Five Jeopardized Pillars of our Culture

According to Jane Jacobs, there are five jeopardized pillars of our culture, perhaps past which our culture becomes unsalvagable, irrelevant, and unstable. These are:

1. community and family,
2. higher education,
3. the effective practice of science and science-based technology,
4. taxes and governmental powers directly in touch with needs and possibilities, and
5. self-policing by the learned professions

Jacobs does not expect this list to be comprehensive. These are the pillars showing “ominous signs of decay” in her eyes. Further, other cultural failings subject to 24-7 TV news punditry, think-tanking, and multiple single-issue movements fall under the umbrella of these five pillars. Think of them as symptoms or signs, such as racism, environmental destruction, crime, and income inequality.

Over the next four chapters, Jacobs steps out of the prevaling, historically foreshortened perspective. Bit by bit, there’s little radical or new. She’ll admit as much. What’s worth paying attention to is the narrative she weaves together. Stick with me throughout much of June and let’s see where she gets.