{"id":1116,"date":"2011-11-23T22:17:11","date_gmt":"2011-11-24T06:17:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lexiconic.net\/wheatfromthechaff\/?p=1116"},"modified":"2011-11-25T19:30:43","modified_gmt":"2011-11-26T03:30:43","slug":"morris-berman-why-america-failed-the-roots-of-imperial-decline","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/lexiconic.net\/wheatfromthechaff\/archives\/1116","title":{"rendered":"Morris Berman: &#8220;Why America Failed: The Roots of Imperial Decline&#8221;"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"wp_fb_like_button\" style=\"margin:5px 0;float:none;height:30px;\"><script src=\"http:\/\/connect.facebook.net\/en_US\/all.js#xfbml=1\"><\/script><fb:like href=\"http:\/\/lexiconic.net\/wheatfromthechaff\/archives\/1116\" send=\"false\" layout=\"standard\" width=\"450\" show_faces=\"false\" font=\"arial\" action=\"recommend\" colorscheme=\"light\"><\/fb:like><\/div><p>One of the most influential and inspirational teachers I&#8217;ve ever known is the cultural historian, Morris Berman, who taught at the University of Victoria back in the 1980&#8217;s.<\/p>\n<p>Morris&#8217;s view of the world is not for the faint of heart &#8211; it&#8217;s uncompromising and pessimistic. Nevertheless, he defends his thesis of America&#8217;s &#8220;negative identity&#8221; with eloquence, vigour and thoughtfulness.<\/p>\n<p>The following presentation is from Morris&#8217;s recent speaking engagement in Seattle; he is promoting his new book, \u00a0<em>Why America Failed: The Roots of Imperial Decline<\/em>. [The question and answer period at the end is perhaps the most illuminating part of the session.]<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ffffff;\">&#8230;<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<blockquote><p><object id=\"2011110059\" width=\"400\" height=\"300\" classid=\"clsid:d27cdb6e-ae6d-11cf-96b8-444553540000\" codebase=\"http:\/\/download.macromedia.com\/pub\/shockwave\/cabs\/flash\/swflash.cab#version=6,0,40,0\"><param name=\"flashvars\" value=\"content=[AMF0],rtmp:\/\/flash.tvw.org\/TVWVideo,mp4:201111\/2011110059.mp4&amp;jsListener=true&amp;stopPosition=2&amp;propxml=http:\/\/www.tvw.org\/media\/flash\/player\/embed_video.xml\" \/><param name=\"src\" value=\"http:\/\/www.tvw.org\/Media\/FLASH\/PLAYER\/4Embed\/tvw-TimeCodePlayer.swf\" \/><embed id=\"2011110059\" width=\"400\" height=\"300\" type=\"application\/x-shockwave-flash\" src=\"http:\/\/www.tvw.org\/Media\/FLASH\/PLAYER\/4Embed\/tvw-TimeCodePlayer.swf\" flashvars=\"content=[AMF0],rtmp:\/\/flash.tvw.org\/TVWVideo,mp4:201111\/2011110059.mp4&amp;jsListener=true&amp;stopPosition=2&amp;propxml=http:\/\/www.tvw.org\/media\/flash\/player\/embed_video.xml\" \/><\/object><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>One of the most influential and inspirational teachers I&#8217;ve ever known is the cultural historian, Morris Berman, who taught at the University of Victoria back in the 1980&#8217;s. Morris&#8217;s view of the world is not for the faint of heart &#8211; it&#8217;s uncompromising and pessimistic. Nevertheless, he defends his thesis of America&#8217;s &#8220;negative identity&#8221; with [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,6,11,15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1116","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-american-politics","category-books","category-global-issues","category-modern-culture"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/lexiconic.net\/wheatfromthechaff\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1116","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/lexiconic.net\/wheatfromthechaff\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/lexiconic.net\/wheatfromthechaff\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lexiconic.net\/wheatfromthechaff\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lexiconic.net\/wheatfromthechaff\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1116"}],"version-history":[{"count":17,"href":"http:\/\/lexiconic.net\/wheatfromthechaff\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1116\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1124,"href":"http:\/\/lexiconic.net\/wheatfromthechaff\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1116\/revisions\/1124"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/lexiconic.net\/wheatfromthechaff\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1116"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lexiconic.net\/wheatfromthechaff\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1116"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lexiconic.net\/wheatfromthechaff\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1116"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}