NEW YORK ― As turmoil stalks America ’ s financial markets and protests fill its streets , Americans ’ lifestyle choices are evolving in a telling way : once seen by the rest of the world as an exuberant teenager ― the globe ’ s extrovert , exporter of rock ‘ n ’ roll and flashy Hollywood movies ― Americans are now becoming decidedly withdrawn , or at least inward - looking . Trends in leisure activities reflect that change : frugality and making do are in ; gaudy consumerism is out . This change is due to the fragile economy , of course , but I believe that it is also psychological . After two wars and a half - dozen undeclared conflicts in the past decade , America has entered a period of unprecedented cultural hibernation . Gardening , scrapbooking , knitting , and cooking have all become newly , shabbily chic . In the urban neighborhoods to which the young and hip are moving , city garden plots and heirloom tomatoes grown in window boxes have replaced Lexuses and Priuses . Other young hipsters have moved farther out into the country in search of an idyllic new narrative fantasy . The young couple ― he with a beard and she in a sundress and rubber boots ― are homesteading in the Hudson River Valley with a flock of chickens , or in New Mexico in an ecofriendly straw - bale house . They have replaced the young couple of five years ago ― he with the hedge fund , she with interior decorators ― in a McMansion in Westchester County . The food sections of urban newspapers that , five years ago , would have covered the latest fusion cuisine , now run dreamy profiles of the guy with the Ivy League degree who has stepped off the grid , and done fine for himself by starting a line of homemade pickles . Farmers ’ markets , wood stoves , solar panels , and Agway farm - supply stores are the new focus of aspirational dreams for people who not long ago were high on boundless credit , consuming luxury brands scaled down for the middle class , and fantasizing about the kind of life on display in glossy magazines . Even Hollywood story lines now echo this desire to escape to a “ simpler life , ” with its aversion to excessive wealth and indulgence . In the soon - to - be - released “ We Bought a Zoo , ” a single father heals his family by moving to the country and homesteading with a menagerie of wild animals ― shabby house and spectacular natural vistas guaranteeing a redemptive setting for domestic life . Other films cast excess as nauseating . The blockbuster “ The Hangover Part II ” depicts three young male friends engaged in a night of carousing in Thailand , in which they are free to satisfy every appetite ― from transsexual sex workers to drugs and chaos of all kinds . At the end , however , the lead character indulges his longing for marriage , family , and the quiet life of a dentist . In a parallel plot aimed at women , the movie “ Bridesmaids ” features a bride - to - be who is about to get “ everything ” ― in the guise of a dull but extremely affluent groom ― but flees the excess around her and escapes to her humble apartment . After bank bailouts , Bernard Madoff - type financial scandals , and a housing bubble that left Americans high and dry , it is as if the collective unconscious is recasting life on yachts and perfectly manicured golf courses as distasteful , and thrifty , often rural simplicity as a virtuously cleansing relief . Not surprisingly , the last time American culture had such a reversal of iconography was during the Great Depression , when films like “ The Grapes of Wrath ” cast down - to - earth simplicity ― versus the corruption of wealthy elites ― as a shining virtue . ( “ Whenever there ’ s a cop beating up a guy , I ’ ll be there . ... wherever people are eatin ’ the stuff they raise and livin ’ in the houses they build , I ’ ll be there , too , ” as Tom Joad said ) . Ronald Reagan asserted in 1980 that it was “ morning in America , ” but in America now , it is the morning after . This drive toward an off - the - grid , eat - what - you - raise , bike - there - on - your - own , solar - powered collective fantasy is inevitable : Americans were pumped full of hope that more consumption would make them happier , and instead were left with a pile of debt . They were asked to admire the top of the income pyramid , only to find that they were looking at a pyramid scheme . It is no wonder therefore , that a kind of survivalist chic has become the updated version of the radical , communal chic of the 1960 s . Americans have lost their faith in those who , in the boom times , purred , “ Trust us . ” The new American dream ― a flock of chickens and a jar of pickles ― represents the insight that the only people whom Americans can trust in a crisis are themselves . By Naomi Wolf Naomi Wolf is a political activist and social critic whose most recent book is “ Give Me Liberty : A Handbook for American Revolutionaries . ” ― Ed . ( Project Syndicate )