June
2008
Interview with Morris Berman
With great pleasure the Living Hero program presents an interview with author and cultural historian, Morris Berman, Ph.D.
Our interview includes conversation about: ● What motivated Berman’s writing of the trilogy on human consciousness ● The mind-body split and the creative process ● The decline of America ● The dialectical principle in our lives ● A new monastic individual and the masses ● Progress, consciousness, and power ● What societies of hunter-gatherers and nomads had that we don’t have ● Berman’s sociological perspectives and suggestions ● Problems of “progress” and power ● American social conditions prompting Berman’s move to Mexico
Dr. Berman is the author of a trilogy on the evolution of human consciousness–The Reenchantment of the World (1981), Coming to Our Senses (1989), and Wandering God: A Study in Nomadic Spirituality (2000). In 2000, his Twilight of American Culture was named a “Notable Book” by the New York Times Book Review. During 2003-6 he was Visiting Professor in Sociology at the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C. and has held endowed chairs at several other American and Canadian universities. Dr. Berman relocated to Mexico in 2006, and in 2008 was appointed Visiting Professor at the Tecnologico de Monterrey, Mexico City. His most recent book is Dark Ages America: The Final Phase of Empire. He maintains an interesting blog with related resources at morrisberman.com where you will also find his complete bio.
Enjoy the show and please add your comments! You may download the mp3 file, which will play in iTunes, RealPlayer, Windows Media Player and other media players or listen to it right here by double clicking on the purple media player below. (The interview is about 57 minutes.)
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There are only a handful of people I think really “get it” and these few included Hermann Hesse, Colin Wilson, and Morris Berman. It’s very difficult to find people who think as Berman does.
Morris Berman is tonic for the mind~numbing materialism and hyper~consumption of american culture. So many artists and poets in my experience have also intuited this crisis and I would add the work of Derrick Jensen among the heros who need to be heard during this inevitable collapse of western culture and values. As an artist who has always tried to make socially conscious art, I know all too well how deaf and dumb most of my compatriots truly are. This website is precious.
Thank you very much, Anthony, for your compliment, your subscription to Living Hero, your insights and for bringing the work of Derrick Jensen to the attention of readers and listeners here, including me. The raison d’etre of this program is to help people join me in a process of connecting the dots and looking sanely and squarely at the picture we’re all in together. Month by month we can make radical changes in the way we are thinking, working, and living, as I am doing and will continue to do. Stay tuned . . .
An excellent interview…Thanks!
Morris Berman is a very smart man and it was such a surprise to hear his voice, so confident and full of enlightenment, so reassuring and brimming with warmth and enthusiasm. I should have known he would have such a voice after reading his trilogy on consciousness but hearing him talk about his work really made my day. Thank you for the opportunity to hear this great man.