Soul-Changers
Wafers: Here is the poetry book I've been talking about (also available in Kindle). Hope you enjoy it.
-mb
This is the Blog for MORRIS BERMAN, the author of "Dark Ages America". It includes current publications and random thoughts about U.S. Foreign Policy, including letters and reactions to publications from others. A cultural historian and social critic, MORRIS BERMAN is the author of "Wandering God" and "The Twilight of American Culture". Since 2003 he has been a visiting professor in sociology at Catholic University of America in Washington, DC. Feel free to write and participate.
Wafers: Here is the poetry book I've been talking about (also available in Kindle). Hope you enjoy it.
-mb
Meanwhile, let us continue to observe the US, and its pathetic, hypocritical universities, degrade and debase themselves, as we drift toward the Final Reckoning. And let us hope that the Palestinian people are not completely destroyed by Israel--one of the cruelest, most shameful, genocides in history.
-mb
I'm happy to announce an upcoming event taking place at the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston on May 16. The MFAH has invited me to engage in a discussion with the eminent Los Angeles artist, Vincent Valdez. Check him out on Wikipedia:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vincent_Valdez
I am frankly honored by this invitation. Vincent is a very talented artist. The basis of the conversation will be his artwork, and the novel Slaughterhouse-5, by Kurt Vonnegut. It is scheduled to run between 6 and 7 p.m. I'm hoping that Wafers living in or around Houston, or anywhere else for that matter, can join us in what promises to be an enjoyable (and hopefully thought-provoking) evening.
I'd also like to float a possibility for those able to attend. As you know, we used to host an annual Wafer Summit Meeting in New York, which has gone by the wayside in recent years, thanks to covid and god knows what else. I'm thinking that we might resurrect the practice, but this time in Houston, for lunch on May 17. As in the past, I'll need 5 people or more to attend, for this to take place. So, if this is something any of you can do, and want to do, please write me at mauricio@morrisberman.com. If we get 5 "takers," I'll write you back with the venue. (The time will be 1 p.m.) Online contact is fine, but personal contact is even finer, as you all (y'all) know. It will be a pleasure to hang out with you, as always.
-mb
The destruction, and self-destruction, of America and Israel continues at a quickening pace. I have talked about a tectonic shift, geopolitically speaking. Which is also known as karma, as the US fades in influence and importance, and the Global South, and the historic victims of colonialism, start to assert themselves. Very likely, the Ukraine is down for the count, and a host of American opponents--Russia, China, BRICs, India, the Islamic world, and so on, flex their muscles on the playing field. At home, the US might be facing fascism, collapse, or if we are lucky, secessionist movements. Very few Americans grasp the fact that America is finished; very few have the intellectual ability to grasp it. Very few understand that our values are wrong, and that we have poisoned the world with them.
For a bit of relief--I hope not too comic--let me recommend the second story in my short-story collection, The Heart of the Matter. This would be a much better world than one hegemon replacing another. Power, power, power, as if that's all the human race were capable of. Bo-ring.
-mb
I've been listening to Neil Young's "Harvest" album, 1972. God, those were such different years. How many Americans today are miners for a heart of gold? 20? Instead, we have hearts of bitterness. But instead of Americans turning their rage against the real enemy, which they can't really identify, they attack Jews, Muslims, elderly Asian women, anyone whom they regard as different. They map their hatred onto innocent people. Bill Maher recently said on his show that "we've become shittier"--verbatim quote, my friends. "Depraved" would have been more accurate. We are a sick society, getting sicker every day. Trump in the White House will be the capstone of our collapse, and it's less than a year away.
-mb