Books like Hyperculture by Stephen Bertman

The rampant illnesses of our society - including the disintegration of the family, the degradation of the environment, unlimited commercialism, and unrelenting stress - are familiar to us all. For the first time, Stephen Bertman attempts to explain these disparate, overwhelmingly negative phenomena with a single, unifying principle: that the accelerated pace of American society is eroding the essence of our most fundamental values. We live, according to Bertman, in a society ruled by the "power of now," a power that gives us instant gratification even as it demands our instantaneous obedience. As a result, we have adapted our lives and values to match the speed-of-light electronic technologies that surround us. But, in so doing, we have paid a high price in spirit and mind. Hyperculture dares to suggest that the cure for our condition lies not in an "information superhighway" or "third wave information revolution," but in the radical and painful process of decelerating our lives enough to reclaim them.

First publish date: 1998