Fool Us Twice, Shame On Us!

Fort Lauderdale, Like ostriches hiding their heads in the sand, we Americans have ignored, blinded ourselves to, and made excuses for any unpleasant indications of Governmental inappropriateness and dubious dealings. There have appeared, in the midst of our everyday lives, frightening signs of exploita-tion of this implacable power which our government holds. James Polk’s newest book, Pathologies of Public America - The Triumph of Ignorance and Bliss explains precisely, and eloquently, what is happening in our shattering world. As we go blithely on….

Sidetracked by the irresistible appeal of fame, fun, and perfect bodies, Americans have largely aban-doned the public sphere for the sake of individual fortune. And yet the fate of our planet and the future of global civilizations depend in no small measure on the courses of action taken by the United States of Amer-ica. The policies of its administrations, the institutions of civil society with which its social fabric is woven, the immeasurable influence of its cultural, scientific, and technological might, the strength of its armed forces, and the prowess of its financial markets hold the nations of the world in a precarious balance between success and failure, indeed between life and death.

As large corporations brazenly take control not only of decision-making processes but also of the very means by which issues, content, and public priorities are de-fined, communicated, and dealt with, vast segments of American society are caught up in a bacchanalian whirl of banality and fun, disenfranchised by a system of values and beliefs and by social and economic poli-cies that successfully replace critical reflection, political consciousness, and potential corrective action with a ceaseless series of trivial pursuits. Pathologies of Public America - The Triumph of Ignorance and Bliss ex-plores the mundane symbols, interests, and power structures that permeate and define the social reality of a fading empire.

About the Author:
Deeply influenced by both the Frankfurt School of Critical Theory and twentieth-century phenomenol-ogy, James Polk pursued his graduate studies in philosophy at the Freie Universität Berlin, where he received his Ph.D. for work on Kant and Heidegger. Polk is a former fellow of the Heinrich Heine Stiftung für Phi-losophie und kritische Sozialwissenschaft and the author of Am Horizont der Zeit (Verlag Oberhofer). Previ-ous publications also include a number of essays and translations in social philosophy and comparative social history. A native of northeastern Oklahoma, James Polk has lived in Europe, the Middle East, and the Far East.