The Lonely Crowd

A study of the changing

American character

by David Riesman
with Nathan Glazer
and Reuel Denney

Abridged edition
with a 1969 preface

New Haven & London

Yale University Press
 CONTENTS

TWENTY YEARS AFTER—A SECOND PREFACE XI

PREFACE TO THE 1961 EDITION xxiii

PART I: CHARACTER

CHAPTER I. SOME TYPES OF Character and Society 3

Copyright © 1961 by Yale University Press.
Copyright © renewed 1989 by David Riesman,
I. CHARACTER AND SOCIETY 5
Nathan Glazer, and ReuelDenney.
High Growth Potential: Tradition-directed Types 9
A Definition of Tradition-direction 11
All rights reserved. Transitional Growth: Inner-directed Types 13
This book may not be reproduced, in whole or in part, in
A Definition of Inner-direction 14
any form (beyond that copying permitted by Sections 107
Incipient Decline of Population: Other-directed Types 17
and 108 of the U.S. Copyright Law and except by
A Definition of Other-direction 19
reviewers for the public press), without written
The Three Types Compared 24
permission from the publishers.
The Case of Athens 25
Some Necessary Qualifications 28
Library of Congress catalog card number: 61-11404
ISBN: 0-300-00193-2 (paper)
II. THE CHARACTEROLOGICAL STRUGGLE 31

Printed in the United States of America by

Vail-Ballou Press, Inc., Binghamton, New York.
CHAPTER II. FROM MORALITY TO MORALE: CHANGES IN THE AGENTS
OP CHARACTER FORMATION 37
50 49 48 47 46 45 44 43 42

I. CHANGES IN THE ROLE OF THE PARENTS 38

Parental Role in the Stage of Tradition-direction 38
Parental Role in the Stage of Inner-direction 40
Character and Social Mobility 40
Character Training as a Conscious Parental Task 42
THE AMERICAN Passage from Home 44
Parental Role in the Stage of Other-direction 45
CENTER Character and Social Mobility 45
LIBRARY
 CONTENTS Vll

Vi CONTENTS 109
CHAPTER V. THE INNER-DIRECTED ROUND OF LIFE
48
From Bringing up Children to "Bringing up Father"
51 I. MEN AT WORK
III
The Rule of "Reason" III
The Economic Problem: the Hardness of the Material
55 Ad Astra per Aspera 115
II. CHANGES IN THE ROLE OF THE TEACHER
57
The Teacher's Role in the Stage of Inner-direction 116
60 II. THE SIDE SHOW OF PLEASURE
The Teacher's Role in the Stage of Other-direction
The Acquisitive Consumer 117
119
Away from It All
120
Onward and Upward with the Arts
121
CHAPTER III. A JURY OF THEIR PEERS: CHANGES IN THE AGENTS OF Feet on the Rail
66
CHARACTER FORMATION (Continued)
HI. THE STRUGGLE FOR SELF-APPROVAL 123
66
I. THE PEER-GROUP IN THE STAGE OF INNER-DIRECTION

70 CHAPTER VI. THE OTHER-DIRECTED ROUND OF LIFE: FROM INVIS-

II. THE PEER-GROUP IN THE STAGE OF OTHER-DIRECTION
71 IBLE HAND TO GLAD HAND 126
The Trial 73
"The Talk of the Town": the Socialization of Preferences 81 I. THE ECONOMIC PROBLEM: THE HUMAN ELEMENT 127
The Antagonistic Cooperators of the Peer-group From Craft Skill to Manipulative Skill
129

From Free Trade to Fair Trade 131

From the Bank Account to the Expense Account 135

CHAPTER IV. STORYTELLERS AS TUTORS IN TECHNIQUE: CHANGES IN II. THE MILKY WAY
137
THE AGENTS OF CHARACTER FORMATION (Continued) 83

I. SONG AND STORY IN THE STAGE OF TRADITION-DIRECTION

85 CHAPTER VII. THE OTHER-DIRECTED ROUND OF LIFE (Continued):
85 THE NIGHT SHIFT 141
Chimney-corner Media 86
Tales of Norm and "Abnorm" I. CHANGES IN THE SYMBOLIC MEANING OF FOOD AND SEX
142
From the Wheat Bowl to the Salad Bowl 142
II. THE SOCIALIZING FUNCTIONS OF PRINT IN THE STAGE OF
Sex: the Last Frontier 145
87
INNER-DIRECTION
89 II. CHANGES IN THE MODE OF CONSUMPTION OF POPULAR CULTURE 149
The Whip of the Word
91 Entertainment as Adjustment to the Group 149
Models in Print
95 Handling the Office 151
The Oversteered Child
Handling the Home 152
96 Heavy Harmony 153
III. THE MASS MEDIA IN THE STAGE OF OTHER-DIRECTION
96 Lonely Successes 155
The Child Market Good-bye to Escape? 156
99
Winner Take All? 104
Tootle: a Modern Cautionary Tale 107 III. THE TWO TYPES COMPARED 159

Areas of Freedom
Vlll CONTENTS CONTENTS ix
II. WHO HAS THE POWER? 213
PART II: POLITICS
The Veto Groups 213
Is There a Ruling Class Left? 217
CHAPTER VIII. TRADITION-DIRECTED, INNER-DIRECTED, AND OTHER-
DIRECTED POLITICAL STYLES: INDIFFERENTS, MORAL-
IZERS, INSIDE-DOPESTERS 163
CHAPTER XI. Americans and Kwakiutls 225

I. THE INDIFFERENTS 165

Old Style 165
New Style 167
PART III: AUTONOMY
II. THE MORALIZERS
172
The Style of the Moralizer-in-power 173
The Style of the Moralizer-in-retreat 177 CHAPTER XII. ADJUSTMENT OR AUTONOMY? 239

