The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self: Cultural Amnesia, Expressive Individualism, and the Road to Sexual Revolution

by Carl R. Trueman

might have highlighted the crisis in confidence in the nation-state as a unit of political organization in a world in which individualism corrodes older notions of national identity from within and globalization makes national governments increasingly impotent to address the most pressing economic problems of the day. I could have discussed the way that Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube have created a world in which life is performance art or the manner in which reality television projects the idea that outward expression of inward thoughts and feelings, however crude, is a sign of authenticity. Had I done so, I might have traced its influence even on our cultural elites, among whom, for example, politicians speaking with profanity is now considered evidence of integrity, a performance of authenticity, and openness about sexual preferences (at least those lionized by the Sittlichkeit of our culture) is an electoral asset.