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 called capitalism Charles Radding civilization classical collapse commercial core course Dark Ages David David Denby decline democracy dialectical Don DeLillo E. M. Forster economic elite elitist Empire Enlightenment example fact Fahrenheit 451 film finally global going high school historian human hype individual industrial inequality institution intellectual Joseph Tainter Kaplan kind kitsch knowledge learning live mass McWorld meaning medieval ment Michael Moore million monasteries monastic activity monastic option monks Moore National National Public Radio Paul Fussell percent Pierre Clastres 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 truth turned twelfth century twelfth-century renaissance twentieth century twenty-first century United University values Western words writes York Yorker