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Author Topic:   The Twilight of American Culture
Phat
Member
Posts: 18262
From: Denver,Colorado USA
Joined: 12-30-2003
Member Rating: 1.1


Message 1 of 3 (201092)
04-22-2005 3:33 AM


I have been reading a good book lately by Author Morris Berman.
The Twilight of American Culture:
An emerging cult classic about America's cultural meltdownand a surprising solution.
A prophetic examination of Western decline, The Twilight of American Culture provides one of the most caustic and surprising portraits of American society to date. Whether examining the corruption at the heart of modern politics, the "Rambification" of popular entertainment, or the collapse of our school systems, Morris Berman suspects that there is little we can do as a society to arrest the onset of corporate Mass Mind culture. Citing writers as diverse as de Toqueville and DeLillo, he cogently argues that cultural preservation is a matter of individual conscience, and discusses how classical learning might triumph over political correctness with the rise of a "a new monastic individual"a person who, much like the medieval monk, is willing to retreat from conventional society in order to preserve its literary and historical treasures.

I can embrace the idea of becoming a monastic individual in the modern terminology of such an endevour.
The wealthy really are becoming more wealthy. Berman states that
What reader of these pages is not aware that the gap between rich and poor has increasingly widened since the 1970s? That entitlements such as Social Security are under threat, or that we incarcerate more people per capita (565 per 100,000) than any other country in the world? That millions of our high school graduates can barely read or write, and that common words are now often misspelled on public signs? That community life has been reduced to shopping malls, and that most Americans grow old in isolation, zoning out in front of TV screens, and/or on antidepressant drugs? This is the nitty-gritty, daily reality that belies the glitz and glamour of the so-called New World Order.
Organized religion is a sham. Just as the absolutist Monarchs were backed by the absolutist and hypocrital papacy of the middle ages, so too is the oligarcical U.S. government for the wealthy backed by the hypocrisy of organised religion.

Replies to this message:
 Message 2 by contracycle, posted 04-25-2005 6:27 AM Phat has replied

  
contracycle
Inactive Member


Message 2 of 3 (202082)
04-25-2005 6:27 AM
Reply to: Message 1 by Phat
04-22-2005 3:33 AM


quote:
Organized religion is a sham. Just as the absolutist Monarchs were backed by the absolutist and hypocrital papacy of the middle ages, so too is the oligarcical U.S. government for the wealthy backed by the hypocrisy of organised religion.
Thats true, but what do you mean by organised? I would think the evangelical operations are just as pernicious as, say, catholicism.
Of course every time I see the term "political correctness" I feel it is important to establish what the speaker means by that, exactly. Mostly its nonsense.

This message is a reply to:
 Message 1 by Phat, posted 04-22-2005 3:33 AM Phat has replied

Replies to this message:
 Message 3 by Phat, posted 04-25-2005 6:51 AM contracycle has not replied

  
Phat
Member
Posts: 18262
From: Denver,Colorado USA
Joined: 12-30-2003
Member Rating: 1.1


Message 3 of 3 (202089)
04-25-2005 6:51 AM
Reply to: Message 2 by contracycle
04-25-2005 6:27 AM


Organized? Hmmmm lets define it as "for profit". I'm still reading the book, by the way.
This message has been edited by Phatboy, 04-25-2005 03:53 AM

This message is a reply to:
 Message 2 by contracycle, posted 04-25-2005 6:27 AM contracycle has not replied

  
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