Age of folly
Subtitle: America abandons its democracy
By: Lewis H. Lapham
Publisher: Verso
Published: 2016
Language: eng
Number of pages: 384
ISBN-13: 9781784787110; 9781784787127; 9781784787134
Subjects: Politics and government; Political culture; Democracy
Description: "America's leading essayist on the frantic retreat of democracy, in the fire and smoke of the war on terror. In twenty-five years of imperial adventure, America has laid waste to its principles of democracy. The self-glorifying march of folly steps off at the end of the Cold War, in an era when delusions of omnipotence allowed the market to climb to virtual heights, while society was divided between the selfish and frightened rich and the increasingly debt-ridden and angry poor. The new millennium saw the democratic election of an American president nullified by the Supreme Court, and the pretender launching a wasteful, vainglorious and never-ending war on terror, doomed to end in defeat and the loss of America's prestige abroad. All this culminates in the sunset swamp of the 2016 election--a farce dominated by Donald Trump, a self-glorifying photo-op bursting star-spangled bombast in air. This spectacle would be familiar to Aristotle, whose portrayal of the "prosperous fool" describes a class of people who "consider themselves worthy to hold public office, for they already have the things that give them a claim to office.""--
Notes: Includes index.
Table of contents: title: Part 1. Folly; title: Democracy in America?; title: Brave new world; title: Who and what is American?; title: Versailles on the Potomac; title: Show and tell; title: Reactionary chic; title: Lights, camera, democracy!; title: The dimpled chad; title: Civics lesson; title: Bolt from the blue; title: Res publica; title: American jihad; title: Mythography; title: Spoils of war; title: Road to Babylon; title: Hail Caesar!; title: Light in the window; title: Cause for dissent; title: Shock and awe; title: The demonstration effect; title: Dar al-Harb; title: Propaganda mill; title: Condottieri; title: On message; title: Lionhearts; title: Blowing bubbles; title: Estate sale; title: Elegy for a rubber stamp; title: In broad daylight; title: Achievetrons; title: Bombast bursting in air; title: Part 2. Folly's antidote; title: Democracy 101; title: Crowd control; title: Pennies from heaven; title: Open to inspection; title: The world in time.