Robinson Crusoe - Today

Robinson Crusoe Robinson Crusoe has been described as the middle class hero the new Homo economicus Crusoe was a forerunner of the self-made man who personifies individual initiative and hard work and anticipates a revolution based on industry it was written with success in mind was a best-seller and has influenced philosophers like Karl Marx and authors like Robert Louis Stevenson and Edgar Allan Poe [Music] jean-jacques Rousseau described it as the one book that teaches all that books can teach it was admired as a novel and details within it have become part of our culture the expression man

Friday is used to denote a devoted aide or employee a right-hand man the concept comes directly from Robinson Crusoe since crusoe made his own umbrella umbrellas were named after his they were called Robinson's the American artist Klaus Oldenburg was inspired by it and the book has stimulated so many variations they were given the name Robinson aids books films cartoons comic strips even computer games Robinson aids include also the film castaway with Tom Hanks which takes place in the modern world and the film the Martian with Matt Damon which is set in space [Music] in 1967

Michele Torres prize-winning novel Friday or the other Island gave the story a more modern interpretation in which Friday refuses to accept Crusoe's culture and a self-made man superiority the concept of the self-made man is still very popular the phrase was first used by an American and it is part of the American dream it is alive and well in Silicon Valley where the success stories of Steve Jobs Mark Zuckerberg and others are incredibly popular and influential Robinson Crusoe is the man who expresses perfectly the common phrase just do it Daniel Defoe understood there is something fascinating

about trying to survive manage the autonomous and independent and you no longer need to be shipwrecked there are survival courses all over the world on the other hand it may be argued that the self-made man concept encourages individualism and selfishness as opposed to community and sharing what do you think [Music] you you