John W. Gardner wrote Self-Renewal: The Individual and the Innovative Society in 1963. That was a time of great hope for both the individual and society, before the assassination of President Kennedy (for whom Gardner worked), the Vietnam war, Watergate, and the general decline of the American Dream. The book has not stood well the test of time. Twenty-five years later, in a very changed world, Gardner's simple optimism seems naive. Of course, optimism is a good attitude for anyone hoping to live and be creative in a troubled world. However, the idea that "toughminded optimism" is "immensely important" (xii-xiii) does not make a great book, or even a great slim (127 pages of text proper) book.
Gardner's work, therefore, should be viewed in its historical context and should be taken for what it is. Self-Renewal is a self-help book for the individual and for the society. He advocates all of the important values which the creative individual should hold dear, and which the society should encourage:
. . . Renewal--of societies and of individuals--depends in some measure on motivation, commitment, conviction, the values men live by, the things that give meaning to their lives (xxi).
Gardner also is careful in noting that "Apathy and lowered motivation are the most widely noted characteristics of a civilization in decline. Apathetic men and women accomplish nothing" (xxi). Therefore, to bring about a society in which much will be accomplished, individuals, leaders and organization in society should not be apathetic, but should be motivated and committed.
One cannot fault Gardner for these positive thoughts-for-the-day. However, he seems to be completely unaware that American society is designed today for one purpose--the making of money. There was much more idealism in the Kennedy years, when Gardner offered these ideas, than there are in the last years of the century. Despite the fact that he wrote a new Foreword for th...