February 01, 2001
Isn't it ironic? Rebuilding 'the commons' in an age of skepticism
How can we keep the public arena alive and well in a culture that the journal Hermenaut has called a culture of “fake authenticity,” marked by ironic humor and pre-fabricated “authentic” Irish pubs? Echoing Stephen Carter’s words to Emory last year, Purdy reminds us that public life is not something that exists on its own, but something that exists only insofar as we actively participate in it.
Purdy finds himself struggling to make sense of a culture that refuses to take anything too seriously for fear of being disappointed. Unlike in previous eras that were marked by a “Promethean” politics that attempted to change the world, today we find ourselves hedging on any commitment to work publicly for a better future. We have resigned ourselves, Purdy laments, to the belief that it has all been done before, that “we are farce rather than tragedy” (28).
The diagnosis? We have given ourselves over too much to a self-inflicted irony, hyper-aware of our own shortcomings and convinced that all public speech is either politics or advertising. In a reversal of the classical understanding, “public” has come to signify what is second-rate, run-down, and undesirable; “private” has shed the root meaning it once shared with “privation” or “deprived” and now signifies what is top-notch, well-run, and worthwhile.
Bucking this trend, Purdy urges us to rebuild public life, which he calls “the commons.” The commons is comprised of a moral ecology—our individual choices and dispositions—a social ecology—our political and civic institutions—and the natural world. Contributions in any of these spheres, he encourages, should count as real contributions to our larger public life.
At its base, public life is maintained by thousands of small acts of trust. Many may now doubt that civic action can make any significant changes in the world, but Purdy argues that even a resurgence of efforts to maintain civic life would net significant improvements. Putting our emotional roots down in a specific place, working at “making one corner of the world as sane as possible” (193), requires that we take risks to move beyond our ironic dispositions, even if their skepticism has some basis in reality. He urges, “Skepticism in public life finds an answer not in mere declaration, but in people who make public responsibility an integral part of themselves” (200).
For Common Things: Irony, Trust, and Commitment in America Today. By Jedediah Purdy. Vintage, 232pp. $12.00.
Three responses to a culture of irony
The Jerry Seinfeld
Too skeptical about himself to commit to a greater ambition, too ambigous to outright betray, the Seinfeld evades commitment to public life with a dry sarcasm.
The Angel Watcher
With bumper stickers that read “Magic Happens” and “Mean People Suck,” the Angel Watcher refuses to deal with the ugly in public life, preferring a therapeutic politics instead.
The Free Agent/Digerati
The ideal reader of Fast Company or Wired Magazine, the Free Agent abandons public life in search of “a shopping trip without end.” Says, “You can’t change the world, so you might as well get ahead in it.”
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