THE NATIONAL STYLE
521
flowed from a defect in the -individual, and a change in policy could
begin only by finding the culprit.
This pattern of achievement, of optimism and progress, and
the emphasis on the individual as the unit of concern, found expression
in what W. W. Rostow has called the "classic" American style.
1
The
American way was one of
ad hoc
compromise derived from an implicit
consensus. In American political debates, there was rarely, except
for the Civil War, an appeal to "first principles," as there was, say,
in France, where every political division was rooted in the alignments
of the French Revolution or in attitudes toward clericalism and the
Catholic Church. In the United States there were three unspoken
assumptions: that the values of the individual were to be maximized,
that rising material wealth would dissolve all strains resulting from
inequality, and that experience would provide solutions for all future
problems.
In the last fifteen years, the national self-consciousness has re–
ceived a profound shock. At the end of World War II, American
productivity and American prodigality were going to inspire an
archaic Europe and a backward colonial system. But the American
century quickly vanished. The fall of China, the stalemate in Korea,
the eruption of anti-colonialism (with the United States cas.t be–
wilderingly among the arch-villains), the higher growth rates in the
western European economies at a time when our own growth has
slowed considerably, and the continued claims of Khrushchev that
Communism is the wave of the future, have by now shattered the
belief which Americans had in their own omnipotence, and left,
almost, a free-floating anxiety about the future. In a crudely symbolic
way, the Russian sputniks trumped this country on its own boastful
claim of always being first. Getting to the moon first may be, as
many scientists assert, of little scientific value, and the huge sums
required for such a venture might be spent more wisely for medical
work, housing or scientific research, but having set the "rules of the
game," the United States is unable to withdraw even though, in its
newly acquired sophistication,
it
has begun to realize that such
competitions are rather childish.
But these immediate crises of nerve only reflect deeper challenges
1.
In
The American Style,
Elting E. Morrison, Editor. Little Brown, 1960.
