The Twilight of American Culture

Rating:
Summary: Although not paticularly agreeable, a obligatory read
Review: Morris Berman's Twilight of American culture is a truly brilliant comment on western civilization. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and deeply recommend it to those individuals who are perfectly content in living in the largest imperial force in the world: America.
Berman's illustration of current America is beautifully accurate. However I believe his diagnosis of western decline (coupled with his theory of survival entitled: the monastic option) is a little farfetched. I believe it is inevitable that the American culture, whatever that is, will crumble and mutate into something else and the change is approaching sooner than most think, but not quite as bluntly as Berman states it. Western civilization will fall but I do not believe it will be as drastic as Berman makes it out to be, the western dark ages will be a lot subtler and will only last a fraction of previous dark ages followed by a prosperous renaissance.
Berman's novel may be a contorted and exaggerated documentation and hypothesis on the US of A but it is nonetheless a well backed argument and a very interesting read. I highly recommend everybody in America to read this book and until then have fun letting MCworld run your disintegrating society, which is abandoning its values and replacing cultural heritage with hype and marketing, and your life.

Rating:
Summary: Disappointing
Review: After a strong first chapter that diagnoses our current cultural crisis (what culture?, you're probably wondering), this book falls apart for a number of reasons, including poor organization and a tendency of over-quoting from other sources rather than using the author's own words. However, the main problem with the book is that its central thesis isn't terribly convincing. Basically it concerns some near-apocalyptic cultural collapse that's supposed to take place in our near-future, but which will be transmogrified into a "New Enlightenment" through the cultural preservation efforts of a self-appointed elite, who may or may not be aware of each other's existence, and who nevertheless are advised to keep a low-profile vis-a-vis the multi-media to avoid the commercialization of their enterprise and transformation of it into yet another pernicious political ideology. If all this sounds a little too precious and "ivory tower" to be plausible, that's probably because it is.

Basically Berman's suggesting that this new outlook which he's promoting (rather queasily called "the monastic option" after the supposed cultural preservation efforts of Catholic monasteries during the Dark Ages) should focus upon "traditions of craftsmanship, care, and integrity; preservation of canons of scholarship, critical thinking, and the Enlightenment tradition; combating the forces of environmental degradation and social inequality; valuing independent achievement and independent thought; and so on."

Sounds wonderful, but how's it all supposed to happen? By "a new kind of monastic order" that undertakes "a critique of this society and a preservation/transmission of the positive aspects of the Enlightenement, not as a political movement but simply as a way of life."

In other words, this New Enlightenment is supposed to take place by SOME of us doing what we're doing already -- namely, consciously filtering the plethora of media trash from our lives while surrounding ourselves with an insulating barrier of good books, music, art and literature. Eventually, to follow Berman's line of thinking, the shock of civilization collapsing will finally instill common sense into the masses, who will then finally be receptive to these enlightement values that people like us had all along been harboring in our very private lives, and all of this will ultimately usher in -- perhaps in the 22nd Century -- a more spiritual, more enlightened, and less trivial and materialistic Era, which, alas, none of us will be around to experience.

No further comment.

Rating:
Summary: Enlightening, but not Enlightenment
Review: Berman's "The Twilight of American CultureEis an admirable synthesis of the way a segment of the population-what might be called western intellectual post-postmodernists-view the moronification of American (and Americanized) culture. Packing an extraordinary amount of information into a small space, Berman vies with Neil Postman in the clarity and 'self-sacrificialEnature of his prose.

His primary argument-that the world is heading toward a collapse as global corporations replace quantity with quality in a mindless whirl of consumer-oriented glitz-is fairly self-evident. His secondary argument-that salvation, if it comes at all, will come in the form of obscure, solitary intellectual 'monksEwho leave 'memory tracesEof their humanistic activities-is also plausible given the inherent limitations of most institutions and mass movements. (That a book extolling the virtues of keeping a low profile should be trumpeted on the cover as a "national bestsellerEetc. is mildly ironic, while also perhaps indicating that the ideas within are a bit more trendy than Berman would care to acknowledge.)

