TEHRAN (IBNA) -- Enlightening book ‘Empire of Illusion: The End of Literacy and the Triumph of ‎Spectacle’ (2009) by American journalist and author Chris Hedges, a critique of ‎American Dream’s destruction has been published in Persian.‎
The book examines a claimed cultural decay in the United States as a result of a malignant consumer culture and corporate influences. It has been translated into Persian by Shima Aali. Soureh Mehr Publishing has released ‘Empire of Illusion’ in 303 pages.
A prescient book that forecasts the culture that gave rise to Trump- a society beholden to empty spectacle and obsession with the image at the expense of reality, reason, and truth.
An instant bestseller, ‘Empire of Illusion’ is a striking and unsettling exploration of illusion and fantasy in contemporary American culture. Traveling to the ringside of professional wrestling bouts at Madison Square Garden, to Las Vegas to write about the pornographic film industry, and to academic conferences held by positive psychologists who claim to be able to engineer happiness, Hedges chronicles our flight from an ever-worsening reality.
The cultural embrace of illusion and celebrity culture have accompanied a growing system of casino capitalism, which creates vast wealth for elites. Corporations have ruthlessly dismantled and destroyed the manufacturing base and impoverished the working class. Hedges exposes the mechanisms that undermine American democracy and divert Americans from the economic, environmental, political, and moral collapse around us. A culture that cannot distinguish between reality and illusion dies, Hedges argues, and we are dying now.
Chris Hedges is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist. He spent nearly two decades as a correspondent in Central America, the Middle East, Africa, and the Balkans, with fifteen years at the New York Times. He is the author of numerous bestselling books, including ‘War is a Force that Gives Us Meaning’; and ‘Days of Destruction, Days of Revolt’, which he co-wrote with Joe Sacco. He writes a weekly column for the online magazine Truthdig. He lives in Princeton, New Jersey.