ABSTRACT
In his last book, The Revolt of the Elites and the Betrayal of Democracy, the late Christopher Lasch blamed the rise of television debate (which puts a premium on appearance and unflappability rather than on the substance of argument) and the rise of "commercial persuasion". Many critics argue that the rise of state bureaucracies, converting citizens into clients, has eliminated the local meetings which served as seedbeds of public political argument. So has the rise of politics based on litigation, which downgrades all political argument not conducted in front of a judge. The hollowing out of our civic culture has many causes that help explain the decline of political debate. Starting in the 1960s, the nation's sense of itself has been deeply influenced by the rapid spread of therapies, encounter groups, self-help, the language of self-esteem and personal growth and an array of New Age notions, some of them quasi-religions based on the primacy of the self.
