George Grant and the Embrace of Technology

Abstract

There is a disturbing quality to George Grant's more recent work that reflects less the substance than the obscurity of his so-called prophetic message. Gloomy reflections on the human prospect are, after all, not uncommon today, and while critics may describe yet another dismal forecast as pessimistic, they are unlikely to be “perplexed” by it or be struck by its “cranky obscurity.” The problem with books such as Time as History or English-Speaking Justice is not that their message is unpalatable but that one is never really sure just what the message is. Certainly Grant's work resists any simple ideological packaging. He has consistently repudiated the Utopian politics of the left and is well aware of the impossibility of conservatism in the modern world. Neither can it be said that in his writing Grant simply adopts the role of social critic. While apparently critical of modern society he is well aware that we are all moderns today, reminding us of the foolishness of attempting a return to the past as if the discoveries of the modern age had not been made.