The Greening of America

Abstract

The Greening of America makes no mention of Riesman or Fromm, but its conception of “false consciousness” goes back through Fromm to Karl Marx. Most political battles in America are fought between Consciousness I and Consciousness II. Consciousness II believes that the present American crisis can be solved by greater commitment of individuals to the public interest, more social responsibility by private business, and, above all, by more affirmative government action—regulation, planning, more of a welfare state, better and more rational administration and management. Beginning with a few individuals in the mid-1960s, and gathering numbers ever more rapidly thereafter, Consciousness III has sprouted up, astonishingly and miraculously, out of the stony soil of the American Corporate State. There was another side to the American character—the harsh side of self-interest, competitiveness, suspicion of others. The apparatus for consciousness creation and manipulation is vast and formidable.