How to expand this image
If you press CTRL or Command and the Plus (+) key on your keyboard, your browser should increase the size of your page every time you do this. Press CTRL or Command and the 0 (zero) key together to restore the screen to normal.
How to download this image.
If you right-click the image, you should be given the option to download it to your computer. So long as you do so without the intent to make a profit, you may do so without further permission. Commercial use requires consent. But if you just want to share it, do so with whoever and wherever you want. That is the purpose of these infographics.
The image library
We have a library of these images. It is available here. All downloads are free, but donations help our work.
AI use
I wrote this infographic. I used AI to create the image.
Thanks for reading this post.
You can share this post on social media of your choice by clicking these icons:
There are links to this blog's glossary in the above post that explain technical terms used in it. Follow them for more explanations.
You can subscribe to this blog's daily email here.
And if you would like to support this blog you can, here:
Buy me a coffee!
Barry’s economics has some interesting videos that complement this piece and other pieces of yours.
Thanks
His is a channel worth watching.
Everything I have read about the development of neo-liberalism suggests to me that they approached whatever the post war consensus was about the economy from the same footing – ‘unreasonable’ attitude to the valuable learning that had taken place about how fascism got a grip of Europe in the 1930s and led to war (economic ructions etc.,).
However, two factors not mentioned in your info graphic that contributed to the growth of neo-liberalism are NOT mentioned (nor would we wish to see them there):
1. Patronage of the rich and vested interests whose money was used to expand the presence of neo-liberal ideas.
2. The use of crises to bring about change – rampant opportunism amid huge stresses on democracy.
Having been frequently described politely and impolitely as an unreasonable person pre retirement (and since probably) I found this infographic incredibly enjoyable and accurate to my mind. I sent it along to one of my sons who started in a new this position this week, I am sure he will find it equally reassuring. Thanks it’s timing today was very synchronous.
Thanks.
I was introduced to the idea by my wife.
Fantastic. Love it. Very Good.
I note that unreasonableness is a more common trait in autistic people.
I like to think that I can be thoroughly unreasonable.
🙂
Keep going, even when we disagree!!
Being unreasonable is perfectly reasonable when other people are being unreasonable in a wholly unreasonable fashion.
I, of course, am only unreasonable when I am reasonably confident that being unreasonable is the reasonable course of action.
I totally understand the point you and Shaw are making but am unhappy with the definition of reasonable. Perhaps the appropriate word would be complacent. I suspect most people would like to think of themselves as reasonable but that does not mean they do not want to change things. Reasonable is a positive word and you have turned it into a negative.
Reasonable people are complacent, and that is a negative.
I am pretty sure Shaw was using the word reasonableness to answer John Locke’s claim that Christianity is reasonable. Shaw’s view is that Locke’s work was incomplete. The reasonable men who build their whole world view on it need to be challenged by the unreasonable man. Otherwise, John Locke’s wish for salvation by correction from others can not be fulfilled.
I thoroughly agree about the value of unreasonable people. But there is so much wrong that we have to conform to some things, and focus on the real wrongs where we can hope to do something. And sometimes we can do both — we can argue for the improvement of schools and education, while still sending our children to existing local schools which aren’t up to our standards.
Accepted, of course. We start from where we are.
Martin Luther King Jr. also had a similar notion to GB Shaw’s Unreasonable Person: The Creatively Maladjusted Person.
🙂
I have some difficulty with this. In terms of bringing about change, I agree with the need to be unreasonable, yet I am a law- loving citizen who expects everyone to behave in a reasonable way to each other and respect democratically made laws. The law, itself, often refers to the actions of a ‘reasonable’ person when deciding legal cases. Maybe, it’s just semantics, but I thought the point worth making. When confronted by tyranny, the Law is there to shield us from it.
I have not broken the law.
I have tried not to be rude.
But I did point out the Emperor had no clothes. That was unreasonable.
Can that be reconciled with your view?
I think it is reasonable to point out emperors with no clothes. I’m always doing it.
The more I think about it, nearly everything I read on here is quite reasonable. Maybe we need a different word for something that is unconventional and better than the conventional.
I broadly agree with the infographic.
I think Shaw used the term the Unreasonable Man and you have, rightly, adapted it Let us not forget Unreasonable Women like Shaw’s friend Annie Besant.
She married a clergyman, read the crucifixion accounts side by side, and rejected the Bible. Refusing to back down she was divorced and had to earn a living by writing.
She and Charles Bradlaugh published the Knowlton Pamphlet on birth control and taken to court, found guilty but the case was dismissed on a technicality. However, her ex-husband went to court to take custody of her daughter. The subject was widely discussed and the brith rate did start to fall.
Bradlaugh was elected to Parliament but, as an atheist, refused to swear on the Bible. It took four re-election before he was allowed in. Shaw was a supporter- so was Disraeli !
Annie was asked to advocate for the Match Girls who worked for Bryant and May and were exploited. They won better conditions and the following year, encouraged by the match gilrs, the Dockers won their famous strike for 6d an hour.
She then became a member of, and leader of the Theosophical Society which challenged the Christian missionaries in Ceylon (Sri Lanka ) Theosophy postulates a truth behind all religions.
It had a headquarters in India. Annie had a position in the Congress party and advocated Indian independence. She was locked up for a while but released due to public pressure.
She was three quarters Irish, proud and was a supporter of the IRB Irish Republican Brotherhood.
I suspect she would have made you look quite reasonable, Richard.
🙂
“Reasonable” and “complacent” are not actually synonyms.
It’s perfectly reasonable to speak out and hold out against trends that are harmful. Complacent people just assume ’it will be all right on the night,’ and do nothing to rock the boat. However, when it’s obvious that something isn’t working or may be creating disaster, a reasonable person will point this out and refuse to go with the flow. That is reasonable, not unreasonable!
I think semantically we could maybe come up with a better word than ‘unreasonable’ to describe bucking a commonly acceptable trend. Not sure what that word would be at the moment, though.
I always thought I was being reasonable in advocating for Scottish Independence.
🙂
One sentence that caught my eye was: “Progress begins when someone decides that what exists isn’t good enough and then does something about it.” Two unreasonable people can have very different, and potentially contradictory, beliefs about what “good” means. I believe there are criteria that are objectively valid grounds for describing something as “good”, but not everything that a group of people describes as “good” is objectively good, nor necessarily ever will be. At some point, therefore, one reaches a state of affairs where you have to take a stand and defend the claim that my “good” is preferable to your “good”. That stand might involve making some uncomfortable decisions and taking some uncomfortable actions.
Thank you
I guess the modern term for unreasonable people is “disruptors”. They are often motivated by self-interest though. Are innovators unreasonable? Is Trump unreasonable, I guess he is. He wants the world to adapt to him for his benefit. I prefer Social Justice Warrior.