A bird's-eye view of Roger Scuton's Scrutopia ...
According to Sir Roger, traditions and attachments to place and home are precious as they give order and meaning to life. They fill a basic human need. Once destroyed, they cannot be brought back. The English countryside with its rolling hills, lush hedges, and vividly green pastures dotted by sheep and other livestock and ancient local traditions is a splendid reflection of the human endeavor of making a home in the world, a taming of and harmony with nature. Its cultural traditions, albeit under threat, attest to a community in harmony. Yet America is a country with only a few traditions and fleeting local attachments. Its landscapes, with its industrialized agriculture on the one hand and its sublime natural wilderness on the other, are no match for the bucolic and inviting landscape of Gloucestershire. “Home” in America carries a different sort of meaning.
According to Sir Roger, traditions and attachments to place and home are precious as they give order and meaning to life. They fill a basic human need. Once destroyed, they cannot be brought back. The English countryside with its rolling hills, lush hedges, and vividly green pastures dotted by sheep and other livestock and ancient local traditions is a splendid reflection of the human endeavor of making a home in the world, a taming of and harmony with nature. Its cultural traditions, albeit under threat, attest to a community in harmony. Yet America is a country with only a few traditions and fleeting local attachments. Its landscapes, with its industrialized agriculture on the one hand and its sublime natural wilderness on the other, are no match for the bucolic and inviting landscape of Gloucestershire. “Home” in America carries a different sort of meaning.
America was founded on an ideal, not the concrete reality of a shared history or local attachment. It is, therefore, no wonder that the identification with abstract ideals continues to play such a crucial role in American society.
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