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stevemcgarrett
Joined: 24 Mar 2006
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 Posted: Sat Oct 13, 2007 9:49 pm Post subject: WHAT IS THE ROOT CAUSE OF THE AMERICAN SOCIAL MALAISE? |
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Do you think that Fukuyama's analysis of the current social malaise in the U.S. (and more generally the West) is basically accurate?
Consider this article (for the complete edition, go to: http://www.wesjones.com/fukuyama.htm
| Quote: |
The Great Disruption
(chapter excerpt)
By Francis Fukuyama, Ph.D
The shift to the information age has been accompanied by social disorder throughout the industrialized world. But new forms of stability may already be in the making
OVER the past half century the United States and other economically advanced countries have made the shift into what has been called an information society, the information age, or the post-industrial era. The futurist Alvin Toffler has labeled this transition the "Third Wave," suggesting that it will ultimately be as consequential as the two previous waves in human history: from hunter-gatherer to agricultural societies, and from agricultural to industrial ones.
A society built around information tends to produce more of the two things people value most in a modern democracy - freedom and equality. Freedom of choice has exploded, in everything from cable channels to low-cost shopping outlets to friends met on the Internet. Hierarchies of all sorts, political and corporate, have come under pressure and begun to crumble.
People associate the information age with the advent of the Internet, in the 1990s but the shift from the industrial era started more than a generation earlier, with the deindustrialization of the Rust Belt in the United States and comparable movements away from manufacturing in other industrialized countries. This period, roughly the mid-1960s to the early 1990s was also marked by seriously deteriorating social conditions in most of the industrialized world. Crime and social disorder began to rise, making inner-city areas of the wealthiest societies on earth almost uninhabitable. The decline of kinship as a social institution, which has been going on for more than 200 years, accelerated sharply in the second half of the twentieth century. Marriages and births declined and divorce soared; and one out of every three children in the United States and more than half of all children in Scandinavia were born out of wedlock. Finally, trust and confidence in institutions went into a forty-year decline. Although a majority of people in the United States and Europe expressed confidence in their governments and fellow citizens during the late 19505 only a small minority did so by the early 1990s. The nature of people's involvement with one another changed as well - although there is no evidence that people associated with one another less, their ties tended to be less permanent, looser, and with smaller groups of people.
These changes were dramatic; they occurred over a wide range of similar countries; and they all appeared at roughly the same period in history. As such, they constituted a Great Disruption in the social values that had prevailed in the industrial-age society of the mid twentieth century. It is very unusual
for social indicators to move together so rapidly; even without knowing why they did so, we have cause to suspect that the reasons might be related. Although William J. Bennett and other conservatives are often attacked for harping on the theme of moral decline, they are essentially correct: the perceived breakdown of social order is not a matter of nostalgia, poor memory, or ignorance about the hypocrisies of earlier ages. The decline is readily measurable in statistics on crime, fatherless children, broken trust, reduced opportunities for and outcomes from education, and the like.
Was it simply an accident that these negative social trends, which together reflect a weakening of social bonds and common values in Western societies, occurred just as the economies of those societies were making the transition from the industrial to the information era? The hypothesis of this article is that the two were in fact intimately connected, and that although many blessings have flowed from a more complex, information-based economy, certain bad things also happened to our social and moral life. The connections were technological, economic, and cultural. The changing nature of work tended to substitute mental for physical labor, propelling millions of women into the workplace and undermining the traditional understandings on which the family had been based. Innovations in medical technology leading to the birth-control pill and increasing longevity diminished the role of reproduction and family in people's lives. And the culture of individualism, which in the laboratory and the marketplace leads to innovation and growth, spilled over into the realm of social norms, where it corroded virtually all forms of authority and weakened the bonds holding families, neighborhoods, and nations together. The complete story is, of course, much more complex than this, and differs from one country to another. But broadly speaking, the technological change that brought about what the economist Joseph Schumpeter called "creative destruction" in the marketplace caused similar disruption in the world of social relationships. Indeed, it would be surprising if this were not true.
