The historical collapses of once-great empires such as Athens and Rome began with a collective giving-up, a resignation among the people that it no longer really mattered to them whether their country survived or fell. Weakened economies, political instability, and cultural uncertainty were all symptoms of this ambivalence — symptoms that now trouble America.

The results of a new Wall Street Journal poll make our present condition clear: We are a nation unmoored, with no hope or sense of pride to bind us together. Indeed, it seems the only thing Americans have in common now is a love of convenience, ironically a consequence of the very hard work and innovation we now scorn. Alexis de Tocqueville warned that our selfish individualism would one day be our undoing, and it seems we’re determined to prove him right.