ABSTRACT
Only the moral imagination can provide a version of reality that enables people to consistently satisfy the ethical demands of civilization. Despite the fear and despair caused by the Great Depression, lower- and middle-class men and women throughout the United States, who had nothing to do with its causes, continued to nobly adhere to standards of decorum codified in the Constitution. The moral imagination is sustained by the shared human experience of gracefully treating people as beautiful ends, not as utilitarian means. Viereck created a dichotomy between the cash-nexus and the dream-nexus to illustrate how the imagination can evoke a meaningful reality only from within the vital traditionalism of a historically conditioned community. Participation in a humane community stimulates the moral imagination. The public imagination is without the cultural inheritance of historical knowledge passed down through the ages that is indistinguishable from the common good. A peaceful community that celebrates its loftiest ancestors while acknowledging their flaws creates moral imagination.
