imported>Spicemix: /* Criticism */ MOS:DOUBLE

2025-09-07T22:38:40Z

Criticism: MOS:DOUBLE

New page

{{Short description|1976 essay on American culture by Tom Wolfe}}
{{Infobox book
| italic title = no
| name = The "Me" Decade and the Third Great Awakening
| image = Cover of New York magazine, 23 August 1976.jpg
| image_size =
| alt =
| caption = Cover of August 23, 1976, issue of ''[[New York (magazine)|New York]]'' magazine in which the essay first appeared
| author = [[Tom Wolfe]]
| audio_read_by =
| title_orig =
| orig_lang_code =
| title_working =
| translator =
| illustrator =
| cover_artist =
| country = United States
| language = English
| series =
| release_number =
| subject =
| genre =
| set_in =
| published = {{release date|df=yes|1976|8|23}}
| publisher =
| publisher2 =
| pub_date =
| english_pub_date =
| media_type =
| pages =
| awards =
| isbn =
| isbn_note =
| oclc =
| dewey =
| congress =
| preceded_by =
| followed_by =
| native_wikisource =
| wikisource =
| notes =
| exclude_cover =
| website =
}}
"'''The {{'}}Me{{'}} Decade and the Third Great Awakening'''" is an essay by American author [[Tom Wolfe]], in which Wolfe coined the phrase {{" '}}Me' Decade", a term that became common as a descriptor for the 1970s. The essay was first published as the [[wikt:cover story|cover story]] in the August 23, 1976, issue of ''[[New York (magazine)|New York]]'' magazine<ref name="newyork"/> and later appeared in his collection ''[[Mauve Gloves & Madmen, Clutter & Vine]]''.<ref name="mauve"/>

In one of the essay's most famous passages, exemplifying his style of description, Wolfe called [[Jimmy Carter]] a "[[Missionary Baptists|Missionary]] lectern-pounding Amen ten-finger C-major-chord Sister-Martha-at-the-[[Yamaha Corporation|Yamaha]]-keyboard loblolly [[wiktionary:backwoods#Adjective|piney-woods]] [[Southern Baptist Convention|Baptist]]."<ref name=mauve />{{rp|134}}

==Origin of the term {{" '}}Me' Decade"==
{{Quote box
|quote = ...The old [[Alchemy|alchemical]] dream was changing base metals into gold. The new alchemical dream is: changing one's personality – remaking, remodeling, elevating, and polishing one's very ''self''... and observing, studying, and doting on it. (Me!)...
|author = [[Tom Wolfe]]
|width = 25%
|source = The "Me" Decade
}}

The term "'Me' Decade" describes a general new attitude of Americans in the 1970s, in the direction of [[atomism (social)|atomized]] [[individualism]] and away from [[communitarianism]], in clear contrast with social values prevalent in the United States during the 1960s.<ref name="perspectives" />

Wolfe asserts the disappearance of the socioeconomic class he calls the "[[proletariat]]", in parallel with the concurrent appearance of an American "[[American middle class#Lower middle class|lower middle class]]". He cites the [[Post–World War II economic expansion|economic boom of postwar America]] as affording the average American a new sense of [[self-determination]] and [[individuation]] associated with the widespread economic prosperity. Wolfe describes the resulting abandoning of [[Communitarianism|communal]], [[Progressive Era|progressive]], and [[Modern liberalism in the United States#New Deal|New Deal-style]] politics as "taking the money and running". He traces the preoccupation with [[self]] and [[self-development]] back to the [[aristocracy|aristocratic]] European [[gentry]]. Wolfe states that the "[[chivalry|chivalric]] tradition" and the philosophy behind "the [[finishing school]]" are inherently dedicated to the building and forming of [[personal development|personal character]] and conduct.<ref name="newyork" />

Wolfe believes that the [[counterculture of the 1960s]] and the [[New Left]] school of thought promoted a recovery of the self in a flawed and corrupt America, a philosophy extended in the 1970s with a spreading idea that use of the drug [[Lysergic acid diethylamide|LSD]], commonly known as "acid", would unveil a [[true self and false self|true and real self]]. He describes the revelatory experience of [[hallucinogen]]s as similar to, even competitive with, [[religious ecstasy]], transforming the religious climate in America. Wolfe chronicles the American periods of [[Christian revival]] known as the First and Second [[Great Awakening]]s, to which he analogizes the 1970s and their dominant social trends. He argues that the "Me" Decade of the 1970s is a "Third Great Awakening".<ref name="newyork" />

==Criticism==
In his influential 1979 book ''[[The Culture of Narcissism]]'', cultural historian [[Christopher Lasch]] states that Wolfe "inadvertently provides evidence that undermines a religious interpretation of the 'consciousness movement{{'"}} and quotes Wolfe as saying "most people, historically, have ''not'' lived their lives as if thinking 'I have only one life to live'. Instead they lived as if they were living their ancestors' and their offspring's lives".<ref name="Christopher Lasch 1979">{{cite book|first=Christopher|last=Lasch|title=The Culture of Narcissism: American Life in an Age of Diminishing Expectations|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7zhc7oT80SQC&pg=PA6|year=1979|publisher=W. W. Norton&Company, Inc|isbn=0393348350}}</ref>

==See also==
* [[Counterculture of the 1960s]]
* [[Great Awakening]]
* ''[[Mauve Gloves & Madmen, Clutter & Vine]]''
* [[Me generation]]
* [[Self-help]]

==References==
{{Reflist|refs=


<ref name=newyork>{{cite journal|last=Wolfe|first=Tom|author-link=Tom Wolfe|title=The "Me" Decade and the Third Great Awakening|journal=[[New York (magazine)|New York]]|date=23 August 1976|publisher=[[Condé Nast]]|place=New York|url=https://nymag.com/news/features/45938/|accessdate=2 February 2014|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20131127072351/https://nymag.com/news/features/45938/|archivedate=27 November 2013|url-status=live}}</ref>

<ref name=mauve>{{cite book|last=Wolfe|first=Tom|author-link=Tom Wolfe|title=Mauve Gloves & Madmen, Clutter & Vine|publisher=[[Farrar, Straus and Giroux]]|location=New York|isbn=0374204241|pages=126–167|chapter=The "Me" Decade and the Third Great Awakening|year=1976|lccn=76043968|title-link=Mauve Gloves & Madmen, Clutter & Vine}}</ref>

<ref name=perspectives>{{Cite journal | journal = Perspectives on Political Science | year = 2005 | volume = 34 | issue = 1 | pages = 16–26 | doi = 10.3200/PPSC.34.1.16-26 | title = The Pursuit of Happiness, American Style: Tom Wolfe's Study of Status and Freedom | last = McNamara | first = Carol| s2cid = 144767425 }}</ref>

}}

==External links==
* [https://nymag.com/news/features/45938/ The "Me" Decade and the Third Great Awakening], ''New York''

{{Tom Wolfe}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Me Decade And The Third Great Awakening, The}}
[[Category:1976 essays]]
[[Category:Essays by Tom Wolfe]]
[[Category:Individualism]]
[[Category:Works originally published in New York (magazine)]]
[[Category:Cultural depictions of Jimmy Carter]]
[[Category:Articles with quotation marks in the title]]

The "Me" Decade and the Third Great Awakening - Revision history

imported>Spicemix: /* Criticism */ MOS:DOUBLE