An enquiry into the moral conceptions of some New Zealand school children

The world today has special concern with morality not that its people are less moral, but rather that two agencies in particular have acted to bring about conditions in which a high standard of morality is difficult to attain. First, the industrial conditions of the Great Society produced the Nation, which, according to Rabindranath Tagore, is an organisation of power breaking the living bonds society, giving place to a mechanical structure, so that the full reality of man is more and more crushed beneath its weight. Secondly the disintegrating influence of Democracy, accelerated by the situation which arose from the World War, has produced a renewed disposition to scrutinise opinion about all sanctions of conduct, whether legal, moral or religious, so that "what is sometimes called 'authority' does not count for what it did. Questions are being raised with freedom that is fresh, about the formulas which express the various kinds of faith."

An enquiry into the moral conceptions of some New Zealand school children

The world today has special concern with morality not that its people are less moral, but rather that two agencies in particular have acted to bring about conditions in which a high standard of morality is difficult to attain. First, the industrial conditions of the Great Society produced the Nation, which, according to Rabindranath Tagore, is an organisation of power breaking the living bonds society, giving place to a mechanical structure, so that the full reality of man is more and more crushed beneath its weight. Secondly the disintegrating influence of Democracy, accelerated by the situation which arose from the World War, has produced a renewed disposition to scrutinise opinion about all sanctions of conduct, whether legal, moral or religious, so that "what is sometimes called 'authority' does not count for what it did. Questions are being raised with freedom that is fresh, about the formulas which express the various kinds of faith."

Foreshadowing the Civil Rights Counter-Revolution

After overseeing the adoption of two landmark civil rights proposals in 1964 and 1965, the Johnson administration and its allies in Congress sought to implement the third item of its broader agenda: a legal prohibition on racial discrimination in the sale and rental of housing. Enacting fair housing legislation, however, proved to be a vexing process. Advocates had to win support from northern White Democrats skeptical of the policy, as well as Republicans who were often (and increasingly) unreliable allies. Fair housing legislation failed in 1966 (89th Congress) but passed two years later, during the 90th Congress. We provide a legislative policy history detailing how, after three tumultuous years, Congress came to enact the fair housing provision of the Civil Rights Act of 1968. Overall, the battle to enact fair housing legislation presaged a dynamic that would take hold as the Great Society gave way to the Nixon years: once federal civil rights policies started to bear directly on the lives of White northerners, they became much harder to pass and implement. It also showcased the moment at which the Republican Party in Congress first moved to the right on civil rights and explicitly adopted a position of racial conservatism.

The Virtuous Teachings of Abu Nasir al-Farabi

The article, defining the weight of Al-Farabi's works in the XXI century, outlines its origins, the importance of philosophical, political, socio-ethical concepts in modern society. First, it examines the viability of Al-Farabi's ideology of government. Secondly, scientific works reveal the significance of the theory of goodness, happiness, education and upbringing in modern society, demonstrate the scientific guidelines of the path to the continuous aspiration of a person for perfection, to the relentless dream of finding happiness. Thirdly, the formation and development of humanistic values in the philosophy of Al-Farabi is analyzed from the standpoint of philosophical discourse. The scholar's view that a focus on justice and morality is essential to building a great society is studied as a good path stemming from humanity's desire to evolve and achieve happiness. The Islamic context of a humane city is revealed. The article explains the well-being of a virtuous society, the completeness of relationships in the context of the Muslim religious worldview. The importance of the problem of the heart in building a good society is emphasized,ideological continuity and harmony with Abai are demonstrated. It is said that the heart can be an object of deep contemplation, anticipation of events, awareness of their nature, understanding of their causes and wisdom. It is noted that the concept of the heart in the work of Al-Farabi is an independent subject of research, which will be further considered in continuity with religious texts.

Huey Newton’s Lessons for the Academic Left

The Black Panther Party was founded to bridge the radical theorizing that swept college campuses in the mid-1960s and the lumpen proletariat abandoned by the so-called ‘Great Society’. However, shortly thereafter, Newton began to harshly criticize the academic Left in general for their drive to find ‘a set of actions and a set of principles that are easy to identify and are absolute.’ This article reconstructs Newton’s critique of progressive movements grounded primarily in academic debates, as well as his conception of vanguard political theory. Newton’s grasp of revolution as a gradual, open, and above all dialectical process, not only provides a corrective to many dominant academic accounts of the nature of progressive change but, more importantly, it also grounds an emancipatory philosophy that can direct collective struggle, precisely because it remains grounded in the imperfect and internally conflicted lives of those whose freedom is to be won through it.

