students tout MU's - Monmouth University

ANINTERVIEW
WITHBENJAMINRBARBER
�
BY SALIBA SARSAR
WITH DOREEN BUCHMAN & IRENE FARRELL TOWT
�
MONMOUTH UNIVERSITY WAS HONORED TO HOST
internationally renowned political theorist Benjamin R. Barber as a special guest speaker
at the University’s 70th Founders’ Day ceremonies on October 8, 2003. He was also
awarded an honorary Doctor of Human Letters degree at the celebration. Barber, who is
the Gershon and Carol Kekst Professor of Civil Society at the University of Maryland,
brings an abiding concern for democracy and citizenship to issues of politics, culture, and
education in America and abroad.
HIS 17 BOOKS INCLUDE THE CLASSIC STRONG DEMOCRACY (1984) AND THE
RECENT INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER JIHAD VS. MCWORLD. HIS ARTICLES HAVE
APPEARED IN HARPER’S MAGAZINE, THE NEW YORK TIMES, THE ATLANTIC, AND THE
NATION. BARBER’S MANY ACADEMIC HONORS INCLUDE GUGGENHEIM AND
FULBRIGHT FELLOWSHIPS, AND HE HOLDS A CERTIFICATE FROM THE LONDON
SCHOOL OF ECONOMICS AND POLITICAL SCIENCE AND A DOCTORAL DEGREE FROM
HARVARD UNIVERSITY. IN THIS EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW FOR MONMOUTH UNIVERSITY
MAGAZINE BY DR. SALIBA SARSAR*, DR. BARBER SHARES HIS INSIGHTS ON
RESPONSIBLE CITIZENSHIP, THE STATE OF AMERICAN POLITICS, AND THE FUTURE
OF DEMOCRACY IN A GLOBAL SOCIETY.
*
ASSOCIATE VICE PRESIDENT FOR ACADEMIC PROGRAM INITIATIVES AND ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR OF POLITICAL
SCIENCE, MONMOUTH UNIVERSITY
�
TELL US ABOUT YOUR CURRENT WORK IN PROGRESS, THE
DECLINE OF CAPITALISM AND THE INFANTILIST ETHOS,
WHICH IS SCHEDULED FOR PUBLICATION NEXT YEAR.
W
hen we look at our society and
see the way in which we are trying
to turn children into consumers and
consumers into children, the way in
which we are selling abroad an
American culture intended for
teenagers (fast food, fast movies, fast
music), it becomes apparent that capitalism
in this consumer age has abandoned
the values of early capitalism—such
values as saving and entrepreneurship
and individual autonomy—and put in
their place the childish values of a consumer
society where doing whatever
you feel, responding to impulse, takes
the place of serious adult behavior.
There has always been a tendency for
societies to be seduced by the attractions
of childhood, but generally the
adult institutions of education, church,
and state work to help us grow up.
Increasingly, we are living in a society
where the so-called adult institutions
are anxious to keep us children. The
media certainly work hard to infantilize us.
FALL 2003 • Monmouth University Magazine 3