{"product_id":"9781595945372","title":"The Matrix Conspiracy - Part 1","description":"The Matrix Conspiracy is the outbreak of a culture of self-assertion, where the classical deadly sins have been turned into virtues. It is a mixture of postmodern intellectualism, management theory, self-help and New Age, which is creating a \"me-me-me-and-then-perhaps-you-if-it-serves-me-logic\", and a spirituality, where the object of worship is the ego. It is a culture, where everything is psychologized, emotionalized and therapized, so that political incitation and social responsibility are removed by disguising social problems as personal problems. It is a culture where moral values only are based on what feels good. It is a culture of suspicion, that denies and renounce what people think, and the reasons they produce, in order to find the \"real\" reasons. It is a culture, where debate is about playing down or directly offending other people. It is a culture, where science and critical thinking have been replaced by magical thinking (you can create yourself and the world as it fit you). But it is also a culture (though it on the surface sounds individualistic), which is about to develop into a global, totalitarian meritocracy, where psychology is controlling people down to the smallest details. This might happen when Western Consumer Capitalism and Chinese Communism in all probability will melt together.","brand":"WingSpan Publishing","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47054060552432,"sku":"9781595945372","price":21.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/9781595945372_p0.jpg?v=1763805988","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/9781595945372","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}