Source: The UnPopulist
by Jonathan Rauch
“Pre-liberal faiths, such as tribalism and Christianity, provided meaningful stories—sometimes for better, though often for worse. In the recent past, liberalism, too, had a story: of a grand human endeavor of progress, equality, and liberation. Yet today, the author says, mass consumerism, fragmented media, tech-driven sociopathy, and cultural nihilism have taken a wrecking ball to meaning. In its own way, careerism has been just as bad; what Avent calls the Modern Faith ‘has no guidance for people in our situation’ beyond urging that we ‘achieve professional success, make money, job done.’ If any of this sounds familiar, that might be because the charge that individualism, industrialization, and consumerization lead to anomie and nihilism has roots that go back to Plato among the ancients and Rousseau and Marx among the moderns.” (07/01/26)
https://www.theunpopulist.net/p/liberal-societies-need-grand-stories