It might sound a bit dramatic, but I'd like to suggest that we're not just confronting a low-point in public opinion about traditional institutions - we're losing our faith in the social contract - we're losing our faith in everything that defines modern, complex democratic civilization.
Rousseau argued that man experiences his fullest freedom by living in a civil society where he is free from the unregulated (unlawful) exploitation of other individuals who, quite simply, have greater physical and (in our case) fiscal strength. In a "state of nature" we might think of ourselves as independent, but without the institutions of civil society we become enslaved by the anxieties of our day-to-day survival because we are easily exploited by those who are stronger than us.
Today most Americans are extremely anxious about their future. They don't believe that we can collectively solve our problems. We live in a time of dysfunction and diminishing returns. The institutions and ideals that we once considered foundational have lost their authority.
Civil society only works if the average person believes that all the headaches of living together are worth the collective physical and social security that we receive. If we lose security - our faith in our institutions, our democratic ideals and our hope in the future - we have nothing left to defend.
Politically the extreme Right and Left have in-common a complete lack of faith and will in continuing the project of civilization. Both sub-cultures are engaged in a self-fulfilling prophecy of the apocalypse. The rest of us have become a deeply cynical nation. We've lost our ability to get behind a big idea that doesn't involve getting rich or escaping our present condition.
This cynicism isn't anything new. It's been brewing since the late 1960's. It is the final legacy of our parent's generation. While the left escapes to therapeutic lifestyles the reactionary right continues to aggressively promote a religion of untempered market capitalism cloaked in christian morality while deflecting the social destruction (externalities) of the "market" to a series of scapegoats and conspiracy theories (the liberal-minority-socialist-urban-international-elite). The GOP, more than ever, capitalizes on our cynicism, alienation and dysfunction. Their policy is intentional dysfunction. If they look bad, the entire institution of government looks bad. It is pure anti-enlightenment, post-modern genius.
Capitalism, itself, has no moral or ethical purpose. The market is not divine or a force of nature. It is simply a tool and a system of organization that we've invented. It's extremely effective at exploiting value and making profits. It works wonderfully to produce the goods and commodities of a consumer culture. It fails miserably at solving long-term societal problems or conserving common resources. Left unregulated - to its own devices and motives - it dramatically undermines the stability and security of civil society.
Cynicism - which can quickly lead to violent revolution - is what happens when you push exploitation and inequality of opportunity to an extreme. People begin to realize that the game is rigged. They begin to sense that - despite all of the reality TV show / lottery culture - they don't have much of a chance. They don't have much agency or control over their situation. Their lives are being shaped by forces that they can't see or participate in - much less control. Those forces aren't some kind of liberal-minority-socialist-international-climate change plot, they are the consequences of unregulated market capitalism, globalization, and technological advancement. It's not a conspiracy... just an unchecked profit motive.
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