A Reasonable Life: Toward a Simpler, Secure, More

This is a rabble-rousing, darkly humorous, straight from the heart look at our hectic, and often out-of-control, modern lives. Not since Lewis Mumford or even Thoreau has a writer taken such a giant step off the beaten path to see where our technology-obsessed, depersonalized society is hurtling at this frantic pace. Ferenc Mate sounds the alarm that with our single-minded emphasis on economic growth we are devastating not only our cities, our economy, and our very planet, but also our communities, families, and even friendships. We are allowing the fraudulent and fake: advertising and television, and the impersonal and uncaring: Big-Government, Big-Money, and Big-Business, to destroy things honest and humane - to degrade the individual and the society of man. Our last-ditch social programs and environmental movements he deems as effective as trying to stop a freight train with a feather. He pleads for fundamental change - by each of us - to begin our lives anew on a more human scale. We must place simple human needs and the needs of the human spirit far ahead of material wealth. We must rethink our concepts of career, homelife, habits, and what we call security and success. And we must resurrect our foundations: the small town, the family, and a caring and passionate self. It is the fantasy of every thinking person: to change his or her life, to move to a more simple place, abandon the sinking ship for a cozy boat of one's own. Mate shows us how to throw off the yoke of a "steady job, " to take control of our own lives and, in the process, make a difference in the ozone-depleted, crime-ridden, money grubbing world around us. His voice is fierce but full of love, outraged yet hopefulthat we can change course and find more reasonable lives for ourselves and our children. With Thoreau's passion and a streetfighter's verve, he taunts, charms, impels, and provokes us; insults us like a brother and cares for us like a best friend. He has given us an audacious, engag