filter system distorts our understanding of many personal, ethical and spiritual issues, ensuring that we remain passive, conformist, confused and uninformed - and willing to accept the irrational values of corporate consumerism. David Edwards argues that, in order to counter this continual process of disinformation and disempowerment, we need to master the arts of 'intellectual self-defence' and so become able to challenge the deceptions of a system that subordinates people and planet to the drive for profit.

Editorial Reviews

Review

In David Edwards' searing analysis ... the illusory nature of most contemporary reform processes is powerfully exposed. Jonathon Porritt

About the Author

David Edwards is a political writer who specialises in the analysis of the corporate media. His other books include Free to be Human and Guardians of Power (with David Cromwell).

Product Details

• Paperback: 288 pages
• Publisher: Green Books Ltd (June 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1870098560
• ISBN-13: 978-1870098564
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.4 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,539,896 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This book changed my life, April 1, 2011

By 

Tor S. Thidesen "torsrthidesen" (Oslo, Norway) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Free to Be Human Pb (Paperback)

It's always hard to review a book that changes your life profoundly.
I won't bore you with the details and keep this short and simple. This book will open your eyes to the truth about our civilization. In only a few pages, Edwards, a former business man who one day simply left his job to pursue the unthankful task of saving our souls (if you will pardon my flight of whimsy), has managed to cover exactly how our world is in dire straits. He doesn't waste time with the obvious, we all know the physical decline the world is in, what he does share with us is how the media is controlled by the few (borrowing from Chomsky), how useless representative democracy really is, how the entire school system is built on creating zombies with no self-confidence, rewarding those who exemplify the least amount of personal judgement; And how we are lead to believe that either A: Everything is fine, or B: There is nothing we can do.
In fact this is the unmasking of the entire sham of western civilization.

This is a wonderful companion to Edwards other master piece Compassionate Revolution.