"Dark Ages America" ... Anyone else read it?

[mtlouie]

Have scanned this book several times at the library and always decided against it, due to the large pile I already accumulated.

Per quietnite bumping this today I decided to go check it out.

The very first paragraph on the very first page tells me the book is going to be excellent.

Thanks quietnite for bumping this up. 

[quietnite]

You are very welcome.

[quietnite]

I feel the need to post a quote from the book that particularly resonates...

"What it would  take now to pull back from the edge, let alone reverse course, requires a grace, a flexibility, and an imagination that I suspect we simply don't possess." pg.156

I wish I could remember how to change my sig line, because I think this would be my new one.

[mtlouie]

Okay, I'm just finishing up the first chapter.  Good grief, it would take a SENTENCY-BY-SENTENCE analysis of this book to do it justice.

Anyone bent about Bretton-Woods would love the first chapter.


I wish I could remember how to change my sig line, because I think this would be my new one.

Get into your settings and click on 'Forum Profile Information.'

Then you are where you need to be and it says 'Signature' with the big box.  Change there and then hit "change profile."  Voila!

This book is very, very surreal, btw.  And it's only three years old.

[westshore]

Read Dark Ages America first, enjoyed however found Twighlight of the American Culture to be enlightening...focus on education was spot on.  Definately a must have for the personal library.

[mtlouie]

I got about half-way through it and at almost every page I'm thinking, "I really don't want to read this. It's too depressing."

I finally stopped about 9:00 and went to something a bit lighter: Frankenstein.

[TLR1138]

Especially his theories about the evolution of American psychology

Could you give an quick summary?  I'm a (disillusioned) psychology grad student, and thinking of purchasing it.  I checked and the school library doesn't carry it - no surprise there.

It's been a few months since I've read it so my paraphrasing will probably be off. Anyone else want to jump in here?

Basically he relates the personalities of the pioneers and settlers who founded America with the current culture of selfish isolated materialism and the lack of cohesive American communities. Obviously not everyone who came to America was the opportunistic get-rich-quick type, there were also many who came over looking for religious freedom. But I think there were enough people who came here solely for earthly pursuits, to exploit the free-for-all land grab, and they were more interested in amassing personal wealth than creating a community in the New World with a random collection of other settlers, with whom a shared collective history and culture was lacking. So from this genetic stock and disjointed social situation comes American culture in its current form: myopic greed and "what's in it for me"/"not in my backyard" types of communities.

That's not really a new idea. De Tocqueville in "Democracy in America" in the 1830s was already noticing how most Americans were interested in material acquisition and making lots of money.

[Tropicalgirl]

I got about half-way through it and at almost every page I'm thinking, "I really don't want to read this. It's too depressing."

I finally stopped about 9:00 and went to something a bit lighter: Frankenstein.   

   mtouie!

Thanks for the recommendation, our library has a copy, I've just put a hold on it and will pick it up tomorrow!

[Satori]

my copy came today
quote on the page of the first chapter

"Rome did not fall because her armies weakened but because Romans forgot
what being a Roman meant...O dream America,was civilizations quest to
end in obesity and trivia...?"  Salmon Rushdie

substitute America for Rome


Rushdie's question is answered by another quote on the same page
 Western culture "welcomes all criticism,for, in a sense,it stands for nothing"

this is going to be a painful read

[bust.a.head]

bla blabba blah blah blub.