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concerned (the almost totally free choice of courses which students
had until recently in almost all colleges is a good example) and the
arbitrarily conventional where social life is concerned. In other
words, the very lack of certain traditions calls for an emphasis on
conventions to regulate the social life.
Finally, we must not forget the importance of positivism, a
corollary to the transcendence of myths (or symbols of significance)
in the American civilization. Positivistically, the world is interpreted
as composed of facts which must appear in exactly identical fash–
ion to every honest observer. Such a view no doubt has, directly
and indirectly, strongly conformist effects.
Directly,
because the
world must appear the same to everyone (whatever differences
there are, are of quantitative nature, that is, relate to questions
like, for example, the extent of our experience).
Indirectly,
because
such a positivistic attitude can be, and in fact is being exploited by a
highly organized press which gathers and distributes the "facts"
of life for the benefit of the reader.
The strong hold of positivism upon the present American civil–
ization explains also a certain sentimentalism which, superficially
at least, appears to be in contrast with it. Sentimentality may
be
de–
fined as an enjoyment of values which have been removed from
the common life and relegated to an abstract realm. In a positivistic
society values are not regarded as immanent; either they are not
believed to exist at all (some positivists accept their existence but
reduce them to simple facts), or they are given a transcendent
existence. The need of contact with certain values-a basic psycho–
logical need which even a positivistic society cannot deny--ex–
presses itself, therefore, in a society like the American, in various
forms of sentimentality. In political and social life we find a strongly
emotional adherence to the basic myths of the society as symbolized
by the Constitution; in economic life we find the strong philan–
thropic concern of the otherwise hard-boiled businessman; in per–
sonal life we find the vicarious participation of the young secretary
in the happiness of the movie star.
The disturbing fact that a practical people like the Americans
have appeared so often in the recent past to
be
so little realistic
should not
be
difficult to understand
if
we keep America's positiv–
ism in mind. The term "practical" refers to a man's ability to deal
