Empire of Illusion

    This book empire of illusions was an interesting read to say the least. It was overall a noticeably pessimistic work that seemed to be primarily focused on the negative aspects of American culture as characterized by Chris Hedge. he takes the moral high ground on the topics of literacy, pornography, happiness, American corporate culture, and the issues surrounding american higher education.
    Overall I believe that hedges has hit upon important issues within our cultures. His chapter on corporate control of america was especially enlightening. He picks out many of the issues that are overlooked and under-analyzed by the american public like the Role advertising plays in making consumers believe they can obtain happyness through the purchase of non essential goods.
      The issues I have with the book border the things i like about it. As much as I think this country needs to be refined and reworked, some of the changes he calls for are to extreme and go against the basic econo0mic and social principals of this great nation. one such principal he believes should be violated is the role of government in the economy. This country was built upon the ideas of a free market society. I believe that he would intervene given the opportunity and call for more regulation if given the power to. His call for government intervention of the pornography industry is a call to end the industry in it self. The government could never be involved with the creation of adult entertainment. He presents all the problems in American culture and gives no realistic solutions.