William Barrett Quote
If science could comprehend all phenomena so that eventually in a thoroughly rational society human beings became as predictable as cogs in a machine, then man, driven by this need to know and assert his freedom, would rise up and smash the machine. What the reformers of the Enlightenment, dreaming of a perfect organization of society, had overlooked, Dostoevski saw all too plainly with the novelist's eye: namely, that as modern society becomes more organized and hence more bureaucratized it piles up at its joints petty figures like that of the Underground Man, who beneath their nondescript surface are monsters of frustration and resentment.
If science could comprehend all phenomena so that eventually in a thoroughly rational society human beings became as predictable as cogs in a machine, then man, driven by this need to know and assert his freedom, would rise up and smash the machine. What the reformers of the Enlightenment, dreaming of a perfect organization of society, had overlooked, Dostoevski saw all too plainly with the novelist's eye: namely, that as modern society becomes more organized and hence more bureaucratized it piles up at its joints petty figures like that of the Underground Man, who beneath their nondescript surface are monsters of frustration and resentment.
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About William Barrett
W. S. Barrett (1914–2001), English classical scholar
William Barrett (antiquarian) (1733–1789), English antiquary and surgeon
William Barrett (consul) (died 1584), English consul
William Barrett (philosopher) (1913–1992), American philosopher and professor
William Barrett (priest) (1880–1956), British–Australian Anglican Dean of Brisbane
William A. Barrett (1896–1976), American lawyer and politician
William Edmund Barrett (1900–1986), American writer
William Emerson Barrett (1858–1906), American journalist and politician
William F. Barrett (1844–1925), English physicist
William H. Barrett (1866–1941), American federal judge
William Lewis Barrett (1847–1927), English flautist and music teacher
William N. Barrett (1855–1916), American politician