America's Meltdown: The Lowest-Common-Denominator Society [Hardcover]

John Boghosian Arden (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 30, 2003 | ISBN-10: 0275976394 | ISBN-13: 978-0275976392 | Edition: 1

Celebrity news, video games, cookie-cutter schools, and shopping, shopping, shopping. As entertainers, corporations, and even the government pander to the lowest common denominator, American life becomes increasingly vicarious, prefabricated, and bereft of meaning. This book examines contemporary American consciousness, considering the factors that have driven society toward gossip and sensationalism at the cost of substance and depth. Arden discusses the growing epidemic of acrimony, superficiality, attention deficit disorder, and complaints of ennui. He targets the reasons why American children have expressed their confused rage with deadly weapons, why a president boasts that he earned Cs in college, and why society has drifted into craving entertainment laced with violence and cheap thrills. The book is provocative reading for concerned citizens, as well as for scholars and researchers involved with contemporary American culture and society.

Editorial Reviews

Review

“Written in a trenchant style yet employing vernacular befitting a pop psychologist, this is a scathing critique of the rampant vulgarity, violence, and voyeurism in contemporary US mass culture, rooted in the cash nexus of corporate capitalism....Highly recommended. All levels and libraries.”–Choice

“None of Arden's observations is new, but he presents them coherently and convincingly, and thoughtful readers will find little to disagree with.”–ForeWord Magazine

“Arden addresses problems that are at least worrisome, perhaps ominous, and that we ignore at our peril.”–Noam Chomsky

“A damning indictment of our mass media's cynical exploitation of the crudest impulses in the human psyche.”–Ben H. Bagdikian author, The Media Monopoly

“Arden is one of the millions who doesn't want what's oozing out of our TV screens. Fortunately for all of us, he's taken the time to explain why the system isn't working for all of us--and that we can do something about it.”–Danny Schechter Executive Editor, The Media Channel

“Nothing short of an urgent wake-up call to sit up, take notice of and do something about the morally, intellectually and emotionally corrosive effect unchecked corporate power, operating overtly and covertly, has had over every aspect of our lives.”–Montague Ullman, M.D.

About the Author

JOHN BOGHOSIAN ARDEN is Director of Training, Department of Psychiatry, Kaiser Permanente Medical Center, Vallejo, California. Among his earlier publications are Consciousness, Dreams, and Self and Science, Theology, and Consciousness (Praeger, 1998).

Product Details

• Hardcover: 240 pages
• Publisher: Praeger Publishers; 1 edition (May 30, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0275976394
• ISBN-13: 978-0275976392
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 6.5 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,520,812 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars A Lowest-Common-Denominator Book, May 14, 2004

By 

doomsdayer520 (Pennsylvania) - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)   

This review is from: America's Meltdown: The Lowest-Common-Denominator Society (Hardcover)

It is certainly true that American society is sinking into a dumbed-down, quick-fix, marketing-oriented society. Intelligence and community are being forced out in the drive to look out for number one and make as much money as possible. These are serious issues with potentially alarming effects on our society, culture, and mental health. But if you're looking for a well-rounded and substantial examination of these issues, give this book a wide berth. Here John Boghosian Arden spends 200 pages complaining about social trends he happens to find troubling, under the assumption that piling on mountains of examples actually results in an in-depth analysis of trends, and offers next to nothing in terms of solutions or things concerned people can do to make a change. In the end, this book becomes part of the "lowest-common-denominator" phenomenon that Arden keeps accusing everyone else of perpetuating.

Speaking of lowest-common-denominator, check out the low basic quality of this book. There are many typos and factual errors that are mostly minor, but also several whoppers like actress "Candace Bergman" or the "Star War" movie series. Talk about dumbed-down public discourse. Arden apparently knows little about the social culture he is incessantly criticizing, feeling the need to introduce the concept of "windows" on computer screens to us unenlightened masses, or claiming that nobody knew what the paparazzi was before the death of Princess Diana. Arden also has a rosy Nick-at-Nite view of past society, with the type of attitude toward the wholesomeness of the past, and the evils of the present, that is little more than cranky nostalgia. And after spending seventeen chapters on rapid-fire examples in various categories of America's supposed meltdown, Arden spits out the obligatory chapter on "solutions" which adds up to no more than pie-in-the-sky idealism, such as "we need to own the responsibility for our own health" and other thin pontifications. There is also much inconsistency in Arden's "solutions" in the final chapter, such as an endorsement for minimum-standards testing in public schools, although he spent an entire chapter earlier complaining about narrowly-focused educational standards. Serious issues like those introduced here demand a serious and in-depth analysis. This isn't it. [~doomsdayer520~]

7 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars A Quick Condemnation of Our Society, September 20, 2003

By 

Jerry Nechal "Jerry Nechal" (Sylvan Lake, MI United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: America's Meltdown: The Lowest-Common-Denominator Society (Hardcover)

The basic theme of Arden's book is that our culture has migrated toward a "Lowest Common Denominator" society. In such a society "oversimplified images and homogenized consumer habits shroud ideas that once were complex." A dumb downed society watches mindless television programs and junk news. Our sports heroes and politicians reflect this meltdown. The book is a brief, 212 page, condemnation of most of what is happening around us. The author is not a fan of the Bush Administration and carries an obvious pro environment viewpoint.

Nothing is sacred in this book and pretty much everything is criticized in brief one to three page snippets. These include: the mental health system, schools, sports, the Internet, politics, the media, health care, etc. Like his criticisms, the recommendations for improvement in last chapter of the book are brief and without much depth.

The book has kind of a 1960's social concern to it. If you are looking for a quick and dirty critique of our contemporary society, this may be the book for you. However, if you are looking a more substantive social commentary, you will have to look elsewhere.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars America's Meltdown: The Lowest common-Denominator Society, October 7, 2003

By 

Alan Stoltzfus - See all my reviews

This review is from: America's Meltdown: The Lowest-Common-Denominator Society (Hardcover)

Arden offers a comprehensive and incisive critique of America's dumbed down society. Using extensive examples he reviews the impact of technology, the entertainment industry, politics, education, the arts and much else within the context of a culture driven by consumer ethics. The curent recall election in California is a splendid example of the shallow mindset we have overwhelmingly stooped to.