Dark Ages America: The Final Phase of Empire Reprint Edition

Quite simply, Morris Berman thinks America is going down! His book is a very comprehensive examination of American cultural, geopolitical, economic, and urban development. He looks at where we are now and the history that got us here. And then projects the direction we as a society are going, economically, culturally and politically.The title of "Dark Ages America" was chosen by Mr. Berman because of the similarities he sees with the present day United States and post Roman western Europe in the aftermath of the fallen Roman Empire; the dominance of religion over reason, failing education, and most significantly, "....the integration of religion, the state, and the apparatus of torture...."(p 2). Remember those shocking images of prisoner mistreatment that emerged from the American controlled prison in Iraq, Abu Ghraib? For me, the Abu Ghraib scandal was the most dire warning to date of something gone terribly awry with the State of the Union. Mr Berman refers to the findings of Seymour Hersh; that the mistreatment of prisoners at Abu Ghraib was ordered by Donald Rumsfeld as an expansion of operation "Copper Green", which consisted of physical abuse and sexual humiliation. American soldiers were ordered to sexually abuse prisoners of war??? Those prisoners were captured in a war of aggression, started by the Bush Administration that tasked the United States military with invading a country that did not pose any threat to us, and had not played any role in ever attacking the United States. The Army reservists in charge of providing security at Abu Ghraib, were lead by military intelligence and interrogators (mercenaries) hired under private contract (p 224) to institute operation "Copper Green". This isn't the army of our grandfather's time. The Red Cross also confirmed systematic abuse of soldiers and also revealed that American military doctors, at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, "....collaborated in the interrogation and abuse of detainees"(p 225).Mr Berman goes on to deplore the lack of public outrage at the Abu Ghraib torture scandal. Rush Limbaugh, with an audience of twenty million, compared the mistreatment to a fraternity prank. Donald Rumsfeld remains unapologetic. As of 2006, no independent investigations were called for by Congress. Officers above the rank of colonel were found innocent of wrong doing by the military, although they did scapegoat a few enlisted personnel, imprisoning Lynndie England and others for the results of operation "Copper Green". The Washington Post is quoted as writing, " the worst aspect of the Abu Ghraib scandal is this: The system survived its public exposure.... Mr. Bush will perpetuate this systematic violation of human rights, and fundamental American values...." (p 290). One could claim that the 2008 election of Barrack Obama was the ultimate public rebuke of Bush Administration policies, including the legitimization of torture. But as of this writing, more than a year into the Obama presidency, none of the individuals responsible for authorizing operation "Copper Green" have been prosecuted or even investigated for their crimes, and the military prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba remains open, despite campaign promises to close it. Am I the only one to find these events and their unpunished outcomes, deeply disturbing?Berman goes on to question how healthy a democracy can be that accepts torture by its government. If maintaining power by any means becomes acceptable, then transparent democratic elections, the rule of law, and civil liberties are endangered (p 226). If it is acceptable to torture prisoners of war, where does it stop? Does it than become acceptable to torture family members of suspected terrorists, political opponents that advocate violence, political opponents....? Berman writes that, "....once torture becomes common, it undermines a societies' democratic norms, whereby a nation is defending what it stands for by subverting its own values in order to defend them" (p 226). And if torture is okay, whats wrong with taking away a few civil liberties? If all of this seems too fantastical to the casual reader of this review, the reader should be made aware of the article in Newsweek of July 2004, that the Bush Administration considered postponing the presidential election of 2004, citing national security concerns (p 226).Among many other topics, Berman examines the American culture of "radical individualism" and its manifestations. According to Berman, in the modern American culture of obsessive individualism, people treat each other badly on a daily basis (p 288), and everyone loses (p 286). We are losing our ability to empathize with others. A large portion of the American public doesn't support government spending on social programs because they have accepted a culture of competition (individualism) that regards the poor, sick, disabled, imprisoned, as losers.The book also examines modern America's structural weaknesses, such as an over dependence on imported oil because of poor urban design, ever expanding suburbs farther and farther away from our metropolitan centers. Poorly designed cities that cater to the automobile and shopping, that are hostile to people, leading many Americans to travel to foreign destinations in search of people friendly environments. A voracious military industrial complex and outrageously high military spending. A general decline in public education and an informed public. On page 297, Berman quotes a critic of our culture in an online book review, "If the populace of the future is made up mostly of ignorant, ahistorical, consumer drones with no concept of how a civilization is made possible and what it takes in order to maintain the precious gains of civilization, then aren't we looking into the abyss?"I have just scratched the surface of the content contained within this book, complimented with some excellent analysis. I gave it four stars instead of five because of its academic writing style that infuses too many references into the text, and an overly pessimistic outlook that lacks any constructive suggestions to avoid the abyss. My own suggestion for a brighter future, besides reading and discussing this book or one of similar subject matter, is for all Americans to insist that no one is above the law, that war criminals, whether foreign or domestic, be brought to trial. Every American should also insist of every federal politician, before any tax raises or social program cuts are entertained, that the military budget be cut in half (Its not defense if you are the one attacking). And finally vote for politicians that promise to maintain the separation of church and state. Whether you are religious or not, once one religion or denomination achieves political dominance they won't stop until every American is forced to adopt their religious belief. Our Founding Fathers learned long ago how destructive and violent religious conflict can be.

