David Buckham’s newest book unpacks how the West lost its soul
“I used to think that I know what I know, and I know what I don’t know. I would forget that I don’t know certain things, and would have a certain confidence that was unwarranted.”
This is a personal discovery that was made by David Buckham when authoring his latest book, The Spell – A Story of Human Progress and How the West Lost its Soul.
According to Buckham’s co-author, Robyn Wilkinson, who was speaking at the book’s launch, the book was originally to be a discussion around the climate change narrative.
However, both authors soon became enthralled with the more general idea of narratives and the influence they have over our world view.
“People in South Africa talk about State Capture. I have a concept called Mind Capture, where people are captured into specific geopolitical narratives,” said Buckham.
This is particularly evident in the modern day, where politically, the world is perhaps more polarised than it has ever been.
Right-wing and left-wing political ideologies are both further apart, and more fervently followed, than ever before.
Watch the video below for some highlights from the book launch.
Epistemes and narratives
Buckham and Wilkinson cited inspiration from the work of Michel Foucault, who spoke of epistemes – the underlying structures and rules by which truth is defined in specific societies and historical periods.
The Spell explores similar concepts to these epistemes, but through the frame of what its authors call narratives.
In many cases, these narratives – both historical and current – end up serving the privileged at the expense of those who are not.
At the book launch, Buckham provided the historical example of King Henry VIII, who converted England from Catholicism to Protestantism for political and personal reasons.
He also highlighted the modern-day Conference of the Parties (COP), which enforces environmental responsibility expectations that are unrealistic for less privileged regions like Africa and South America.
“The basic argument of the book is that wealthy, privileged people wish to remain privileged,” said Buckham.
A positive spin
However, The Spell’s authors differ from Foucault in that they did not ascribe to his nihilistic conclusions.
According to Wilkinson, following Foucault’s ideas to their logical end would suggest that nothing has meaning.
Instead, all perceived fact and meaning is merely relative to the epistemes within which one lives and believes.
However, The Spell suggests something different – thattrue value can be found in ideas like love, which are not limited to specific narratives or epistemes.
Get the book
The Spell – A Story of Human Progress and How the West Lost its Soul follows the excellent success of Buckham and Wilkinson’s previous books, including The End of Money and The Age of Menace.
It is now available at your favourite stores for buying books – including Exclusive Books, Takealot, and Amazon.
Click here to learn more about The Spell, or follow the book’s social media pages:
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