III. THE INSIDE-DOPESTERS 180 I. THE ADJUSTED, THE ANOMIC, THE AUTONOMOUS 240
The Balance Sheet of Inside Dope 182
II. THE AUTONOMOUS AMONG THE INNER-DIRECTED 249

CHAPTER IX. POLITICAL PERSUASIONS: INDIGNATION AND TOLERANCE 188 III. THE AUTONOMOUS AMONG THE OTHER-DIRECTED 255
Bohemia 258
I. POLITICS AS AN OBJECT OF CONSUMPTION 190 258
Sex
Tolerance 259
II. THE MEDIA AS TUTORS IN TOLERANCE 192
Tolerance and the Cult of Sincerity 193
Sincerity and Cynicism 195
CHAPTER XIII. FALSE PERSONALIZATION: OBSTACLES TO AUTONOMY
III. DO THE MEDIA ESCAPE FROM POLITICS? 197 IN WORK 26l

I. CULTURAL DEFINITIONS OF WORK 261

IV. THE RESERVOIR OF INDIGNATION zoo

II. GLAMORIZERS, FEATHERBEDDERS, INDISPENSABLES 264

V. "IN DREAMS BEGIN RESPONSIBILITIES" 204
White-collar Personalization: toward Glamor 264
The Conversation of the Classes: Factory Model 267
The Club of Indispensables 269
CHAPTER X. IMAGES OF POWER 206

I. THE LEADERS AND THE LED 206 III. THE OVERPERSONALIZED SOCIETY 269
Captains of Industry and Captains of Consumption 207 The Automat versus the Glad Hand 271
 X CONTENTS
Twenty Years After-A Second Preface
CHAPTER XIV. ENFORCED PRIVATIZATION: OBSTACLES TO AUTONOMY
IN PLAY 276

I. THE DENIAL OF SOCIABILITY

277

II. SOCIABILITY AND THE PRIVATIZATION OF WOMEN 280

At the time The Lonely Crowd and Faces in the Crowd were
III. PACKAGED SOCIABILITIES 283 published, we had no expectation that these books would be
widely read outside the relevant academic fields. The Lonely
Crowd was greeted in professional journals with often quite
CHAPTER XV. THE PROBLEM OF COMPETENCE: OBSTACLES TO AU- astringent criticism, and it made its way only slowly to a wider,
TONOMY IN PLAY (Continued) 286 nonprofessional audience. These nonprofessional readers need to
be reminded that few scholars of even moderate sanity would sit
I. THE PLAY'S THE THING 286 down today to write a comprehensive, empirically oriented work
like The Lonely Crowd. Studies of such scope are understandably
II. THE FORMS OF COMPETENCE 290 out of style. Indeed, in some of the fields of scholarship on which
Consumership: Postgraduate Course 290 The Lonely Crowd draws, including aspects of American history,
The Possibilities of Craftsmanship 292 probably as much specialized work has been published in the last
The Newer Criticism in the Realm of Taste 297 twenty years as in all the preceding years.
When in 1960 the Yale University Press planned a new paper-
III. THE AVOCATIONAL COUNSELORS 299 back edition of the book, I took the occasion to write a new
preface (which follows directly after this one) to outline what
IV. FREEING THE CHILD MARKET 301 seemed to me some of the main errors of the book, both as these
might have been better appreciated at the time of writing and as
they appeared in the glare of hindsight.1 And now, eight years later
CHAPTER XVI. AUTONOMY AND UTOPIA 304 in 1968, I have reread The Lonely Crowd in preparation for this
new printing. While making no changes of substance, so that any
INDEX 309 criticisms of the original edition a reader might come across would
still apply, I found myself on many pages writing marginal notes
1. Concurrently, Seymour Martin Lipset and Leo Lowenthal edited
a book of criticisms of The Lonely Crowd and Faces in the Crowd, to
which my collaborators and I were invited to submit a chapter of re-
considerations. Their collection, Culture and Social Character: The
Work of David Riesman Reviewed (Glencoe, III., The Free Press,
1961), remains in our judgment the best source for the analysis of both
the contributions and the limitations of our work. My contribution to
the volume was written in collaboration with Nathan Glazer.
xi
XII 1969 PREFACE 1969 PREFACE XIII

