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The third book in Morris Berman's much acclaimed trilogy on the
evolution of human consciousness, Wandering God continues his
earlier work which garnered such praise as "solid lessons in the
history of ideas" (Kirkus Reviews), "filled with piquant details"
(Common Boundary), "an informative synthesis and a remarkably
friendly, good-natured jeremiad" (The Village Voice). Here, in a
remarkable discussion of our hunter-gatherer ancestry and the
"paradoxical" mode of perception that it involved, Berman shows how
a sense of alertness, or secular/sacred immediacy, subsequently got
buried by the rise of sedentary civilization, religion, and
vertical power relationships.
In an integrated tour de force, Wandering God explores the
meaning of Paleolithic art, the origins of social inequality, the
nature of cross-cultural child rearing, the relationship between
women and agriculture, and the world view of present-day nomadic
peoples, as well as the emergence of "paradoxical" consciousness in
the philosophical writings of the twentieth century.
The Reenchantment of the World is a perceptive study of our
scientific consciousness and a cogent and forceful challenge to its
supremacy. Focusing on the rise of the mechanistic idea that we can
know the natural world only by distancing ourselves from it, Berman
shows how science acquired its controlling position in the
consciousness of the West. He analyzes the holistic, animistic
tradition—destroyed in the wake of Scientific Revolution of the
sixteenth and seventeenth centuries—which viewed man as a
participant in the cosmos, not as an isolated observer. Arguing
that the holistic world view must be revived in some credible form
before we destroy our society and our environment, he explores the
possibilities for a consciousness appropriate to the modern era.
Ecological rather than animistic, this new world view would be
grounded in the real and intimate connection between man and
nature.
Who among us has never wondered whether our lives could be
completely different? What exactly could we change, if we could?
From the poetry of Robert Frost to the blockbuster cinema of "Back
to the Future," the notion of "what if?" holds an almost obsessive
fascination over us. Are we shaped by fate, or by conscious choice?
"Destiny" is a series of three interrelated novellas that revolve
around a single theme: Is it possible, as an act of will, for an
individual to change what appears to be his or her fate? Can one
deliberately modify the ingrained patterns of one's life, and
thereby alter its course? In the case of each of these tales, the
central character undertakes to do this, and in each case the
outcome is radically different. The path of the protagonist of the
first story, "La Vita Nuova," is an occult one, involving
meditation, parallel universes, time travel, and a training in Sufi
out-of-body experiences. Jason Green, a rather timid librarian in
New York City, finally gets the life he wanted, but it comes with a
catch, one he cannot seem to resolve. In the second story, "The
Observer," Irene Davis is a talented artist who has spent her life
keeping everyone at a distance. She wakes up on her fortieth
birthday to discover that she is single, friendless, and devoid of
any real meaning in her life. In the course of working with a
therapist she begins to explore the possibilities for turning this
around. The final story, "The Seven Deadly Sins," revolves around
the life of a high school social science teacher, George Crystal,
who unexpectedly writes a best-seller and subsequently retires to a
small village in England. From this vantage point, he decides to
"purify" his life by working through the Seven Deadly Sins--Pride,
Envy, Anger, Sloth, Greed, Gluttony, and Lust--one by one. After
some initial success, the project starts to go awry, and then takes
an unexpected turn when George falls in love with another American
expatriate. The fact that there are three separate, and
fundamentally different, answers to the central question of the
book finally lends it a philosophical or existential dimension, one
that propels the reader to reflect on his or her own destiny, and
what the possibilities are for having the life we really want.
A Question of Values is Morris Berman's seventh book of cultural
history and social criticism, and his first book of essays, which
were written during 2007-10. Timely and uncompromising, they range
across four principal topics: American culture and politics; the
human existential condition; a close look at the nature of
"progress"; and some thoughts on where Western civilization, in
general, is headed. These articles pull no punches regarding our
current situation, and represent some of Berman's finest writing to
date. He challenges his readers to rethink the accepted mainstream
system of values, and argues that in the end, our problems are as
ethical in nature as they are political. In the context of a value
system that is rapidly turning against us, Berman's message is
simple: change or die.
In "Dark Ages America," the pundit Morris Berman argues that the
nation has entered a dangerous phase in its historical development
from which there is no return. As the corporate-consumerist
juggernaut that now defines the nation rolls on, the very factors
that once propelled America to greatness extreme individualism,
territorial and economic expansion, and the pursuit of material
wealth are, paradoxically, the nails in our collective coffin.
Within a few decades, Berman argues, the United States will be
marginalized on the world stage, its hegemony replaced by China or
the European Union. With the United States just one terrorist
attack away from a police state, Berman's book is a controversial
and illuminating look at our current society and its ills."
Based on a detailed historical analysis showing how, from its very
beginnings, the United States harbored the seeds of individualism
and imperialism, the author argues that cultural, social,
political, and economic massacre is the trademark of an America
imperialistic project dead set on exporting its vision and way of
life to all corners of the world. "Basandose en un minucioso
analisis historico que muestra como desde sus origenes los Estados
Unidos albergaba las semillas individualista e imperialista, el
autor alega que la masacre cultural, social, politica y economica
es el colofon de un proyecto imperial americano empenado en
exportar su vision y su modo de vida a todos los rincones del
planeta."
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