Beyond the American Dream: Lifelong Learning and the Search for Meaning in a Postmodern World (Hardcover)

~ (Author) "That each of us holds the key to our own world is a profoundly simple idea, but it could be the most formidable barrier to..." (more)
Key Phrases: intrinsic education, borrowed opinion, intellectual patterns, American Dream, Adam Smith, United States (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review

Winner of the American Library Association's CHOICE Award -- CHOICE Magazine, January 2000

Product Description

The final decade of the Second Millennium has issued a flourish of books foretelling the end of everything from science to history. In the first decade of the Third Millennium, books about new beginnings will take their place. Is it a time for despair or hope? Many of today's social critics deplore the effects of multiculturalism in spawning a postmodernism era. One observer, however, finds reason to celebrate, claiming it's about time we looked beyond the confines of our king-of-the-mountain value system, to a broader plane of understanding.

In his newest book, Charles D. Hayes submits that the American Dream we've learned to champion is an insufficient aspiration for human beings. Cultural expectations create social reality. "If having must come at the expense of being," he asserts, "then you and I are missing the best part of life and our culture is the worse for it."

Reaching the top--at any cost, by the current model--has outlived its usefulness as a go! al in human society. Those who make it, remain unfulfilled. Those who don't, become marginalized and resentful. Through the power of our intellect, says Hayes, we can begin living off the interest of our biological world instead of continuing to eat away at the principle. Either we improve society through our ideas, or we perpetuate its deterioration through a lack of them.

A sophomoric sense of citizenship might reason this way: "Since I wasn't alive during slavery, I bear no responsibility for it." Certainly, it is senseless to blame ourselves for what happened before we were born, but Hayes maintains we do have a responsibility toward what is. If you and I are the beneficiaries of an unjust system stemming from the biases, prejudices, and atrocities of the past, then we have an obligation to remedy the unfairness. Beyond the American Dream points the way to rising above the lock-step patterns of our culture and assuming our rightful roles as thoughtful, responsible citizens.

In failing to truly value to individual thought and reflection, our society guarantees that an ever-increasing number of citizens will practice neither. As in his previous works, Hayes urges readers to take control of their own learning and to adopt self-directed inquiry as a lifelong priority. Education should be regarded "not as something you get," he says, "but as something you take. Self-education is the lifeblood of democracy, the key to controlling your life, and a means to living your life to its fullest."

Beyond the American Dream illustrates these ideas in practice. Offering fresh insight on the wisdom of great thinkers from Aristotle to Alan Watts, together with a tantalizing juxtaposition of ideas that can't help but foster reflection, Hayes demonstrates how the sensual pleasures of learning can be inherently more satisfying than anything posing as entertainment. He gives compelling evidence that America's greatest treasures are found, "not in our shopping malls, but in our libraries."

Certain that the greatest means we have of persuading others is to live by the example we advocate, Charles Hayes challenges each of us to re-evaluate our values and to amend our ambitions accordingly. Beyond the American Dream is a thoughtful summons to awaken from the New Age doctrines that have so engulfed our culture. It is a book about the meaning of meaning and implores us to find purpose and meaning in life by leaving the world a better place than we found it.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 384 pages
• Publisher: Autodidactic Press; 1st edition (September 1, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0962197920
• ISBN-13: 978-0962197925
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.3 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,402,398 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This book on the American psyche is the best I've read., November 22, 1998

By A Customer

Charles D. Hayes doesn't contemplate his navel, then hypothesize where we have been, where we are, or where we are going as a people. He digs deep into the roots of the American soul from whence our cultural heritage springs and tells it like it is. He does this, not as an academic nor intellectual snob, but as a card carrying working man out of the bowels of American society. His life is a poignant piece of reality. To wit, Hayes is self-educated, a high school drop-out, an ex-U.S. Marine, a former Dallas police officer, and an Alaskan oil rigger. He didn't become a serious student until he was 35, 20 years ago. What he has learned, and what he shares with the reader here could change the reader's life, as it has mine. What is so compelling is that Hayes moves beyond the tinsel dreams to the true reality over the horizon. The book is not about getting rich or becoming famous. It is about using one's head to be all that one could become. Hayes relates his own experience to illustrate how powerful life-long learning can be in changing one's disposition, perspective and appreciation of life's blessings. "Beyond the American Dream" is the most important book on the American psyche that I have read in my lifetime. The book restores the reader's moral compass by putting the reader smack in the middle of life's equation, not as observer but as participant, not as a commodity for exchange, but as a responsible individual who listens to the rhythm of one's own heart to find one's way. If you read no other book in the next year, I urge you to read this book. It will change your life.

19 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Frommian, August 23, 1999

By A Customer

Although I like the book a lot, I can't give it 5 stars (I'd give 4.5 stars if I could), because:

* There were numerous typos -- the most glaring, were at least two places where he confused the words "principle" and "principal" (no intentional pun could be inferred from the context, either);

* Although the book starts off real well, towards the middle, it jumps around disjointed topics that can lose focus, even though he keeps referring back to the "King of the Mountain";

* I found my attention wandering, and I found myself skipping pages, towards the middle of the book (especially the chapter on "belief"), although that might just be because I found myself rehearing old arguments on issues I had already resolved for myself years ago (I'm an atheist);

* It repeats a lot of what many philosophy readers (especially Freethinkers) already know, and that's where it starts to lose my attention. Hayes reminds me a lot of Erich Fromm.

To seasoned Frommians, Anti-Credentialists, Freethinkers, and Skeptics, this book isn't as "belief-shattering" as it might be to the average reader.

Still, I highly recommend it -- I've bought 2 copies as gifts, and I've told friends about it.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An Intriguing Read, September 24, 2000

By A Customer

Hayes' text sets out on a challenging journey and does it well. From the outset, he seeks to relate the concepts of high academia to the reader for what they are: elements of a world that has distanced itself from the layperson. This text consistently demonstrates the applicability of these themes to all, regardless of occupation or position. Quite simply, Hayes rejects the academic tendency to assert that compex themes are reserved for an academic audience and places these squarely before any reader to see that they are not mystical, overly sophisticated notons for a special set, but quite easily understood and intriguing given the desire to learn.