With great wit and humor--& clever specific examples--cultural historian Morris Berman argues a gloomy main point: American civilization as we know it is doomed. Few prophets of doom are as enjoyable to listen to as Berman, though.
Here he discusses 13 ways America is going to hell in a handbasket. (#2 includes: the new American History school curriculum in Texas has a unit on Estee Lauder but not George Washington. Berman asks: why not Kim Kardashian?)
With a preface by KD on Berman's ideas.
From an hour-long talk by Berman in Seattle, November 4, 2011. Video of the entire talk available from Pirate TV Seattle (www.edmaysproductions.net), complete audio track from Unwelcome Guests (www.unwelcomeguests.net/580)
New World Notes originally broadcast this program (as NWN #200) in December 2011
Bermans most recent book is Why America Failed: The Roots of Imperial Decline (Wiley, 2011).
"New World Notes" is produced under the auspices (Latin for "inflexible deadlines") of WWUH-FM, a community service of that beacon of light in darkest Connecticut, the University of Hartford.
New World Notes's Web site has information, photos, interesting links, and a free archive of past shows. http://newworldnotes.blogspot.com . Also, radio4all.net has each show from May 2008.
You can download this program also from The Internet Archive (www.archive.org).
SERIES OVERVIEW -- Political and social commentary in a variety of genres. Exploring the gap between what we want ... and what they're trying to make us settle for. "Date recorded," below, = date of first scheduled broadcast.
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NOTE: Audio files downloaded from the links, below, are identified as NWN #200.