Right Left Whatever

Election: “Moral” Values Trump Materialism

The results of the election have apparently baffled liberals: they're shocked and “disturbed” that values could be more important to many Americans than economic conditions.

I’ve written about this here, before, but I’ll repeat: a highly prophetic book that came out just before the 2000 election has a great deal to say on this: book entitled The Fourth Great Awakening & the Future of Egalitarianism by Robert William Fogel.

Fogel is an economist and a moderate liberal (who won the 1993 Nobel Prize in economics). He said that there have been four “Great Awakenings” in American history; that is, spiritual/political eras of reform that have influenced American history.

The first Great Awakening of 1730 founded the ideology for the American Revolution; the second started in 1800 and helped introduce reforms such as the abolition of slavery; the third from 1890 to 1930 attacked social injustice and created the welfare state. The fourth is occurring now: it began in the late 1950’s and will continue for a few more decades.

Fogel believes egalitarianism is the defining philosophy of all these Awakenings (he is, after all, a liberal). And the third awakening was largely a reform of economic conditions: a revolt against class divisions and the oppression of the poor by the new capitalist industrialism. This stage spawned the Progressivism of the early part of the 20th century and the New Deal of FDR.

But he sees the last Awakening as a shift from the push for egalitarianism of material needs during the 3rd Awakening to a yearning for egalitarianism of spiritual needs (also called “immaterial” needs or “knowledge capital”).

He says that the new equity issues of the 4th Awakening -- unlike the 3rd Awakening -- “do not arise from the shock of rapid urbanization, the destruction of small businesses by competition from industrial giants, the massive destitution created by the prolonged unemployment of up to one-quarter of prime-age workers, the disappearance of the frontier as a safety valve for urban unemployment and poverty.”

Rather, people now want to “have an understanding of life’s opportunities, a sense of which opportunities are most attractive to him or her at each stage of life, and the requisite educational, material, and spiritual resources to pursue these opportunities.”

Here’s what Fogel means by “spiritual” needs:

“Spiritual resources are not limited to those found in the sacred realm but include the whole range of immaterial commodities that are needed to cope with emotional trauma and that, more often than not, are transferred between individuals privately, rather than through the market. Such resources include a sense of purpose, a sense of opportunity, a sense of community, a strong family ethic, a strong work ethic, and high self-esteem.” [Emphasis added]

Surprisingly: “Like it or not, the reform agenda spelled out by the religious Right, with its focus on the restoration of the traditional family and its emphasis on equality of opportunity, more fully addresses the new issues of egalitarianism than does the agenda of the Third Great Awakening.”

Fogel goes on to say that Republicans and conservatives will probably benefit the most from this 4th Awakening -- such that Republicans will predominate over the next decade or two.

This means that John Kerry's tiredness – and the whole panoply of anti-authoritarian purposeless rebellions that promote sloppiness, shallowness, and cynicism in daily life; and the Democratic harping on class warfare, racial division, and the need for the encouragement of dependency needs -- are going against the grain of the new Awakening.

People really WANT purposeful and self-reliant lives. It’s a winning platform!

Something for conservatives to feel hopeful about.

Posted by Rick Penner at November 3, 2004 10:56 PM