America's Meltdown: The Lowest Common Denominator Society

Abstract

America's Meltdown: The Lowest Common Denominator Society John Boghosian Arden. Westport: Praeger, 2003. Contemporary narratives of social decline commonly originate from points of view hostile to egalitarianism, individualism, relativism, and secular humanism. Think of Allan Bloom's The Closing of American Mind (1987), Robert Bork's Slouching Toward Bethlehem (1996), and William Bennett's The Death of Outrage (1998). America's Meltdown, written by director of training for Department of Psychiatry at Kaiser Permanente in Vallejo, California, springs from more liberal impulses. Think of Bill McKibben's The End of Nature (1990) and Robert Putnam's Bowling Alone (2000). With a simplification that reminds one of shouting radio programs, John B. Arden conceptualizes presumed ongoing meltdown through all-purpose concept of the lowest common denominator (called LCD throughout). Arden never defines a literal descriptive or diagnostic content of this arithmetic-based metaphor, simply using it to condemn any lamentable social trend. The reader will quickly learn to think BAD/MUST STOP! whenever term appears. The elasticity of this monoconceptual approach will frustrate more pluralistically minded. What, then, is so bad about our social world? Without listing them all, current maladies include seductions of Internet, vicarious living through television, domestic terrorism, schoolhouse shootings, gun ownership, video games, gambling, spiritual supermarket religion, political soft money, and overly publicized sports. In diagnostic final chapter on Rebuilding Future, Arden calls for remvigoration by the basic principles of a healthy society, including compassion, tolerance, and flexibility (193). Other broad goals called for include responsible entertainment, real news, conservation, disarmament, expanded health care, and greater emphasis on prevention. The book's final sentence reads, A healthy future requires you to participate with others in constructing a society of clarity as usher in new millennium (212). Readers can learn some things from this book, which does range over numerous ideas and sources, but quality of scholarship will often frustrate desire to go further. The book does not attempt to synthesize best-known and documented treatments of its topics. For example, in attacking aggressive use of computers in early education, Arden fails to mention Clifford Stoll's best-selling Silicon Snake oil (1995). In discussing the spiritual supermarket, he fails to refer to Wade C. Roof's Spiritual Marketplace (1999) or Richard Cimino and Don Lattin's Shopping for Faith (1998). Because this book is about declining standards, one should not ignore its failure to meet expectations. One grammatical challenge on page 3 exposes a typical problem in book. Arden writes, we spend approximately a quarter of time socializing today [sic] did 35 years ago. If than is supposed to be relative, then there is a missing -which would mean that spend a quarter time less did. If than is a misprint for that, then would be spending a mere 25 percent of expended spent 35 years ago, or a drop of 75 percent. …