Help, wha does this mean ? its a quote, what is he trying to say ?

Question

what does this mean ?

"an examination of the American scene, an attack on the substitution of artificial for real values in our society, a condemnation of complacency, cruelty, and emasculation and vacuity, a stand against the fiction that everything in this slipping land of ours is peachy keen"

Answer 1

He is angry. He is saying look around at our country today, see how we have replaced our true values with shoddy concepts that honor stupidity, apathy, meanness, valuing money over integrity and how we are robbing ourselves of our inner power to greatness. He is revolting against the idea that there is nothing wrong with the status quo and saying that life is not peachy keen but difficult, and that there are many problems all sapping the strength of our nation.

Answer 2

It's a sentence fragment that describes something (an essay, a speech, a movie, some item) that the speaker perceives as (and could rightly be) critical of American culture.

Answer 3

He's examining America.

First he's saying that there are no 'real' values in our society. This meaning honesty, integrity, etc. because we have become a 'artificial' society, meaning it's only looks that counts. It's only having money, or (the appearance of) having worldly goods that is important. He's right on both counts.!!

Next he's condemning the society for their acceptance of these shoddy standards and the attendant effects of them.

Everything in this back-sliding land is NOT 'peachy keen' (just marvelous), that's a fiction, and we're sliding more and more backwards in our society. Unfortunately, he's right again...:-(