Theoretical analysis reveals structural drivers of polarization and financialization in the United States, indicating systemic alienation of foundational political ethics.
English Abstract: Contemporary America's crises—social fragmentation, political polarization, deindustrialization, and financialization—are typically discussed as if they were independent phenomena. Using the Community Cohesion Model and the Political Philosophy Cohesion Model from the “Productive Political Philosophy” framework, this paper proposes a unified structural diagnosis: these crises share a common root—the Protestant ethic's once-cohesive political-philosophical system is being systematically alienated by the logic of financial capital accumulation, and America is undergoing a civilizational-level crisis of the “re-separation of ritual and warfare.” Starting from the cohesive structure of Protestant ethics, the paper analyzes the political logic and institutional manifestations of financialization, diagnoses America's upper-limit crisis under dual constraints, traces the trajectory from social capital dissolution to modern “fortressization,” and draws a functional-structural analogy between contemporary American elites and the Wei-Jin aristocratic clans. The paper argues that America is experiencing the inevitable consequence of its founding philosophy being alienated by its own logic—when “glorifying God” no longer governs production, and the infinite expansion of numbers replaces the eternity of sacred narratives, the civilization deviates most radically from the productive political philosophy it once most faithfully practiced.
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鑫培 骆 (2026) studied this question.
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