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This book shows how, after the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, the Gospel of the free market became the only world-religion of universal validity. The belief that all value needs to be quantifiable was extended to human beings, whose value became dependent on their rating on the various ranking-scales in the global infotainment system.

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Introduction: Our Historical Moment PART I: THE DEFEAT OF MIND The Years of the Golden Calf ´Just do it´, the Celebrity Culture and the Designed Self The Defeat of Mind: Relativism and Pop-Spirituality PART II: FROM THE I-COMMODITY TO THE DRAMA OF INDIVIDUALITY The Drama of Individuality From ´Just do it!´ to Active Self Acceptance Paring Down Life to the Essentials: An Epicurean Proposal PART III: RECLAIMING OUR MINDS Escaping the Platonic Cave Religion and Science: Civilized Disdain and Epicurean Laughter Towards World-Citizenship and a Coalition of Open Worldviews

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CARLO STRENGER Associate Professor in the Dept of Psychology at Tel Aviv University, Israel.

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