The Bombayization of New York

The central circumstance of American social policy is also a central problem of American political ideology. It is the exhaustion of the reform movement, that combination of the Protestant social gospel and the American zeal for improvement that was the chief critic and shaper of our public life for nearly a century. In its late and most powerful stage, it went by the name of liberalism.

The two poles of its compass were charity and progress, including selfimprovement. When its vision blurred, charity came to be seen as a right, and the architects of “public improvements” too often despised the small struggles of individuals to improve their own condition, although without such efforts schemes of general improvement rarely succeed. Then the great ship drifted off to oblivion; we are caught in the pull of its sinking.

MS

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Michael A. Scully

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The central circumstance of American social policy is also a central problem of American political ideology. It is the exhaustion of the reform movement, that combination of the Protestant social gospel and the American zeal for improvement that was the chief critic and shaper of our public life for nearly a century. In its late and most powerful stage, it went by the name of liberalism.

The two poles of its compass were charity and progress, including selfimprovement. When its vision blurred, charity came to be seen as a right, and the architects of “public improvements” too often despised the small struggles of individuals to improve their own condition, although without such efforts schemes of general improvement rarely succeed. Then the great ship drifted off to oblivion; we are caught in the pull of its sinking.