The Abstract Society

Why it’s on the list: A 1970 sociological account of modern life as abstraction — institutions experienced as unreal, meaning thinning out — which reads, on Veerasamy’s account, as if written about the present.

Where I saw it: Recommended by @visakanv on X (March 19, 2025), making a broader point: “i never quite know what to make of the fact that there were many writers from decades ago who wrote about many of the problems that we grapple with today.”

Connections

• Ideological Family Tree — a diagnosis of modernity that keeps getting re-derived.
• Visakan Veerasamy — the recommender.