Book Review on "Real America? Interestingly Enough"

Book Review 13 pages (4206 words) Sources: 3 Style: APA

[EXCERPT] . . . .

Sexual laxness is not simply relaxing one's morality, but it is replacing the idea of oneself with the "selling of the sexuality of the person," as opposed to the myriad of other factors that make up that person's ability to actualize. This gap, then, causes a sense of cognitive dissonance that, like a cancer from within, eats away at American society.

Chapter 6- In "Pundits, Social Scientists, and the Flaming Liberals," Gosine attacks those pundits who believe they have the answers to all of America's problems. Gosine does not discriminate as to conservative or liberal -- he is equally as critical of the far right of Rush Limbaugh as he is of the hyper-religious of Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson. Equally of concern are those who, in fact, should probably not have even the slightest degree of credibility and who usually uphold the far-left; the actors like Jane Fonda and Cher who, behind their million dollar facade, advocate more liberal social policies to provide essentially a social welfare system for all. And, ironically, it is not just politics that become the buzz words of these groups, but often the use of their own sexuality and views that become, in the case of the actors and actresses, the new American elite. We cannot, however, separate these societal "experts" from the media, for in truth, it is the media that nurtured their views -- and who are just as quick to find the sexual foibles of the religious right as they are to focus upon and report those household names that sell millions for the tabloids.

Chapter 7- For centuries, according to Gosine, America has been globally seen as the land of endless opportunity and equality -- a place where people can live, work, and retire in relative comfort if they have worked, acted morally, and led a good life. Instead, the reality is that America is still quite a racist society in which only a select group controls the housing, health care, and social welfare policy. America gives lip service to caring about its citizens, but remains ambivalent about many of the aged, particularly the minority aged. And, in terms of health and social welfare policy, we need only look at the way American has handled what the Center For Disease Control calls the new pandemic -- HIV / AIDS. Far from being a compassionate nation that wishes to eradicate this disease, and any other Sexually Transmitted Infection, the dual standard of assigned morality is used when the economics are about saving what the political elite see as a disinfranched group (homosexuals, drug abusers, minorities).

Chapter 9- In "Blacks and Discrimination, American Style," Gosine examines the manner in which Black Americans are involved within the areas of education, politics, and the economic life of modern America. We must certainly remember, racism can be covert or overt; it does not need to exist as it did in the Old South to be rampant or even palpable within society. Instead, while there are more Blacks who are educated in America today, there are disproportionately fewer Blacks in positions of authority, higher education, and the so-called "serious" sides of American culture. However, there is another clear disparity between the ways Blacks are treated in American culture -- the rampant selling of the primal and often undeserved, nature of their sexuality. It is more than permissive for Blacks to be "sold" to America for their sporting expertise and sex appeal (jazz, dance, the sultry nature of their color) than it is to find them expert in politics or economics.

Chapter 10- America, from the 1780s onward, and particularly after the War of 1812, has been a powerful nation. Not as powerful in the 18th and 19th centuries as the great European powers, but certainly after World War I and World War II the global force for political, social, and economic power. After World War II and the advent of the dual political battle between the United States and the Soviet Union, the Cold War, it was the American ideals of truth, justice, liberty, baseball, and the so-called "American Way" that permeated the globe. America money rescued Europe and Japan from bankruptcy after World War II, and if countries sided with America, American money propped up their economies for decades. It is this power, the hunger for power at least, and the presumptive nature of this power, that Gosine sees as correctly identifying America, much like the arrogance of the Roman Republic, in the late 20th and early 21st centuries. However, Gosine further argues that it was the social institutions of the early Americans which "emphasized such things as thrift, sacrifice, hard work, investment, altruism, deferred gratification, and so on" as the real American ideal. Modern America, Gosine says, has none of these, and the media machine that demands instant product and sexual gratification then juxtaposes those very same ideas onto the rest of the world. And, to top it off, if these ideals are not accepted, then the American machine has no further use for the "little guy," except to blame for global problems.

Chapter 11- How does modern America receive and process its information? What do Americans rely on for truth about the world? According to Professor Gosine, it is "Gossip, the Superficial Society and Destroying our Heroes." America finds truth in innuendo, in tabloid-style news, or news that is recreated against a backdrop that has little bearing on the reality of the situation. And what are we concerned with -- well, primarily the sexual behaviors of our elected officials, their peccadillos, and their private lives as opposed to the substantive parts of their jobs as public servants. And, frankly, why should America be so enamored about who is dating whom in Hollywood -- these people are not the heroic types society should look up to, but rather those who act out a character on screen and read lines from a script. In fact, Gosine sees a recent alarming trend in America's hyper-revisionist view of our traditional heroes. Our Presidents have moved from the heroic to those who had sex with slaves, affairs in the White House with little regard for their policies or attempts to change the world. This obsession with the tawdry, Gosine finds alarming and part of the reason for a continuous decline in morals. After all, if we can actually have no heroes- who do our children aspire to be?

Chapter 13- One of the important considerations for any analysis of contemporary America is the manner in which technology, or "Mechanization, Computerization, and the Negation of Humanization," contribute to Gosine's view that America is headed down a path to ruin. Certainly, one of the hallmarks of late 20th century society is the increased amount of technological innovation that permeates global society. The Internet has brought the world closer together, just as cell phone, tablet, and computer technology has shortened global distances and contacts. Globalization has, indeed, changed the world culture and the manner in which countries now interact with one another. However, with this computerization and mechanization, Gosine sees the basic ideals of the human spirit evaporating. And, do Americas focus on using technology to make the world a better place, or instead, do we export out movies, advertising, and products so that the world will see it is important to be American, or at least buy like an American, in order to be successful. Indeed, technology, as well as advertising and marketing, continues to dehumanize women, place them in a purely sexual role, and cause consumers to continually feel inadequate because they have not been able to satisfy what society says is the appropriate ideal, translated into sexual desirability.

Chapter 15 -- And how does America perpetuate its ideals -- culturally, politically, and socially? In "The Colonialists, the Neocolonialist, and the Multi-Nationals," Gosine clearly sees America as a broad Colonial power; oppressing and demeaning other nations as we continue to exploit them for their needed natural resources. America props up dictatorial terrorists for several years, and then decides their policies no longer "fit" the current regime, so we opt for change or war. America takes the idea of manifest destiny to its extreme, to the point in which not only does America take material goods from other cultures, but exports American vices (cigarettes, alcohol) and American sexuality (movies, advertising, etc.) so that the rest of the world is, essentially, colonized by American ideals.

Theoretical Basis -- Clearly, Dr. Gosine is not a fan of modern America. Again and again, the theoretical basis for the arguments made are focused on a lack of morality, both cultural and philosophical, which in turn bleeds off into the manner in which America then becomes a monolithic culture of perversion. Gone are the ideals of the Enlightenment that changed the world forever with… READ MORE

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