America Between Jesus and Faust

In my Saturday column I dabbled in a peculiar kind of optimism about the American future, arguing that if we can avoid various forms of self-destruction over the next decade or two, we might find ourselves in a better position than almost any peer or rival — as an aging world’s last bastion of dynamism and growth, possibly centered around the New America taking shape in the Sun Belt cities and the West. ...But in American history, those unrestrained impulses have usually been checked by rival visions, Christian and otherwise, that are themselves also ambitious, developmentalist, exploration-oriented — but that seek humane forms of economic growth, the wise use of new technologies, a moral discernment about scientific achievements but not the rejection of their fruits. However attenuated and fragmented, those impulses still exist — more so, I would say, in our country than in any rival power or alternative cultural redoubt — and I think they still offer the best chance to battle the chronic illness of decadence without bargaining our humanity away.