...The second problem with a culture of individualism is that it ends up being bereft of community. A community is not formed every time a group of people happen to interact with one another; true communities are bound together by the values, norms, and experiences their members share. The deeper and more strongly held those common values, the stronger the sense of community. The trade-off between personal freedom and community, however, does not seem obvious or necessary to many. As people have been liberated from their traditional ties to spouses, families, neighborhoods, work-places, and churches, they have expected to retain social connectedness. But they have begun to realize that their elective affinities, which they can slide into and out of at will, have left them feeling lonely and disoriented, longing for deeper and more permanent relationships. A society dedicated to the constant upending of norms and rules in the name of expanding individual freedom of choice will find itself increasingly disorganized, atomized, isolated, and incapable of carrying out common goals and tasks. The same society that wants no limits on its technological innovation also sees no limits on many forms of personal behavior, and the consequence is a rise in crime, broken families, parents' failure to fulfill obligations to children, neighbors' refusal to take responsibility for one another, and citizens' opting out of public life.
WHAT HAPPENED
BEGINNING in about 1965 a large number of indicators that can serve as negative measures of social capital all started moving upward rapidly at the same time. These could be put under three broad headings: crime, family, and trust.
Americans are aware that crime rates began sometime in the 1960s to climb very rapidly - a dramatic change from the early post-Second World War period, when U. S. murder and robbery rates actually declined. After declining slightly in the mid-1980s crime rates spurted upward again in the late 1980s and peaked around 1991-1992. The rates for both violent and property crimes have dropped substantially since then. Indeed, they have fallen most dramatically in the are as where they had risen most rapidly - that is, in big cities like New York, Chicago, Detroit, and Los Angeles.
Although the United States is exceptional among developed countries for its high crime rates, crime rose significantly in virtually all other non-Asian developed countries in approximately the same time period. Violent crime rose rapidly in Canada, Finland, Ireland, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Sweden, and the United Kingdom. With regard to crimes against property, a broader measure of disorder, the United States is no longer exceptional: Canada, Denmark, the Netherlands, New Zealand, and Sweden have ended up with theft rates higher than those in the United States over the past generation.
Of the shifts in social norms that constitute the Great Disruption, some of the most dramatic concern those related to reproduction, the family, and relations between the sexes. Divorce rates moved up sharply across the developed world (except in Italy, where divorce was illegal until 1970, and other Catholic countries); by the 1980s half of all American marriages could be expected to end in divorce, and the ratio of divorced to married people had increased fourfold in just thirty years. Births to unmarried women as a proportion of U.S. live births climbed from under five percent to 32 percent from 1940 to 1995. The figure was close to 60 percent in many Scandinavian countries; the United Kingdom, Canada, and France reached levels comparable to that in the United States. The combined probabilities of single-parent births, divorce, and the dissolution of cohabiting relationships between parents (a situation common in Europe) meant that in most developed countries ever smaller minorities of children would reach the age of eighteen with both parents remaining in the household. The core reproductive function of the family was threatened as well: fertility has dropped so dramatically in Italy, Spain, and Germany that they stand to lose up to 30 percent of their populations each generation, absent new net immigration.
Finally, anyone who has lived through the 1950s to the 1990s in the United States or another Western country can scarcely fail to recognize the widespread changes in values that have taken place over this period in the direction of increasing individualism. Survey data, along with common-sense observation, indicate that people are much less likely to defer to the authority of an ever-broader range of social institutions. Trust in institutions has consequently decreased markedly. In 1958, 73 percent of Americans surveyed said they trusted the federal government to do what is right either "most of the time" or "just about always"; by 1994 the figure had fallen as low as 15 percent. Europeans, although less anti-statist than Americans, have nonetheless seen similar declines in confidence in such traditional institutions as the Church, the police, and government. Americans trust one another less as well: although 10 percent more Americans evinced more trust than distrust in surveys done in the early 1960s by the 1990s the distrusters had an almost 30 percent margin over those expressing trust. It is not clear that either the number of groups or group memberships in civil society declined overall in this period, as the political scientist Robert Putnam has suggested. What is clear, however, is that what I call the radius of trust has declined, and social ties have become less binding and long-lasting....
SOME PROPOSED CAUSES OF THE DISRUPTION
...There seem to be two parallel processes at work. In the political and economic sphere history appears to be progressive and directional, and at the end of the twentieth century has culminated in liberal democracy as the only viable choice for technologically advanced societies. In the social and moral sphere, however, history appears to be cyclical, with social order ebbing and flowing over the course of generations. There is nothing to guarantee upturns in the cycle; our only reason for hope is the very powerful innate human capacity for reconstituting social order. On the success of this process of reconstruction depends the upward direction of the arrow of History. |
Last edited by stevemcgarrett on Sun Oct 14, 2007 4:54 pm; edited 2 times in total |
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Big_Bird
Joined: 31 Jan 2003
Location: Sometimes here sometimes there...
