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PARTISAN REVIEW
This is, admittedly, an external view of American culture.
If
one stops to look at a young woman, one finds a beautiful, yet
vigorously molded figure disguised by a singularly inept uniform; and
the same may be said of the young men.
If
one stops to look at
a middle-aged male face, one sees the marks of once brilliant nervous
energy, shrewd eyes, and within them a faint glitter of Utopian
idealism. His most highly prized possession is a car; throughout the
town it
is
extremely difficult to find parking space; time could be
saved by walking from home to office, rather than from parking
space to office, or from one group of buildings to another-but
the car
is
an important symbol of activity, a proof that one is in
business and has earned enough not to walk, that one can, at a
moment's notice, spend a weekend or a summer's holiday in places
that are identical with the surroundings of the town and the town
itself; it also means that one can go (at the cost of gasoline) to shop–
ping centers outside the town with the hope of saving a few dollars
on a week's supply of food.
What I have written so far has nothing to do with art (except
in a negative sense) and much to do with culture. In the Middle
West education is a business; art is a business; science
is
a business;
and social science (it
is
hoped) will save the world-and all are
industriously pursued. Elderly people are no longer sent to poor–
houses. Their younger relatives, at a nominal fee, send them to the
state university. There they are taught how to weave and knit, how
to make speeches to one another on the subject of diet-"Know
your nutrition" is a recommended topic. They are taught how to
make rag dolls and baskets for their grandchildren, how to speak
politely to one another, how to take each other to the movies, how
to look at television, how to listen to the radio. Those who are
widows or widowers (or have never been married) are encouraged
to enter wedlock before death seizes them. On occasion they may be
told to subscribe to book clubs or illustrated magazines, but it is
significant that no stress
is
placed upon reading or thinking; or
learning, even at the cost of some effort, a foreign language. All
are taught "how to play"; a Swiftian irony enters the picture. The
huge machinery of an educational factory devotes, as a by-product
of its works, part of its power to transforming the years of old age
into a likeness of the kindergarten.
