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blackoxford's review
5.0
Authoritarian Bufoonery Explained
America - from Jefferson to Trump - cannot be understood apart from its peculiar religious culture. Bloom makes a brilliant case that that culture is essentially neither Christian nor European but Gnostic and Middle Eastern. The ultimate expression of the American religious culture is Mormonism, the religion of the perfection and deification of mankind through its return to its original unity with the universe. Put another way: Transcendentalism is inherent in American being. From 'inalienable rights' to 'American greatness', this gnostic tendency is pervasive and persistent. Bloom recognises his own gnostic preferences, so this is not so much a reproach as an appreciation of the uniqueness of American culture, including its wackiness in alien abductions and Trumpian non-sequiturs. Americans do indeed live in an alternative universe. Recently Terry Eagleton's 'Across the Pond' (https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1686496632?comment=183386265#comment_183386265) and Chris Lehmann's 'The Money Cult' (https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1699791182) both provide interesting confirmation of Bloom's thesis.
America - from Jefferson to Trump - cannot be understood apart from its peculiar religious culture. Bloom makes a brilliant case that that culture is essentially neither Christian nor European but Gnostic and Middle Eastern. The ultimate expression of the American religious culture is Mormonism, the religion of the perfection and deification of mankind through its return to its original unity with the universe. Put another way: Transcendentalism is inherent in American being. From 'inalienable rights' to 'American greatness', this gnostic tendency is pervasive and persistent. Bloom recognises his own gnostic preferences, so this is not so much a reproach as an appreciation of the uniqueness of American culture, including its wackiness in alien abductions and Trumpian non-sequiturs. Americans do indeed live in an alternative universe. Recently Terry Eagleton's 'Across the Pond' (https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1686496632?comment=183386265#comment_183386265) and Chris Lehmann's 'The Money Cult' (https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1699791182) both provide interesting confirmation of Bloom's thesis.
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