Today Americans are overcome not by the sense of endless possibility but by the banality of the social order they have erected against it.
Interpretation
The quote suggests that people feel constrained by societal norms rather than inspired by the potential for freedom and opportunity.
Christopher Lasch highlights a paradox in American society where, instead of being motivated by endless possibilities, individuals are stifled by the mundane and repetitive structures of social order they have created. This commentary implies that societal conventions may limit true personal growth and exploration, leading to a collective sense of dissatisfaction or disillusionment.
In practice
In a discussion about modern society, one might cite this quote to illustrate how routine can dampen ambition.
Much of what is euphemistically known as the middle class, merely because it dresses up to go to work, is now reduced to proletarian conditions of existence. Many white-collar jobs require no more skill and pay even less than blue-collar jobs, conferring little status or security.
The reporting of news has to be understood as propaganda for commodities, and events by images.
It is advertising and the logic of consumerism that governs the depiction of reality in the mass media.
Even the reporting of news has to be understood not as propaganda for any particular ideology, liberal or conservative, but as propaganda for commodities β for the replacement of things by commodities, use values by exchange values, and events by images.
It is the logic of consumerism that undermines the values of loyalty and permanence and promotes a different set of values that is destructive of family life.
The question of the family now divides our society so deeply that the opposing sides cannot even agree on a definition of the institution they are arguing about.
History will also afford frequent opportunities of showing the necessity of a public religion, from its usefulness to the public; the advantage of a religious character among private persons; the mischiefs of superstition, and the excellency of the Christian religion above all others, ancient or modern.
Gentlemen, welcome to the world of reality β there is no audience. No one to applaud, to admire. No one to see you. Do you understand? Here is the truth β actual heroism receives no ovation, entertains no one. No one queues up to see it. No one is interested.
For contemplation he and valour formed; / For softness she and sweet attractive grace, / He for God only, she for God in him: / His fair large front and eye sublime declared / Absolute rule.
When I see an object there is no will; when its sensations are carried to the brain, there comes the reaction, which says "Do this", or "Do not do this", and this state of the ego-substance is what is called will
The more the drive toward life is thwarted, the stronger is the drive toward destruction; the more life is realized, the less is the strength of destructiveness. Destructiveness is the outcome of unlived life.
It takes solitude under the stars, for us to be reminded of our eternal origin and our far destiny.
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