The Fate of America: An Inquiry into National Character

by GELLERT MICHAEL

• ISBN13: 9781574883565
• ISBN10: 1574883569
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2001-07-01
• Publisher: Potomac Books Inc

Summary

Examines the national character of the United States against the backdrop of its history, popular culture, and media

Author Biography

Michael Gellert is director of training at the C. G. Jung Institute of Los Angeles. He was formerly a humanities professor at Vanier College, Montreal, and taught religious studies at Hunter College of the City University of New York.

Table of Contents

Introduction	xi
Part I: America's Heroic Ideal
Prelude: The Aspiration Toward Greatness	2	(7)
Two Souls Within the Human Breast	9	(20)
The Spirits of Youth and Authority	9	(3)
One Plus One Equals Three	12	(3)
America's Alternating Current	15	(2)
America's Bias	17	(4)
The Fallout from Falling Out of Balance	21	(4)
A Big Bang	25	(2)
The American Heroic Ideal, Yesterday and Today	27	(2)
The Revolutionary	29	(10)
A Distant Galaxy	29	(3)
The Recognition of Necessity	32	(3)
The Cultivation of Character	35	(4)
The Frontiersman	39	(11)
The Backwoods Boasters	39	(4)
The Quintessential American Hero	43	(3)
The Mysterious Indianization of the American People	46	(4)
Contemporary Heroic Idealism	50	(21)
The Continuing Saga of the Cowboy	50	(2)
A Simple Problem	52	(1)
The Heroism of Sports	53	(3)
The Divided Hero	56	(3)
The Divided Society	59	(3)
The Diffusion of the Heroic Ideal	62	(4)
Part II: The High Life
Prelude: The Metaphor of Height	66	(5)
The Commercialism of America's Heroic Ideal	71	(16)
The Cult of Prosperity	71	(5)
The Fantasy of Unlimited Possibilities	76	(2)
The Culture and Economics of Excess	78	(6)
A Healthy Ability to Say ``No'': A Gift of Depression	84	(3)
Heroic Mania	87	(13)
The Cult of Motion and Speed	87	(6)
The Dangers of Motion and Speed	93	(7)
The Imitation of Heroism	100	(7)
The Cult of Celebrity	100	(7)
Heroic Tunnel Vision	107	(15)
The Cults of Fundamentalism	107	(7)
The Trappings of Fundamentalism	114	(5)
Religious Mediocrity	119	(3)
The Escape from Heroism	122	(11)
Getting High: The Cult of Passion	122	(5)
The Meaning of the Drug Epidemic	127	(6)
The Metaphor of Depth	133	(16)
The Heart of the Matter	133	(11)
Part III: The Underside of Innocence
Prelude: The Style of Innocence	144	(5)
The Historical Roots of American Innocence	149	(17)
The American Vision	149	(5)
The American Vision as a Paradigm of Innocence	154	(8)
The Innocence of Humanism	162	(4)
Jefferson's Bastards	166	(21)
The Diffusion of the American Vision	166	(2)
The Cult of Novelty	168	(4)
The Cult of Freedom	172	(8)
The Cult of Happiness	180	(3)
The Idolization of an Ephemeral Self	183	(4)
The Land of the Overrated Child	187	(22)
The Cult of Childhood	187	(5)
The Madness of Child Abuse	192	(5)
Divorce and the Long Reach of Childhood	197	(3)
The Pro-Life Movement and the Cult of Childhood	200	(1)
The Cry for Initiation	201	(3)
The Puerile Society	204	(5)
The Metaphor of the Eternally Young Hero	209	(12)
The Language of Images and the Imagination	209	(1)
The Myth of JFK and the Conspiracy Theory	210	(5)
Why Elvis Presley Won't Die	215	(2)
Rock `n' Roll and the Dionysian Death	217	(2)
Death-Heroes and the Wish for Transformation	219	(2)
The Explosion of Innocence	221	(17)
War and Imperialism, American Style	221	(5)
America's Messianic Complex	226	(6)
Violence as the Fist of Innocence	232	(6)
The Metaphor of America's Darkness	238	(26)
The Roots of American Racism	238	(6)
The Infantilization of the African-American	244	(5)
The Rage of the Disesteemed	249	(5)
The Infatuation with the African-American	254	(4)
The Meaning of Integration	258	(6)
The Implosion of Innocence	264	(12)
The Ossification of Authority	264	(6)
The Cult of Cynicism	270	(6)
The Sacrifice of Innocence	276	(11)
The Journey of the Hero and Beyond	276	(8)
Part IV: The Fate of America
Prelude: The Unpredictable Nature of History	284	(3)
America in the Third Millennium	287	(22)
Opportunity Repeats, History Knocks	287	(3)
The American Vision as a Paradigm of Integrity	290	(6)
The Canvas of History	296	(10)
Conclusion	306	(3)
Notes	309	(34)
Acknowledgments	343	(4)
Index	347	(21)
About the Author	368