Dark Age Ahead (new book by Jane Jacobs)

http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/isbnInquiry.asp?userid=mHu1z9QPb9&isbn=1400062322&itm=1

This sounds intriguing but alarming. Here's a quote from Library Journal:

Jacobs (The Death and Life of Great American Cities) defines a dark age as a period of cultural amnesia, when a society forgets its beliefs, customs, knowledge, language, practices, etc. A dark age can be caused by outside forces or by a culture itself, and she fears that North America is creating its own version of the latter.

Jacobs has a reputation as an insightful and groundbreaking cultural critic, so this ought to be good.

Her theory on the "guardian" versus the "commercial" mindset in "Systems of Survival" is groundbreaking. The guardian school deals with enforcement, the commercial school deals with profits - and when they mix (eg, in the Mafia, or the RICO Act), you get a "monstrous hybrid".

Her ideas on urban design in "The Life and Death of Great American" were contrarian but turned out to be obvious. OF COURSE people need to feel involved in a public space in order to for that space to prosper.

Her ideas about and city-sized economies (not country sized) and "import replacement" in "Cities and the Wealth of Nations" make sense of economics.

Jane Jacobs is a highly original, interdisciplinarian thinker with brilliant insights on economics, sociology, urban studies and a real gift for clarity.

The USA could use some breaking up. It would make it harder for the corporate lobbies to control