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This book sounds like it's on target:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1400067219/ref=as_at?imprToken=7MTozl9L5Eh0eSPJpP-n4Q&slotNum=0&ie=UTF8&tag=wwwsamharris03-20&camp=1789&linkCode=xm2&creativeASIN=1400067219&utm_source=Sam+Harris+Newsletter&utm_campaign=0daa97edbf-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2017_11_09&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_f1c2a2c9db-0daa97edbf-207947349&mc_cid=0daa97edbf&mc_eid=55bb92f08b
But I've got other things to do today, so maybe the podcast of Sam Harris interviewing the author will do for now:
https://www.samharris.org/podcast/item/american-fantasies?utm_source=Sam+Harris+Newsletter&utm_campaign=0daa97edbf-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2017_11_09&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_f1c2a2c9db-0daa97edbf-207947349&mc_cid=0daa97edbf&mc_eid=55bb92f08b
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Yeah, I like this one review blurb:
“This is an important book—the indispensable book—for understanding America in the age of Trump. It’s an eye-opening history filled with brilliant insights, a saga of how we were always susceptible to fantasy, from the Puritan fanatics to the talk-radio and Internet wackos who mix show business, hucksterism, and conspiracy theories.”—Walter Isaacson, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Leonardo da Vinci
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I listened to the podcast. It was fine, but no great surprises. I'll wait till the book shows up at my library.
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I had never thought of that - that the people who came to settle in America were the believers, people willing to follow a dream be it of gold or paradise. Here in Australia the first settlers were out of England's jails. Perhaps that has become part of the Aussie spirit - a certain pragmatism in the face of harsh conditions.
But times change - America like Australia has had further waves of immigration. Our infrastructure is pretty much overwhelmed tho still there. I expect Canada is in better shape due to distance and snow. We've all produced a lot of wealth for the West due to taking a whole country from an indigenous people and not having to give it back. Times do change don't they, it all feels a bit like the Cheshire Cat's smile now.
Incidentally on the topic of migrations, I'm not sure if this is correct or not but it probably is - the first contact the West had with Islam was when they invaded and conquered Spain and it was awful for Jews and Christians, with lots of crucifying and beheading going on as well as extra taxes and there was a suicidal group of Christians who went round publicly insulting the prophet knowing they would be killed for it.
Back to the podcast with the author, I liked his idea of a reality base that can increase or be eroded and I thought it was quite funny the struggle he had with his affection for his Puritan roots v Sam Harris making him toe the line of non-religion.
I don't think I'd enjoy his book much. He talks about a woman who splintered off from the Puritans and her idea of you feel it you believe it which is an idea that can go in different ways and it took Sam Harris to interject and point out that she was an entrepreneurial cult leader not an honest thinker.
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Joe Whalen and I talked to him a bunch back when he was writing a story for the New Yorker about his siblings as premies. The magazine never published it because the Monica Lewinsky story broke right before it was scheduled to run and Tina Brown was obsessed with the scandal and Anderson's piece got deep-sixed. But I had a copy. I think he sent it to me. He swallowed his brother and sister's apologist bullshit despite all the damning stuff Joe and I shared with him. Talk about "Fantasyland" ....
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You probably weren't that long out of that particular Fantasyland yourself. I imagine you think you've changed a lot since then. So the author might have grown up a bit himself. I think he's made a decent attempt at explaining some of the more bizarro aspects of America.
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Why are you making excuses for him? Just because he's a smug liberal? He had no excuse. He'd never been in the cult. He's smart. We both talked and emailed with him lots but he veered away from the truth in order to appease his premie siblings. It was obvious.
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But that was a long time ago right, almost as long ago as you quit the cult. I'm not making excuses for him. Just saying, that was probably a long time ago and things change. I expect if you talked to him now, he'd say you were right, it was just a stupid cult.
Although I did a quick scan of the index of the book, and noticed there was no mention of Rawat's cult. I took that as a sign of it probably being insignificant compared to Rajneesh or Scientology. But maybe he didn't mention it because he didn't want to offend relatives still in the cult. Whatever the reason, I don't think it reflects anything on what he's saying in the book.
America is pretty unique amongst western cultures in its religiosity, its liking for guns, its thirst for individual freedom above all else, and its appetite for nutty conspiracy theories. I was amused at Trump telling Abe that mass murder like the shooting in Texas could have happened anywhere, when it has never happened in Japan. Not once. In America, it's becoming normal.
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I have to say he struck me as a bit mealy-mouthed, John.
So interesting facts notwithstanding I'm not prepared to subject myself to his book. I liked Richard Dawkins so much because when he came to bits where he was going to try and convince you of something, he would flag himself.
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Yeah well, if it's a library book I didn't pay for, I can skim through...
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yes of course. I have been thinking about the fact that Im not reading books at all at the moment! 
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you never said the podcast was over an hour long, but being a sucker I listened to it anyway. It was providential, as he admitted, that Trump appeared at just the right moment to be shoehorned into his narrative, & provide the grand finale.
That's all very American in the terms of his book, but I'm not sure he appreciated the irony, maybe he did. As a generality, taking perceived negative national characteristics, & amplifying them into an explanation for how we got here from there, runs the risk of being called rayciss when applied to just about any other nation or group. That's just a quibble though; ignore it, it's only my extreme right-wing right wingery rearing its ugly hateful head. Actually, I was pleased to hear that both of them aren't enamoured of the PC monster that has a grip on the American academy.
I probably won't read the book though, as I don't think the argument stands up. It's all a bit facile & forced. When you consider that the Puritans who stayed behind went on to start a war which killed 4% of the population of England, 7% of Wales, 17% of Scotland, & 35%+ (possibly 50%) of Ireland, then you have to wonder if maybe the ones who went to America were such suckers after all.
There were other things, but I thought his comment about Trump supporters having an 'aggrieved reality', the implication being that they were deluded, gave the game away. No hint that maybe they have something to be aggrieved about. Spoken like a true upper class American.
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Pat, nicely put. It’s a bit of a sport now watching liberals who haven’t totally abandoned logic concede more and more how rotten their general political fellowship has become. Harris squirms regularly this way. Jonathan Haidt and Dave Rubin have been forced to downgrade their association from “in a relationship” to “it’s complicated” and even assholes like Mahr can’t help but attack their fellow liberals for decidedly illiberal and unprincipled bullshit like suborning violence and repressing free speech.
Yeah it’s fun. And wait until Hillary gets indicted. Hahaha! Now THAT will be fun. My hundred bucks says it happens by November 1, 2018. I can’t wait.
So here’s some racism for you. Do you know Steve Crowder? His podcasts are hilariously irreverent and sharp. The girl in this video’s neither:
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