Dream Deferred CL

Examines the democratic threat of authoritarian and militaristic impulses within American society

For roughly 5000 years, says Slater, the world's dominant sociopolitical system (or "megaculture") has been authoritarian in nature, but today a democratic model is emerging. Lamentably, the United States, once the vanguard of the democratic movement, has been backsliding while the rest of the world struggles to cast off its chains. All segments of our society--business, government, education, religion, the "authority-worshipping" media--seem to be infected with the restrictive attitudes of the past. Slater, whose Pursuit of Loneliness ( LJ 3/1/70) became a counterculture classic, writes with the breezy pedantry of a pundit at a bull session; much of his essay is wordy and melodramatic. Slater's reliance on distorting statements to support his argument makes it difficult for the reader to take him seriously. Still, there may be demand from fans of his previous books.
-Kenneth F. Kister, Tampa, Fla.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.