In recent years, we have seen the narrowing of the American middle class and diminished social mobility as economic inequality balloons, the intensification of consumerism, the rise of an opioid crisis, the breakdown of family stability among working class Americans, the resurgence of ugly forms of populism, and the general fraying of communal bonds. Many of these are interconnected. And the personalist communitarianism of the Church offers the best window for understanding what is happening and how we might resist hyperindividualism and the libertarian policies that accompany and drive it (while avoiding alternatives that diminish human dignity).
Chris Arnade, one of the most astute observers of an America that many political and cultural elites cannot or will not see, reflected on some of these developments in a series of tweets earlier today:
Thesis: Society built on unlimited autonomy of individual desire without regard to social textures is both capitalism’s ethos & its undoing
— Chris Arnade (@Chris_arnade) July 23, 2017
Collective benefits of individualism is air it breathes, but when it eventually erodes community standards, it collapses into anomic society
— Chris Arnade (@Chris_arnade) July 23, 2017
GOP front-row loves individualism as manifest in consumers buying things & biz monetizing that. Dem front-row for personal liberation.
— Chris Arnade (@Chris_arnade) July 23, 2017
Neither focuses on pernicious impact that might have — like eroding long standing threads that weave people into strong social networks
— Chris Arnade (@Chris_arnade) July 23, 2017
That is what is striking about community in McDonald’s. It is a sign how much people want/need social networkshttps://t.co/y6SsAnhizK
— Chris Arnade (@Chris_arnade) July 23, 2017
You give people a world of franchises built for quick impersonal transaction — they will still form community & meaning in such a franchise
— Chris Arnade (@Chris_arnade) July 23, 2017
I don’t know how we got here, but we currently do have an anomic culture. One where a lot of people feel adrift, neither included or bounded
— Chris Arnade (@Chris_arnade) July 23, 2017
Both the communities that form in McDonald’s, & rise in deaths of despair (drugs, suicide, etc) are signs of thathttps://t.co/FfjrVZgCby
— Chris Arnade (@Chris_arnade) July 23, 2017
That Anomic society is ripe for populist/racial politics. Someone saying, hey, come over here. I will include you. https://t.co/eWmA8KlZvv
— Chris Arnade (@Chris_arnade) July 23, 2017
Big lesson for me over last 5 yrs, talking to people all over, is everyone wants to feel a valued member of something larger then themselves
— Chris Arnade (@Chris_arnade) July 23, 2017
Currently many people (because of primacy of individual over society? Or failure of consumerism? Or a bad political class?) don’t feel that
— Chris Arnade (@Chris_arnade) July 23, 2017
PS: one last thought/link. Yes, I believe Faith has an important role to play in whatever the solution is. https://t.co/lEwBRS4EaZ
— Chris Arnade (@Chris_arnade) July 23, 2017
What is needed is radical: a revolution in solidarity. We need to reform and re-democratize our political institutions. We need to build an economic system that rebuilds the middle class, increases distributive justice, and promotes more widespread flourishing. We need policies that ensure everyone has access to their most basic needs, including quality healthcare and childcare. People need jobs that reflect their dignity and increased access to treatment for drug abuse, not the legalization and commercialization of additional illicit substances, so that even more corporations get rich preying on the vulnerable. The federal government needs to empower intermediary institutions that strengthen local communities rather than ignoring their responsibilities and forcing these institutions to pick up the government’s slack.
But we also need cultural changes. An obsession with individual autonomy not only harms our communities, it is often a recipe for misery for the person who embraces it. Human beings are social by nature; the pursuit of unlimited, uninhibited choice does not lead to human flourishing. Consumerism will not fill the spiritual void of those who have left religion behind or do not live it out in their daily lives. We need more people to believe in the importance of duty, the value and permanence of marriage, and that morality is more than enlightened self-interest. We need people to resist objectifying others, even in a culture that floods people with the message that it is only natural and human to do so. Though all humans inevitably come up short in our attempts to live morally, we need more people to believe in virtue and order their lives around this commitment.
Pope Francis is calling for radical change. But it’s up to everyday Catholics to promote this revolution by breaking from bourgeois conformity, resisting the currents of individualism and libertarianism, and fighting for the common good in a culture that is often hostile to the demands of human dignity. It’s not an easy road. But Christianity is about following the way of Christ, not a path to comfort and approval.