Alan Wolfe -- Modernity's Paradox

Whose Keeper?--Social Science and Moral Obligation; p. 1: 

 "Capitalist economics and liberal democratic politics have given many citizens of Western societies two unique gifts: freedom from economics and liberation from politics.  Raised by economic growth from the consciousness of scarcity, they can forget the nitty-gritty of survival and contemplate the building of culture.  Released by politics from politics, they can, unlike those who lived before them, lead their lives unaware of the struggles for power taking place around them.  The middle class of Western societies, unconstrained by a real or imagined state of nature, are in a position to make for themselves the kind of social world they desire.

 

Yet for all its success, modernity is an ambivalent condition.  There is, not far beneath the surface, a sense that something is missing: economic growth and political freedom do not seem enough."

 

                                                                                                               --Alan Wolf;

                                                                                                              

 

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