Responding to Stéphane Hessel’s book, Time for Outrage!, Bergmann (a former professor of organizational behavior at the Business School of the U. of Lausanne, Switzerland) presents a brief
polemic that details the things about the current global political-economic system that he finds outrageous. Among the problems he identifies and denounces are: the grip the economy has on our
society, the idea that the business of business is only business, the domination of big business, the alleged superiority of capitalism and neoliberalism, the rape of nature and the economic
model of continued growth, the collective narcissism of social media, the societal fascination with novelty and youth, and present-day working conditions. Yet, for all the outrage, Bergmann is
remarkably light on what to do about any of these issues beyond being outraged by them. The even briefer nostrums suggested in the conclusion, to this reviewer, point towards a vision of some
sort of nebulous social democratic order where none of these problems would actually go away but would instead become less exaggerated. Indeed, he writes, ＂the underlying and common thread of
all I have criticized is exaggeration.＂ Annotation ©2013 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)
