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DESCRIPTION:Why America Failed: The Roots of Imperial Decline\nwith Morris Berman\n  - 
 Thursday, March 22\n  - 7 PM\n\nWhy America Failed—third and most 
 engaging volume of Morris Berman's trilogy on the decline of the American 
 empire—shows how, from its birth as a nation of "hustlers" to its 
 collapse as an empire, the tools of the country's expansion proved to be 
 the instruments of its demise. Berman will read from this newest book and 
 discuss the perils of empire.\n\n***\n\nDuring the final century of the 
 Roman Empire, it was common for emperors to deny that their civilization 
 was in decline. Only with the perspective of history can we see that the 
 emperors were wrong, that the empire was failing, and that the Roman people 
 were unwilling or unable to change their way of life before it was too 
 late. The same, says Morris Berman, is true of twenty-first century 
 America. The nation and its empire are in decline and nothing can be done 
 to reverse their course. How did this come to be?\n\nIn Why America Failed, 
 Berman examines the development of American culture from the earliest 
 colonies to the present, shows that the seeds of the nation's "hustler" 
 culture were sown from the very beginning, and reveals how the very tools 
 that enabled the country's expansion have become the instruments of its 
 demise.\n\nAt the center of Berman's argument is his assertion that 
 hustling, materialism, and the pursuit of personal gain without regard for 
 its effects on others have been powerful forces in American culture since 
 the Pilgrims landed. He shows that even before the American Revolution, 
 naked self-interest had replaced the common good as the primary social 
 value in the colonies and that the creative power and destructive force of 
 this idea gained irresistible momentum in the decades following the 
 ratification of the Constitution. As invention proliferated and industry 
 expanded, railroads, steamships, and telegraph wires quickened the frenetic 
 pace of progress--or, as Berman calls it, the illusion of progress. An 
 explosion of manufacturing whetted the nation's ravenous appetite for goods 
 of all kinds and gave the hustling life its purpose--to acquire as many 
 objects as possible prior to death\n\nThe reign of Wall Street and the 2008 
 financial meltdown are certainly the most visible examples today of the 
 negative consequences of the pursuit of affluence. Berman, however, sees 
 the manipulations of Goldman Sachs and others not as some kind of 
 aberration, but as the logical endpoint of the hustler culture. The fact 
 that Goldman and its ilk continue to thrive in the wake of the disaster 
 they wrought simply proves that it is already too late: America is 
 incapable of changing direction.\n\nMany readers will take exception to 
 much of Why America Failed--beginning, perhaps, with its title. But many 
 more will read this provocative and insightful book and join Berman in 
 making a long, hard reassessment of the nation, its goals, and its 
 future.\n https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2012/03/10/18709084.php
SUMMARY:"Why America Failed" with author Morris Berman
LOCATION:Modern Times Bookstore Collective\n2919 24th St\nSan Francisco CA 94110
URL:https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2012/03/10/18709084.php
DTSTART:20120323T020000Z
DTEND:20120323T040000Z
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