Morris Berman's Dark Ages America: The Final Phase of American Empire is a grim documentation of the events that led the US on a trajectory towards spiritual, moral, ethical, social and political decline and the economic depreciation of the American people as a whole of which, he argues, there is no return. Throughout the book he juxtaposes the American Empire with that of the Roman Empire and introduces a variety of similar traits including four pertinent characteristics: 1) the supremacy of religion over reason, 2) the disintegration of education and critical thinking, 3) the legalization of torture and 4) the marginalization of the US on the world/global stage.He asserts that America's decline initiated in the 1960s, but specifically in the early 1970s through two major events. The first one was the apparent US imperialist war in Vietnam and the exorbitant cost of that conflict, not to mention the even more significant element of that war-the death and maiming/injuring of hundreds of thousands to millions of Vietnamese people and the homelessness and hopelessness of millions of more. The second event that Berman attributes to the decline of the US is Nixon's repeal of the Bretton Woods system which abolished the social safety net, not only of social welfare programs across the world, and the protection against unemployment, but just as importantly, it did away with the safeguards against "predatory" fiscal monetary policies of which the wealthy have exploited and policies that have been in existence ever since. The nullification of the Bretton Woods system also allowed for a greater economic disparity between the rich and the poor and the consuming of the "democratic" elements of America's political system (and elsewhere throughout the world) and brought together Wall Street, the IMF, the World Bank and the Treasury Department.He also discusses (the very real) and observant effects of economic and technological supremacy and sophistication on our society and how it's shaped us into lonely and hollow, money-worshiping pseudo-humans (all of which are utterly accurate depictions of Americans and American society).He completely blew my mind when he provided the insightful perspective that the US has ALWAYS been imperialist in nature. When it expanded westward usurping Native American lands under the banner of "Manifest Destiny," it was picking fights with the Mexicans over their territories (which were also taken away from Native Americans). And when the US completed its confiscation of North American territories, it sought to continue this imperialist policy internationally in places like the Philippines and elsewhere. He even perceptively noted that America picked up the imperialist mantle where the UK and European imperialist powers of the 19th century left off, after WWII with their decline and with America's ascendancy-"a two-hundred-year-long Anglo-American Empire" (pg 159).This book is an awesome book because it uses statistical and historical facts and empirical evidence to make conclusions and assertions that seem so out of the norm because in the norm we've all been lied to and had our heads filled with red, white and blue propaganda filth, for so long, myself included. He even puts Samuel Huntington and especially Bernard Lewis' disingenuous, biased, and distorted book "Clash of Civilizations" and "What went wrong?" to shame and discredits them, almost without effort. With "What went wrong," Morris Berman delegitimizes and destroys the entire pompous mess that is Lewis' book, with one sole sentence, "The actions of the United States as heir to the British Empire in the Muslim world, are what went wrong." Bam. Over. All of the work that Bernard Lewis dedicated to that tendentious and crooked book, over in one single sentence.This book is NOT for the many jingoistic nutjob Americans and the false patriots who cover their ear drums with their index fingers and drown out criticisms against America with, "lalalalala....we're #1, we're #1, lalalala...IIIIIII caaaaaan't hearrrrrr yooooooooou." He says it very clearly, "this book was written for those individuals, American or not, who are more interested in reality than illusion, more committed to understanding America as it is than in being comforted by a fantasy of what it is, or of what it might supposedly become (pg. 10)." He continues on the next page. "There are, in short, readers who find reality-whether "good" or "bad"-finally more fulfilling than fairy tales, and it is to this audience that Dark Ages America is addressed (pg. 11).I don't agree with 100% of everything he says, but overall, I'd definitely recommend this book.

It touched subjects that not many authors write a bout. Very fun to read, lots of new information in one book.I highly recommend it