ABSTRACT
This chapter originated in an invitation to write a paper on politics and the American soul, an almost impossible task that only fools might undertake. The chapter eventually took shape in two sections. The first section focuses on the nature of the individual soul and the collective or group soul. Imagined as a journey in space and time, the author posits the discovery of the soul of the individual and the soul of the nation as occurring at an intersection between the two. There is no assumption that the soul of the nation is unitary. As an example, a journey to the heartland of America that the author took with his family to bury the ashes of his beloved mother-in-law is discussed in this chapter. The second section explores the idea that the soul of the nation is forged or dismembered in the crucible of core cultural complexes working themselves out over time and generations in the national and regional psyches. It defines seven fundamental cultural complexes of the United States and examines how they express themselves in specific political conflicts.
