Looking Forward by Looking Back
I have an insatiable curiosity about most everything! I’m an amature historian/economist/linguist/anthropologist…..you name it, I like thinking about it. My wife accuses me of being rather boring in my reading tastes. I’m one of these voracious non-fiction readers. Believe it or not I’m usually involved with several books at a time. Right now I’m re-reading Spencer Johnson’s “Who Moved My Cheese” (because in the real estate industry, the cheese has moved big time!), I’m listening to the audio version of Kevin Phillips’ new book “Bad Money (a masterful study of our failing economic model of borrow & spend), and I just revisited Cullen Murphy’s thought provoking book “Are We Rome?”
I believe “Are We Rome” should be required reading for all thoughtful Americans. The author (writer of the comic strip Prince Valiant & contributing editor to the Atlantic Monthly & Vanity Fair magazines) has an keen perspective and easy writing style: neither technical nor trite, he avoids the usual Rome-fell-because-of-its-immorality/lead in the water explanations and takes the reader on a far more sober journey. The author believes that both modern day America and Rome share two huge problems: 1) that our government has been compromised and corrupted by various forms of privatization and 2) by our culture’s sense of superiority and non-recognition of the rest of the world. What’s refreshing about his book is that he does propose some positive solutions and resists the temptation of pronouncing our culture dead.
Thought-provoking and timely, you should add this to your summer reading!
