 | We began by trying to set a "base line" against which to assess social change. We had to begin somewhere. I thought The Lost Citycaptured very well the 1950's that I remember, growing up Catholic in the Midwest (although not Chicago, until I went to college near there, and to graduate school in the City). Ehrenhalt stated that he did not want the book to be a trip down memory lane, or to romanticize the 1950's. Yet, it was not difficult to detect a note of nostalgia for a time when, although--or, perhaps, because--choices were fewer, people seemed to have more meaningful, if not fuller, lives. In the first assignment, yoiu were asked to consider whether, perhaps paradoxically, fewer choices might result in more "freedom."
In Habits of the Heart, the authors argued that "individualism" had far outstripped "community" as an organizing principle in contemporary American life. They argued for a revivification of "communities of memory" and less emphasis on "lifestyle enclaves." For them, the only really meaningful selves are those grounded in community. And the only way to transcend our solipsistic lives is to become more civically active.
Barber postulated an inherent tension within modern society between globalization and tribalism. For him, not only have the media and the electronic revolution been hugely influential in leading to the present state of affairs, but they offer the best chance that we can transcend the parochialism of Jihad or the materialism of McWorld. He urges a commitment to a new kind of citizenship, not only of a country, but of the world. Barber does not hit so hard on "individualism" as did Bellah et al.,but his appraisal is certainly implicit in his criticisms of McWorld, if not of Jihad; In McWorld, individuals seek to maximize their selves, by consumption; in Jihad, there is an effort to escape from the self, by seeking the collective identity of the group. |
