Book
Reviews
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Moral
Freedom: The Search for Virtue in a World of Choice by Alan Wolfe Recommendation: ••• |
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Click on title or picture to buy from amazon.com |
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My way Sociologist Alan Wolfe has followed up on
the work he did in One
Nation, After All, which debunked the notion that Americans are divided
by a cultural war. His new book, Moral
Freedom: The Search for Virtue in a World of Choice, involved interviews
with 209 ordinary Americans in eight niche communities around the country as
well as the results of a poll in The New York Times Magazine in 2000. Reading
this book can be both reassuring and disturbing. While revealing a widespread
non-judgmentalism among those interviewed, Wolfe describes the opinions of individuals
who prefer moral relativism. While some may conclude that today’s mores call
for self-indulgence as preferable to self-discipline, the respondents feel
differently: “It is up to the individual to determine how to reconcile the
cultural contradictions of capitalism, how to find the right balance between
the self-discipline that keeps society humming along and the self-indulgence
it offers as its reward.” Here’s Wolfe’s perspective on today’s morality
compared to that of earlier times: “…the morality of
the Protestant ethic was narrow but deep; the individual had few choices to
make, but all those choices were serious. Our morality is shallow but broad;
we have many more moral issues to consider, even if few of them will result
in eternal damnation, social ostracism, or the poorhouse. Americans are not
going to lead twenty-first century lives based on eighteenth- and
nineteenth-century moral ideals. They will not subject themselves to the
severe and demanding tests of character imposed on individuals governed by
one version or another of the Protestant ethic. But that does not mean that
the morality by which people live now makes them soft. It only means that the
new morality is different, making up the bewildering array of temptations it
must face what it lacks in rigor and unswerving self-confidence.” Respondents describe zones of honesty, in
which lies are considered acceptable and appropriate. There’s a fascinating
chapter on forgiveness and reflections by the author on why forgiveness was
omitted from Bill Bennett’s Book of
Virtues. Wolfe takes the perspective that “…we should not
confuse differences over how the virtues ought to be applied with differences
over the underlying moral philosophy that guides people’s understanding of
the world. For when it comes to fundamental questions about human nature, the
formation of character, qualities of good and evil, and the sources of moral
authority, our respondents have roughly the same views. There is a common
American moral philosophy, and it is broad and inclusive enough to
incorporate people whose views of the actual issues of the day are at
loggerheads.” Reading this book leads you to the
conclusion with Wolfe, “There is a moral majority in America. It just happens
to be one that wants to make up its own mind.” Like it or not, moral freedom
appears here to stay. Steve Hopkins, May 14, 2001 |
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ã 2001 Hopkins and Company, LLC |
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