My main objection to the book, however, is its apparent narrowness. At times one gets the feeling that what Berman really wants in a society of Bermans, and that his view of mass conformity is really a kind of Jungian shadow projection. He seems to have little tolerance for anything that might lie outside an Enlightenment mentality, citing Voltaire as the ideal intellectual. All the rest he tends to dismiss as New Age claptrap of one kind or another.

While he certainly has a point about all the pseudo-spiritual 'Chopras and OprahsEthe postmodern free-for-all has thrown up, one has to wonder where he would place the Chuang-tzu or Tripitaka, Bhagavad-Gita or Gospels, Bardo Thodol or Book of Job. It seems pretty clear where Voltaire would place them.

In all fairness, I have not yet read Berman's other works, most notably "Wandering God,Ewhich may present a broader, more balanced picture. In this work, however, his modern-day monks would appear to be primarily academics, activists, and aesthetes armed with "To the LighthouseEand "Dialogues Concerning Natural ReligionEand with little comprehension of a life inclined toward meditation or prayer, or even 'inspiredEart for that matter. In the space of a sentence he does claim that his project is 'sacredEas well as secular, but then confines his definition of sacred to a via negativa more or less identical to philosophical skepticism.

If anything good has come out of the forces shaping the past hundred years or so, surely it is the availability to the west of ideas and practices that stand outside the western Enlightenment tradition. Though Berman acknowledges the impossibility of a straightforward return to Enlightenment ideals, the only modifying force he seems willing to admit is the brighter side of western deconstructionism which has made us more epistemologically self-reflexive. He is certainly right that a shallow multiculturalism is hardly the answer either. Yet surely we ignore to our peril the antidote that, say, Buddhism or Hinduism (every bit as philosophically developed as western philosophy-arguably more so) or even Native American practice might offer, as opposed to pursuing merely a 'goodEversion of Enlightenment to save us from a 'badEversion. Aren't there other versions of 'enlightenment' we might consider as well? This type of in-breeding is never healthy, however vigorously defended by the elite.

Academics, it has been said, live in a small conceptual world while thinking it a large one. Telling in this respect are all the books Professor Berman does not cite in his study (which are clearly beneath contempt, except for passing shots at 'New AgeEpeople like Joseph Campbell) in addition to the predominantly professor-generated ones he does. On the whole, I would not critique Berman for being an "elitistE(a label he prides himself on), and certainly the intellectual decline of Western (and Eastern) culture is a thing to be lamented, feared, and fought against. But I also imagine the majority of authentic 'monksEout there are swimming in waters deeper and fairly far removed from the places where this book casts its narrow net.

Rating:
Summary: We need political action, not "monks" (3.5 stars)
Review: According to the author, American culture, or American society, is in "shambles." It is a society that has been dumbed down and hollowed out as multinational corporations have virtually penetrated all of society's domains. What does such a society look like? In lieu of Enlightenment reasonableness, American society is kept in a superficial state of busyness by such mechanisms as the constant introduction of technological gadgetry (Internet, DVDs, etc), entertainment spectacles (Super Bowl, Olympics, etc), and sensationalism (Princess Di, OJ, Monica Lewinsky, etc), and infotainment, the dispensing of mountains of disconnected trivia or "information" that is not geared to inform. Kitsch, that is, "something phony, clumsy, witless, untalented, vacant, or boring [which is regarded as] genuine, graceful, bright, or fascinating" pervades the culture. There is a patina of vitality to the culture but it hides a spiritual dying.

A sub-theme of the book is that all civilizations, regardless of how grand, will face a decline, as did Rome's. One can look to such factors as social and economic inequality, declining returns on investment in solving social problems, dropping levels of social intelligence and understanding, and spiritual death as indicators of a civilization in decline. Being that the author holds that American culture is in the midst of such a decline, a purpose of the book is to serve as a guide to those who self-select themselves as "monks" who are willing to preserve non-commercial American culture and reject the global "McWorld" culture of "slogans, spin, and hype." The precedent for this monasticism is the transcription and preservation of the Greek and Roman cultures undertaken by some orders of monks from 500 AD to 1100 AD after Rome's fall, though the author admits that those monks had little understanding or appreciation for what they were saving.

