Bicentennial Perspective
Someone has said that the American experiment is the result of one revolution, that i t spawned a second and that i t well might be the victim of a third. The revolution from which it resulted had shattered the medieval world, unshrouded the "universal" church, secularized and humanized man's thoughts and actions, introduced modern science and technology, and shifted the center of human activity from the Mediterranean to the Atlantic. The revolution i t spawned has led to the spread of the principles of self-government around the world, the use of science and technology to replace an economy of scarcity with an economy of abundance, the creation of new levels of understanding and cooperation among peoples of all races and cultures, and an awareness of the limitations to which man may exploit the environment. And, although the American society was forged out of fierce individualism, ethnic incompatibility, justice by consensus and compassion for the poor, it could be destroyed by a revolution that uses these very characteristics against the system that gave them meaning and viability. If we look a t our greatest strengths and our greatest sources of pride, we see also our greatest vulnerabilities. We are a society of diversity and accommodation. We pride ourselves in being a melting pot of races and cultures, out of which flows unity buttressed by pluralism. We are a society that expects and easily incorporates political, social and technological innovation. We also are a consumer society, assimilating not only goods and services in vast amounts, but culture and political and social values and ideas with an appetite that is as compulsive as it is fickle. With equal ease we can accommodate to owning a Lincoln Continental and t o trading in food stamps. With only a minor irregularity in our life-rhythm we can so completely consume a counterculture devised and dedicated to subvert, to outrage, and to undo us that in a matter of months no more than a handful of the dissidents remains outside the society. The truth is we are so committed to accommodating that we will buy almost anything that is brought to our attention enough times and on a grand enough scale. Of course, we might buy it today and abandon it tomorrow should something else strike our fancy. And, although all this practiced in moderation has a certain life- and progress-sustaining quality, there resides in this combination of fickleness and gullibility and in the uncertainty of purpose that underlies it, the seeds of our undoing. I t is hard to escape the feeling that these seeds are resting in some especially fertile soil. The fertility is enhanced by a t least two factors: the unamenable power of the mass media and our own impatience. The mass media, with its incredible speed, panoramic coverage, and consummate presence, its enviable record as an artist of the big sell, and its ruthless internetwork competition for a piece of the American soul and for an even bigger piece of the American pie has neither character nor conscience. Its managers have yet to demonstrate either the wisdom or the sense of responsibility commensurate with the great power it exerts over the American people. It probably is safe to say that at present the media's ability to sell anything from shampoo and cars t o violence and distrust of government, exceeds by a wide margin the public's ability to judge value and quality. As long as this situation continues, the society risks fall-
I editorially ing prey to the excesses of one of its own creations. Our imnatience in search of im~rovementand ~ e r f e c tion, a virtue in principle, has become something of an obsession, and as a result we may have all but lost our sense of values in connection with it. For example, it is one thing to e x ~ e cour t cars or TV sets to start, our classes or daily work to-end, our pay checks or mail to arrive and our watches, refrigerators and hand calculators to function flawlessly and without delay. I t is still another thing to expect human nature and human institutions to achieve unheard of levels of perfection, to reach in months goals that have avoided man for centuries, or to perceive perfection with a singleness of mind. In our haste to right social wrongs - and to - long-neglected - approach a more perfect society, we have assumed that perfection is the wages of com~assionand that excellence and competency aut~maticallyaccompany opportunity. This is a classic example of expecting too much from human nature. I t has placed an almost impossible burden on our schools, and it has given vast segments of our populationespecially our youth-a false impression of what it takes to succeed or to sustain progress with stability. As young people possessed of this delusion make u p a larger and larger fraction of the society and as the brighter ones among them find their way into positions of influence, the tendency is to sell and seek acceptance for this quick and dirty brand of idealism. And, as the results of this short-sightedness become all too obvious and painful, disenchantment and alienation build. As a consequence, the chances of a maior revolt against the very forces that guarantee the character and stability of the society increase markedly. These chances are not diminished by an unhealthy economic climate and by the prospect of limitations on growth imposed by environmental factors. Yet, even as we see our greatest vulnerabilities in our greatest strengths, so also we find in our greatest flaws the very means of salvation. We can learn from our fickleness that experiment must be tempered by experience. This can lead to the opening of routes for more carefully controlled experiments with new ideas. We can gain from our gullibility a deeper sense of compassion-one that blends recognition of the immutable laws of biology with rededication to the hopes and expectations of our youth. We must never forget that humans are unequally endowed by nature and environment in body, mind, and character, and that to bear fruit these endowments must be developed by exercise and competition. But, knowing this, we must never fail in our commitment to spread the benefits of our inventiveness, enterprise, and skill to all our citizens. It would help if we could view excellence as a means of achieving the common good rather than as an excuse for greed or a target for anarchy. Somehow we must learn to curb our impatience-even that which stems from love-and to toughen our posture on accepting every new contrivance or concept, realizing that the cultivation of man is a new and untested art, and that we are but a step (or a serious mistake) away from the barbarism in which man has lived for 97 percent of his history. Most of all we must take pride in the distance we have come in the past 200 years, and seek with confidence to preserve what is precious and to create what is needed. WTL Volume 53, Number 1. January 1976 1 1
