The American heritage is one of a strong work ethic and a deep sense of personal responsibility. These individual traits, together with civic engagement, are the cultural foundations of American prosperity. Originally, these traits sprang forth naturally from America’s Judeo-Christian roots. Max Weber and De Tocqueville both warned what would happen if these individual traits became unmoored from religion (wage slavery, a loss of virtue, hedonism), and this has come to pass. Now the traits themselves are failing. Prosperity cannot help but follow if the trend is not reversed.
One of the problems, as noted in David Brooks’ NY Times op-ed, “The Culture of Debt” is that the norms surrounding debt have changed. Social norms are powerful psychological motivators, but they can be reversed. But not through bail-outs (individual or corporate) – these are a useful “safety net”, but will only serve to support a dangerous cultural trend. I am convinced that the answer is local: we have to hold one another accountable for our decisions. As Brooks implies, we have to start using the “language of sin and temptation to alert people to the seductions that could ruin their lives.” This is local because 1) notions of sin and temptation are more likely to have meaning in small groups with regular face-to-face interaction and 2) local groups are better able to influence one another (through social norming, etc.). As Gramsci rightly pointed out, cultural battles are fought in the trenches.
There is no better place for this kind of work than the local parish. In fact, it almost seems as though it was designed for this. 🙂
[The picture is from the Museum of Russian Icons in Clinton, MA. Fr. Onisie and I are standing in front of an icon of the Last Judgement. Part of that icon includes a list of the various temptations.]