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| Posted: Sat Oct 13, 2007 10:08 pm Post subject: |
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Steve, your URL doesn't work. That is because you've inadvertently included a bracket sign at the end of your URL. It took a few tries for me to figure that out, but people won't notice unless they look closely.
Here is the link again:
http://www.wesjones.com/fukuyama.htm |
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Fresh Prince
Joined: 05 Dec 2006
Location: The glorious nation of Korea
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| Posted: Sun Oct 14, 2007 12:22 am Post subject: |
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| Quote: |
| BEGINNING in about 1965 a large number of indicators that can serve as negative measures of social capital all started moving upward rapidly at the same time... |
Vietnam War 1965
Any male of age that wasn't going to a university was sent to fight in the jungles of Southeast Asia, whether they wanted to or not. The wealthier families sent their kids to universities which resulted in a disproportionate amount of working-class kids being sent to Vietnam.
The university students became disillusioned with the war and the government in general, and began to use civil disobedience to affect change. There were several cases of unquestionably excessive force used on protesters, including unarmed students walking to class being shot and killed members of the military.
When the soldiers, who were largely working-class, returned from their forced duty, they were despised by the university students, who were largely wealthy, and other members of the counter-culture. The students movement became widespread and civil disobedience became a part of counter-culture. Trust of the their government and fellow citizens had been eroded. Obedience to laws was questioned.
The university students and former soldiers had children of their own and passed on their mistrust of other social-classes, government, and laws. |
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igotthisguitar
Joined: 08 Apr 2003
Location: South Korea (Permanent Vacation)
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| Posted: Sun Oct 14, 2007 12:26 am Post subject: |
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Social malaise? Spiritual alientation? Existential anomie?
Loss of basic moral compass is a major key.
Pimping of post-modern nihilism as per media / academic programmers has been highly instrumental.
Be happy!
Expectations vs. reality.
False sense of powerlessness, contributing to e.g. periodic psychotic outbursts
& unhealthy acts of situtional over-compensation.
too much EGO delusion. |
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yushin
Joined: 14 Oct 2006
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| Posted: Sun Oct 14, 2007 2:32 am Post subject: |
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| yup...(sigh) yawn..... |
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Bibbitybop
Joined: 22 Feb 2006
Location: Seoul
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| Posted: Sun Oct 14, 2007 10:58 am Post subject: |
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| ALL CAPS MAKES IT IMPORTANT! PLEASE READ! |
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mindmetoo
Joined: 02 Feb 2004
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| Posted: Sun Oct 14, 2007 3:18 pm Post subject: |
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| Quote: |
| These changes were dramatic; they occurred over a wide range of similar countries; and they all appeared at roughly the same period in history. As such, they constituted a Great Disruption in the social values that had prevailed in the industrial-age society of the mid twentieth century. It is very unusual for social indicators to move together so rapidly; even without knowing why they did so, we have cause to suspect that the reasons might be related. Although William J. Bennett and other conservatives are often attacked for harping on the theme of moral decline, they are essentially correct: the perceived breakdown of social order is not a matter of nostalgia, poor memory, or ignorance about the hypocrisies of earlier ages. The decline is readily measurable in statistics on crime, fatherless children, broken trust, reduced opportunities for and outcomes from education, and the like. |
Every decade the pundits claim society is sick. His stats are bizarre and cherry picking. Declining trust in government? Some would say that's what we want. The American system seems to be set up with an inherent distrust in government. So people are just getting back to the true roots of American democracy. Women are having babies out of wedlock. Didn't they always? The difference is they shot gun weddings were the solution. I think it's a good thing a woman is no longer forced to marry someone who has only managed to demonstrate a talent for squirting up a woman.
This is the same guy that claimed history was at an end. I would not tend to trust his ability to pick statistical indicators and draw forward looking conclusions from them. |
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cbclark4
Joined: 20 Aug 2006
Location: Masan
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| Posted: Sun Oct 14, 2007 5:52 pm Post subject: |
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| Fresh Prince wrote: |
| Quote: |
| BEGINNING in about 1965 a large number of indicators that can serve as negative measures of social capital all started moving upward rapidly at the same time... |
Vietnam War 1965
Any male of age that wasn't going to a university was sent to fight in the jungles of Southeast Asia, whether they wanted to or not. The wealthier families sent their kids to universities which resulted in a disproportionate amount of working-class kids being sent to Vietnam.
