Mark Wegierski Canadian-Polish Research Institute
The True and Only Heaven: Progress and Its Critics, by Christopher Lasch. New York and London: W.W. Norton, 1991. 591 pp. $25.
This is a bold and incisive book by the reads the book, one can see “Vanity well-known cultural critic and scholar Fair” as an apposite image for con- best remembered for his pointed de- temporary society, with its ceaseless scription in a 1979 book of the culture whirl, consumption, and meaningless of narcissism. Although Christopher circulation (of money, goods, and Lasch, like his predecessor Marshall people), while “the Celestial City” McLuhan, is virtually a fixture of would be the metaphor for a more North American pop-culture, he settled society with a sense of limits, teaches history at the University of a genuine community. Those who Rochester rather than at a “prestige” most determinedly confound the two university. The fact that someone of are the liberal evangels of progress. his caliber is at Rochester, rather than This work—written in a forthright Harvard, underscores the ongoing style which should probably be a con- decline of the big-name universities comitant of any work espousing a and the emergence of academically populist approach—can be under- superior institutions of the so-called stood as, among other things, one of “second tier” in the United States. “philosophical archaeology.” Lasch The work begins with a quotation reaches back into the past in an at- from Nathaniel Hawthorne from tempt to descry, describe, and revivify which the phrase forming the title of a populist tradition of social criticism the book is derived. The reference is (with which he largely identifies), to those who very stubbornly and which has set itself against the mate- “stoutly contend” that “Vanity Fair” rialistic and consumptionist excesses rather than the real “Celestial City” is of capitalism. The work is noteworthy “the true and only heaven.” As one for identifying, and bringing to
114 • Volume VI, No. 2, 1993 Mark Wegierski broader attention, a fairly extensive There are also some well-directed Protestant, “Dissenting” and Calvin- criticisms at a certain type of conser- ist-centered, English-speaking tradi- vatism, which Lasch characterizes, in tion of critique and resistance to capi- the second chapter, as “Nostalgia: The talism. In this respect the work Abdication of Memory.” The third challenges somewhat the conven- chapter, although appreciative of tional understanding which places “The Sociological Tradition and the much of that opposition in the Catho- Idea of Community” (which includes lic and Continental European context. Burke), pointedly criticizes Although the “anarcho-syndicalist” “ Gemeinschaft- Georges Sorel—interpreted as a quint- schmerz.” Although a profound pessi- essential populist—is fairly exten- mist, Lasch tries to anchor his hopes sively discussed, most of the other fig- in something that is at least within the ures in the book, such as Thomas realm of possibility. Carlyle with his emphasis on duty, Although Lasch might be sympa- William Morris with his crafts ap- thetic to a critique of contemporary proach, G.D.H. Cole, the guild-social- society such as that expressed in Claes ist, and Josiah Royce, the philosopher Ryn’s The New Jacobinism, he would of “social loyalty,” are part of the En- probably strongly react against any glish-speaking context. attempt to defend a strong elitism or The book is in some ways a lament class privilege of any sort. Lasch un- that modern-day socialism has been doubtedly would see Jean-Jacques dominated almost exclusively by Rousseau as one of the foremost crit- Marxism—the form of socialism ics, rather than intellectual architects, which, with its emphasis on a strictly of contemporary society, especially in scientific underpinning and on purely a work such as The Discourse on the economic achievement, was in fact, Arts and Sciences. As a populist and according to Lasch, the closest to the social democrat, Lasch rejects elitist capitalism which it strove to oppose. philosophical liberalism and capital- One is reminded of a possible earlier ism (which he sees as largely cotermi- approach to socialism in John Rus- nous) while embracing democracy. kin’s famous aphorism: “I am a Tory This position sharply contrasts with of the sternest sort, a socialist, a com- that of a typical “paleoconservative” munist.” These were the schools and like Paul Gottfried, who defends a approaches (guild-socialism, utopian form of political liberalism and pro- socialism, etc.) that were so vocifer- visionally accepts capitalism while at ously and polemically condemned in the same time identifying the central Marx’s Communist Manifesto. problem of contemporary America as One of the real strengths of the an excess of “democratic” or “social book is its willingness to criticize con- democratic” ideology. Lasch’s admo- ventional understandings of political nition to someone claiming to be a categories, as in the first chapter, “The true conservative would be to become Obsolescence of Left and Right.” a friend of the common people,
On Lasch’s True and Only Heaven HUMANITAS • 115 wholeheartedly as opposed to tacti- “hard” side of managerial capitalism cally or provisionally, . (e.g., budget cuts and plant closings). Lasch very pointedly criticizes the As an aggressively self-seeking, elit- so-called “New Class” which further ist and very powerful group, they are strengthened its hold on America af- in no way like the sentimental “tree- ter the 1960s. As he makes this cri- huggers” often found on the Left. tique, he expresses a strong sympathy Lasch would argue that neither the for the downtrodden working and true conservative nor the true social- lower-middle classes in America, ist can be impressed by America to- whose outlook, although it includes day—a restless culture based on the obviously unsavory elements, puts inflammation, through all-pervasive some real limits on the grotesque advertising, of the grossest appetites; hyperconsumption society which has saturated by relentless media images now arisen. of violence and libidinous sexuality The group whose outlook Lasch such as have never existed before in would probably reject the most human history; and ultimately a soci- strongly is the neoconservatives. In his ety exhibiting great cruelty and the estimation, they would form part of crassest self-interest. “the New Class.” They are a group Populism, in spite of its possible within it that is particularly adept at authoritarian colorations, may at this pushing for and defending con- stage be the only force that can mean- sumptionist capitalism, that is able to ingfully confront this emergent dysto- derive enormous wealth and personal pia. If it is really true, as Lasch argues, advantage from its political involve- that we have moved today “beyond ment, and that argues strenuously for, Left-Right,” then perhaps the manifest and often helps to bring about, the conflict now is between populism and elitism.
116 • Volume VI, No. 2, 1993 Mark Wegierski