Market-based economies are beset by a paradox, Daniel Bell argued in The Cultural Contradictions of Capitalism (1976). Capitalism, he said, could not flourish in societies where certain attitudes and habits were rare. Of particular importance are the virtues comprehended by the term “deferred gratification”: industry, thrift, sobriety, punctuality, and self-restraint. The problem is that as capitalism flourishes, the experience of living in unprecedented and increasing prosperity undermines these virtues; they come to seem unnecessary, anachronistic, and even risible.
The contradictions Bell discussed come to mind while reading Steven Hayward's reflections on nationalism's place in today's political controversies. Hayward's Liberty Forum essay employs familiar terms—liberal, Left, conservative—even as his analysis reveals that the phenomenon of nationalism's becoming a central political question has rendered uncertain the meaning and boundaries of these categories. The question is whether the ambiguities are, themselves, new phenomena or simply the manifestation of contradictions latent in liberalism and conservatism.
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