In the Magazines

Lasch argues that the values of tradition, family, and personal responsibility find their defenders today among conservatives, not among the left. But American conservatism has a fatal flaw: it fails to see that it is not some liberal “new class” but capitalism itself that “undermines the values of loyalty and permanence and…is destructive of family life.” A vital conservatism would have to oppose capitalism and the restless consumerist ethic it generates.