Fantasyland: How America Went Haywire

Has the great American experiment in liberty gone off the rails? Best-selling novelist, public radio host, and acclaimed cultural critic Kurt Andersen tackles that question in his latest book, Fantasyland: How America Went Haywire: A 500-Year History, due out in September. Get a sneak preview of this provocative chronicle of magical thinking and make-believe that provides a new paradigm for understanding the post-factual present, in which reality and illusion are dangerously blurred. Featuring Kurt Andersen and Jeffrey Goldberg.

Each June, the Aspen Ideas Festival welcomes the public to join the world’s most influential leaders—innovators in business, academia, public policy, science, and the arts—who are shaping the future. Engage in thought-provoking panels, intimate roundtables, and spontaneous conversations across our stunning 40-acre, art-filled campus in the heart of the Rocky Mountains. Leave Aspen inspired to make a lasting impact in your community and beyond. #AspenIdeas

[grantmoon]

When someone says something absurd, just say, "I don't believe that." It's powerful.

[joshuanunn]

I read this book close to a year ago... he's dead on.
I was thirteen and fourteen years old when Reagan ran for president and his schtick that he banged on incessantly was: "We can cut taxes, increase defense spending, and balance the budget." Even as a pot-addled adolescent I knew this to be total horseshit: "Grown adults actually believe this shit?!"

[gregwarner]

I am reading this book. Once I thought people could believe anything. Now I know it.

Excellent explaination of American absurdity. Well written and not in the least boring. Just so densely packed with information I can only absorb a chapter at a time.

[conniepaetsch]

Watching reality television and believing it is real. Astounding

[m.entera]

I just finished reading this book and I highly recommend it.

[russellesimonetta]

As a fringe dweller I find this very interesting. I refer to my being a fringe dweller? I am a life long musician, anti war, anti corporate, tree hugger, pot smoker, mushroom taker, agnostic! I avoided hum drum work, I avoided being tied down yet I managed to make a decent living and passable retirement by being???? My sister descibes me as a free spirit but that, coming from her, isn't a compliment. You could say i tried to control the reality I wanted from life not the reality of conventional wisdom.

[martinobrien]

FANTASYLAND WE CALL IT THE LARGEST LUNATIC ASYLUM .

[markeross]

Love Kurt Anderson and this book. Can't believe nobody mentioned that the first audience question came from John McWhorter!

[Breakbeats.]

I would add to this list the fact that critical thought is not being taught in schools. We need to teach kids to be skeptical and highly critical if the information presented to them.

[brian]

The Soviet Union defeated fascism. 70% of Hitler's  armies fought in the east.   Brian Fenwick

[markjohnson]

America went from the land of invention.innovation and personnel wealth building economy to a service economy.Today we all live in servitude. A polite word for slavery.

[edcatt]

Charles Dickens in his book 'Martin Chuzzlewit' is another very interesting outsiders view of the 'peculiarity' of the American grifter and grifted inclination. It's a very interesting, and uncomfortably accurate insight that being an insider is hard to see. When the book reached America it was not well liked by many. A too truthful mirror? Very likely.

[tristin]

“We are acting ungodly” because being religious makes you profoundly LESS tolerant of of peoples beliefs.
Ask an atheist.

[freeandcriticalthinker]

Jeffery, it is so nice that you guys up I Aspen are so incredibly tolerant and accepting of people of all walks of life .... yes SO accepting and tolerant. Oh and polite and cordial as well and of course with no condescending or contemptuous slanted demeanor that many aspire to but few obtain. Oh what an Exceptional talk only attainable by someone of your statue, I salute you and your guest...

[kmcq]

Teaching media literacy in elementary school through college would be good.

[barnabycollins]

@55:30
Answer: Mental Compartmentalization
It comes along w/ being told ad nauseam all one's life that slave-traders pretty much invented freedom.

[dabidibup]

Some people get to study their whole lives, others have to work

[oldgymrat]

If a large group of us had an inkeling of what we are missing and how much is a psychological construct with little attachment to what is real, we could establish new paradigms of how we function and deal with the new!

[douglashurd]

I would be more convinced by the thesis if it helped me understand how Americans can tolerate incarceration rates, guns, wealth inequality, unending wars, torture... Yes, many Americans believe crazy things but they also seem able to ignore the suffering they cause each other.

[Phi]

"America is the country of the grifted and the grifter."

Bingo.