Does Democracy Deserve To Survive, An Analysis

Within Lasch’s three chapters, “Does Democracy Deserve to Survive?,” “Communitarianism or Populism?,” and “Conversation and the Civic Art,” he highlights the decay of civic virtue, while calling attention to the fact that American democracy was at its best when there was “small-scale production through cooperative buying and selling” (81). Small-scale production required qualities of responsibility and self-reliance, claiming that something more than morality that can generate virtue. Lasch refers to the “probing social commentary that took shape in the latter half of the nineteenth century, when it became evident that small property was disappearing and people began to ask themselves whether the virtues associated with proprietorship could be preserved, in …show more content…
Lasch hints that although the populists desire small-scale production, it is unclear how to succeed in doing this in today’s economy, essentially making the notion of virtue irrelevant.
So many people in today’s society are too concerned about advancing financially, in that they are unconcerned with the moral consequences that may come. Therefore, when individuals are too involved in getting ahead, they abandon all moral obligations, including childcare. This leads to children losing their innocence by being exposed to the outside world too soon. As a result, children are tempted by misinformed values, thus corrupting them. If parents did not abandon their child to enter into the workforce, there would be a great chance of the child being instilled with moral values that contribute to the greater good of society. Thus, one can conclude that America is not progressing in a manner that would lead to a populist society that Lasch approves of. Therefore, we should care for the kind of people