Utopia, Distopia, Whatever.

Reading the Bellah, Madsen, Sullivan, Swidler, Tipton article, "The Good Society,"  I was struck by the almost idealistic manner in which the authors looked at what they call, "Good Society."   This tone, started when the article referred to "our psychic energy"(252)  on one hand made me wary of what was written, but also drew me in.  The article seemed to be searching for ways in which to cultivate a more caring, supportive, positive society, which in turn could be more productive for the well-being of mankind, not just a few lucky ones.   This stance automatically appeals to me, because I think that they are correct.  If people were more caring, supportive, and focused upon the common good instead of upon individual "distractions" such as TV or money, the world would be a better place.  However, I think the question once again becomes, "How do we make this happen?"  and "Is this vision possible?"   I do not know if the article's vision is possible in its entirety.  The article claims that improvement cannot happen, "unless a new moral paradigm - a paradigm of cultivation- replaces the old, outworn, Lockean individualist one"(279).   However, I would say that, quite frankly, it is a lot more complicated than that.  It is a lot more complicated than shifting our attention.  There is a long history, extending from the English, of individual rights.  America has cultivated for over 150 years the idea of individualism, and to shift the paradigm would mean shifting most of what the nation has protected and stood for, what is written in our constitution and reflected in our laws, since it began.  The authors write repeatedly about large-scale subjects (after the beginning, personal look at attention.)  They focus upon the United States' business practices and workers and the landscape of cities.  However, for the realization of their point, I think it might be even better to focus more upon the associations, as in Putnam.   For I think that for the shift they discuss to have any hope of taking place, it cannnot feasibly begin in the large scale.  People's habits and even morals, as Tocqueville would claim, need to change.  And that starts at home, at school, in the community.  Which, in the end, goes back to my last post.  How do we make civic virtue vibrant again?  This is my conclusion drawn after reading, "The Good Society"