A Pulitzer prize-winning and "NYT" bestselling author charts the political, social and cultural consequences of the dramatic and disturbing rise of a post-literate America that craves fantasy, ecstasy and illusion. The "New York Times" bestselling author of "American Fascists" travels in Empire of Illusion to the ringside of professional wrestling bouts at Madison Square Garden, to Las Vegas to write about the pornographic film industry, and to academic conferences held by positive psychologists - who claim to be able to ...
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A Pulitzer prize-winning and "NYT" bestselling author charts the political, social and cultural consequences of the dramatic and disturbing rise of a post-literate America that craves fantasy, ecstasy and illusion. The "New York Times" bestselling author of "American Fascists" travels in Empire of Illusion to the ringside of professional wrestling bouts at Madison Square Garden, to Las Vegas to write about the pornographic film industry, and to academic conferences held by positive psychologists - who claim to be able to engineer happiness - to chronicle our terrifying flight as a culture into a state of illusion. Hedges exposes the mechanisms used to divert us from confronting the economic, political, and moral collapse around us. He attacks the absurd idea that we can always draw on inner resources and strengths to have everything we desire. Reality, we are assured, is never an impediment to human wishes. It can always be overcome. The future will always be glorious. And held out to keep us amused are spectacles and celebrities who have become idealised versions of ourselves and who, we are assured, we can all one day become. The cultural embrace of illusion, and the celebrity culture that has risen up around it, have accompanied a growing system of casino capitalism, with its complicated and unregulated deals of turning debt into magical assets to create fictional wealth for us, and vast wealth for our elite. Corporations, behind the smoke screen, have ruthlessly dismantled and destroyed our manufacturing base and impoverished our working class. The free market became our god and government was taken hostage by corporations, the same corporations that entice us daily with illusions through the mass media, the entertainment industry, and popular culture.
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Add this copy of Empire of Illusion: the End of Literacy and the Triumph to cart. $4.85, good condition, Sold by Goodwill Books rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Hillsboro, OR, UNITED STATES, published 2009 by Nation Books.
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Add this copy of Empire of Illusion: the End of Literacy and the Triumph to cart. $7.49, very good condition, Sold by HPB-Diamond rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Dallas, TX, UNITED STATES, published 2009 by Nation Books.
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Very good. Connecting readers with great books since 1972! Used books may not include companion materials, and may have some shelf wear or limited writing. We ship orders daily and Customer Service is our top priority!
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Very good. Connecting readers with great books since 1972! Used books may not include companion materials, and may have some shelf wear or limited writing. We ship orders daily and Customer Service is our top priority!
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If you want to know why your TV, E-mailboxes, newspapers, and magazines are so loaded with very calculated advertising material, why Americans are throwing money away on lottery tickets and at gambling casinos, why so many politicians lie to get elected, why celebrity worship and sexual innuendo on the various media is so prevalent, why most capitalists don't give a damn about protection of our environment, and why our schools ignore the real education in the humanities while sending more and nore graduates to law, medical, and business colleges to learn the ways of getting rich, then read Empire of Illusion.
JFKREADER
Apr 28, 2011
excellent book. highly recommend. Sad but realistic commentary on American society
