Probes the Depth of National Unity

...And yet we were practically told, in the wake of the attacks, that it was our patriotic duty to spend ourselves out of recession...

...Bush could reward our new faith in government by releasing information about meetings between Enron executives and Vice President Dick Cheney...

...Repeated efforts to cut taxes for the wealthy demonstrate just where Republicans stand on the value of community...

...This is not surprising since our emphasis on individual rights leads us to carve out our own personal spheres and gives us the justification for doing so...

...Prior generations of Americans had social ties to larger numbers of people, especially the "Greatest Generation" whose shared experiences of the Great Depression and the Second World War fostered a certain mutuality of purpose and understanding that expressed itself in higher rates of voting, group membership, and community service...

...Government officials who do otherwise are pulling us further apart rather than bringing us together...

...In a February American Prospect article, Harvard's Robert Putnam, prominent chronicler of growing American alienation and declining social capital, reports that Americans are now "Bowling Together"—or at least that we say we'd like to do so...

...Participatory democracy, however, requires that some individuals overcome these inclinations by getting involved in local government, in mutual assistance, in Putnam's bowling leagues, and in civic associations of all kinds— the essential elements of democratic society...

...IN THE DAYS and weeks after September 11, many Americans talked of a nation pulling together, of a people unified in horror at the terrorists' slaughter of so many innocent lives and unified in support of our national effort to root out terrorists and the sources of terrorism worldwide...

...It can reduce the emphasis on material gain in our culture by supporting policies that help us build a sustainable future— combating terrorists and securing the homeland, certainly, but also encouraging responsible consumption and environmental policies...

...But this may be a fleeting moment, partly because Republicans are the wrong party to have in power during such historic times...

...But we are dangerously close to squandering the moment it offers to remake America into a more just nation—a nation willing and able not only to defend itself but also to make life more just for more Americans...

...46 n DISSENT / Spring 2002...

...It can, for example, shift funds in directions that help move more Americans out of poverty by truly rewarding work...

...What seems lost in the current debate is the notion that many Americans suffer quiet tragedies every day, tragedies about which our government is capable of doing something...

...Bush, Cheney, and Republicans in Congress could have fought for an airline bailout package that would have provided real assistance to laid-off workers in addition to bolstering the airlines themselves...

...Participation in local government and civic associations used to combat this cultural tendency, and yet, especially during the last few decades, it would seem that individualism has won...

...He speaks of government's effectiveness as a warrior, but rejects the notion that government can accomplish more at home than homeland security...

...How many Americans have really connected with their neighbors or strangers in lasting ways since the attacks...

...The moment seems ripe for a revival of contemporary liberalism, whose underlying faith is in the power and purpose of government to bring about positive change, to fight on behalf of average Americans, to even the playing field somewhat, and to reduce the ill effects of poverty...

...Only 16 percent of respondents, however, report attending religious services more now than before the 11th...

...When we are thinking so much about unity, it should be harder to accept such radical inequality...

...Don't get me wrong...

...They don't, as they have often reminded us, believe that the national government should address social issues— unless they involve abortion, prayer in school, or sex education...

...He wants Americans to value each other more than material goods...

...However, one need only be cut off dangerously on the highway by a car with flags flying to know that such patriotism is often skin deep...

...A true patriot would stand up for energy policies that don't damage the environment, that encourage Americans to use public transit rather than to purchase oversized cars and SUVs...

...We know how to reduce our dependence on oil—tax gasoline at rates that reflect the damage caused by our overuse of it (as most Western nations do...

...We tolerate more extremes of wealth and poverty than any other Western, industrialized nation—and that is a tragedy too, albeit of a different nature than DISSENT / Spring 2002 n 45 AFTERSHOCKS the one we suffered on September 11...

...Putnam's findings confirm these trends...

...Patriotic talk and behavior come easily to us—as they typically have and always should when our nation is engaged in war...

...It is unlikely, however, that we will learn that lesson anytime soon given the cult of individualism that liberalism and capitalism together have institutionalized in our country...

...ALL THIS MATTERS because individuals who look out only for themselves and their families lose the habits of democracy, which, especially at the local and state levels, require the participation and oversight of an active citizenry...

...And after the fiscal responsibility of the Clinton years, Bush is leading us right into renewed deficits that will preclude meaningful social policy for years to come: this looks like the right's most effective assault on the welfare state since Reagan tripled our national debt years ago...

...We would need to alter our physical surroundings, which have been designed to keep people away from each other rather than to connect them...

...Certainly, the primary responsibility of a state is to protect its citizens from violent attack, but it also falls to the government to protect citizens from the worst effects of our economic system—a system that renders too many people powerless to lead dignified lives...

...Yet after America was attacked, it was as if our entire country looked into a mirror and saw our better selves...

