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| Stereotyped neighborhoods of greater Grand Rapids, Michigan |
David French in National Review here:
One can’t read the [Washington] Post piece without thinking of Charles Murray’s Coming Apart, perhaps the seminal book of the decade. Spend any real time on the ground in working-class America, and you’ll see all the things that Murray describes: broken families, declining church attendance, and communal alienation. Cross the tracks to the nicer side of town, and the picture changes. There is more religious engagement, more civic involvement, and a healthier sense of shared responsibility and pride. ... The complex nature of the crisis should not be a license to avoid facing its ultimate truth head on: America’s working class is in the grips of a malady far more spiritual than material. We can spend trillions more, but safety nets won’t save the human soul.
Religious engagement, but only on their side of the tracks. Civic involvement, but only on their side of the tracks. A sense of shared responsibility and pride, but only on their side of the tracks.
The tracks!
But woe unto you that are rich! for ye have received your consolation. Woe unto you that are full! for ye shall hunger. Woe unto you that laugh now! for ye shall mourn and weep. -- Luke 6:24f.