Perhaps most indicative of American cultural decline is the state of education in America. Educational institutions have in a wholesale manner adopted a business culture; they are truly in the business of selling products and entertainment to students as consumers. The author finds little difference between the selling of diplomas for entry into good jobs by universities and the selling of indulgences for entry into heaven by the Church in the Middle Ages. None of these institutions are really interested in transforming the buyer. The author notes that only a small segment of the adult population reads so much as one book a year. The books that are sold consist largely of "short, sloganistic books that promise to improve lives overnight."

Much of the author's characterization of the corporate hegemony over American culture is quite accurate. But there is an element of narrowness to his thinking that could stand some review. In particular, there is a certain amount of harshness in his separation of the thinking class from the drones. Quoting Robert Browning from memory and being conversant with the works of Shakespeare, Flaubert, Virginia Woolf, and Voltaire would be a high hurdle for most to jump. And only a miniscule number of people could possibly produce the witty essays of a Lewis Lapham, editor of Harper's, rich in their referrals to all manner of literary and historical items. That probably indicates some good fortune early in life. Also, we can all construct our litmus tests for passage into the select. A broader view is needed. At one point the author suggests that what is needed is a "healthy skepticism, individual creativity, and free choice." Furthermore, despite his criticism of universities, the author, at heart, clings to the notion of universities as being the ideal locale for learning. Frankly, many would question whether the young even have the worldly knowledge to fully benefit from a liberal education. There is no real reason for that dependency. Thinking, reading, and studying should be lifelong enterprises conducted anywhere that hopefully would have relevance in the general culture.

The author's ideas concerning the pursuit of a "monastic option" are most puzzling. The author really presents no immediate purpose for his modern monks. In an era of overwhelming data, there is no need for the data preserving exploits like those of the monks in the Dark Ages. Apparently, when the global consumer culture eventually collapses of its internal contradictions, the monks will be ready to restore a pre-consumer culture primarily by example. But waiting for the system to collapse, which is bound to occur due to the unsustainability of the world's population on diminishing resources and a degraded environment, on the off chance that some underground monks, who unsurprisingly resemble liberal arts professors, will bring everyone back to their senses, seems to be a very risky proposition. In addition, the author eschews grass roots political action as a means of correcting the current corporate excess. Of course, that route has immense difficulties, but there is some chance that change could occur before the extinction of life, as we know it. Democratic action is in fact a huge part of our cultural past. Why not urge the thinking class to draw upon the American traditions of Jefferson, Paine, Lincoln, FDR, the Knights of Labor, the IWW, the Wagner Act, etc to reassert the right of citizens to participate in the governance of their affairs and institutions. There are probably more citizens disenchanted with American culture than the author realizes.

The book is strongest in its depiction of American culture and what it has become under corporate dominance. But the arguments for inevitable civilization decline, reliance on underground "monks," and the eschewing of collective political activity are far less compelling. It is difficult to contemplate a way out of the current cultural situation that does not involve a renewed sense of political participation along with cultural transformation.

Rating:
Summary: interesting ideas--some major problems though
Review: I agree with the author that modern culture is mind-numbing and deterrent to any sort of intellectualism, but I don't think it's quite the apocalypse he's describing. For one, it's true that the average person is incredibly stupid, and that a tiny number of people read books--but this has always been the case, and as far as I can tell it was worse before. People always make reference to the hordes clamoring at the docks for the latest installment of Dicken's Little Dorrit, but we need to keep in mind that even then the majority of people could not read a word. Also, Dickens aside, the majority of popular works then and now are sentimental bilge--compare Susan Warner's "The Wide Wide World," on the verge of outselling the bible in 1852, with the biggest bestsellers of today and you won't see a vast difference. But I suppose it probably is the case that people who would have been reading Susan Warner 150 years ago, for lack of any more mindless entertainment, have been easily drawn in by the television and so forth and now barely read at all. As for readers of serious works, though, works containing some level of sophisticated philosophical content--the readership of such works has always been very tiny, and remains so. I think the real problem we're encountering is not a decline in literacy, but a simple breakdown of the idea of a singular Culture held by the elite--this is not an attack on a more multicultural viewpoint, but simply the realization that without an aristocracy of patronage and support, and a reflection in "lower" society of the superiority of the "higher," the crassest forms of entertainment have been able to raise as high as they like. Basically, it means that once upon a time the society recognized the superiority of the highest culture, even if very few partook of it, but then, with the proliferation of mass media, that came to an end. It should also be noted, though, that much of what we consider to be the greatest philosophy and literature was written by people who were exiles from the dominant "Culture" of their time. For instance the system of the Academy and Salon for French art in the 19th century, and the various artists who we value higher than nearly anything put out by that Academy who were not allowed to have any part in it. So really, it's a far more complex issue than simply that of a decline from greatness. There's more I'd like to say about that, but this review is getting very long...so I just hope people will keep these things in mind when they read this book.

