The Sibling Society

Album Description: With his phenomenal bestseller, Iron John, Robert Bly captivated the nation, creating both a cultural movement and publishing history. Now, in The Sibling Society, Bly turns to stories as unexpected as Jack and the Beanstalk and the Hindu tale of Danesha to illustrate and illuminate the troubled soul of our nation itself. What he shows us is a culture where adults remain children, and where children have no desire to become adults-a nation of squabbling siblings. Through his use of poetry and myth, Bly takes us beyond sociological statistics and tired psychobabble to see our dilemma afresh. In the sibling culture that he describes, we tolerate no one above us and have no concern for anyone below us. Like sullen teenagers we live in our peer group, glancing side to side, rather than upward, for direction. The talk show replaces family. Instead of art we have the Internet. In the place of community we have the mall. Bly finds that our economy's stimulation of adolescent envy and greed has changed us fundamentally. Driven by the insatiable need for superficial attention, and with no guidance toward the discipline required for genuine accomplishment, our young people are defeated before they begin. But, as Bly warns, it is the young and disenfranchised--those most victimized by our sibling culture--who will be waiting for us on the road ahead to claim their due. A wake-up call, an inspiration, brilliantly original, The Sibling Society will capture the imagination and enliven our nation's cultural debate as has no other work in years.