Phillip Slater: "The Pursuit of Loneliness"

Paper Summary:

This paper discusses Phillip Slater's critique of American society in his book "The Pursuit of Loneliness: American Culture at the Breaking Point." The writer looks at the historical background of the book, and critically examines some of Slater's ideas against that background, and points out the positive side of some of the things that Slater saw as only negative, such as individualism, competitiveness, and technology. The paper concludes that even individualism may not always be negative, despite Slater's contention, as individualism, even individualism powered by the Internet, can enable someone to stand alone and advocate new ideas and philosophies.

From the Paper:

"Slater's thesis that American culture is fundamentally individualistic, and that the counterculture was fundamentally communal in its core impulses, seems somewhat surprising at first, given that in today's popular conception of the 60's counterculture, individualism seems to run rampant. Sexual freedom and doing whatever 'feels good' as opposed to what social conventions or even the law dictated, seemed to be the watchword of the day. It is easy to forget that communal living, and communal 'be-ins' were a crucial part of the hippie movement. Sexual repression, Slater believed, was the reason for antisocial individualism and focusing on personal achievements to such a degree that they subsumed all pleasure in life, all sense of connection with others. The counterculture's emphasis on pleasure freed Americans from their shared sense of duty to be the best."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Slater, Phillip. The Pursuit of Loneliness: American Culture at the Breaking Point. Boston: Beacon Press, 1971.

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