Contrary to Schumpeter, this system depends more on creative solutions than on corrosive destruction. When he was seated on a raised platform at his friend's bar mitzvah in the 1,950s, adored by the adults seated below, lie and his fortunate friends were, to an older generation scarred by the Great Depression, the Holocaust, and the Second World War, symbols of life, prosperity, and hope. One can sympathize fully with the bedazzlement of the long-suffering older generation seated at their feet, and understand why it seemed so important to them to raise up these young ones for all the world to see and admire. These young were their triumph over all the forces of evil and darkness of our century. Culture is deeper than politics or economics.
Culture kills-or gives life.
Bosworth takes a wrong turn when he blames the economics of producing and consuming for what has gone wrong in the life of the spirit today. That was Marx's turn. To take that turn is already to diminish the power of the human spirit. It is to confer on mere economic habits the power to predetermine everything else. Give me the means of production, I'll mold a new human being.