Unschooled: Democratic Life in the Absence of a Moral Culture

Abstract

This article argues that many aspects of American culture and institutions work actively against the efforts of civil society theorists and others who promote a revival of civic virtue. Consumerism, celebrity culture, political corruption, explicit media violence, and the erosion of the family and civil society, for instance, all contribute to citizens' loss of their moral bearings. Character education programs and the promotion of civic engagement—in the absence of a larger moral framework and concrete measures to rein in messages and actions that are profoundly anti-social—cannot by themselves succeed at the task of reviving the moral foundations necessary for democracy.

Keywords:

• boundary-less self (individualism)
• character education
• civil society
• democracy
• virtue

Notes

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6. Leland, J. Bigger, Bolder, Faster, Weirder. New York Times 2002, Oct 27, Sunday Styles, Section 9: p. 1.

7. Rieff, P. The Triumph of the Therapeutic: Uses of Faith after Freud; University of Chicago: Chicago, 1966; Trilling, L. Sincerity and Authenticity; Harvard University Press: Cambridge, MA, 1972; See also Richard Sennett on Trilling, The Fall of Public Man: On the Social Psychology of Capitalism; Vintage: New York, 1978, pp. 28–30.

8. Jefferson, T. Writings. Peterson, Merrill D., Ed.; Viking: New York, 1984, pp. 1335–1339, quoted in Kloppenberg, J. T. The Virtues of Liberalism: Christianity, Republicanism, and Ethics in Early American Political Discourse. Journal of American History 1987, 74(1), 9–33.