The university students became disillusioned with the war and the government in general, and began to use civil disobedience to affect change. There were several cases of unquestionably excessive force used on protesters, including unarmed students walking to class being shot and killed members of the military.
When the soldiers, who were largely working-class, returned from their forced duty, they were despised by the university students, who were largely wealthy, and other members of the counter-culture. The students movement became widespread and civil disobedience became a part of counter-culture. Trust of the their government and fellow citizens had been eroded. Obedience to laws was questioned.
The university students and former soldiers had children of their own and passed on their mistrust of other social-classes, government, and laws. |
Let me correct one paragraph. I think it makes a difference.
"The university students became disillusioned with the war and the government in general, and began to use civil disobedience to affect change. There were several cases of unquestionably excessive force used on protesters, including one incident where four unarmed students walking to class at Kent University being shot and killed by members of the military (Ohio State National Guard)." |
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Kuros
Joined: 27 Apr 2004
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| Posted: Sun Oct 14, 2007 5:56 pm Post subject: |
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| mindmetoo wrote: |
| This is the same guy that claimed history was at an end. |
Its not Fukuyama's fault you haven't read Hegel. |
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Milwaukiedave
Joined: 02 Oct 2004
Location: Goseong
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| Posted: Mon Oct 15, 2007 4:33 am Post subject: |
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CHINESE COLE SLAW
1 head cabbage, shredded
5 green onions, chopped
1 stick butter, melted
2 pkg. Ramen noodles
1 can sesame seeds
1 pkg. slivered almonds
1 c. oil
1 c. sugar
1/2 c. vinegar
2 tbsp. soy sauce
Toss cabbage and onion together, brown noodles, sesame seeds and almonds in butter (add sesame seeds last to prevent burning). For dressing mix oil, sugar, vinegar and soy sauce in blender. Toss all ingredients together just before serving. |
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Milwaukiedave
Joined: 02 Oct 2004
Location: Goseong
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| Posted: Mon Oct 15, 2007 4:36 am Post subject: |
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WORM DIRT CAKE
1 to 1 1/4 lb. pkg. Oreo cookies
1 (8 oz.) pkg. cream cheese
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 cup powdered sugar
3 cups milk
1 (12 oz.) tub Cool Whip (can use chocolate)
2 (3 1/2 oz.) pkg. instant vanilla or chocolate pudding
1/2 tsp. vanilla
4 gummy worms and/or other critters
This popular "novelty" cake is a hit at children's parties, especially around Halloween. You'll receive many appreciate compliments from your guests such as "Ewww, that's gross!"
It's really resembles a pudding more than it does a conventional cake. If you serve it as an everyday family dessert, rather than as a fun decorative element, it's possible that your family may not understand it!
Crush Oreos. Put 1/3 of the crushed Oreos into a new, clean flower pot. Set aside.
Mix butter, cream cheese and sugar and vanilla together. Set aside.
Combine milk and pudding mix. Fold Cool Whip into the pudding.
Fold together pudding mixture and butter-cream cheese mixture.
Layer this mixture (about 1/3 of it) onto the crumbled cookies in the pot. Next, add another layer of the pudding mixture, then another layer of cookie crumbs, continuing until all ingredients are used.
As you're layering the ingredients, decoratively place several gummy worms and critters in the "soil" so they will be seen emerging. If you have a toy (clean) garden trowel, a plastic daisy, or some edible flowers, these can also be used creatively to embellish the presentation.
Chill in refrigerator for 3 to 4 hours before serving. |
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Milwaukiedave
Joined: 02 Oct 2004
Location: Goseong
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| Posted: Mon Oct 15, 2007 4:37 am Post subject: |
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SHISH KABOB
3 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons Lipton onion soup mix
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 cup dry sherry
1/2 teaspoon oregano flakes
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder or 1 teaspoon fresh garlic, minced
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 teaspoon salt
1 small onion, minced
3 cloves garlic, minced
1/8 teaspoon Portuguese allspice
2 1/2 lbs lamb shoulder
2 green bell peppers
6 mushrooms
4 medium or 16 cherry tomatoes
20 boiling onions (or 4 medium red onions)
vegetables (see below)
Cut lamb into 1 1/2 inch cubes. Combine remaining ingredients to make a marinade. Place cubes in a Ziploc bag with marinade and refrigerate for several hours or overnight, turning occasionally.
