conversations.from: human
conversations.value: Give me a description for a story titled The Culture of Make Believe about Western, American, Writing with the genre: Politics & Social Sciences, Sociology.
conversations.from: assistant
conversations.value: Writing with the same driven passion and intense intelligence as his critically acclaimed A Language Older Than Words, which examined the interconnections between personal and social violence, the author says this story "is more about racism and far more broadly hate as it manifests itself in our Western world." As in the earlier work, the author paints on a huge canvas he details American racism from the genocidal slave trade through lynchings to the 2000 murder of Amadou Diallo by NYC police, and covers a wide range of other cultural horrors as well: the massacres of Native American people, the Holocaust, the 8,000 deaths from the 1984 Union Carbide gas leak in India, and the deaths of 500,000 children in Iraq. The story is packed full of startling details South African apartheid laws were enacted at the direct request of the De Beers diamond company to facilitate business; aspects of Christian doctrine supported slavery until about 100 years ago. But the uniqueness and enormous power of the author's work is his ability to forge these events into an emotionally compelling and devastating critique of the intellectual, psychological, emotional and social structures of Western culture. Along with greed and globalization he says that the valuing of production over life and the abstract over the particular have set Western culture on a course that will end "really, with the end of the planet." While some readers might take umbrage at his more unsettling associations he compares Hitler's political language to Teddy Roosevelt's the author's intricate weaving together of history, philosophy, environmentalism, economics, literature and psychology has produced a powerful argument that demands attention in the tradition of such important storys as Herbert Marcuse's Eros and Civilization and Brigid Brophy's Black Ship to Hell. <BR>Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: Give me the first four paragraphs for this story.
conversations.from: assistant
conversations.value: The Culture of Make Believe
  Takaki, Ronald T., Iron Cages: Race and Culture in Nineteenth-Century America, Alfred A. Knopf, 1979.
  Worger, William, lecture, "Incarceration and Industrialization: Changes in Punishment in Late Nineteenth Century South Africa, delivered Stanford University, January 29, 1987.
  Zerzan, personal = I am endebted to John Zerzan for this excellent line. It's his, and I've merely stolen it.
  Basic = Basic Facts on the Nanjing Massacre and the Tokyo War Crimes Trial, pamphlet published by New Jersey Hong Kong Network, P.O. Box 18, Bound Brooks, NJ 08805. <http://ww4.cnd.org/njmassacre/nj.html> site visited June 8, 2001
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: Give me four more paragraphs.
conversations.from: assistant
conversations.value: Draffan, George, Corporate Profiles Compiled by George Draffan, Public Information Network, PO Box 95316, Seattle WA 98145-2316 USA, <http://endgame.org/> then look under corporate profiles, Freeport McMoRan. Visited February 7, 2001
  Draffan, George, WMX, both personal communications with George, and his Corporate Profiles Compiled by George Draffan, Public Information Network, PO Box 95316, Seattle WA 98145-2316 USA, <http://endgame.org/> then look under corporate profiles, WMX. Visited April 28, 2001
  Dunbaugh, Frank, "Argument," <http://www.igc.apc.org/spr/docs/farmer/> argument.html visited December 2, 2000
  Echelon Watch, "Answers to Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) About Echelon," <http://www.aclu.0rg/echelonwatch/faq.html#3> visited June 23, 2001
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: Give me the last five paragraphs.
conversations.from: assistant
conversations.value: Raymond, Janice, Legitimating Prostitution as Sex Work, December 1998, Coalition Against Trafficking in Women, <http://www.uri.edu/artsci/wms/hughes/catw/legit.htm>, December 3, 2000
  Reid, John Alden (Park Ranger—interpreter-historian at Horseshoe Bend National Military Park), "The 'Carnage was Dreadful:' The Battle of the Horseshoe, March 27, 1814," <http://homepages.rootsweb.com/~cmamcrk4/crkwr8.html> Site visited March 1, 2001
  Star Spangled Banner, <http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Acropolis/2691/fsk.html> Site visited June 21, 2001
  Swogger, Michael J, "Federal Conscription and the New York Draft Riots of 1863," <http://www.i5ive.com/article.cfm/381/23843> 
  Too Close = Too Close For Comfort <http://www.pirg.org/reports/enviro/home98/page2.htm> Site visited July 7, 2001
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: Delete the last sentence.
conversations.from: assistant
conversations.value: Raymond, Janice, Legitimating Prostitution as Sex Work, December 1998, Coalition Against Trafficking in Women, <http://www.uri.edu/artsci/wms/hughes/catw/legit.htm>, December 3, 2000
  Reid, John Alden (Park Ranger—interpreter-historian at Horseshoe Bend National Military Park), "The 'Carnage was Dreadful:' The Battle of the Horseshoe, March 27, 1814," <http://homepages.rootsweb.com/~cmamcrk4/crkwr8.html> Site visited March 1, 2001
  Star Spangled Banner, <http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Acropolis/2691/fsk.html> Site visited June 21, 2001
  Swogger, Michael J, "Federal Conscription and the New York Draft Riots of 1863," <http://www.i5ive.com/article.cfm/381/23843> 
  Too Close = Too Close For Comfort <http://www.pirg.org/reports/enviro/home98/page2.