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Article: Our Culture, What's Left of It.(Book Review)
- Article from:
- The Antioch Review
- Article date:
- September 22, 2005
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2005 Antioch Review, Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Our Culture, What's Left of It by Theodore Dalrymple. Ivan R. Dee, 320 pp. $27.50. Dalrymple reminds us frequently in these essays that he practiced medicine in some of the world's poorest places. His experience shows. He analyzes social life the way a physician examines patients. He observes, he diagnoses--and wherever he looks he detects sickness. We think we are making progress--but this anatomist of cultural pathology sees only decline.
We are physically healthier, he says, but our lives are wasting away. The more governments protect us, the less safe we feel. We know more about the world, but understand it less. Seeking happiness, we choose paths leading to ...