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This essay looks at the frustrations and challenges facing a pluralistic society in the context of general liberal institutions, such as democracy, the market and the rules and regulations that underwrite personal autonomy. It is the author’s opinion that the principal challenge to such a pluralistic society, a society which owes its origin to liberal institutions, is a personal one and is related to the many life styles that are made possible in such a society. Liberal institutions open numerous possibilities for living in very different ways, so that the problem here is caused not by a lack of them but an excess. Our greatest risk lies in being transformed into a pluralistic organism, incapable of giving shape to our impulses. The cultural weakness of the present time is not due to its emptiness but to our difficulties in confronting excesses.