"Whatever its faults, middle-class nationalism provided a common ground, common standards, a common frame of reference, without which society dissolves into nothing more than contending factions, as the Founding Fathers of America understood so well—a war of all against all."
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Oh, and since people will likely freak out at the positive use of 'nationalism', note that Lasch was writing in 1995, where that hadn't yet come to represent a completely negative thing ('jingoism' was more the word then). This is another big change between now and then.
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By 'nationalism' he meant a sense of common and unifying identity and purpose (even in the midst of the always pluralistic and motley American polity), not necessarily the overweening rah-rah jingoism of our Trumpian present, and all that darkly suggests for the future.
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But there are two different trends at work here. One is the shift from the Fordist economy (scattered) to the Entrepreneurial Age (clustered). The other is the rise of Toryism in America
. Not sure if both trends are correlated.pic.twitter.com/eydKj8y45c
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I buy the breakdown. Interesting.
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There is one thing here that gives some hope. Since those days were not that long ago, a large part of todays "elite" are like you - not born elite. And they/us should be able to get rid of the recent conditioning and see behind the veil.
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Oh, but I'm not an elite now. I crashed the party briefly, and was shown the door. Among the solid elites I know, I see little interest in redesigning the hierarchy. I see little interest in even understanding the hierarchy, beyond passing claims to have read 'Hillbilly Elegy'.
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Well. If this is so, then the consequences are pretty clear.
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