Socialcide: How America Is Loving Itself to Death
Leo J. Battenhausen
Faith Books and More Publishing
3255 Lawrenceville-Suwanee Road, Suite 250, Suwanee, GA 30024
9781939761279, $29.95, http://www.faithbooksandmore.com
“The unhappiest people in this world, are those who care the most about what other people think” – C. JoyBell C.
It doesn’t take much to be swept away by the tides of change, ever sweeping across the collective conscience of our nation. It doesn’t require your wilful participation, it only demands you to suspend your thought and go with the flow. But not all free flowing particles are alike, some are different from others, some are stubborn and inquisitive and dare question the absurdity that threatens to sweep them all away to annihilation. And when important questions are raised, intelligent answers are sure to follow.
Author Leo J. Battenhausen’s book Socialcide: How America Is Loving Itself To Death is a psycho-spiritual exploration into the ills that seem to plague the modern day American society. The author talks about the Me generation of today that seem to have forgotten even the basic social etiquettes and morals which were a part of everyday living for the previous generation. He claims Socialcide is destroying the basic fabric of our society one moral value at a time. Balancing his own theories and hypothesis with scientific facts and studies, he not only lists the various problems but also the means to overcome these before it’s too late.
The book has a wonderful foreword by John Kelly who amongst other things is also an author and the co-star in the Discovery Channel show ‘Dark Minds’. And once you get past the various introductions, you will be greeted by small and precise chapters delivering exactly what their titles denote and they do so in an extremely professional manner as well. In the book the author presents numerous real life examples of loner people, who may have been self sufficient and mighty hiding behind their online personas but when they ventured out into the open, their inability to cope with reality and their insufficient emotional responses often resulted in horrific outbursts of violence. The author also make an argument for coming out of our shells and communicating face to face and making a sincere effort to get to know our neighbourhoods and community better.
A lot of readers will be shocked to learn that the latest edition of Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Diseases has removed Narcissistic Personality Disorder from its list because it’s too commonplace to call it as a disease anymore. The author presents hard evidence linking the evolution of narcissistic individuals, sociopaths and psychopaths in our society with the increasing cases of depression, drug addiction, marital problems, violent crimes, financial mess and other forms of abuse. And in a society that gets too scared or awkward discussing religion publicly, the author who is a professional psychologist too has shown tremendous courage in bringing religion and spirituality into a discussion about the ills facing our society.
The author also makes many valid points like how nowadays it’s easier to get the youth to organise a flash mob dance than have them come together to do some actual good for the society. The author lists 1978 as the year which probably heralded the beginning of the Socialcide era with the introduction of cell phones, video games that could be played in homes and the birth of the test tube baby.
For the many light bulbs that are sure to go off in your head at the end of every chapter, I wholeheartedly recommend this book and suggest everyone to grab a copy at the earliest.
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Katherin B. Fitzpatrick
Xulon Press
2301 Lucien Way, Suite 415, Maitland, FL 32751 
