Where the Wasteland Ends by Theodore Roszak

Where the Wasteland Ends Reviews

• 
  Dylan

  The author at one point calls this work a "history and sociology of consciousness." While that might be a grandiose claim, it is closer to the mark than the other references to it I have encountered, which characterize it, for example, as "Roszak's diatribe," and the work of a "New Left cultural historian." This book is much larger in scope and more significant than these readers seem willing to recognize. What strikes me most about it is the almost unrecognizable cultural context of 1971-72, when Roszak was writing, compared to the world we now know and compared to the rest of the twentieth century.
  
  Roszak is a harsh critic of science. So much so that I doubt any dedicated professional scientist would be able to get through the whole book without some kind of sedation. This kind of iconoclasm is no longer admissible in polite society. But I found every point he makes to be reasonable, in the broadest sense. And that is ultimately all he is advocating for: the broadening of our idea of reason to include intuition, imagination, awe, and the mythic heritage of our species. He writes:
  
  

  When scientists think about nature or society or people, they are really thinking about a vast collection of contrived schemes and models which are indispensable to the research their profession respects as worthwhile.

  
  
  There are so many other ways one can look at the world and so many successful cultural alternatives--successful even by the standards of science--that it is immediately clear how impoverished and unreasonable this "Reality Principle" bestowed to us by Bacon and Newton is. This narrow worldview--this "single vision," as William Blake described it--of the universe we inhabit began with Judeo-Christian religion, which subordinated the primal experience of nature itself as sacred to a legalistic super-natural conception of the divine that, at its Protestant extreme, rejects all mysticism; it was further desacralized and made dominant through the Scientific Revolution; and it is the foundation of our science, our technics, and the "wasteland" that has become of our spirit and our external environment alike.
  
  In the late 1960s, Roszak had reason to hope that the most hopeful elements of the counter culture might prevail, but, by the time his book was published, that glimmer was already waning. His target audience, deemed large enough to merit a Bantam mass-market paperback, seemed to have virtually disappeared by the turn of the next decade. The spiritual awakening he predicted amounted to nothing more than the "New Age" consumer lifestyle, an absolute disgrace to the ancient wisdom it purports to sell. Now, after 40 years, as people once again are assembling publicly to express their desires for a life not prefabricated by the purveyors of single vision, maybe there is a real chance for the awakening he envisioned.
• 
  Paul

  I'm impressed that this book, published in 1972, seems so current. It addresses many of the themes that recent critics are still writing about: "Environmental collapse, world poverty, technocratic elitism, psychic alienation, the death of the soul." (p. 444) Roszak offers a radical critique that resonates closely with, for example, that of Charles Eisenstein in The More Beautiful World Our Hearts Know Is Possible (2013). It's quite likely to be at odds with some of the readers' long held beliefs--parts of the ideology of modern society that we often don't realize that we maintain.
  
  Roszak critiques "the psychology of science [i.e., scientific rationality] and the culture of industrialism." He describes how William Blake, for example, "saw in the steady advance of science and its machines a terrifying aggression against precious human potentialities--and especially against the visionary imagination." (p. xxvi) In the alienated culture of our technocratic, urban-industrial civilization, something has vanished from our consciousness. (p. xxvii) A "despairing humanity is ... dwarfed, diminished, stunted, and self-loathing. These are the buried sources of world war and despotic collectivism, of scapegoat hatred and exploitation." (p. xxviii) Even humanism comes in for harsh criticism to the extent that it is caught in the single vision of rationality, caught up in technocratic ideas, unwilling to entertain transcendent thoughts (which we might nowadays associate with "spirituality"). We are suffering in a wasteland of the spirit; it will take a revolution to break out of it. Roszak calls for a very communal, political way through, rather than just relying on individuals to seek something like enlightenment.
  
  Roszak describes features of our alienated existence, emphasizing our technological dependence more than, say, relations of production. We rely too much on "the benevolent despotism of elitist expertise" (p. 413), on an artificial environment, and on depersonalized observation (scientific objectification). Reductionist scientism teaches us to depend only on what can be categorized, separated, measured--denying the full use of our senses, intuitions, dreams. Contrasting a child's mind with an adult's, he laments how much our senses and emotions have been deadened. We have lost the ability to use myth and magic as ways of knowing. We "designate the objective consciousness as our single means of gaining access to reality. For what is this objectification of experience but the act of alienation, a breaking of faith between people and their environment, between people and their own experiential faculties?" (p. 163) This is the single vision he decries. It excludes all concepts of the sacred: "nature", for example, becomes just a bunch of parts to be exploited or removed. "Science is far too narrowly grounded in the personality. It closes out too much experience and in this way drastically distorts what it studies. As a result, it has become a highly productive research machinery; but what it pours forth does not add up to a life-enhancing natural philosophy." (p. 405)
  
  There is a large section on "how the Romantic artists, dissenting from single vision, rediscovered the meaning of the transcendent symbols" (p. 275), harkening back to older worldviews (e.g., Gnosticism, alchemy), pointing toward a different vision of communal life. I had never been exposed to these authors' ideas, and making arguments through poetry was quite interesting for me.
  