CommentsFor Pragmatic Romanticism in Law and Dispute Resolution: Reflections on Galanter’s Remarkably Realistic Analysis of Why the Have-Nots Come Out Behind

The 1960s was a time of great hope for many Americans seeking to redress historic injustices to make a better world. They were inspired by Warren Court decisions such as Brown v. Board of Education, President Lyndon B. Johnson’s Great Society legislation, and public interest lawyers bringing impact litigation and representing disadvantaged populations. These developments inspired tremendous optimism that law and litigation would be vital instruments of social progress....

Addressing Systemic Racial Injustice in the United States from the War on Poverty to Social Enterprise to Black Lives Matter

Despite the many years of reform since the Civil Rights movement, racial justice in the United States has remained elusive because of the endemic nature of racism and anti-Blackness at all levels of American society, including the structures of the welfare state. Using a critical race theory approach, this article examines the evolution of structural social policies from the Great Society of the 1960s to the devolved entrepreneurialism of neoliberalism at the turn of the millennium. If the large-scale social programs of the American welfare state were seen as the only entity with sufficient capacity to collectively change structural racism in the Great Society, neoliberalism brought an austere decentralized vision of social policy that sought to roll back collective security in favor of individual responsibility and risk. Social enterprise emerged in the 1990s as a highly touted method to achieve social justice on the grassroots level amidst the rise of neoliberal ideologies that hollowed out many of the core programs of the American social welfare state. Many extolled the value of social enterprise as a rigorous way to apply efficient business methods to social welfare without taking into account the history of Black enterprise. The neoliberal logic of social enterprise ultimately deters systemic thinking because it focuses on individual abilities and uplift, rather than institutional and structural change. The article ends by reflecting on how the radical imagination of social movements like Black Lives Matter might contribute to achieving racial justice in the United States by re-envisioning collective welfare.

Friedrich A. von Hayek e il problema della solidarietà

In the development of science and of a democracy, competition represents the highest form of collaboration. The same applies in the free market economic system that supports political freedom and corresponds to the most secure source of extended welfare. However, Hayek warns that The «Great Society» is seriously threatened by the comeback of the social-ism’s «tribal ethic»: «the concept of ‘social justice’ has been the Trojan horse for the entrance of the totalitarism». By saying this, he does not deny the value of solidarity. The Great Society can allow itself to help those in need, and actually it must do it. Resumen. La competizione nello sviluppo della scienza e nella vita di una democrazia costituisce la piü alta forma di collaborazione, cosí come lo é nell’economia di mercato - sistema económico che sta a base delle liberta politiche e che é la fonte maggiormente sicura del piü esteso benessere. La Grande Societá, tuttavia, é seriamente minacciata - ammonisce Hayek - dalla riaffermazione dell»’etica tribale» del socialismo: «il concertó di ‘giustizia sociale’ é stato il cavallo di Troia tramite il quale ha fatto il suo ingresso il totalitarismo». Con ció Hayek non nega affatto il valore della solidarietá, in quanto la Grande Societá puó permettersi di aiutare i piü deboli e deve farlo.

Neighbourhood exceptionalism and racial liberalism in the Great Society city: integration as civic showpiece at St Louis’ LaClede Town

This article analyses the role of LaClede Town, a nationally lauded housing development in St Louis (USA), in metropolitan and national contests over race, segregation and urban equity from the 1960s to 1990s. Built on the site of a massive slum-clearance project, the federally supported complex gained widespread fame for its startlingly heterogeneous racial mix and ostensibly colour-blind lifestyles. As the article argues, the quasi-utopian language applied to the neighbourhood illustrates the contours and limitations of a 1960s racial liberalism that sought to overcome structural inequalities through face-to-face neighbourly contact. Yet the project's 1990s demise signals that older ideology's supersession by a newly dominant urban neoliberalism.