Diagnosing where things have gone wrong and what we can do about it
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As we survey the current state of affairs, it’s hard not to get somewhat demoralised.
Despite a massive market failure, a brief flurry of rhetoric about the demise of neo-liberalism, the occupy movement and at least some outward dismay at a system where the financiers are entirely untouchable, we’ve taken nearly as many steps backwards as forwards.
There has not been a growth of a powerful oppositional movement. Occupy has dwindled. The unions are still in decline. The parties in 2012 are still largely the same sorts of parties as existed before 2007. Perhaps some of the luster has come off of capitalism as a world economic system, but it is no less pervasive than it was before (in fact it has expanded), and certainly it hasn’t any apparently viable challengers which can be seen with the naked eye.
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In recent years, and particularly in reaction to the latest wave of austerity measures, we have seen an upswing in the size and importance of parties that are to the left of social democracy, a development that is greeted with joy within the radical left.
This was a book that meets my interests almost perfectly – I’m fascinated both by the study of empathy and cultural representations of sociopathy. And I love watching TV. But 
