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Review
"Remarkable, bracing and highly moral, Empire of Illusion is Hedges' lament for his nation."
— Maclean's
"Each chapter of Empire of Illusion makes a strong case for how different illusions — of literacy, love, wisdom, happiness — taken together are destroying the American mind, culture and the nation itself."
— National Post
"Each chapter torches one of our cultural illusions."
— The Globe and Mail
"Hedges is a fan of big ideas, and in Empire of Illusion, he draws upon the culture of professional wrestling and pornography, the elite university, positive psychology and the financial crisis to fashion a social theory of everything."
— Winnipeg Free Press
From the Hardcover edition.
— Maclean's
"Each chapter of Empire of Illusion makes a strong case for how different illusions — of literacy, love, wisdom, happiness — taken together are destroying the American mind, culture and the nation itself."
— National Post
"Each chapter torches one of our cultural illusions."
— The Globe and Mail
"Hedges is a fan of big ideas, and in Empire of Illusion, he draws upon the culture of professional wrestling and pornography, the elite university, positive psychology and the financial crisis to fashion a social theory of everything."
— Winnipeg Free Press
From the Hardcover edition.
Product Description
Pulitzer prize–winner Chris Hedges charts the dramatic and disturbing rise of a post-literate society that craves fantasy, ecstasy and illusion.
Chris Hedges argues that we now live in two societies: One, the minority, functions in a print-based, literate world, that can cope with complexity and can separate illusion from truth. The other, a growing majority, is retreating from a reality-based world into one of false certainty and magic. In this “other society,” serious film and theatre, as well as newspapers and books, are being pushed to the margins.
In the tradition of Christopher Lasch’s The Culture of Narcissism and Neil Postman’s Amusing Ourselves to Death, Hedges navigates this culture — attending WWF contests as well as Ivy League graduation ceremonies — exposing an age of terrifying decline and heightened self-delusion.
From the Hardcover edition.
Chris Hedges argues that we now live in two societies: One, the minority, functions in a print-based, literate world, that can cope with complexity and can separate illusion from truth. The other, a growing majority, is retreating from a reality-based world into one of false certainty and magic. In this “other society,” serious film and theatre, as well as newspapers and books, are being pushed to the margins.
In the tradition of Christopher Lasch’s The Culture of Narcissism and Neil Postman’s Amusing Ourselves to Death, Hedges navigates this culture — attending WWF contests as well as Ivy League graduation ceremonies — exposing an age of terrifying decline and heightened self-delusion.
From the Hardcover edition.
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Most helpful customer reviews
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Extended metaphor,
By Rose (Toronto) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Empire of Illusion: The End of Literacy and the Triumph of Spectacle (Paperback)
The over-riding theme of this collection - condemning the commodification of life - hits hard from all angles. Hedges is writing in the tradition of copia, the practice of approaching an important idea in different ways in order to reach as many readers as possible. For this reason, these essays may seem uneven from piece to piece. However, the breadth of Hedges's thesis calls for this treatment.The final essay, The Illusion of America, must fall flat by necessity because his hope lies in a simple choice: love over commodity, the dialectic that has dominated great minds of all disciplines throughout civilization. Why make a simple, universal value more complex than it is? to cater to our contemporary craving for a stunning climax, even in non-fiction? The first essay holds possible keys to this disappointment; WWE fans aren't the only victims of commodified entertainment. We all are. It's the air we breathe. The ideas in this book are far-reaching and immediately useful. They cry out for action, which every reader is able to employ. Democracy is a tool that we must teach ourselves to use, and this book is part of my personal toolkit.
24 of 27 people found the following review helpful
3.0 out of 5 stars
Expected a Litte More,
By Daikon (Vancouver, British Columbia Canada) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Empire of Illusion: The End of Literacy and the Triumph of Spectacle (Hardcover)
If you were looking for hard insight into the dumbing-down of America and the current obsession with self-made celebrity, you won't find it here. Chris Hedges takes bottom of the barrel cultural mediums and uses them to represent the American population. To make a stereotype, sure one could say that those who spend their lives watching Jerry Springer, gonzo porn, wrestling, and reality shows are less likely to have read books, but it doesn't explain why they enjoy investing their lives into those things. It doesn't explain where less literacy may equate to narcissistic fantasy. A lot of North American reality shows & game shows are inspired by or are franchises of shows from other parts of the world, and though the youth in other countries may also be obsessed with social networking sites, they do not suffer from high crime rates, low education levels, and fascist nationalism like in America. Hedges doesn't explain nor come up with solutions for any of his observed statements. He also states that Canada and America has a population that is 42% illiterate or semi-illiterate. What he doesn't explain is that both nations have a huge immigrant population. The Canadian census for 1991-2001 shows that 70% of the work force is made up of immigrants. In the latter chapters, he then starts attacking corporations and capitalism in a Naomi Klein'esque way, using disparate, egregious events as proof for socialism. It kind of broke up the feel of the book.The book does bring up a few good points to ponder about. I just didn't enjoy the way these points were made or brought up.
10 of 11 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Narcissism - you have to love it....,
By
This review is from: Empire of Illusion: The End of Literacy and the Triumph of Spectacle (Hardcover)
From reality and confrontational TV to wrestling to pornography to the corporate world to the American empire, from slogans to the narcissism of the YouBoob internet "social" (there's irony) networking to fantasies to entertaining violence, Hedges explains how Western 'culture' is sliding into intellectual self-abuse, and how the 'culture' is becoming less literate and its world more 'dumbed-down,' partisan, and jingoistic. More and more, being a "yob" in one way or another has become acceptable - and I am not just referring to lager louts, but to celebrity TV hosts (Jerry Springer is one mentioned in the book though I am not familiar with his show), to the participants in such as "Who Wants to be a Millionaire Self-Absorbed Jerk?" and reality shows, to welfare-recipients of billions of dollars in bailout money who sit in shiny offices of the capitalist "profits at any cost from anyone" boardrooms. Narcissism (self-absorption, self-love, self-aggrandisement, self-before-all-others) is mindless and heedless, but it is the growing view of self in the semi-literate majority in our culture. We can be sucker-punched by stupidity every day - the problem is that we have come to love it. This book is a must read for anyone intent upon understanding and, in any small way, working to correct, our plunge into the abyss. Empire of Illusion: The End of Literacy and the Triumph of Spectacle
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