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Friday, December 07, 2007
Equality and Individualism
Via (who else but) Inclusionist, I checked out Chapter 6 of Prof. George Lakoff's new book on progressive strategy. Take a look at this paragraph on economic equality:
For progressives, deservedness is understood through the lens of nurturance, which says that someone in need deserves assistance. This satisfies the "human dignity principle," making sure no one falls too far behind. It also fulfills the "common good principle," since the needs of the commons are counted as valid needs that merit attention, besides just the needs of an individual.
By Lakoff's definition, America is not a progressive nation. I've never seen any survey of public opinion showing majority support for this worldview. Lakoff does not provide that evidence, either.
But of course, America is a progressive nation. We have a robust welfare and regulatory state, despite its shortcomings. So what gives?
Lakoff's wrong. His values are not the entirety of progressive values. They are a subset, subscribed to mostly by the poor and intellectuals, and to some extent by the nebulous middle class. Everybody believes in the moral imperative of meeting people's basic needs in an affluent society. But "needs" are defined down to mean the bare minimum of subsistence. That doesn't scale up to a truly equitable society.
Basically, I'm just not convinced that most Americans are empathic altruists or communitarians who think "we're all in this together" when it comes to the economy. We're individualists, concerned generally with the good of ourselves, our families and our friends. I don't think we empathize that well with people we perceive as different. And I don't think we really care how other people are doing, as long as we're getting ours. Check out the work of Matthew Nisbit and Ruy Texiera for more on this point.
That doesn't mean we always hate government or don't care about vast inequalities. I think Americans still believe that government can be a means towards achieving aspirational ends and that government can ensure that opportunity is widely available and that prosperity benefits everybody. Empathy and community, however, are not at the root of this vision of the American dream. Individualism is.
Posted by Matt Lewis
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