indicating that a statement now struck me as dubious or extreme K. Merton and others have written. Measured despair of our soci-
or plainly mistaken. ety, expressed publicly, can serve to warn us against catastrophe
This would not trouble me much, since knowledge proceeds by and to arouse us from somnolence; extravagant despair, however,
successive approximations and even by speculations which turn can lead some to withdraw from political and cultural action while
out to be wrong, if it were not for the fact that The Lonely Crowd others feel justified in acts of destructiveness and fail to grasp the
has in some measure entered the picture many Americans—and potentials for nonviolent change that do exist.
some readers in other countries—have of ourselves, both past and The Lonely Crowd has been read by many as arguing that
present. In however small a degree, the book has contributed to Americans of an earlier day were freer and of more upstanding
the climate of criticism of our society and helped create or re- human quality. Developing a typology between inner-directed
affirm a nihilistic outlook among a great many people who lay and other-directed, we focused on changes that most readers seem
claim to moral or intellectual nonconformity, or who simply want to have regarded as changes for the worse. But others have read
to be "with it" in order to escape being considered geriatric cases. the book as too benign in diagnosing our time. While we viewed
Since our earlier Preface of 1960 was written, the moral temper of both the American past and present with irony and ambivalence,
well-educated young Americans has greatly altered, and so has the readers tended to identify with the weaknesses they felt in them-
context of our common life; also my own thinking has continued selves or in the people they knew; and they could regard the
to evolve; and thus I feel that a still further cautionary preface cruelties and insensitivities of earlier Americans with the sympa-
should be written. thetic detachment we reserve for evils which no longer threaten
Obviously, the problems that preoccupy attentive Americans to overwhelm us.
now are different from those preoccupying people when The The Lonely Crowd certainly contributed to these misreadings.
Lonely Crowd was written; and, among the reflective, an atmos- For example, Part II on politics falls at times into a nostalgia the
phere of what seems to me extravagant self-criticism has suc- book generally eschews. Thus it was an overstatement to say (as
ceeded an earlier tendency toward glib self-satisfaction. In my the book does on page 174) that cynicism toward politics as a
opinion American society is not basically more evil and brutal whole was virtually unknown in the nineteenth century, and no
than heretofore. In spite of war and preparation for war, and in less wrong to declare that the defined political problems of that
the face of heightening racial tension, the lessening of bigotries epoch "were thought to be manageable."2 Similarly, although it
described in The Lonely Crowd has continued; improved educa- seems to me that the book's portrait of the nineteenth-century
tion and the more liberal mass media have had an impact on tradi- moralizer is as unflattering as that of the contemporary inside
tional xenophobia. The fact that progressive measures, men, and dopester, the self-mockery to which contemporary readers are
attitudes have not brought peace at home or abroad keeps Ameri- prone led many to assume that the latter was an invention of our
cans polarized between our generous impulses and our fears. (Con- own decadent era.
trary to current opinion on both the Right and the Left, liberalism Several contributions to the Lipset-Lowenthal anthology con-
has not dominated American society but has been a minority tra-
tend that the ethic of egalitarianism and achievement has been
dition in the face of historic, unideological conservatism.) The
characteristically American since the very beginning of the re-
sense of profound malaise many of us have about our society
public and that American character has not changed fundamen-
today reflects our nearly insuperable problems; but it also reflects
our heightened expectation as to the society we should be and the 2. See for example Richard Hofstadter, The Paranoid Style in
contribution we should be making to the world. Yet the beliefs we American Politics (New York, Alfred A. Knopf, 1965) and Joseph
have about ourselves are also facts: they help shape our reality— Gusfield, Symbolic Crusade (Urbana, 111., University of Illinois Press,
this is the meaning of self-fulfilling prophecy, about which Robert 1964), especially Chapter 7.
XIV 1969 PREFACE 1969 PREFACE XV

tally.3 In my opinion, whether one emphasizes continuity or dis- comparable to that of the United States, but the moral and in-
continuity should depend on what one is interested in, as well as on tellectual priority this crisis now compels among sensitive whites
one's assessment of conflicting evidence. Of course there is a great as well as blacks is peculiarly American. The civil rights activities
deal of continuity, but I think that the upper-middle-class afflu- of earlier years provided the moral catalyst and much of the
ent American described in The Lonely Crowd and in Faces in the tactical experience later shifted to protests against the war and
Crowd differed from his ancestors in the quality of his relations against colleges and universities. And while students elsewhere
to others. Not that Americans today are more conformist—that protest against the war in Vietnam, not even in Japan are they as
has always been a profound misinterpretation; and it is not that directly engaged as are American young men who are compelled
today's Americans are peculiar in wanting to impress others or be by the draft to face ambiguous and intransigent moral quandaries.
liked by them; people generally did and do. The difference lies in A heightened sensitivity to such quandaries reflects among other
a greater resonance with others, a heightened self-consciousness things a shift since The Lonely Crowd was written toward a
about relations to people, and a widening of the circle of people greater concern with autonomy and a rejection of adjustment as
with whom one wants to feel in touch. As the representatives of immoral compromise. There is also in our high and popular
adult authority and of the older generation decline in legitimacy, culture preference for anomie over adjustment, and more aware-
young people and the millions who seek to stay young become ness of the anomie that does exist. This universal dimension of
even more exposed to the power of their contemporaries both in character remains significant even at a time when a putative shift
person and through the mass media. That focus of attention often from inner-direction to other-direction might no longer be the
leads to resistance and noncompliance, but the point at issue is best scheme for delineating the social character of upper-middle-
primarily the degree of resonance, and not so much of conformity. class Americans. Many young people presently appear to be
Since 1950 the decline in the weight and authority of adults impulse-directed or circumstance-directed far beyond what was
chronicled in The Lonely Crowd has proceeded even further. Now true in the same social strata several decades earlier. Yet since no
attending high school and college are the children of the self- country—not even the United States—changes all at once, much
mistrustful parents who felt themselves revealed in books like that was said about contemporary social character in The Lonely
The Lonely Crowd. The loss of inner confidence among adults is Crowd still seems to me relevant. But what is more important is to
a worldwide phenomenon, reflecting rapid change in technology continue work on the problem of social character itself. Little
and values. Margaret Mead has spoken of native-born American empirical work exists concerning what distinguishes the social
parents feeling like immigrants in the country of the young. The character of one era or stratum from that of another.4 If one is to
young react to the loss of adult legitimacy with even greater self- separate social character from ideology or behavior, the vignettes
mistrust, confusion, and rebellion. There are differences of course we published in Faces in the Crowd suggest the need to use pro-
of degree, so that while students from Tokyo to Prague take sus- jective material. We can only understand our society if we are
tenance from each other's protests and learn from each other's
tactics, the generational conflict is not everywhere the same. 4. The concept of authoritarianism as developed in The Authoritar-
ian Personality has perhaps been most fruitful in eliciting replication
Indeed, the American student movements seem to me in some
and reanalysis. But, as many people have observed, the concept is un-
respects unique. South Africa may face a racial crisis in the future
clear to begin with, lumping together a variety of traits found in a
3. See Seymour Martin Lipset, "A Changing American Character?" variety of social strata and historical settings. Cf., e.g., Riesman, "Some
Also his The First New Nation: The United States in Historical and Questions about the Study of American Character in the Twentieth
Comparative Perspective (New York, Basic Books, 1963); also Talcott Century," The Annals of the American Academy of Political and
Parsons and Winston White, "The Link between Character and Soci- Social Science, 370 (March 1967) 36-47. I am indebted to Michael
ety," in Lipset and Lowenthal, eds., Culture and Social Character. Maccoby for helpful discussion of this and related questions.
 1969 PREFACE XV11
XVI 1969 PREFACE

