Modern Discontent
Bernard Williams
- The Culture of Narcissism by Christopher Lasch
Norton, 288 pp, £6.95, February 1980, ISBN 0 393 01177 1 - Nihilism and Culture by Johan Goudsblom
Blackwell, 213 pp, £15.00, May 1980, ISBN 0 631 19570 X
All around him in American society Lasch sees intellectual and moral feebleness, cultural decay, despair and inner rage. There is no personal love, only a snatching at gratification, or domestic skirmishes in the war of all against all. There is no politics, only manipulation; no radical protest, only street theatre; no education, only organised illiteracy. The ‘elitism’ of earlier educational functions has been purged – by robbing the educational process of content. Sport is corrupted into mass entertainment. Therapy has replaced genuine moral reflection, and superstition has replaced genuine therapy.
The full text of this book review is only available to subscribers of the London Review of Books.
You are not logged in
- If you have already registered please login here
- If you are using the site for the first time please register here
- If you would like access to the entire online archive subscribe here
- Institutions or university library users please login here
- Learn more about our institutional subscriptions here
Vol. 2 No. 14 · 17 July 1980 » Bernard Williams » Modern Discontent
page 3 | 1982 words
