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The Utopia of Rules
The Utopia of Rules: On Technology, Stupidity, and the Secret Joys of Bureaucracy | David Graeber
From the author of the international bestseller Debt: The First 5,000 Years comes a revelatory account of the way bureaucracy rules our lives   Where does the desire for endless rules, regulations, and bureaucracy come from? How did we come to spend so much of our time filling out forms? And is it really a cipher for state violence?   To answer these questions, the anthropologist David Graeber—one of our most important and provocative thinkers—traces the peculiar and unexpected ways we relate to bureaucracy today, and reveals how it shapes our lives in ways we may not even notice…though he also suggests that there may be something perversely appealing—even romantic—about bureaucracy.   Leaping from the ascendance of right-wing economics to the hidden meanings behind Sherlock Holmes and Batman, The Utopia of Rules is at once a powerful work of social theory in the tradition of Foucault and Marx, and an entertaining reckoning with popular culture that calls to mind Slavoj Zizek at his most accessible.   An essential book for our times, The Utopia of Rules is sure to start a million conversations about the institutions that rule over us—and the better, freer world we should, perhaps, begin to imagine for ourselves.
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jungleclams
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so this mf writes basically Affirmation Tomes for me and this is no exception. skip the audiobook tho, dude sounds like a mutant strain of ben shapiro

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Schwifty
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Graeber, as always, delivered a surprising book about a rather seemingly boring cultural phenomenon. He traces the roots and logic of bureaucracy through politics, literature, technology, the post office and even dungeons and dragons and popular comic book heroes such as Batman.

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AMVP
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Interesting that Graeber never touches on the place of social media in emergent beurocratic technologies, not even in the section dedicated to the place of beurocracy in games. Still, a compelling read.

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AMVP
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#marchintoreading day 30 - #startswithuvw

Me last night: reads 30 pages of this before bed.

Me this morning: racks brain trying to come up with a book for today's theme.

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AMVP
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6 likes1 stack add
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BooksForYears
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#SeasonsReadings2016 Day 9 - #FictionNonFictionPairings

Both of these focus on the ways people interact with bureaucracies, and how those complex systems impact their lives. Graeber, an economics professor and social anthropologist, examines the mechanics and impact of bureaucracies, and makes references to Heller's satirical novel CATCH-22.

109 likes5 stack adds
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rogerwarner
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Essential research for #MonuMeta part two.

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SubwayBookReview
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Emily: "Bureaucracy pervades all parts of our lives. Graeber argues that we accept the status quo too easily. I studied anthropology and work in an office that has a complicated bureaucratic structure. Graeber says the powerful have no objective to understand the less powerful. Bureaucracy was intended to create equality. It ends up being a mess because the people who create the forms and systems often still don't see other people's perspective."

51 likes3 stack adds