People of every age think that their times are unprecedented. In a sense they must be right, for history does not repeat itself, except (at most) analogically. And if politics in the United States had been polarised before, the current extreme polarisation seems to have a new and especially embittered quality to it, such that the only way in which people of differing political outlooks can be in a room together in a reasonably sociable fashion is by holding their tongues and avoiding many subjects. If not, the temperature rises at once and real hatred or contempt emerges. This is not a good augury for a free society, though it is perfectly compatible with a democratic one, if by democracy is meant the rule of the majority. The distinction between freedom and democracy is not one that Ronnie Janoff-Bulman, author of The Two Moralities, makes.
An emeritus professor of psychology, she is alarmed by the polarisation of politics in the United States, but the title of her book seems hardly likely to assist in healing the breach. By using the definite article, she suggests that east is east and west is west, and never the twain shall meet. If the book had been titled Two Moralities, rather than The Two Moralities, a compromise might have been hoped for; but the use of the definite article forces a choice between them.
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Theodore Dalrymple is a contributing editor of City Journal and a Senior Fellow at the Manhattan Institute.
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