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tration of these expectations which often turns into bitterness and re–
jection. In the final analysis alienation is, among other things, a re–
sponse to the frustration due to the lack of meaning in modern society.
It
has been pointed out often enough that political beliefs take on
religious coloration when religion proper withers. More recently
Doris Lessing observed:
There are certain types of people who are political out of a
kind of religious reason . . .. I think it's fairly common among
socialists : They are in fact God-seekers, looking for the kingdom
of God on earth ... trying to abolish the present in favor of some
better future - always taking it for granted that there
is
a better
future .
If
you don't believe in heaven you believe in socialism.
There is a close connection between the embrace of Marxist so–
cialism and the social critical impulse. Marxism is a philosophy of
intense moral indignation - a worldview that helps to systematize
moral passion and that provides a seemingly scientific foundation for
protesting social injustice. Marxism performs additional religious
functions by pointing towards a better future which will arrive as a
combined result of both the inexorable forces of history and the freely
chosen effort of individuals who will have achieved the proper under–
standing of social forces.
In addition to the more general conditions of contemporary
Western intellectuals, there are certain cultural-historical traits pe–
culiar to American society which contribute to the trends here noted,
chiefly an excessive individualism . This individualism combines an
overly optimistic view of individual potentials with a similarly san–
guine belief in the possibilities for their fulfillment. Such a conception
of the individual as possessing virtually unlimited innate potential
for self-realization remains a major source of social criticism in the
United States, especially since the 1960s.
Thus the radical critiques of American society are nurtured not
only by the discontents of modernity but also by elements of the
American cultural tradition: high expectations about human and in–
stitutional perfectibility and a reactive anger when the hoped for im–
provements fail to materialize.
The persistence of the radical critiques of American society in
the late 1970s and early 1980s also has some more tangible social–
historical explanations. Among them are the memories of Vietnam
and Watergate , the most often cited symbols of corruption in recent
history .
