Among the Bourgeoisophobes

The Weekly Standard ^ | 04/15/2002 | David Brooks

[borkrules]

This is must reading. I keep a smallish folio of articles that I have read on the web and subsequently printed out. This one is going to join that select group. Beautiful.

[David Cannady]

The pessimism falls into several categories.

(1) There is straightforward, left-wing bourgeoisophobia from writers who think commercial culture has ravaged our souls.

Liberal Socialist scum!

(2) Then there is the right-wing variant that says it has made us spiritually flat, and so turned us into comfort-loving Last Men.

Puritanical Authoritarian Savers of the "Soul of America"(i.e. the Drug Warriors et al) These are the people who say, "There can be such a thing as too much freedom."

(3) Then there is the conservative pessimism that purports to be a defense of the heroic bourgeois culture America embodies while actually showing little faith in it.

Protectionists and Isolationists who want the government to protect their piece of the American Dream, no matter who else has to eat it for their benefit.