able to analyze both how people behave and talk and what their others have spoken prematurely in this same vein, including the
more fundamental and often unconscious dispositions are like, economist Robert Theobald and the critic Paul Goodman; John
how these are shaped by history and in turn shape history. Kenneth Galbraith has probably been the most influential social
The Lonely Crowd was one of a number of studies that used the critic to insist that the United States does not need more produc-
content analysis of children's stories, movies, fiction, and inspira- tion, more affluence, but rather more "public" goods, such as
tional literature as a way of assessing the attitudes of readers and cleaner air, streets, and water, instead of more quickly obsolescent
audiences. Such work is inferential, involving a judgment as to "private" goods.6 Undeniably, the pursuit of production as an
what an audience might have seen in a work—and if that audience end in itself is pathological, although it is less socially dangerous
is deceased and no longer available for interview, the most ex- than the pursuit of power as an end in itself.
quisite content analysis remains speculative. My colleague David Among the reasonably well-to-do, and especially among their
McClelland has made this kind of analysis of fantasy material as children, American levels of consumption are often attacked as
a clue to attitudes of earlier times into a fine, though risky, art.5 extravagant. Yet, given the political structure of the veto groups,
Comparative studies of the audiences for popular culture are in- it is hard for me to imagine how it will ever become politically
frequent, although the files of market researchers must contain possible to integrate the really poor inside America, let alone
data capable of historical analysis. Currently it would be interest- outside, without at the same time greatly raising the levels of
ing to have some studies of the "talk jockeys" who, in giving air living of lower, but not poor, socioeconomic groups. That is, the
space to the previously voiceless, sometimes spread and sometimes still only insecurely affluent lower-middle and upper-working
combat the contagious paranoia of the powerless. classes cannot be persuaded to be generous to the truly deprived,
Public opinion polling has continued to improve and we are especially if these are black and obstreperous (even though the
more amply provided with repeatable and reliable surveys con- majority of the poor in America are white) if they themselves do
cerning who thinks what about race, the bomb, the war in Viet- not live on an ever-rising incline of consumer satisfaction. The
nam, human happiness, the popularity of leaders, and who is poor, white and black, and their conscience-stricken affluent allies
believed to run America. Even so, as many have noted, our indi- are minorities (and veto groups too), who are tactically effective
cators for unemployment and gross national product and other in many local situations (with the power to create turbulence),
economic indices are better than our indicators for intangibles but unable nationally to promote a more just distribution of rising
such as satisfaction in love and work, or for the latent feelings resources. Indeed, tactical success is often gained at the expense
that have not yet been mobilized by cultural or political evocation. of long-run strategic decline.7 The Lonely Crowd did not take
But the indicators we have offer only modest help in assessing seriously enough the problem of continuing the expansion of
the larger political and cultural questions raised by the continuing resources to moderate the envies and resentments of the morally
increase in the gross national product and concerning the uses we
6. See John Kenneth Galbraith, The Affluent Society (Boston;
make of our relative abundance. The Lonely Crowd made the
Houghton Mifflin, 1958); see also my essay, "Leisure and Work in
assumption, somewhat novel at the time, that the economic prob- Post-industrial Society," in Eric Larrabee and Rolf Meyersohn, Mass
lem of abundance had been fully solved on the side of production, Leisure (Glencoe, 111., The Free Press, 1958), reprinted in Riesman,
if not on the side of distribution—the 1960 Preface that follows Abundance for What? and Other Essays (Garden City, N.Y., Double-
deals with what I now think was the mistaken notion that eco- day, 1964), pp. 162-83; cf. David Riesman and Donald Horton, "Notes
nomic work was no longer important and that we can afford the on the Deprived Institution: Illustrations from a State Mental Hospi-
postindustrial attitudes now so widely prevalent. A great many tal," Sociological Quarterly (Winter 1965), pp. 3-20.
7. See my article, "America Moves to the Right," The New York
5. See McClelland, The Achieving Society (Princeton, N.J., Van
Times Magazine (October 27, 1968), p. 34 ff.
Nostrand, 1961).
 XV111 1969 PREFACE 1969 PREFACE XIX

indignant not-quite-poor. seen as a deterioration. Large corporate business today depends

