Volume 28, Number 19 · December 3, 1981
Happy Endings
By Christopher Lasch
New Rules:Searching for Self-Fulfillmentin a World Turned Upside Down
by Daniel Yankelovich
Random House, 278 pp., $15.95
The latest report on cultural trends—another 'benchmark of our changing consciousness,' as Daniel Bell generously describes it on the jacket—comes from the founder and president of Yankelovich, Skelly & White, Inc. The polls conducted by his firm over the last twenty years, according to Daniel Yankelovich, indicate that Americans have rejected the old 'ethic of self-denial' in favor of an 'ethic of self-fulfillment.' They no longer believe in the virtue of scrimping and saving to get ahead. Surfeited with material goods, they seek deeper satisfactions—'meaningful' work, meaningful human relationships. They are more concerned with the quality of life than with piling up possessions. Having come to understand the psychic costs of competitive status-seeking, they wish to set their own goals, design their own 'alternative life-styles.' They seek intangibles—'creativity, leisure, autonomy, pleasure, participation, community, adventure, vitality, stimulation, tender loving care.'
Review, 2799 words
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