Word: riesmans
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...tragedy in America, as Riesman sees it, is her inability to provide or even think about better things. She is still concerned with more things...
...Riesman argues that the emphasis in a "post-industrial, over-developed society" has shifted from production (work) to consumption (leisure). Because such a shift has occurred, utopian ideas and long range social goals must be reconsidered. Preoccupation with winning the cold war or beating the Russians to the moon provides no answer; nor can purpose be found in building more superhighways--these threaten to cut us to pieces. The threat of chaos necessitates conscious planning for the kind of society we want...
Abundance for What? puts forth some utopian ideas for reorganizing work and leisure patterns in America. The book encourages more though about a utopia. Riesman thinks that work for most of the world is clear cut: industrialization. For Americans, the notion of work is more complicated. Now that we've got the factories, what next...
...make leisure more meaningful for the increasing number of people with time on their hands. To do this we "need changes in the whole society: in its work, its political forms and its cultural styles." Such talk is no less revolutionary than what Goodman wants--utopian reforms. Here Riesman's thinking encounters difficulties. Any scheme for utopia requires a comprehensive view of man; otherwise large-scale social reform has no coherence or legitimacy. But, unlike the 18th century ideologues, Riesman has no driving metaphysic; his approach is "one of seeing rather than doing." To a pragmatist, interested in the implementation...
...escalate all of the author's thoughts to philosophical ultimates. His specific observations snap with insight. The essay about the place of the car in American life is the best one on the subject: When he discusses the marginal place of sociology with its concern for "underprivileged data," Riesman detects and delineates the subtlest of conflicts and snobberies in the scholarly world...