Why It's Kicking Off Everywhere: The New Global Revolutions
The world is facing a wave of uprisings, protests and revolutions: Arab dictators swept away, public spaces occupied, slum-dwellers in revolt, cyberspace buzzing with utopian dreams. Events we were told were consigned to history—democratic revolt and social revolution—are being lived by millions of people.
In this compelling new book, Paul Mason explores the causes and consequences of this great unrest. From Cairo to Athens, Wall Street and Westminster to Manila, Mason goes in search of the changes in society, technology and human behaviour that have propelled a generation onto the streets in search of social justice. In a narrative that blends historical insight with first-person reportage, Mason shines a light on these new forms of activism, from the vast, agile networks of cyberprotest to the culture wars and tent camps of the #occupy movement. The events, says Mason, reflect the expanding power of the individual and call for new political alternatives to elite rule and global poverty.
Paperback, 244 pages
ISBN: 9781844678518
January 2012
$19.95 / £12.99 / $25.00CAN
Reviews
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The writing style of this reportage is compact, urgent, present-tense, declarative, and addictive.
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He’s lively, funny and engaging, trading in the energy derived from the thrill and significance of what he’s witnessing.
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Superb overview of the global protest movements of 2011.
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This book not only reads as an in-depth consideration of global politics today, but offers a personal memoir from a man who has had a ringside seat. We are blessed that the BBC, for all the criticisms, still employs journalists whose logic and unfailing inquisitiveness brings us such analysis.
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You will learn something new and challenging on every page of this book.
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The mix of wide-ranging reportage and historical analysis is lively and insightful.
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A cogent, accessible analysis of the ongoing forces of global upheaval….[a] lively collection of essays and reportage.
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Testament to his instincts as a veteran journalist, Mason managed to be everywhere right as things were kicking off—traversing the globe from the Middle East to Europe to America to Asia. [T]he book combines a feel for the breathlessness of events as they unfold with a historian's eye for patterns and precedents...Mason's prose beautifully captures the almost surreal mood that often accompanies mass shifts in consciousness.
Blog
Paul Mason on Democracy Now!: "The underpinnings of this new global unrest"
This morning, Paul Mason appeared on Democracy Now! for a long discussion about the Eurozone, austerity, and the protests that are about to sweep Greece as they await another massive bailout. Drawing from his recent journalism for the BBC and his new book Why It's Kicking Off Everywhere: The New Global Revolutions, Mason highlights the deeper unrest that is the source of these protests, and points toward the often ignored human costs that underlie the riots that otherwise dominate our mainstream news-cycles.
What doesn't make so many headlines is what is happening to real people. We're living in a time where the world has, in the last couple of years, erupted in a way many people thought they would never see again since the 1960s. The underpinnings of this new global unrest are, from Cairo to Greece to NYC to Albuquerque, people are sick of seeing the rich get richer during a crisis- that's what they're sick of."
Visit Democracy Now! to listen in full and for a complete transcript of the interview.
"Business as Usual"?: Paul Mason and the Graduate without a Future
A young generation of digital natives are "revolting against...the processing of information", according to Paul Mason in a recent interview with New Scientist, and it is having global repercussions, shaking both tyrants and the world economy.
The Wisdom of Gravediggers: Paul Mason at the LSE
In his recent address to LSE, available now as a video and podcast, Paul Mason delves into the complex behavioural mechanics and social and economic phenoma that, for him, suggest the uprisings that began in 2011 may be something very unusual: not a normal business cycle, or a "50-year Kondratiev Wave", but an epoch-changing convergence of economic collapse, technological revolution and new networked subjectivities.
First outlining the collapse of North African regimes throughout the Arab Spring through the analogy of a Shakespearean history plays, Mason goes on to look at the shifting change in peoples' relationship with power structures, and how the development of new communication technologies have opened up public discourse about those power structures.
Unable to maintain a narrative of dignity and respect, the old authoritarians who maintained social order at the price of justice saw their ideological foundations slip away in the face of public derision. Like those very Shakespeare plays, Mason says, "the innkeepers and gravediggers sound like philosophers", whilst the strong-men and their courtiers look increasingly like fools, holding on to the certainties of old dogmas that are being washed away.
Upcoming Events
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February 23, 2012
World Affairs Council
Uprisings, Protests and Revolutions: The New Global Unrest
Paul Mason in San Francisco -
March 03, 2012
Guildhall, Bath
Why is it Kicking off Everywhere?
Paul Mason in conversation with Allan Little -
March 17, 2012
Rich Mix
The Festival of Dangerous Ideas
Exploring dangerous ideas with Paul Mason, Owen Hatherley, Lindsey German, and more
Discussions
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Kicking Off is Inspirational and Practical
When the people decide to live,
Destiny will obey,
Darkness will disappear
And chains will be broken.
Other books by Paul Mason
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Meltdown
by Paul Mason
A fully updated new edition of an acclaimed report on the global financial crisis.