I have been a member of the National Commission on America's much more on ideas and less on brute trial and error than was the
Goals and Resources of the National Planning Association, whose case earlier. And The Lonely Crowd did point out the greater
work suggests that in order to cope with the demands the Ameri- sensitivity and lower tolerance for exploitation in our corporate
can economy already makes on itself to deal with poverty in the life. Yet as always, such advances give rise to new problems. Our
ghetto and elsewhere, we need vastly expanded production, in greater awareness of the fact that men are interdependent has led
addition, of course, to a shift away from spending on war and to a greater awareness of the manipulative relations that remain.
preparation for war. The commission tried to cost the goals so In a larger population, the massiveness of the organizations in
far generally accepted as legitimate, such as the greatly increased which men work and their greater distance from the end product
health care, better housing, welfare, control over pollution, etc., do give rise to feelings of unreality for many professional and
that we seek; to achieve these, even if the war in Vietnam were to white-collar employees. Abundance, although unevenly distribu-
be ended, would greatly exceed even our massive production in ted, allows those who possess it to demand meaning in their work
the foreseeable future—and without attention to the demands for and to be dissatisfied with mere subsistence, and the relative lack
aid among the developing countries.8 Contrary to what I once of challenge that abundance produces makes it harder for many
thought, the economy is not self-propelling. We can see in the to find such meaning. In an earlier and in some respects more
United Kingdom the problems that arise when a society becomes innocent day, Americans were often exploitative without realizing
psychologically postindustrial long before the economic infra- it, or without caring one way or the other; they wanted results
structure is sound enough to bear the weight of steadily rising and did not yet seek meaning as such.
expectations. The most talented young Americans are continuing A generation ago, Joseph Schumpeter talked about the with-
to avoid careers involved in any way with production and eco- drawal of affect from the entrepreneurial system. As children of
nomic affairs, and they are also now avoiding careers in the physi- the affluent renounce greed as a motive as well as traditional work-
cal sciences (other than medicine)—these are regarded as lacking mindedness, they may find it hard to discover other more liber-
in meaning.9 Yet our increasingly sophisticated economy demands ating sources of commitment. I see many young people today
both more conscientious work and more free-wheeling imagina- who expect to fall into a commitment or into an identity or into a
tion than it may get if young people's concept of management is meaning for their lives, the way romantic young people expect to
one of a career for stooges, "organization men." fall in love. They are unwilling, often, to extend themselves in
The Lonely Crowd contributed to the snobbish deprecation of order to find themselves. With the continuing decline in the legiti-
business careers, in its discussion of the shift from craft skill to macy of adult authority, the hegemony of the peer group has
manipulative skill, by underestimating the intellectual component continued to increase. In terms of social character, this may in-
of much work in complex organizations. To move away from volve some measure of other-direction. But the others to whom
physical toward conceptual manipulation and away from working one responds tend to be drawn from a narrow circle of intimates;
with things toward working with people should not have been hence there has not been an increase in other-direction in its
8. Cf. for example Leonard A. Lecht, Manpower Needs for National aspect of openness to others. Tolerance and openness are extended
Goals in the 1970's (New York, Frederick A. Praeger, 1969), a publi- only to small, marginally connected networks, whose norms in-
cation of the National Planning Association. clude intolerance toward others outside the networks.
9. For some, the rejection of the physical sciences reflects the fear A small minority of this minority has thrown itself into politics,
that they are irrevocably linked with military domination, but the re- finding in the antiwar, civil rights, and antiuniversity movements
volt against modernity extends to subjects like economics, and in some a new secular religion and often a new family, for they are freer
measure to any quantitative rational work. than heretofore of their parental families, their ethnic or religious
XX 1969 PREFACE 1969 PREFACE XXI
10
backgrounds, and local neighborhoods. It seems likely that a may at times give hegemony to the complacent, at other times to
varying proportion of this minority live with the awareness that those capable of great moral outrage and dedication. My collabora-
nuclear weapons may destroy the human enterprise itself, rein- tors and I, both when we wrote The Lonely Crowd and still today,
forcing their profound. anxiety and mistrust and their sense of take a more benign and nonviolent view of what is possible his-
historical discontinuity.11 torically, and hence believe that the best hope for change in the
I have been concerned with the nuclear danger since Hiroshima direction of our ideals does not lie in efforts at total improvement
and have given it first priority in my capacity as a citizen. People in oneself and in society but in patient work toward incremental
easily become obsessed with this danger (for example, deciding change in the light of a tentative sense of many possible futures.
not to bring any children into so precarious and terrible a world),
just as I have seen other people distracted from all else by their Stanford, California
preoccupation with other social cruelties, injustices, and stupidi- April 1969
ties. The Lonely Crowd advocates the morally and practically
difficult enterprise of living at once on two levels: that of ideals
and even Utopian visions and that of day-to-day existence. Our
daily life and our idealism must nourish and speak to each other.
Against this, there has been a strong and at times fanatical tra-
dition in America that the autonomous person must be a prophet
and must act on his convictions with minimal regard for personal
and social consequence—a tradition at odds with the pragmatism
which is also admired. The autonomous person too briefly delin-
eated in the last chapter of The Lonely Crowd was someone with
the ability and boldness to see straight, whether or not he had
the courage or the power to act on his perceptions. Most of us
are not heroes or saints, and if we insist that men must always
act on their ideals, this may mean either that the ideals will be
modified to suit the degree of one's courage and energy or that
individuals will become cynical about themselves or deluded about
their society or both. Thus this characteristically American belief,
that one must not only see straight but be sincere and act straight,
10. Cf. Kenneth Keniston. The Young Radicals: Notes on Com-
mitted Youth (New York, Harcourt, Brace and World, 1968); also
Keniston, The Uncommitted: Alienated Youth in American Society
(New York; Harcourt, Brace and World, 1965). Although in one per-
spective, members of the Young Americans for Freedom seem tied to
traditional backgrounds, their evangelical fervor is untraditional, just as
Keniston's young radicals are sometimes carrying out parental man-
dates with an unparental evangelism.
11. Cf. Robert Jay Lifton, Death in Life: Survivors of Hiroshima
(New York; Random House, 1968).
 Preface to the 1961 Edition

