TH"E -MADISON AVENUE VILLAIN
58.1
poured into defending the system, rather than changing it; and,
in the 'fifties, the eagerness of some to find a substitute affirma–
tion even resulted in an enthusiastic embrace of "Our Country
and Our Culture" (as a prophetic
Partisan Review
symposium
was _called), which consisted of repudiating the old attitudes of
dissent in favor of a more positive attitude towards American
middle-class values.
In line with this, many intellectuals became interested in
American popular culture, initiating cautious investigations into
the significance of movies, TV, comic strips, Broadway, Tin Pan
Alley, and the mass magazines. Except for a small group which
attacked these expressions for their malign effect on the brains
and nerves of the American people, observers were generally
quite sanguine in their conclusions, and some even professed
to find optimistic signs of intelligence and maturity in the mass
media (the jukebox, for example, was hailed by one as an
im–
portant twentieth-century innovation). But even when it ignored
popular culture, intellectual activity seemed heavily influenced
by the methods of the social sciences. Investigation became cool,
objective, statistical. Analyses were qualified, moderate, and re–
strained. Conclusions were brimming with complications. The
"end of ideology" was rather prematurely celebrated. Freudian
and Neo-Freudian insights became the vogue, and Riesman
and Kinsey replaced Marx and Trotsky as the most influential
writers of the period.
In short, where the tone of intellectuals was once primarily
political and indignant, it soon became sociological, psychologi–
cal, and complacent; where critics were once concerned over
economic self-interest, they soon became involved with mass
communications; where attention once focused on the Robber
Baron and social injustice, it soon centered on the Organization
Man and social behavior.
As
a result, the intellectuals, once
alienated from society, were now being absorbed into it, a pro–
cessof assirriilation said to reflect their new sense of purpose,
tesponsibility, and maturity. And Am-erican society, grateful for
