Debating the Good Society: A Quest to Bridge America's Moral Divide [Hardcover]

Andrew Bard Schmookler (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 7, 1999

Through the ingenious means of a fictional Internet conversation among two dozen or so Americans from various walks of life and every shade of the ideological spectrum, Debating the Good Society probes two questions lying at the heart of the ongoing culture war in contemporary America: Where does goodness come from, and how is good social order to be achieved?Traditionalists and conservatives, who tend to view human nature as inherently sinful, argue that good order must be imposed from above, by parental authority and ruling powers, by the forces of law and tradition, and, ultimately, by God. Counterculturalists and liberals, who tend to believe in the inherent goodness of human nature, claim that well-supported children will develop into well-ordered adults and that adults empowered to make their own choices will form a healthy, well-ordered society. These opposing visions underlie a host of current controversies, including philosophies of child-rearing and education, social and political policy, sexual morality, and the evolution-creation debate.By exposing the limitations of both points of view, Andrew Bard Schmookler shows how the culture war presents a challenge to all Americans. This challenge is to integrate the half-truths advanced by both sides into a higher wisdom, one that promises to take the American experiment -- to see whether humans can enjoy both the blessings of liberty and the fruits of good order -- to the next level of its evolution, toward which it has been straining for the better part of a century.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

NPR host Schmookler (The Parable of the Tribes: The Problem of Power in Social Evolution, SUNY, 1995. 2d ed.) has cleverly created a fictional Internet discussion group as the means of presenting a vital topic: the good society. The participants take different positions on the sources of goodness and social order. On one side, the traditionalists argue that human nature is sinful and authority is imperative. On the other side are those who argue that humans are by nature good and will on their own form a good society. Anyone even minimally aware of the state of the world knows that the truth lies in between, and that is where Schmookler leads his audience. One's position here determines one's view of the function of law, authority, education, public policy, and more. Books like this make for an enlightened citizenry and should be welcomed in most libraries.AJohn Moryl, Yeshiva Univ. Lib., New York
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Kirkus Reviews

The author of Out of Weakness (1988) and several other books about society and power, war and peace, here explores and moderates the major points of long-standing disagreements between pessimistic conservatives and optimistic liberals. The books fictional format adds contemporary appeal to this ancient debate, as we hear from a wide variety of people and opinions allegedly interacting in an Internet chat room. Most of the contributors are even more abnormally intelligent than NPR listeners (the author is an NPR host and sounds like one), making their points with quotes from Plato, Blake, Kant, Nietzsche, even Hillary Clinton. Schmooklers hefty tome is quite engaging, but too dense to read in large increments. Specific instances of the order versus freedom theme arise in law, politics, evolution, cultural expression, and child rearing, the latter allowing Schmookler to make long digressions about his family and to introduce the nature versus nurture controversy. As a father, he wants to avoid the extremes of being a totalitarian control freak or the best-friend daddy of a slacker. We wait to see whether his son, the ``Adam'' and litmus of all these philosophical debates, will cure himself of his addiction to Nintendo games, or whether the author will have to play God and lay down the law. A teacher deplores youthful rebellion and defends school rules: ``If we didnt get them used to discipline at the outset, just think of how wild theyd be then!'' Arguing in favor of letting the young find their way, a cartoon depicts older pigs snorting at the young pigs escaping under their fencebut the sign above them reads ``Acme Sausage Company.'' The only winner of the debate is the reader, who learns from this valuable book that truths lie in the middle. -- Copyright ©1999, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 422 pages
• Publisher: The MIT Press; 1St Edition edition (May 7, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0262194147
• ISBN-13: 978-0262194143
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.3 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.9 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #545,229 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Liberalism and Conservatism Reconciled, August 8, 1999

By 

[e-mail] (Boston, Massachusetts) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Debating the Good Society: A Quest to Bridge America's Moral Divide (Hardcover)

A brilliantly insightful book, dauntless in its pursuit of the truth. I felt after reading it that I had a profoundly greater understanding of what it means to seek and possess Truth. The book embodies intriguing paradoxes: grand scope yet intimate style, rigorous with ease, liberating sense of constraint, and forceful humility. Most startling of all, the author manages to reconcile the irreconcilable: liberalism and conservatism.