When in the fall of 1947 I had the opportunity to go to Yale

under the auspices of the Committee on National Policy, I was
teaching in the Social Science program of the College of the Uni-
versity of Chicago. I had been chairman of a committee to de-
velop an interdisciplinary course in "Culture and Personality"—
one that would not only include the contributions of anthropolo-
gists, psychologists, and sociologists, but would spread out beyond
these circles to make possible the cooperation of economists,
political scientists, and historians. The excitement of trying to
build a nondepartmentalized curriculum in the social sciences
was shared by a number of colleagues, including a friend of
many years, Reuel Denney, who came to an interest in mass com-
munications from the side of the humanities and literary criticism.
In my first few months at Yale, I recruited Nathan Glazer, whose
incisive critiques of leading work in the social sciences I had been
reading in the "Study of Man" Department of Commentary. My
co-workers and I brought a variety of intellectual approaches
together in the work that led to The Lonely Crowd and Faces in
the Crowd. Retracing some of these earlier steps in preparation
for this edition of The Lonely Crowd, I am struck by how much
has changed in American intellectual and academic life since 1948;
these changes in part refract the larger changes in our national life
and in the world situation, and in part autonomous developments
within the social sciences themselves.
Prior to the war, I had been working as a law professor on the
social psychology of defamation, seeking to understand the differ
ent meaning of insults and of wild political abuse in the different
social strata, and in a number of Western countries.1 I had been
excited by the development of the public opinion survey both as
a way of answering some of the questions raised in this research
1. See "Democracy and Defamation," Columbia Law Review,
XLII (1942), 727-780; 1085-1123; 1282-1318; see also "The Politics of
Persecution," Public Opinion Quarterly, VI (1942), 41-56.
XXlll
 PREFACE XXV
1961
xxiv 1961 PREFACE
ing under the impact of the war to attempt holistic or configura-
and of understanding more broadly the meaning of opinion; in- tional interpretations of the United States, Japan, or the Soviet
deed, when polling began to be used in a systematic way in the Union.
1930's it seemed to promise—as community studies did in another Hardly had their findings been published than they met a bar-
way—to bring the inarticulate and relatively powerless into the rage of criticism for their undoubted methodological and concep-
orbit of the student of society. In an effort to understand this tool tual lacunae and overinterpretations, similar to, but more relent-
better, I drew on the work of my friends at the Bureau of Applied less than, the professional criticism that greeted The Lonely
Social Research and in the Eastern Office of the National Opinion Crowd and Faces in the Crowd.3 Despite this criticism, work in
Research Center; and the first work that Mr. Glazer and I did to- the fields of national character and culture and personality con-
gether was an effort to grasp the sort of communication that went tinued, although in a less ambitious way; the younger anthropol-
on in a political survey and to see what a "don't know" response ogists seemed to steer clear of so controversial an area. At the
present time, anthropologists can no longer be called an esoteric
might mean.2
At that time, less than a decade and a half ago, social science elite, seeking to acquaint their fellow men with what had pre-
research lacked its present polish, its massiveness of process and viously been beyond or beneath their notice: what was esoteric
output. The change is perhaps especially striking in cultural has become part of our common understanding, and anthropolo-
anthropology, which interested us as much as public opinion gists, now belonging to a stronger and better-endowed profes-
sion, are today also burdened with observational and analytic aims
research.
While Lloyd Warner had led or stimulated important expedi- which are often beyond the competence of a single explorer.
tions into modern communities, most anthropologists had remained During the same period, some analogous developments had
until World War II the somewhat peripheral academic represent- occurred in psychoanalytic thought—and it was psychoanalytic
atives of what we might call "underprivileged" data—data from psychology which was most stimulating to anthropologists and
tribes without writing, without a navy, without what used to be other social scientists concerned with personality and culture (or,
called "culture." Furthermore, anthropologists had necessarily as Clyde Kluckhohn and Henry A. Murray put it, "personality in
been forced by the nature of their one-man expeditions into a culture"). Freud's theory of psychosexual stages, as elaborated
kind of amateurism in which the arts, the economics, the mythol- by Karl Abraham, applied the concepts of the "oral" or the "anal"
ogy, the child-rearing practices, the legal system, and the kin- character to whole cultures, thus implying the centrality of a
ship system were all within their purview, needing to be organ- 3. Readers who would like to pursue in more detail the accom-
ized in some holistic way. When anthropology was poor, it could plishments of and criticisms against the "culture and personality"
not afford to send more than one person to one place; and the school can consult Alex Inkeles and Daniel J. Levinson, "National
tribes, too, were poor, in the sense that they could not protect Character: The Study of Modal Personality and Sociocultural Sys-
themselves against white contact and could not be assumed to tems," in Gardner Lindzey, ed., Handbook of Social Psychology
remain intact for the next field trip. Moreover, when anthropol- (Boston, Addison-Wesley, 1954), pp. 977-1010; and Bert Kaplan,
ogy was poor, anthropologists were autocratic and aristocratic; "Personality and Social Structure," in Joseph Gittler, ed., Review of
Sociology, Analysis of a Decade (New York, Wiley, 1957), pp. 87-
by this I mean that, like the early psychoanalysts, they were pre- 126. Some of the criticisms of The Lonely Crowd are both repre-
pared to generalize on the basis of scanty evidence. They prac- sented and discussed in S. M. Lipset and Leo Lowenthal, eds., The
ticed an art requiring imagination and confidence in themselves, Sociology of Culture and the Analysis of Social Character: The Work
as well as ability to observe and record. Such brave adventurers • of David Riesman Reviewed (Glencoe, Illinois, Free Press, 1961); this
as Margaret Mead, Ruth Benedict, and Geoffrey Gorer were will- preface draws in some part on Mr. Glazer's and my contribution to
2. See "The Meaning of Opinion," reprinted in Individualism that volume.
Reconsidered (Glencoe, Illinois, Free Press, 1953), pp. 492-507.
 1961 PREFACE XXVll

