cover image The Wilding of America: How Greed and Violence Are Eroding Our Nation's Character

The Wilding of America: How Greed and Violence Are Eroding Our Nation's Character

Charles Derber. Picador USA, $22.95 (0pp) ISBN 978-0-312-14069-4

Boston College sociologist Derber (Power in the Highest Degree) borrows the term ``wilding"" from the notorious ""Central Park jogger'' case--where it referred to gang violence--to encompass economic, political and social abuses based on greed, selfishness and violence. His broad-brush essay, commenting on recent phenomena from the S&L scandal to The Bell Curve to street violence, should interest both communitarians and left-wing social critics. Yes, America's culture of individualism, which has influenced the Menendez brothers as well as Republican government-shredders, can be pernicious, but Derber's suggestion that ``the wilding virus'' is both cause and consequence discounts factors beyond culture. Thus, while he suggests that we must rebuild cultural institutions such as schools, churches and families, his call for a ``social market'' that provides European-style benefits such as health care seems quixotic because it does not address the political reform that must come first. (Jan.)