The True and Only Heaven: Progress and Its Critics by Christopher Lasch
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The True and Only Heaven: Progress and Its Critics was written by Christopher Lasch. Lasch was a history professor at the University of Rochester when this book was published. In The True and Only Heaven, Lasch analyzed Western civilization in general and the United States in particular. Lasch traced the decline of the United States and the massive social problems from which it suffered. In his view, this deterioration has culminated in the current lack of moral fiber and attachment to a belief in progress at any cost in the society. This somewhat harsh assessment was only part of Lasch's main focus. He carried out an in-depth exploration of the intellectual and social history of progress over the past few centuries. The author contends that major social problems have been created because progress was defined in terms of satisfying insatiable human wants. Lasch called this perpetration of the right to wants fulfillment a false value. The title of Lasch's book was taken from a quotation in Nathaniel Hawthorne's "The Celestial Railroad." In the section which contains the title, Hawthorne laments society's habit of mistaking the pleasures and profits of the physical, sensual world for the true and only heaven. In the United States, ideals such as civic virtue, the need to recognize limits, meaningful work, and a higher concept of life have been sacrificed to this perverted pursuit of progress, according to Lasch. In the introduction, Lasch wrote that neither side
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es of an better way of life based on family, church and neighborhood that favors communal vitality and emphasizes fortitude and personal honor over individual success.
One of the little-known groups Lasch discusses in this work is the Syndicalists. The Syndicalist movement developed in 19th century France. A socialist political movement, it called for control of the economy by organized labor and the abolition of the State. Georges Sorel was one of the theorist of the movement. However, as Lasch notes, Sorel was so inconsistent, sloppy, disorganized and confused in his thinking and writing that eventually even the Syndicalist rejected him (Lasch 304).
Sorel was claimed to have asserted that violent revolution by trade unionists was the only means by which socialism could triumph. He was accused of openly advocating boycotts, general strikes, and sabotage as weapons to be used to achieve the goals of a workers' commonwealth. While Lasch acknowledges Sorel's transgressions, he still considers Sorel's overall contributions significant. Despite that, Lasch maintains that Sorel's work cannot be discounted because other theorists and historians disagreed with it, misrepresented it, or found it too pessimistic. He attribute
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Approximate Word count = 7360
Approximate Pages = 29 (250 words per page)
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