Dr. Schmookler focuses his considerable acumen, intellectual honesty, and strong sense of the sacred onto the bitter culture war in the United States and the timeless pursuit of good social order. He illustrates how our diverse and sincere beliefs about creating good order polarize us effectively into two opposed camps: the conservative, top-down traditionalists (asserting the sovereignty of God, religion, and of the resultant mores and jurisprudence) and the liberal, bottom-up counterculturalists (espousing the sovereignty of the individual and his/her particular appetites, fancies, and liberties. The author notes that these two groups, each possessing part of the truth yet talking past each other, have stopped learning from each other, failing to agree entirely even on what constitutes the "good".

Schmookler reveals how the process of open deliberation, so valued by both sides, has shut down, thus stifling our mutual growth. He then cogently and decisively demonstrates the limitations and inadequacies of each entrenched position. And finally, in the manner of dialectics, the author proceeds to integrate the conservative thesis with the liberal antithesis to create a higher synthesis, a larger truth. We are invited along on this quest of discovery, to confront our assumptions where we thought there were none, to find national healing where we thought it impossible.

The book's format, inspired and innovative, consists of a fictional internet discussion among Americans from a variety of religious and political backgrounds. Their spirited, e-mailed messages are interspersed with several anecdotal interludes, which are charming in their wit, honesty, and occasional pathos. Perhaps more than anything, the book is a demonstration of the process of healthy, engaged debate between participants who each possess an important part of a larger wisdom. We are ultimately given an appreciation that human truths are, like human knowledge, far too expansive to be found in the locus of a single human being, liberal or conservative; that even the prophets of God are subject to human foibles. True to its premise, the book eschews any pat answers but offers us hope and an encounter with the sacred.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A fascinating brainstorm on making ours a humane society., August 20, 1999

By 

T. Grimsrud (Harrisonburg, VA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Debating the Good Society: A Quest to Bridge America's Moral Divide (Hardcover)

Schmookler creates a fictional "on-line" discussion with a wide spectrum of participants (probably my favorite is "Fred", a philosophical anarchist) who share their thinking on the state of our society's soul - and how to move it toward the "good." Ranging from liberal, secular humanists to New Age thinkers to voices from the Christian right, Schmookler's discussants probe and argue and grow in insight.

The authenticity of these various voices reflects Schmookler's own impressive listening ability, as well as his commitment to inclusiveness as one of the pillars of the "good society."

The discussion traverses a great deal of territory, lingering perhaps the longest on how various people understand human nature and the relevance of this understanding for social philosophy. As the book approaches its denouement, Schmookler exercises his author's prerogative to articulate his own perspective. Schmookler's own view, which I find quite attractive, moves in a nonreductionistic, evolutionary direction with a high level of optimism about human possibilities.

A touching subplot traces Schmookler's reflections about and hopes for his young son.

A fun read, stimulating and inspiring - maybe most of all a challenge for all of us to cultivate the art of listening.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Thank you, Mr. Schmookler!, July 30, 2000

By 

"nonicknameexists" - See all my reviews

This review is from: Debating the Good Society: A Quest to Bridge America's Moral Divide (Hardcover)

Thanks for making my bedtime reading a true learning experience. I appreciate your sincerity, especially as I am a father of two toddlers. The book took a long time to read, but I hated to see it end just the same. If only most Americans would think things out to the extent that these e-mail characters do!

I appreciated the attempt to include as many points of view as possible, but I did notice some conspicuous absences. I would have liked to hear the opinion, for example, of someone on the radical left. No, I don't simply mean someone who opposed the Vietnam War thirty years ago, but someone who sees much of the current American situation as a result of corporate domination over government and the media. This theme was touched on here and there, but not represented by a consistent voice.

Perhaps even more conspicuous in its absence was the lack of a religious voice outside that of Fundamentalist Protestantism (with the exception of a liberal minister who is confused about where morality comes from and is the least confident of his position of all of the contributors). I mean, certainly there are other Christian approaches to the questions put forth besides the simplistic, Bible-has-all-the-answers one put forth by "Kenneth" and "Carl," for example, a Reformed perspective in which faith and science are seen as complementary rather than in tension. And there was not much representation of other religious perspectives at all, with the exception of one brief quote from a Muslim and some pseudo-Taoist prattle.

These exceptions do not necessarily weaken the book, however. The one thing that saddened me as I finished it was that so many Americans are unwilling to undertake this kind of exploration. Again, thanks!