...Over time our lives have changed: air conditioning keeps people inside, hack porches have replaced front porches, enclosed yards have replaced open alleys, and with attached garages, many people go to and from work without ever coming into contact with their neighbors...

...Bush is right to talk about volunteerism, but wrong to disdain policies the government could pursue to reinforce new feelings of solidarity...

...44 n DISSENT / Spring 2002 AFTERSHOCKS Our talk of national unity is bittersweet because, in so many ways, we are a nation illprepared to work together in meaningful ways, willing to wave flags but not hold hands...

...Although American faith in government now has more to do with waging a war and securing the homeland, some suggest that these experiences may remind Americans just why a strong national government is necessary in both war and peace...

...And since September 11, Americans do report markedly changed attitudes...

...Our renewed faith in government and trust in each other is significant...

...A byproduct of our liberal democracy, as Alexis de Tocqueville noted, is an individualism that inclines us to look after ourselves and our increasingly small and scattered nuclear families rather than our neighbors, our communities, or our nation...

...Private malls have become our new town centers, providing space for people to shop, eat, and play with their children surrounded by others they are unlikely ever to meet...

...Gated communities represent an extreme example of all these trends...

...To expect or accept less in a free and relatively prosperous society is unpatriotic...

...Being involved in communal activities is also good for us as individuals...

...This idea about government endured for some time in the last century, through and after the New Deal, and for good reason...

...We were reminded that we are citizens, with obligations to each other, to our country, and to history...

...AMY D. BURKE is a doctoral candidate in politics at Brandeis University and a freelance writer...

...We began to think less of the goods we can accumulate, and more about the good we can do...

...They could have fought for an economic stimulus package that didn't go out of its way to reward small Texas firms with relatively few employees...

...Reflecting these new feelings, President George W. Bush said in his State of the Union address, "None of us would ever wish the evil that was done on September the 1 1 th...

...Americans also trust each other more, from strangers to neighbors, and this proved true across ethnic and racial lines...

...And Republicans commonly ignore additional linkages between government and public behavior...

...Many factors have contributed to this decline, including the hours we spend watching television, mostly by ourselves, and the ways in which we've constructed our surroundings, especially in the suburbs...

...Compared with a year ago, Americans are somewhat more likely to have attended a political meeting or to have worked on a community project...

...Supposedly, we have never worked more together, thought more about each other, believed more in the righteousness of our American creed, or had warmer, fuzzier feelings about our neighbors—at least not for quite some time...

...polls haven't revealed anything like it in at least thirty years...

...They suggest that many Americans in poverty or struggling to get by on low-wage jobs would perhaps be right to wave fewer flags...

...Now is the time to discuss how best to rebuild our nation—not just the World Trade Center towers but our cities, our rural communities, and many of our suburbs, where too many Americans retreat in isolation...

...He seems intent on using our patriotism and national security concerns to justify unprecedented increases in defense spending and cuts in already tattered public assistance programs...

...When people engage in these activities less often, the country suffers at all levels...

...In addition, 37 percent said they would make efforts to spend more time with their families during the holidays, and 54 percent of parents said they are trying to spend more time with their children...

...Drilling in Alaska is a short-term and short-sighted response to a deeper problem, and it will teach new generations that it is okay to destroy natural resources for short-term gains...

...He believes we can take on the "axis of evil," but doesn't trust his own government to examine our bags at the airport...

...For "had not government won the war, ended the Depression, built the highways, brought electricity to the farmlands, vanquished the economic terror of old-age...

...Michael Kelly asked in January's Atlantic...

...they promote social capital, but they also make better personal lives...

...We would need a president interested in harnessing the forces of government— an unabashed liberal rather than an ideological conservative in the White House...

...Americans report strong feelings for their neighbors and more trust in strangers, but most of our lives have returned to an odd state of normalcy in the midst of such profound grief and shock...

...We are, however, partly at war with ourselves when we speak about collective action and the public good rather than individual rights—and government can help bridge the gap within and among citizens by reinforcing positive, community-minded behavior...

...Not surprisingly, what we have done best since September 11 is to respond in largely symbolic and individualistic ways to a national tragedy—we have written checks, perhaps donated blood, purchased flags, and watched relief telethons together but apart...

...Sadly, by the end of the last century, we had turned away from each other in so many ways, including, as Putnam wrote two years ago, having fewer family meals together, inviting friends over less often, and generally engaging less frequently in activities that involve other people...

...In his article he reported that "trust in government, trust in the police, and interest in politics are all up...

...We do have duties to our nation that extend well beyond buying more Gap jeans, but our government must in turn take seriously its duties to us...

...As Putnam found, such activities build trust and improve health...

...A December 2001 Pew Research Center poll found that 78 percent of Americans now say religion's influence in society is growing, up from 37 percent who said so a few months prior to the attacks...

...Once such rugged individualism takes hold, it makes collective action difficult at best...