The Bourgeois Virtues: Ethics for an Age of Commerce

solidarity regained 145Somehow we have traveled from the sunny realism of Bishop Butler andAdam Smith in the eighteenth century to a dark and unrealistic pessimismin the twentieth century, at just the time that liberal capitalism is succeeding.We’ve traveled from Butler’s belief that “it is manifest fact that . ..thegenerality are frequently influenced by friendship, compassion, gratitude;and even a general abhorrence of what is base, and liking of what it fair andjust” to Christopher Lasch’s assertion that we live in a culture of narcissism.24 We’ve traveled from Smith’s belief that “the uniform, constant, andunmitigated effort of every man to better his condition . . . is frequentlypowerful enough to maintain the natural progress of things towardsimprovement” to Georg Lukács’ assertion in his old age (the 1960s) that“even the worst socialism is better than the best capitalism.” 25I suggest that German Romanticism was the detour. German Romanticismstill seems attractive to many, against the Scottish and liberal idea ofletting people alone in their marketplaces to fashion a varied culture. I followBerlin in observing that one strand in Romance led to modern racism,by way of myths of Kultur. Another strand, he says, led to modern revolution,by way of myths of Action. And a final strand led to some of the bestof modern liberal values, by way of Romanticism’s novel notions of sincerityand authenticity. 26 Jerry Muller notes that there was a liberal counterargumentto the bad strands in Romance even in Germany—such as WalterGoetz in 1919 making “an extended critique of the notion that there existedsome ongoing essence of the German Volk.” 27 Muller, or for that matterGoetz, could have cited another German, Franz Boaz, working in Americato the same liberal and antiracist end.When Bellah and his coauthors venture to illustrate the modern fragmentation,they do not persuade. The only example they give of thefragmented character of modern solidarity is “the euphoric sense of metropolitanbelongingness” that comes “when a local sports team wins anational championship.” These are “rare moments,” they claim, which happen“briefly.” 28 They view them as fleeting episodes of trivia.That doesn’t seem right. Sports championships are rare and brief, ofcourse, aside from the New York Yankees since Ruth, and in Chicago for awhile during Michael Jordan. But the belongingness in the big city and itshinterland that sports teams nourish is not rare. To some in the clerisy itseems trivial, I realize, but loyalty to sports teams creates for millions inAmerica and Holland and Japan an enduring belonging. It’s nicer, actually,