The Twilight of American CultureMorris Berman argues provocatively and engagingly that, like ancient Rome in the fourth and fifth centuries, the American culture has now seen the passage of its most triumphant years and is rapidly approaching a period of social chaos. This book paints one of the most damning portraits of American society to date. In examining the corruption at the heart of modern politics, the 'Rambification' of popular entertainment and the collapse of the educational system, Berman concludes that while there is little Americans can do as a society to arrest the onset of corporate culture ('McWorld'), individuals can still act to preserve cultural values, refusing to base their live son kitsch or consumerism, profit or self-promotion. |
Contents
Acknowledgments | 11 |
One Collapse or Transformation? | 29 |
Two The Monastic Option | 83 |
Copyright | |
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Adbusters American culture ancient argue become began called capitalism Charles Radding civilization classical collapse commercial consumerism core corporate hegemony course Dark Ages decline dialectical Don DeLillo E. M. Forster economic elite elitist Empire Enlightenment eventually example fact factors Fahrenheit 451 film finally Garrison Keillor global going high school historian human hype individual industrial institution intellectual Ira Levin Joseph Tainter Kaplan kind kitsch knowledge learning live mass McWorld meaning ment million monasteries monastic activity monastic option monks National National Public Radio nomadic Paul Fussell percent political possible postmodern preservation problem Radio reader renaissance result Revolution rich Robert Kaplan Rome says scenario scientific sense Shorris Social Security society sort spiritual texts things tion transformation trendy truth turned twelfth century twelfth-century renaissance twentieth century twenty-first century United values Western words writes