GYROSCOPE AND RADAR
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middle-class Americans used to be rather like the competitive Kwakiutls,
and are still inclined to think of themselves in such terms. In reality, they
are beginning to resemble the nonaggressive Pueblos, among whom
"no one wishes to be thought a great man, and everyone wishes to be
thought a good fellow."
Why has this change come about? To this question Mr. Riesman
(as he himself recognizes) has no very convincing answer. Obviously
it is connected with current economic trends, with the decline of com–
petition and the growth of bureaucracy (the most significant manifesta–
tions of which are not in government but in the big corporations).
On the other hand, the desire to be a good fellow rather than a great
man appears to have been already becoming an American trait more
than a century ago (to judge from Tocqueville and other observers).
For somewhat obscure reasons Mr. Riesman chooses to regard the
birth rate as the primary factor in social development. He divides the
evolution of a society into three phases. In the initial phase birth and
death rates are both high, and men are guided by tradition. In the
second phase the death rate drops, the society undergoes a rapid ex–
pansion, and the typical person is inner-directed. Finally, population
becomes stable, emphasis shifts from production to consumption, and
men become other-directed.
It
is difficult to see, however, why the
birth rate should be regarded as cause rather than consequence; if men
and women have fewer children, it is presumably because of a prior
change in their code of values. And while a mature economy no longer
needs the dynamic drive of a Puritan conscience, Mr. Riesman does
not explain very convincingly why this should cause a change to other–
directedness.
Mr. Riesman makes a considerable effort to maintain scientific
objectivity, and occasionally apologizes because his vocabulary may
appear to show a bias in favor of inner-direction. These apologies seem
to me to be unnecessary. The gregariousness of Western urban society
(as Reisman points out, similar changes are occurring in Europe)
seems to be due not to any positive belief in co-operation but simply
to a sense of bewilderment.
If
individuals feel a need for the approval
of other people (who are themselves also seeking approval, so that
the whole process becomes a collective hunt for something that does
not exist), it is because they no longer have any particular value con–
victions of their own. They are like people playing a game in which
they are uncertain of the rules (in contrast to the inner-directed person
who knows the rules and is prepared, if necessary, to insist on obedience
to them). This is, no doubt, due chiefly to the rapid economic and
