The Return of the Individual: Rescue Attempts in a Bureaucratic Age

Wolfgang Kraus, one of the most widely read Austrian essayists, is bravely attempts to save the individual from bureaucracy, from drowning in over-organization. He encourages the human race to fight for self-expression and self-determination and against those forces of society which erode the sense of individuality. Kraus takes a long hard look at our civilizations and discusses bureaucratic tyranny from its Asiatic and Byzantine origins to Soviet Communism. In his opinion the Western civilizations are equally guilty of condoning a certain amount of diminishing personal freedom, but he maintains that for the West all is not lost and that ever growing awareness of the concept of Human Rights, traditions of culture and the arts may prove to be the salvation of the individual.