John O. Andersen

A member of one of the e-mail lists to which I subscribe sent a message this
morning alerting me of the appearance of the latest edition of
"Self-University Newsletter."

Let me strongly urge you to subscribe to this free quarterly web-based
newsletter (http://www.autodidactic.com/selfnews.htm). Charles Hayes and I
have been corresponding for some time now. Hayes is perhaps our country's
best thinker on the subject of self-education.

Try this morsel from his review of Morris Berman's new book "The Twilight of
American Culture" (New York: W.W. Norton, 2000)

>>...[Berman] points out that out of 158 countries we are 49th in literacy,
that 60 percent of our population has never read a book of any kind, that
the number of truly educated individuals in America may amount to less than
5 million people, and that liberal education is being commodified at the
university level into little more than another means of entertainment.
Indeed, at times it seems to me that the genuine end of history will find
America's epitaph amounting to little more than having become a colossal
theme park.

Berman reminds us that "'consciousness' gurus declare that we are in the
midst of a 'paradigm shift,' and millions, who never managed to understand
the present paradigm, grunt the phrase like a mantra." As for remedy he puts
it this way, "In terms of a future renewal, much of it will depend on a
commitment to individualism, something that has been much maligned in recent
years. We hear so much trendy, tedious talk today of how bad individualism
is, and how we need to think in terms of 'the group.' The problem is that
the group usually offers conformity, not genuine community."<<

Don't miss this latest intellectual feast which Hayes has so freely served
up. I promise you won't go away hungry.

John Andersen
Unconventional Ideas at http://www.unconventionalideas.com
A Collection of Essays Which Challenge Mainstream Thinking