Morris Berman books

[HappyinEurope]

I highly recommend reading Morris Berman trilogy on American culture. At 62, after 32 years in the US I left for Europe mainly because of his writings. He, like me, has self deported himself to Mexico. Read his books or watch him on Youtube.

Despite his status as an academic, Berman has written several books for a general audience.[1] They deal with the state of Western civilization and with an ethical, historically responsible, or enlightened approach to living within it. His work emphasizes the legacies of the European Enlightenment and the historical place of present-day American culture. His books include Why America Failed: The Roots of Imperial Decline (Wiley, 2011), Dark Ages America: The Final Phase of Empire(Norton, 2006), The Twilight of American Culture (Norton, 2000), Wandering God: A Study in Nomadic Spirituality (State University of New York Press, 2000), Coming to Our Senses: Body and Spirit in the Hidden History of the West (1989), and The Reenchantment of the World (Cornell University Press, 1981).

[Contrarian Expatriate]

I have been reading and following Berman for some years now. Yes, he is a huge critic of the American experiment and he feels that it is doomed to fail based on the flaws of its cultural antecedents.

Prominent in his writings are the concept of a money-making "hustle" being perpetrated on the public since the beginnings. All the the Americans ills like slavery, unjustified wars, bank bailouts, etc stem from variations of these "hustles" that undermine America at its core.

[HappyinEurope]

Thanks for your blog info, I will look at it with curiosity. You are right about the foundation of America. I lived in Williamsburg VA, close to Jamestown settlement where the American mayhem started with thugs and poor little orphans shipped to the "promised land," where most perished. Kids were nailed by their tong to trees for stealing food, this is not what they tell you when you take a tour there. I think about this often when I go to a local cafe here that is 400 years old; Each time I go there I think they were slaughtering Indians when people had a beer here. Even Napoleon stopped here with his troops......America has no history like that. What they call history is the discovery of America by Columbus (actually he didn't know where he was....), one of the greatest genocidal maniacs that ever lived.....and its a holliday in America! Do you think we have Hitler day in Europe?