Product Description

The final decade of the Second Millennium has issued a flourish of books foretelling the end of everything from science to history. In the first decade of the Third Millennium, books about new beginnings will take their place. Is it a time for despair or hope? Many of today's social critics deplore the effects of multiculturalism in spawning a postmodernism era. One observer, however, finds reason to celebrate, claiming it's about time we looked beyond the confines of our king-of-the-mountain value system, to a broader plane of understanding.

In his newest book, Charles D. Hayes submits that the American Dream we've learned to champion is an insufficient aspiration for human beings. Cultural expectations create social reality. "If having must come at the expense of being," he asserts, "then you and I are missing the best part of life and our culture is the worse for it."

Reaching the top--at any cost, by the current model--has outlived its usefulness as a go! al in human society. Those who make it, remain unfulfilled. Those who don't, become marginalized and resentful. Through the power of our intellect, says Hayes, we can begin living off the interest of our biological world instead of continuing to eat away at the principle. Either we improve society through our ideas, or we perpetuate its deterioration through a lack of them.

A sophomoric sense of citizenship might reason this way: "Since I wasn't alive during slavery, I bear no responsibility for it." Certainly, it is senseless to blame ourselves for what happened before we were born, but Hayes maintains we do have a responsibility toward what is. If you and I are the beneficiaries of an unjust system stemming from the biases, prejudices, and atrocities of the past, then we have an obligation to remedy the unfairness. Beyond the American Dream points the way to rising above the lock-step patterns of our culture and assuming our rightful roles as thoughtful, responsible citizens.

In failing to truly value to individual thought and reflection, our society guarantees that an ever-increasing number of citizens will practice neither. As in his previous works, Hayes urges readers to take control of their own learning and to adopt self-directed inquiry as a lifelong priority. Education should be regarded "not as something you get," he says, "but as something you take. Self-education is the lifeblood of democracy, the key to controlling your life, and a means to living your life to its fullest."

Beyond the American Dream illustrates these ideas in practice. Offering fresh insight on the wisdom of great thinkers from Aristotle to Alan Watts, together with a tantalizing juxtaposition of ideas that can't help but foster reflection, Hayes demonstrates how the sensual pleasures of learning can be inherently more satisfying than anything posing as entertainment. He gives compelling evidence that America's greatest treasures are found, "not in our shopping malls, but in our libraries."

Certain that the greatest means we have of persuading others is to live by the example we advocate, Charles Hayes challenges each of us to re-evaluate our values and to amend our ambitions accordingly. Beyond the American Dream is a thoughtful summons to awaken from the New Age doctrines that have so engulfed our culture. It is a book about the meaning of meaning and implores us to find purpose and meaning in life by leaving the world a better place than we found it.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1001484 in Books
• Published on: 1998-09-01
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 384 pages

CHOICE Magazine, January 2000
Winner of the American Library Association's CHOICE Award

From the Publisher
CHOICE Award Winner

From the Back Cover
Here is an eloquent, precise, and moving statement on the essence of lifelong learning. With brilliant metaphors and an enjoyable mix of ideas and personal experience, Charles Hayes makes the complex understandable in illuminating history and philosophy, belief and perception, ethnocentric behavior, and economics. Beyond the American Dream is a wonderful intellectual adventure I'll be going back to again and again. Ronald Gross, author of Peak Learning and The Independent Scholar's Handbook.

"It was refreshing to read such a profound and passionate celebration of the rewards of learning and the value of self-directed inquiry. In the midst of all the frantic hype and fluff that deluge Americans every day and produce so much ovine behavior it is an inspiration to hear from someone who both cherishes and exemplifies independent thinking. A brilliant and moving work." Philip Slater, author of The Pursuit of Loneliness and A Dream Deferred.

"In a world of flabby, fragmentary, and postmodernist thinking, Hayes offers a glowing tribute to old-fashioned curiosity and reason. Clear thinking is as human and healthy as breathing. Charles Hayes encourages us to give it a try." Barbara Ehrenreich, author of Fear of Falling and Blood Rites.

Customer Reviews

Awful
Simply a waste of time. Sorry. The sentiments are fine, but a really tedious read.

The most thoughtful book I've read in the last 20 years
I've had thoughts similar to some of the ideas in this book but have never seem them expressed before. This is not the easiest book I've ever read, but it may be the most inspiring. The term lifelong learning means something entirely different to me now.

An Intriguing Read
Hayes' text sets out on a challenging journey and does it well. From the outset, he seeks to relate the concepts of high academia to the reader for what they are: elements of a world that has distanced itself from the layperson. This text consistently demonstrates the applicability of these themes to all, regardless of occupation or position. Quite simply, Hayes rejects the academic tendency to assert that compex themes are reserved for an academic audience and places these squarely before any reader to see that they are not mystical, overly sophisticated notons for a special set, but quite easily understood and intriguing given the desire to learn.