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Amitai Etzioni is one of the most influential social and political thinkers of our day, a man synonymous with the ideas of communitarianism. In this book, Etzioni challenges those who argue that diversity or multiculturalism is about to become the governing American creed. On the surface, America may seem like a fractured mosaic, but the country is in reality far more socially monochromatic and united than most observers have claimed.
In the first chapter, Etzioni presents a great deal of evidence that Americans, whites and African Americans, Hispanics and Asian Americans, new immigrants and decedents of the Pilgrims, continue to share the same core of basic American values and aspirations.
He goes on to show that we need not merely a civil but also a good society, one that nurtures virtues. He assesses key social institutions that can serve such a society ranging from revived holidays to greater reliance on public shaming. The most effective sources of bonding and of shared ideas about virtue, he insists throughout, come from the community, not from the state.
Etzioni also challenges moral relativists who argue that we have no right to "impose" our moral values on other societies. He responds to those who fear that a cohesive community must also be one that is oppressive, authoritarian, and exclusive. And he explores and assesses possible new sources and definitions of community, including computer-mediated communities and stakeholding in corporations.
By turns provocative and reassuring, the chapters here cut to the heart of several of our most pressing social and political issues. The book is further evidence of Etzioni's enduring place in contemporary thought.
List of contents
Acknowledgments ix Introduction xiii I. The Monochrome Society 3 II. Is Shaming Shameful? 37 III. The Post-Affluent Society 48 IV. Can Virtual Communities be Real? with Oren Etzioni 79 V. Suffer the Children 102 VI. Holidays: The Neglected Seedbeds of Virtue 113 VII. Salem without Witches 141 VIII. Social Norms: The Rubicon of Social Science 163 IX. Why the Civil Society Is Not Good Enough 186 X. Virtue and the State: A Dialogue between a Communitarian and a Social Conservative with Robert P. George 207 XI. Restoring the Moral Voice 221 XII. Cross-Cultural Moral Judgments 232 XIII. Stakeholders versus Shareholders 246 Notes 261 Index 299
About the author
Amitai Etzioni is University Professor at The George Washington University. A past President of the American Sociological Association, he is the author of nineteen books, including
The Moral Dimension (The Free Press),
The Limits of Privacy (Basic Books), and
The New Golden Rule (Basic Books), which won the Simon Wiesenthal Center's 1997 Tolerance Book Award. He was recently awarded the Sociological Practice Association's Outstanding Contribution Award and the Seventh James Wilbur Award for Extraordinary Contributions to the Appreciation and Advancement of Human Values.
Summary
Challenges those who argue that diversity or multiculturalism is about to become the governing American creed. This book presents evidence that Americans, whites and African Americans, Hispanics and Asian Americans, new immigrants and decedents of the Pilgrims, continue to share the same core of basic American values and aspirations.
Additional text
"Even readers unsympathetic with communitarian ideas will find these well-thought-out and well-written essays thought provoking."