When ready to barbecue, soak wooden skewers in water for 30 minutes to keep them from scorching (or use metal ones which have been brushed with oil).
Prepare vegetables: quartered small or whole white boiling onions, whole mushrooms, cherry tomatoes or quartered tomato wedges and thick wedges of green pepper. Dip vegetables in oil before threading onto skewers alternating between meat cubes.
Broil over hot coals or in a 400F gas grill or in the broiler of your oven for about 10 minutes; turn and broil for about 10 minutes on the other side or until done.
Serve over hot fluffy rice.
About 4-5 servings.
Submitted by: CM |
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Milwaukiedave
Joined: 02 Oct 2004
Location: Goseong
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| Posted: Mon Oct 15, 2007 4:38 am Post subject: |
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STUFFED ROUND STEAK
1 1/2 lbs round steak, 1/4 inch thickness
1 1/2 cups Italian style breadcrumbs
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon butter, melted
1/4 cup fresh parsley, minced
garlic powder (for sprinkling)
3 tablespoons Parmesan or Romano cheese, grated
1/2 teaspoon Hungarian paprika (optional)
1/3 cup chopped red or yellow onion
8 thin slices pancetta or bacon
Olive oil spray
Cut steak into 8 2X4 inch strips. Lightly season the strips with salt, pepper, and garlic powder.
Combine breadcrumbs, melted butter and olive oil, minced parsley, grated cheese and paprika. Spread this mixture on each steak slice.
Roll up slice with stuffing mixture inside. Wrap a slice of pancetta or bacon on the outside of each roll and fasten with a wooden toothpick or tie up with a piece of cotton string. Whichever you use, soak the toothpick or string in water for a minute or so before you use it to prevent scorching.
Spray the rolls with olive oil spray (or brush on plain olive oil). Sprinkle with garlic powder.
Broil the rolls slowly over hot coals until the pancetta or bacon has become crispy. If it begins to dry, spray lightly with olive oil again during the cooking, being careful of flare-ups. Turn frequently until done.
Garnish with fresh parsley sprigs. Serve on buttered and grilled rolls.
4 Servings (2 each).
Submitted by: CM |
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Milwaukiedave
Joined: 02 Oct 2004
Location: Goseong
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| Posted: Mon Oct 15, 2007 4:39 am Post subject: |
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SICILIAN CHICKEN SOUP
1 whole chicken cut up (with skin still on)
1/3 head cabbage
1 pkg small carrots
1 pkg celery hearts
1 large white onion
1 large purple onion
2 potatoes
1 large can whole peeled tomatoes
1/2 pkg of stars or abc noodles
salt and pepper, to taste
Bring a large pot of water to a boil, place whole chicken parts in pot and salt. Cook chicken for approximately 1 1/2 hours. After boiling chicken, take chicken out, peel skin off and return to boiling water. Combine vegetables and large can of whole peeled tomatoes; add to water, season with salt and pepper to taste.
Simmer for 2-3 hours. Drain broth into another pot and place vegetables in another container.
Boil noodles and place them into the broth along with the boiled chicken.
My family and I also bread the chicken in Italian breadcrumbs and fry it since there is a lot of boiled chicken. |
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Milwaukiedave
Joined: 02 Oct 2004
Location: Goseong
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| Posted: Mon Oct 15, 2007 4:40 am Post subject: |
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FARFALLETTE DOLCI - SWEET BOWKNOTS
6 eggs
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
3 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon orange flavoring*
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons butter
1 teaspoon almond flavoring
3 cups peanut oil, for frying
*Anisette liqueur may be substituted for the orange flavoring (omit almond).
Using a whisk, beat eggs until foamy, gradually adding sugar, flavoring, and salt.
In a food processor, pulse together butter and flour several times until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. While processing, pour in egg mixture and process for only a few seconds more.
Remove to a bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Set aside to rest for 30 minutes.
Divide dough into 4 sections. Roll out on a pastry board dusted with flour until wafer-thin. Sprinkle lightly with additional flour, if needed, to prevent dough from sticking (try not to use too much).
Using a pastry cutter, cut strips 6 inches long by 3/4 inch wide.
Heat oil until it is hot enough for a 1 inch cube of bread to brown in 1 minute.
Tie each of the dough strips into a bowknot shape. Deep fry bows for 3 minutes or until a light golden color.
Drain on paper towels. When bows are room temperature, sprinkle liberally with confectioners sugar.
Store in air-tight containers.
Makes 6-7 dozen bowknots. |
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