1961 PREFACE
xxvi In my opinion, Freud and many of his followers had assumed
biological universalism for the understanding of history. In con- too readily that they knew what is basic or "primary" in a partic-
trast, our effort in The Lonely Crowd was to deal with an histor- ular culture, and they fixed man's fate too early in assuming it to
ical problem that was broader than genitality, though narrower be solely the playing out of psychosexual experiences mastered or
than fate. Thus, we ourselves were in the tradition of the neo- suffered in the early years of childhood. The Lonely Crowd, em-
Freudians, particularly Erich Fromm, with whom I had studied. phasizing as it does the role of the peer group and the school in
Fromm's Escape from Freedom and Man for Himself were deci- adolescence in the formation of character, perhaps itself underes-
sively influential models in the application of a socially oriented timates the possibility of change as the result of the experiences
psychoanalytic characterology to problems of historical change. of adulthood. And while the book as a whole emphasizes specific
Like the anthropologists, the psychoanalysts had been insistent on historical developments from tradition-direction to inner-direc-
the importance of previously neglected or underprivileged data: tion and other-direction, there is nevertheless adumbrated in Part
fleeting memories, dreams, the games of children, the modes of III a more psychological and less historical or cultural sketch of
weaning, the symbolic content of advertisements, popular stories, modes of adaptation—there termed "autonomy," "adjustment,"
and films—all had become the stuff of history. The psychoana- and "anomie"—that might in principle be found in any society.6
lysts had the temerity to tackle whole cultures in an effort to link Unfortunately, many readers have tended to collapse the histori-
the creation of a particular type of character structure in child- cal and the universal dimensions and, as we shall see more fully
hood to the adult society's mode of production, love, war, and in a moment, to regard autonomy and inner-direction as equiva-
folklore. In all such work, there was an effort to see what went lent—and conformity, which is found in all societies, as if it were
with what, what hung together, how a society channeled its characteristic of other-direction alone. No doubt our focus on
drives of sex and aggression, and it was this that had been a factor conformity—in other words, adaptation and adjustment—and
in the encouragement given historians (as Richard Hofstadter has on deviance or anomie, reflects some of the problems of a large-
pointed out)4 to think in terms of configuration and style, and scale differentiated society such as our own. More generally,
thus to delineate patterns as well as to describe events. (To be whereas the explicitly psychoanalytic typologies (such as Abram
sure, historians have worked this way in the past when they have Kardiner's) move "outwards" from individuals towards society.
allov\ ed themselves to refer to a period as "baroque" or to speak The Lonely Crowd proceeded the other way around: we started
of the "romantic" era, but psychoanalytic impetus involved a with industrial society and with particular historical develop-
broader and more explicit linking of a variety of individual mo- ments within American society. We concerned ourselves, more-
tives to large societal forms.) over, with the upper social strata, particularly with what has
Freud was cavalier, one might say princely, in the handling
of data, and some of his more orthodox followers today imitate overlook the meticulous work currently being done by a number of
his stubbornness without possessing his gifts. But other psycho- psychoanalytically oriented anthropologists (for a review of such
work, see John J. Honigmann, Culture and Personality [New York,
analysts and psychiatrists have become acclimated in the social
Harpers, 1956]). However, as the other neighboring disciplines and
sciences; they are understandably diffident about generalizations
the sub-fields of anthropology have built up their bulkheads, a some-
that are merely extrapolations from individual cases, for they real- what smaller leakage occurs from this work into neighboring com-
ize that to understand society, one needs not only life histories but partments.
history.5 6. This typology is indebted both for concrete suggestion and in
4. In The Varieties of History, Fritz Stern, ed. (New York, 1956), its mode of approach to Robert K. Merton's essay, "Social Structure
and Anomie," in his Social Theory and Social Structure, rev. ed.
p. 362.
5. In lamenting the good old days of not so long ago, when large (Glencoe, Illinois, Free Press, 1957).
error and large enthusiasm went hand in hand, I do not intend to
 1961 PREFACE XXIX

