Rather, they are engaged in a process of rethinking what properly ought to be the concern of others and what properly belongs to themselves. The less privacy we have over the things that matter relatively little, the more privacy we crave over the things that matter most. Living in an age of autonomy is bound to cause frustration because the things that matter most ought to matter to us all. But if Americans did not ask their institutions to crumble all around them, they seem to have gotten used to living less confined lives. That may be why the social critics of today are presenting a message that is quite different from the one offered by their predecessors a half-century ago.
Kids grow up more ambitious than absurd.
The age of autonomy, like the age of conformity, must have its critics. Autonomy does raise the prospect of people too preoccupied with their private selves to care much about the common good. But it also challenges those who emphasize the importance of the common good to take heed of what Americans find valuable about their way of life. The question is whether Americans can learn to use the autonomy they have gained to strengthen the institutions that make civil society possible. If they do not, this new age promises to be unstable.