  Roszak sees the culture transforming at the fringes, pointing out many examples that may be seen as a radical tendency if not a movement. He honors such "fragile experimentation" based on people asking, "how do I save my soul?" (pp. 444-45) He looks forward to "a world awakened from its sick infatuation with power, growth, efficiency, progress as if from a nightmare." (p 414) Roszak doesn't construct a complete utopia, but hints at how we might live better after casting off our current industrialism. While he does discuss politics, economics, and ecology, I think he believes that change depends very much on our somehow recapturing our souls, not just restructuring our institutions.
• 
  Szplug

  I am a huge fan of science, and a strong proponent of rationality—the wonders that abound in a science that explains, empowers, and expands our humanity and its location, potentiality, and understanding of the cosmos, and the impressive ability of our consciousness to cognize and reason through the myriad mysteries that surround us on all sides, are things for which I feel nothing short of awe and amazed appreciation—however, it has just never felt like enough, like all. The older I get, the more I realize how much of a spiritual need exists within me, a yearning for something outside these twin pillars of our existence, an unquenchable thirst for that ineffable something which, for me at least, apparently cannot be slaked by what has been revealed through thought, experimentation, and logic. I am not talking about the requirement for a supervisory deity or a loving cosmic father figure, the absurd expectation of daily intervention via prayer-on demand or the inane promise of an eternal extension of a miserable crawl through the mud in a sun-kissed lea where lambs are making out with lions and bearded hippies in pristine silk sing kumbaya; it is rather an inherent striving to tune an inner perception towards an element of ordering or purpose, a connection with the infinite reaches of our revealed universe that offers more than the implication of a mundanely-tethered short march through time at light-speed building endless castles in the sand whilst ever turning a chary eye towards the waves crashing and foaming alongside, alert to a rogue cresting that will prematurely wash all away in its sudden encroachment and simultaneously aware that the breaking breakers are imperceptibly but implacably edging towards our elaborate sand structures with all of their amoral assurances of watery ruin and death.
  
  Roszak tries to tap into that ephemeral current and situate it within our postindustrial society. His book Flicker was a fictional opus with an inherently fascinating and marvelous concept, but the victim of some hideous thematic decisions, over-the-top silliness, and rebarbative characters—yet this exploratory tome seems to possess the possibility of striking all of the notes that I've been trying to hear and assemble into my own personal Song of Sastre. Here's hoping this particular faith is neither blind nor misplaced.
• 
  Azlan

  Amazing
• 
  A14AS

  10 stars
• 
  Stephen Damm

  This book is interesting, if nothing else. There's a lot going on in here, and it's worth reading. Having read it, I can't say I agree with it entirely, but can't say I don't. It warrants further readings, which would need to wait for another day. For all that, I'll still give it 5 stars. It's worth noting that in places it reads as prescient. Or we've been on the same path for decades without change and have ignored so many warnings. Either interpretation honestly gives the author further credence.
  
  Mind you, I'm inclined to think that if you're the sort of person who will come across this book are the sorts who will be inclined to like it. There is a large segment who will never read this, and if they did would be harsh towards it. Of course, these people are the very ones it criticizes.
  
  And for the summary version? Urban-industrial society demands a singular focus on a particular mode of consciousness-that driven by the scientific worldview and the subsequent objectification of nature. Other modes of consciousness are valid, and humans developed to experience all of them within nature. To experience only the one regarded now as truth is limiting and alienating. To experience only one of the others is madness. To experience all of them requires a return to a sacramental consciousness and embracing the symbolic transcendence and rhapsodic intellect.
  
  That's pretty straightforward, right? Yeah, that's why it warrants more reading on my part. The ideas are difficult in places, but they're important ideas.
• 
  JL Torres

  One of the most important books I've read.
• 
  Al Sevcik

  Theodore Rozak was 39 in 1972 when this book was published. The book is a scathing repudiation of science, technology and Western religions because they reduce humans to worker-consumers and eliminate spiritual wonder from life. Roszak advocated reducing society’s concern about technical details and more attention to how each being and thing is an integral part of existence. He favored craftsmanship over mass production. He promoted a do-it-yourself approach to making one’s way in the world. He felt that it was demeaning to work for wages from an employer. But, he presents his ideas only as concepts. Overall, the book and Roszak’s proposals seemed too utopian to be used as a plan for action.
• 
  Charles

  This book is spot on in some areas and rabidly Eco-terrorist in others. If you like the environment you will get a lot of good knowledge about the history of the politics behind were we are, but don't leave your brain at the dust jacket some of the views are extreme.
• 
  Charles

  This book is spot on in some areas and rabidly Eco-terrorist in others. If you like the environment you will get a lot of good knowledge about the history of the politics behind were we are, but don't leave your brain at the dust jacket some of the views are extreme
• 
  Dionysus Lightfoot

  An intelligent indictment on today's technocratic, consumerist culture.
• 
  Dreamersemporium

  good