Interlude: The Twilight of American Culture

As I am currently between L. E. Modesitt books,* I read Interlude: The Twilight of American Culture by Morris Berman. Published in 2000, it took me back only a few years that seem much farther away in time. This book is somewhat optimistic than his more recent works. (I'll likely write a review of Dark Ages America in the next few weeks.) He believes that America is an empire in decline, and will fall like Rome. The culture has become decadent (and depraved). Its content is effectively empty; society has come to reflect the shortcomings of its culture. Whatever the details, these empires share a common history: being eaten away from within their core. Consumerism has drowned most everything. This book is somewhat optimistic than his more recent works. He believed the time frame is long term decline, but could be avoided. After reading a chapter of the latter work, he would appear to now agree that these trends identified in his first book have accelerated the pace, and that of the corresponding decline. I would tend to agree. In other words (being mine), the technological system has produced a rotten culture that will take down its society by the means of its own anti-natural requirements. The incessant demands requiring Maximum Advantage in All Things has degraded human interaction and connectivity. People have stopped civic interaction. Local democracy (the only kind) is dying. The Technical Morality has imposed its efficiency on everything. Propaganda has reached its saturation point. Human beings are not machines. Things Fall Apart on Their Own.

Anyway, now that we've discussed the context, his major theme is preserving knowledge and culture through a true Dark Ages. Cultural Preservation can and should be carried out by individual means and methods. Anything worth doing is not worth doing in the public eye. He compares these efforts to those of (mostly Irish) Monks during the European Dark Ages. The book tends to be heavily Eurocentric. He does not really consider that other cultures exist that are not decadent. The American consumer life may have appeal, but the affects are not universal. His most recent book (after reading one chapter) would indicate that he does not feel such to be the case now. (How times change.) The geographic regions that have the strongest culture are simply not as weakened by stupidity. (Fanatics are another archetype altogether.) Enlightenment values have been contaminated by a decadent culture spawned as a reaction to Maximum Advantage in All Things.

One of the most interesting points of this book regards cognition. Perhaps, human general thought patterns actually retrograde and become atavistic during certain eras. Human beings are products of their environment. Although strangely, the author does not always seem to understand that ignorance is a constant presence in all places and all times. When one's sense of value is degraded, human animals react accordingly. It's not that the atavistic and anti-intellectual are not always present; they don't always predominate (which says nothing about suppression of one form of intellectualism over another.) Perhaps, these inclinations are channeled elsewhere.

The author does rely on personal anecdotes. An author's life is relevant (at least regarding honest authors.)

*I like his fantasy better than his science fiction novels. Some like the Corean Chronicles are a mix of both sub-genres. The Recluse series is based on a type of magic that is based on the manipulation of entropy. His heroes are pure. Why not read fantasy that is all fantasy?