This is the Blog for MORRIS BERMAN, the author of "Dark Ages America". It includes current publications and random thoughts about U.S. Foreign Policy, including letters and reactions to publications from others. A cultural historian and social critic, MORRIS BERMAN is the author of "Wandering God" and "The Twilight of American Culture". Since 2003 he has been a visiting professor in sociology at Catholic University of America in Washington, DC. Feel free to write and participate.
July 02, 2022
An Anatomy of the World
Poor America! Not much left of it these days. A phony war, increased poverty, serious inflation, runaway drug use, massacres, suicides, a sick and dishonest Supreme Court, and a bitter, clueless population. One party hankering for violence, and the end of democracy; the other thinking that diversity appointments and 'correct' language constitute an adequate response. Of course, I predicted the end of the US 22 years ago (in the Twilight book), but I never imagined it would look like this--so bleak, so stupid, and so sad. I think of T.S. Eliot's "vast, impersonal forces," History rolling over us like an Abrams tank, with literally nothing that can be done to stop it. Trumpi in the White House will be the final act of this tragedy, but Schmiden in the White House hasn't been able to do much better. And on the microlevel, a deep unkindness Americans have for one another, also unimaginable 22 years ago. Although John Donne had it right in 1611 (An Anatomy of the World):
“Tis all in pieces, all coherence gone,
All just supply, and all relation;
Prince, subject, father, son, are things forgot,
For every man alone thinks he hath got
To be a phoenix, and that then can be
None of that kind, of which he is, but he.”
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