Rating:
Summary: An elitist looks down on the rest of us...
Review: I always love reading about what great professors and intellectuals think of American culture. This is the sort of book that appeals to Ivy league types and others in the Alpha class. They look upon the vast waste of society created by themselves and they blame the masses for their depravity.

It is most ironic it is a SOCIOLOGY professor who is writing this book. Is he so naive he is not even aware his entire discipline was created for the express purpose of creating and managing our hierarchical society?

Berman makes quite a few obvious points in this book, only the most brainwashed by sociologists and social workers would fail to comprehend. For that, I give him three stars.

Unfortunately, I fear that it is people Berman who fail to realize it is people just like them who are also going to be the death of our society. The very attitude which enslaved the United States in the grand social engineering scheme of the sociologists, forced schooling, came about specifically because the American Elite could hardly stand to walk out their door with the hoards of jews and catholics flooding the major cities. Is he ignorant of even the most superficial reasons for adding "in god we trust" to everything in the 1890s?

The reality is society is entirely depraved because the elite of the the late 19th century created an elaborate system by which to erase all remnants of American culture and institute a new order, with themselves at the top. People are stupid today because people like Pavlov and John Dewey made the elite realize it is better to teach people to be stupid so they are more content to perform repetitive activities. Pavlov spent most of his time researching how bells affect PEOPLE, not dogs. Schools have bells for a reason.

It is elitist intellectuals like Berman that are the absolute cause of the huge lower class we have today. Since the day Napolean's army was conquered, the elite have been terrified of another middle class revolution. The destruction of the middle class is not merely desirable by the elite, it is necessary. Don't be fooled by this pandering to elightenment ideals.

To potential readers of this book, if you want to learn more about the century old legacy of social engineering which has imposed a caste system on America, read The Undeground History of American Education by John Taylor Gatto. Every flaw in modern American society today criticized by Berman can be traced to schools. The problem is, all the university studies which gave us this system described these flaws as DESIRABLE. J.P. Morgan and Andrew Carnegie would look upon the America of today and smile. They would promptly write a large check to Columbia and Harvard.

Rating:
Summary: Strikes a blow for integrity
Review: I read this book avidly, as I found Berman articulating various dreads and disgusts about our society that I have felt since youth, while the "monastic" response that he describes is appealing and, to a large extent, the kind of adaptation that I aspire to make. This is an important book, or at least its insights are important and eventually inevitable, so that everyone would do well to read it. One even wants to read the many other books that the author cites-- in their marvelous variety all the way from medieval history, 18th-century philosophy, 19th-century technology, to two classics of science fiction.

My only disappointment is the final chapter, speculating about the future, in that Berman is silent about a condition that, if it doesn't sink us outright before any of the other trends he fears, will surely be a major ingredient in the next global crisis and reformation. I refer to an increasingly dire energy shortage, perhaps starting to cramp our style even in the lifetime of the baby boomers. The status quo is so utterly and pervasively dependent on finite fossil fuels that, short of some kind of surprise technological breakthrough, nothing like it can survive their depletion. Because even basic needs such as agriculture and long-distance shipping of food are now energy-intensive as never before, the world's population may well be forced rather abruptly back to historic levels, i.e. about 25% of the present figure. No-holds-barred battles over energy supplies are liable to highlight this century, both among and within countries. Absent some kind of soft landing, losers will perish in tens of millions. Even today, elite Americans churning around in their SUVs would rather not think about the growing thirst of those in China and other populous developing countries for gasoline for *their* new tented motorcycles. One must question at last the prescience and circumspection of a prognosticator who ignores this feature looming on the horizon, especially when developments that he does duly lament have done so much to exacerbate it.

This might sound like a major complaint. I don't intend it thus. It is merely a quibble to set beside the enthusiastic praises already contributed below.

