art of politics itself – it arises, for example, from a conflict between an individual’s basic need and their internalized social rules, or between habit and custom on one hand, and emergent needs on the other. It is this tension that accounts for the environmental stimuli that individuals react to and which directs their behavior. This approach, then, incorporates consideration of individual behavior in response to psychological needs merged with reaction to environmental stimuli as a result of tensions between individual and environmental (societal) needs. When viewed as a holistic analysis of the “collective result” (the negative or positive reality of behavior in society as a whole, though in this case the focus is the negative) this approach should offer insight for further analysis of Elshtain’s concerns.Applying an Individual/Environmental Synthesis Approach. It is now important to review the concerns originally expressed by Elshtain: (1) the growth of cynicism and the atrophy of civil society; (2) too much acquisitive individualism that translates ‘wants’ into ‘rights’; (3) an increase in disrespect of, even contempt for, the rule-governed practices that make democracy work; (4) a politics of displacement that disdains any distinction between public and private and aims to open up all aspects of life to the harsh glare of publicity; (5) the neglect of practical politics in favor of proclamations of one’s unassailable and exclusive identity as a member of a group defined by race, ethnicity, gender, or sexual preference; (6) and a waning of our ability to transmit democratic dispositions and dreams to succeeding generations through education (Elshtain, 1995: 117-118). To address these concerns in a more holistic manner according to underlying needs they are condensed into three broad theme categories as follows: (1) Growth of cynicism and atrophy of civil society; (2...
