Crisis of the Common Good: The Fight for Meaning and Connection in a Broken America

Today, the United States is in a crisis—and it’s not just a political one: over fifty years, the pursuit of profit has undermined virtue and character, while too many of us have become convinced that happiness results from acting as good consumers, rather than as good citizens. New technologies threaten essential human capabilities, and a winner-takes-all mentality has given the rich and well-connected nearly uncontested control and has corrupted our government. The result: Americans have lost the sense of purpose and connection that are vital to happiness. In this vacuum, Donald Trump, feeding off the emptiness and resentment, has come to power.

In recent years, Senator Chris Murphy has stepped forward to challenge the Trump administration’s assaults on our democracy. He sees that these assaults are a symptom of a deeper crisis: the abandonment of the common good as our country’s organizing principle. In his unflinching new book, he draws on history and political philosophy to expose how six different cults have seized hold of American life and paved the way to our current troubles: cults of profit, globalism, technology, consumption, credentialism, and corruption.

Refusing despair, Murphy offers a new politics of the common good that is both deeply rooted in our past and a challenge to the status quo. A majority of Americans favor policies that confront these destructive cults by curbing corporate power, controlling predatory technology, enhancing face-to-face connection, granting workers greater control of their lives, and removing big money from our politics. The common good, Murphy shows, is a vital principle ready to be claimed today.