Rating:
Summary: little to celebrate, but much to ponder
Review: The author's thesis is that civilizations experience a birth, a life, and then they die - like people. Some people live longer-similarly, some civilizations endure longer than others.
America, he maintains, has seen its best days and is now rapidly declining. A study of the Roman Empire - writes Berman - provides insights into some of the reasons why this may be so. The American experience, itself, offers yet others.,
The Roman Empire expired finally when the following conditions prevailed: (1)wealth became concentrated in fewer and fewer hands; (2) the middle class, ergo,disappeared; (3) intellectual interests waned and educational levels declined; (4) the masses became increasingly enamored of mentally vacuous pursuits - such as chariot races and gladiators and wild animals tearing each other apart. Roman leaders also contributed to the empire's demise by overextending its territories, then bankrupting the empire as they expanded the army and the bureaucracy needed to control everything.
With some stretch of imagination Berman sees in contemporary America similar conditions: for example (1) between 1973-93, when the U.S. economy was generally expanding, 78% of the gains went to the top 20%, while 80% experienced little or no rise
in their standards of living. This equates to redistributing some 275 billion dollars annually from the middle class to the rich. Also, in 1973, CEO's on average earned some 40 times the average pay of their workers, while in 1999 CEO's were earning 190-419 times as much (in 2002 CEO's were getting more - up to 500-plus times as much); (2)everyone accepts that the American educational system is sick and ineffective. Recent studies indicate that younger Americans - after perhaps some 50 years of mindless TV programming and little reading (60% in one poll say they've never read a book, while only 6% say they read even one book yearly!). We have, thus, an admittedly uninformed
population (on other tests 40% failed to correctly identify Germany as our World War II enemy, 50% failed to place our Civil War in the correct half-century, 41% could not name the 3 branches of our government, 50% were unfamiliar with the term "Cold War", 60% knew not how America became a country, 59% of the teacher candidates in Massachusetts flunked a literacy test at the high school equivalency level, and the U.S.ranked 49th in a literacy test administered in 158 countries. The real downside of a non-reading population, per Berman, is that people who don't read will never develop the skills to think, reason, or analyze, i.e., to deal with life's everyday problems (like voting). Also, if no one reads, then one of the important elements that links Americans together culturally - our language - will deteriorate. Eventually we'll have to stop using comparisons or references to mythology, history, geography, literary characters, writers, etc., because non-readers will not understand such references.(A future verbal exchange, for example, might go like this: "I like Shakespeare!" "Who's Shakespeare?" "He wrote great literature." "What's literature?" or - "Well, Clinton finally met his Waterloo." "Who's Clinton - and who's Waterloo?"
So, who's to blame for the widening gap between the rich and the rest, or, for the increasing stupidity level in the country? Berman mainly blames corporations and the
'corporate-consumer culture' (buy! buy! buy!) that they have crafted for us. Briefly put, corporations and their greed-motivated leaders have the money, they control the media (including TV, that
employs nearly half the time to promote products or other TV programs!), they use their influence, power, and financial support to elect politicians of both parties, and, should any of their chosen elected politicians ever dare to propose any objectionable legislation, they'll fight it through their highly paid lobbyists. America, alas, is no longer a democracy - of,
by, for the people, but rather an oligarchy - rule by the few - by the rich. So, since the rich control everything, they must naturally also bear the responsibility for the sad state
of affairs in the country.
Can Americans anticipate any relief ? Probably not. Globalization, per Berman, marks the final phase of America's decline. Globalization - invented and promoted by corporate leaders - permits corporations to more easily expand their operations around the world, and at the same time it gives them a weapon they can use against labor unions and welfare-minded 'do-gooders'. Union leaders once could use the threat of strikes to gain higher pay, unemployment and sick benefits, pensions, better working conditions,etc., for their workers. No more! Under globalization corporations can threaten to move
their factories out of the city, state, or, indeed, the country, should labor become too feisty and demanding.
So where does Berman think the country is heading? Well, into a new 'Dark Ages' era - such as prevailed in Europe between 500-1100 AD - following the disintegration of the Roman Empire. This is unavoidable now, he thinks. But, there is some hope! In the 12th Century it was discovered that certain Roman Catholic monks in Spain, Ireland and elsewhere had during the centuries of the Dark Ages inadvertently preserved and
reproduced some of the intellectual treasures of the past. These materials were then used by later scholars to jump-start man's intellectual curiosity, first during the Renaissance,
then later during the Enlightenment. These monks, then, accidentally saved western civilization.
Berman's hope is that many 'New Monastic Individuals' (modern secular monk types)will step forward and begin promoting the arts and literature on their own and in their own way. In this fashion, perhaps, many of our contemporary intellectual treasures can be saved and passed on for use in the future - after the inevitable, up-coming Dark Ages pass. These New Monastic Individuals, like those Roman Catholic monks of the past, can be the next saviors of western civilization.
Berman's concluding hypothesy about a few individuals again rescuing the world from intellectual and artistic oblivion seems a bit far-fetched, but I nevertheless enjoyed this book. While it offers little to celebrate, there is much to ponder. I recommend it.

