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PARTISAN REVIEW
by human minds, outside, as it were, of the stream of history, as an
everlasting framework of human actions-becomes an important
factor in making the faith in the superability of limits effective.
The progressive character of American life is a direct con–
sequence of this situation. In fact, by progress we mean here exactly
the tackling and overcoming of successive limitations. In the most
technical sense, it may mean that if we have today a plane whose
speed is five hundred miles per hour, we shall work to build one
that will attain five hundred and fifty miles, then one with even
a greater speed. In other words, we advance, as it were, in a straight
line, knowing that as soon as we have overcome the first limit an–
other limit will arise and so forth ad infinitum. In this sense there
is no final end but a continuous linear progression which finds its
satisfaction in the act of progress. There is enough satisfaction in
it to justify and nourish the basic optimism of the American people,
but not enough to cause an individual to rest tranquilly at any stage,
a fact which may explain the restlessness in the more active strata
of the population.
But there are other fields in which the faith in the provisional
character of man's limits or limitations is more significant. The
fluidity of the social and economic situation is an important example.
The social standing of a family does not necessarily determine the
future social or economic position of a son. Those who have had a
certain training and done a certain type of work, do not run into
social prejudices if they want to switch to an entirely different type
of activity. A man is expected to do what he can do best and no
job is better or worse than another.
More striking still are examples from fields where limitations
cannot be overcome materially. Death itself is regarded by a great
many Americans as a positive fact not much different from other
events. It is tackled by de-emphasis as well as by calculated attempts
to make it appear as pleasant as possible. There are usually no
funeral processions or other manifestations that would make death
too evident. The funeral itself is most often held in the famous fun–
eral homes where friends and relatives gather in the pleasant
atmosphere of an elegant sitting room to assist at a short ceremony
intended to reduce death from the most incomprehensible symbol of
the precariousness of human existence to an episode in the social life
