The Fall of Public Man

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In The Fall of Public Man, Sennett sets out his critique of the 'intimate society', in which, as he describes it, what is good is defined as personal, and the bad as impersonal. In this schema, 'warmth' is praised over things that are 'cold' or 'aloof'. Ways of thinking about society are transformed into psychological terms- a good political leader is one who is 'principled' or 'authentic'. As Sennett points out, the rationality of thinking about politics in this way is unclear, as those terms rely upon assessing an individual's character, which is not only almost impossible for people who don't know them personally, but also irrelevant to whether the political leader can achieve something for the public that puts them in power. A truly remarkable book. Sennett dives into the depths of (Western) cultural and behavioural change during the last three centuries. This book has been published in the 1970ies, but has lost nothing of its applicability to modern times. The majority of a previously politically engaged public has slowly morphed into spectators, organised in groups of secularised believers, who cannot be argued with. Music remains his great love and he has returned to playing the cello after several operations on his hand. "The ability to play again is one of the greatest gifts middle age has brought me." He plays in a small chamber group, with, among others, the Guardian's editor, Alan Rusbridger, on clarinet. But the popular reception for a work like The Corrosion Of Character suggests there is a hunger out there for the informed, exploratory, and in some ways gentle anti-capitalism that Sennett represents. With his grasp of history, his sympathy for the radical cause, his understanding of city life and his own professional success, he is one of the few writers who can puncture the pretensions and false hopes of the New Economy with some authority.

Lilti A., 2008, « The Writing of Paranoïa: Jean-Jacques Rousseau and the Paradoxes of Celebrity », Representations, 103, pp. 53-80. Public expression rests upon an idea of “human nature” or “character,” that might be informed by a religious world view, for instance. Personality, which came to replace character, is spawned from an atomistic secular point of view whose belief lies within an immanent interpretation of the world which attempts to grasp an unmediated point of view (this, of course, is a grand illusion…). In a paradoxical way, we put a premium on being able to express your so-called inner self, but this self is constantly isolated and lost since society no longer provides a set of queues which would allow the individual to act politically. What results is a world where the individual is an isolated spectator from their fellow beings, easily swayed and subdued by charismatic moments where, if only for a split second, they “identify” with another. In this society, there is no agency since community is defined as mutual personal disclosure rather than an act where a community produces meaning together, impersonally. The former has no public life—or, rather, public life consists almost exclusively of a set of similar “kinds” of people whose authenticity (are you really our “kind”?) is constantly being put into question—proving authenticity, then, usually comes in the form of an attempt to purify their community. A true public life has little concern for authenticity or purity. What matters is the common impersonal currency of expression.

The obsession with persons at the expense of more impersonal social relations is like a filter which discolors our rational understanding of society; it obscures the continuing importance of class in advanced industrial society; *it leads us to believe community is an act of mutual self-disclosure and to undervalue the community relations of strangers, particularly those which occur in cities.* Allard-Huver F., 2017, « Fake news », in : Publictionnaire encyclopédique et critique des publics. Accès : http://publictionnaire.huma-num.fr/notice/fake-news/. Consulté le 22/11/2019. A challenging book, mostly in the sense that it leads me to reframe a number of questions I've been asking (and thus many of the answers I've been proposing) lately. It might very well change the way I live my life.

Castel R., 2010, « Individu par excès, individu par défaut », pp. 293-305, in : Le Bart C., Corcuff P., Singly F. de, dirs, L’Individu aujourd’hui : Débats sociologiques et contrepoints philosophiques, Rennes, Presses universitaires de Rennes. Accès : https://doi.org/10.4000/books.pur.13657 .Sennett R., 1979, Les Tyrannies de l’intimité, trad. de l’anglais (États-Unis) de The Fall of the public man par A. Berman et R. Folkman, Paris, Éd. Le Seuil.

He was also one of the first writers to predict, again with admirable restraint, the economic and political turbulence that may lie ahead. For, as the chilling last line of the Corrosion Of Character observes, a regime "which provides human beings no deep reasons to care about one another cannot long preserve its legitimacy". Plusieurs comptes rendus notent avec ironie que les réflexions de R. Sennett reflètent son propre m (...) But Sennett's work can also be understood as a life-long attempt to come to terms with his radical heritage, to both honour the idealism of an old left and re-mould it in the light of contemporary realities. Born in Chicago in 1943, he was a classic child of the left. His father and all his uncles were in the Communist party and his mother "was always involved in the labour movement", he says. His father and uncle fought in the Spanish Civil War, first against the fascists, and then against the communists. Proudly he shows me a portrait on his study wall of the Lincoln section of the International brigade. It includes his father and uncle, upright men in caps prepared to die to defend someone else's freedom. Book Genre: Anthropology, Culture, ers, History, Nonfiction, Philosophy, Politics, Psychology, rs, Social Science, Society, Sociology, Theory

The question remains, however, whether the "Fall of Public Man" offers a compelling narrative of modernity. I must confess that I myself am not totally convinced. In my view, the book suffers from three major flaws. The architect Richard Rogers, who has known Sennett for 15 years, says, "We are very much on the same intellectual wavelength. Richard believes in the importance of the public domain, that people should have direct involvement in relation to public space and buildings. We are both interested in sustainable development and the role of cities in a civil society." Are we now so self-absorbed that we take little interest in the world beyond our own lives? Or has public life left no place for individuals to participate? Kaufmann L., 2016, « La “ligne brisée” : ontologie relationnelle, réalisme social et imagination morale », Revue du Mauss, 47, pp. 105-128.

Gordon D., 1994, Citizens without Sovereignty. Equality and Sociability in French Thought (1670-1789) , Princeton, Princeton University PressSennett takes a skeptical view of our tendency to judge by apparent personality and intention, above or even in place of acts on record. He notes the dangers of this view: a crippling personal (and societal) incidence of narcissism and susceptibility to charlatans and charismatic exploiters to name a few. Glendinning tells a story about the couple staying at a mutual friend's country house. The host told her that after everyone had gone to bed, peals of laughter were heard coming from their bedroom. Glendinning thinks that "for a couple who are apart an awful lot of the time, it works very well when they are together". Sennett, who has no children of his own, is by all accounts a devoted stepfather to Saskia's only son, Hilary, 25, a sculptor in New York. PDF / EPUB File Name: The_Fall_of_Public_Man_40th_Anniversary_E_-_Richard_Sennett.pdf, The_Fall_of_Public_Man_40th_Anniversary_E_-_Richard_Sennett.epub He is also a socialist, who has returned to radical politics in late middle age. Ruth Levitas, reader in sociology at the University of Bristol, says he thinks class is important and fundamental, "which lots of people don't, but he also talks about what class means for real lives without drifting off into stuff about identity. He also writes beautifully".