Rating:
Summary: Inspirational, if whiny
Review: Berman seems to have a tendency to write books which are good foe inspiration and reference, but really not that good otherwise. The celebrated "Twilight ..." appears to be more of the same.
It certainly is GREAT that someone with a degree of intellectaul astuity takes upon to (yet again) write a book on the poor state of American public culture and social life. Really GREAT! I actually re-read this every so often to keep my anti-establishement anger churning when heavy sarcasm is about to set in after watching electorial debates on TV or what not.
But, dude, the style, the moaning, the whining, the aweful predictions. Morris, we love you, but gain a sense of humor, please! Spend time concentrating on obtaining the actual religious experience that you promoted so actively (and rightly) in "Coming back ...". Please, you really need it! :)

Rating:
Summary: Political Masterpiece
Review: Morris Berman's The Twilight of American Culture is a political masterpiece that examines the cultural decay of America. It is a superbly written social commentary that appropriately expresses Berman's disgust with American economical and educational policies. From the "dumbing down" phenomenon that infects Americans to the corporate brainwashing and mass consumerism of the American public, Berman foresees a bleak future for American culture and an inevitable period of social decay akin to the one that preceded the fall of the Roman Empire.
Berman's arguments are well researched and lucid. He looks to sociology and history for an understanding of how and why complex societies collapse on themselves. He argues that economic inequality, the collapse of intelligence, and the "emptying of cultural content" (i.e. culture's assimilation into corporate propaganda) will inevitably bring American society into a dark age of cultural hibernation, like that of medieval Europe after the fall of Rome. Berman believes that we are in the twilight stage of this dark era; that cultural stagnation is just below the horizon.
Berman's first argument concerns the disintegration of the middle class, which creates an economic vacuum similar to one that existed before the fall of Rome. The rich are getting richer and the poor more indigent. The business world is being converted into a "corporate oligopoly," controlled solely by giants like Microsoft and Pepsi who not only monopolize their respective industries but also partially-own, or have control over, everything from civic centers to public schools. Berman continues by saying that these giant corporations brainwash the American public by saturating the media with trendy advertisements that "repackage" true culture into a freeze-dried consumer culture. The public becomes fixated on the latest "must have" gadget or the best-selling Danielle Steele novel that somehow passes as true literature with real content.
Berman argues that America's celebration of ignorance, i.e. the "dumbing down" of America, is the second factor contributing to cultural stagnation. He finds it appalling that "in a random telephone survey... 21 percent of adults believed that that sun revolved around the earth" and that "in America, excellence in sports is celebrated, while excellence in scholarship is considered elitist." Berman has observed that those who buy into and celebrate the ignorance of America label any attempt at intellectualization as being elitist and pretentious, what he considers a form of discrimination. He is appalled by the amount of illiteracy in America. For example, " according to the Wall Street Journal, the Motorola Corporation reported that 80 percent of all applicants screened nationally failed a test of seventh-grade English and fifth-grade math." Berman has also observed an overwhelming number of elementary spelling and grammar mistakes found on street signs, on labels in supermarkets, and in newspapers.
Berman's complete and deliberate disregard for political correctness and his subtle attacks on American icons make The Twilight of American Culture a refreshing alternative to self-help books and feel-good novels that deny the truth that American culture is in the gloaming of catastrophic change. If Berman's predictions are accurate, let us hope that we can prepare ourselves for what the night will bring.