Episode 580
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This week we look at what Morris Berman terms “the centuries long programming of American society”. We begin with a talk he gave after the publication of his new book Why America Failed, and conclude by learning how debt has warped the human psyche over millennia, by reading Cruelty And Redemption, chapter 4 of David Graeber’s Debt, The First 5000 Years.
Focusing on US life, Berman looks at a wide range of topics, from the commercially controlled media bubble in which so many US citizens live, the fact that US residents consume twice as much anti-depression medication as the rest of the humanity combined to the fact that president Obama has now claimed the right to summarily execute anyone anywhere, for any reason, or indeed for no reason at all.
He criticizes public discourse about US society as superficial not only because it is too issue-specific and lacks the ‘bigger picture’ of multiple interlocking problems, but also because it lacks an understanding of how US citizens behave on a daily basis. Citing one academic study that concluded there was a ‘48% drop’ in empathy over the last 30 years, he is unflinching in exposing what he terms ‘the sheer cruelty of the American soul’. While his conclusions are stark, his evidence is trenchant.
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