Amoral individualism

From Market Watch, Wall Street Journal, by Paul B. Farrell, “In an Utne Reader last year, Christopher Lasch discussed his groundbreaking Culture of Narcissism […]which in its decadence has carried the logic of individualism to the extreme of a war of all against all, the pursuit of happiness to the dead end of a narcissistic preoccupation with the self,” where ultimately each person “demands immediate gratification” but “lives in a state of restless, perpetually unsatisfied desire.”

Boston University professor of religion Stephen Prothero, reminds us that “real conservatism is also about sacrifice.” Today, however, the patron saint of conservatives and capitalists (Ayn Rand) “will brook no such sacrifice” for the common good. “Serve yourself, she tells us, and save yourself as well. There is no higher good than individual self-satisfaction.”

Get it? In Ayn Rand’s world, the individual’s self-satisfaction is always more important than what’s right for America as a whole. And yet, Prothero warns, “one of the reasons we are in our current economic quagmire is that none of our leaders are willing to ask us to sacrifice. Democrats call for more spending and more taxes; Republicans call for lower taxes and less spending, and what we get is the most fiscally ruinous half of each: lower taxes and more spending.” 

Prothero’s challenge was prescient: His “aim is to force a choice. If you are going to propose a Robin Hood budget, you have to decide whether you are robbing from the poor to give to the rich, or robbing from the rich to give to the poor. Because you cannot do both.”

America is “a free country. Just don’t tell me you are both a card-carrying Objectivist and a Bible-believing Christian. Even Rand knew that just wasn’t possible.”

In short: Deep in America’s new conservative consciousness is a growing darkness, a haunting fear that it’s “too late” to survive in this world in decline. The message: Give up. Instead of focusing on and working together on our common destiny to survive as a world of interdependent cultures, focus instead narrowly on your own personal survival, not the whole.”

Mr. Farrell’s final assessment above, says that today’s conservatives are going far beyond radical individualism to a state I will call “amoral individualism.”  Not only is it amoral because is it so irreligious, but also because it places the individual’s interests above any other moral obligations.  In other words, they dispense with concerns for right or wrong when it comes to their own interests.

If that were simply true for any individual, it wouldn’t be so bad.  But we see it reflected in the Republican Party’s willingness to sacrifice the good of the nation for their own interests.

When did the American public become so numb as to accept the Senate Minority leader’s pronouncement that the first priority is the make their duly elected president a one term president.  Or when did we become so cynical as to accept the Speaker of the House commenting that there will be no cooperation with this president because it might help him get re-elected?

Politics has always been a messy business but at its heart there was a tacit agreement;  We all want what’s best for the country.  We just disagree on how to achieve it.  That agreement is as dead as the community spirit that once motivated it.

There was a time when the truly Grand Old Party had a conscience.  They were the “Rockefeller Republicans.”  They honestly felt an obligation to the country that gave birth to their wealth.  They were certainly pro-business but understood that businesses need society too.  And an educated, healthy society makes good employees.  And well-paid employees make good customers.  They weren’t seduced by the dystopian dreams of a morally bankrupt misanthrope.  They knew we need to invest today for the future.  And they knew that in a healthy society, the whole has an obligation to the individual. 

Robert DeFilippis