XXviii 1961 PREFACE The most tentatively held ideas about American character—
been called the "new middle class" of salaried professionals and ideas which we ourselves regarded as unclear or fluid—now are
managers. We assumed that there would be consequences for cited as definitive, and in an intellectually foreshortened way. It
individual character in the loss or attenuation of the older social is understandable that such use of the book would be made by
functions on the frontiers of production and exploration, and the readers and popularizers who like to believe that all the careful
discovery of other frontiers in the realm of consumption and per- apparatus of the social sciences is mere intellectual boondoggling,
sonal relations. We did not assume that an individual would be and that scrupulous and methodical efforts to find out whether
the replica of his social role, but rather that there might be great something that is believed to be so is really so reflects the preten-
tension between an individual's search for fulfillment and the de- tious pedantry of upstart sociologists. Rereading The Lonely
mands of the institutions in which he had a part, or from which Crowd presently on the basis of a somewhat less sketchy ac-
quaintance with empirical and theoretical work in the social
he Itfelt alienated.in what we have just said that the inwardness of
is implicit sciences, I find over-generalizations at many points where I would
individuals is only awkwardly if at all captured by a typology now be inclined to qualify or retract or wait for further evidence.
designed for the understanding of large-scale social change. It is (In what follows, however, I have taken account only of the
easier to classify individuals by means of typologies developed by largest criticisms and lacunae and not of the many smaller points
psychologists for just this purpose, and thus we can say of some- that would need to be changed if the book were to be written or
one that he is an "oral" or "receptive" type, or a "sadomasochis- rewritten today.) What I want to emphasize is that the book
tic" one, and take account of much that is relevant about him as could not have been written without painstaking work by many
an individual in doing so. But it is much harder, if not impossible, researchers on whose data and interpretations we drew; we hoped,
to classify a particular individual as other-directed or inner-di- in our turn, to contribute to ongoing work by suggesting ques-
rected, and when we have done so, we may have made a statement tions and frames of discourse for further inquiry. In sum, the
that helps explain his social or occupational role, but not much authors of The Lonely Crowd have been pluralistic in their ap-
else about him—not what we would know about him if we were proach to the social sciences, sympathetic to holistic and even ex-
his friend. However, in spite of caveats to this effect in both The travagant work in older veins, but also responsive to newer, more
Lonely Crowd and Faces in the Crowd, many readers, includ- rigorous efforts—our interest in survey techniques and interview-
ing some professional social scientists, have not only felt that it ing reflect the latter concerns.
was possible to make such classifications, but have also jumped to We have already referred to the tendency among readers of
the conclusion that the tentative hypotheses of The Lonely Crowd The Lonely Crowd to equate inner-direction with autonomy.
about social character could be unambiguously stated and regarded Only a very small minority, sometimes people brought up in a
puritanical milieu, have responded warmly to the values of other-
as proven.7 direction, to its openness and lack of inhibition, its interest in the
7. By defining terms carefully and by intensive work with a small
sample of college freshmen, Elaine Graham Sofer developed an in- others, and its readiness to change. Quite possibly The Lonely
genious projective test for social character; her study is, so far as I Crowd did not sufficiently stress these values; at any rate, the
am aware, the most searching attempt to use the concepts of The great majority of readers in the last ten years have decided that it
Lonely Crowd and Faces in the Crowd in empirical work with indi- was better to be an inner-directed cowboy than an other-directed
viduals. The opportunities and complexities of such work are illustrated
by her paper, "Inner-Direction, Other-Direction, and Autonomy," in rected, capable of seating themselves bolt upright in the Witkin tilt-
Lipset and Lowenthal, eds., Sociology of Culture. This study also ing-room-tilting-chair experiment, while those who were found to
brought to light the fascinating possibility that those individuals who be other-directed were also outer- or environmentally-directed in
were found, on the basis of psychological tests, to be inner-directed being influenced by the tilt of the room as well as by gravity.
were also men of "gravity," i.e., physiologically gravitationally-di-
 1961 PREFACE XXXI

XXX 1961 PREFACE cial mobility.9 When we were working on The Lonely Crowd,
advertising man, for they were not on the whole being faced with we were frustrated by the paucity of historical materials in many
the problems of the cowboy, but rather those of the advertising areas we deemed relevant; for instance, we could not find reli-
man.8 Everybody from the free enterpriser to the socialist has able evidence as to what religion meant for the different social
come out against conformity, so much so that when Elaine strata when Tocqueville was here in the 1830's. We could get data
Graham Sofer's study turned up a fervent apostle of other- on church membership and activities, on various revival move-
direction, the student in question was no naive defender of ments, and on theological disputes, but little that gave us the firm
togetherness but a believer in the values of the Israeli kibbutz sense of the emotional weight of religion for men as well as
who hoped to emigrate and take up residence there. women, adults and children, the more and the less respectable
The distinction between character structure and its manifesta- classes, the newer and the older denominations. We could only
tion in behavior is at best a shadowy one. Moreover, inner-direc- speculate as to how nineteenth-century young people might have
tion and other-direction are abstract concepts and, as this book responded to the questionnaires we were administering in an ex-
and its companion volume (Faces in the Crowd) seek to make tremely rough and ready way to mid-twentieth-century young
plain, no individual is ever entirely one or the other, particularly people. What we did in working on The Lonely Crowd and Faces
if his life is viewed as a whole, and not at any one moment. Thus, in the Crowd was to look for individuals who might in some way
while it is interesting to compare individuals in terms of degrees speak for the nineteenth-century—those who, by reason of loca-
of inner-direction and other-direction, such work can hardly be tion and occupation, were less directly in the path of moderniza-
conclusive, and those who have called for a large-scale empirical tion and who were not being prepared to enter the new middle
test of these traits, applied to a whole population, have little appre- class and the affluent society. But history buries its dead, and those
ciation of the complexity and scope of the theoretical analysis and who preserve older traditions in a changed situation are them-
empirical investigation that would be required before such work selves changed.
Nevertheless, we would agree with Lipset and with other crit-
could even begin. ics that the American of today and his ancestor of a hundred years
The quotation from Tolstoy in the first chapter and the quota- ago are much alike if we range them for example against the
tions from Alexis de Tocqueville that are scattered through the still unemancipated South American, Asian, or African. It remains
book reflect our concern about whether other-direction is some- true, as when Tocqueville was here, that Americans, at least out-
thing specifically new in the world. Professor Seymour Martin side the South, lack feudal traditions, a strong established church,
Lipset has forcefully argued in a recent paper that, on the basis and extended family ties; they are people who believe themselves
of the reports of European visitors to this country (including to be pragmatic, and sometimes are; on the whole (again outside
Tocqueville), Americans have always been other-directed, this the South) they tend to be optimistic for themselves, their chil-
being the psychological fruit of a social structure without estab- dren, their fair city, and their country; and they are mobile in
lished hierarchy and with a strong drive toward equality and so- terms of rank and region. Moreover, as Harriet Martineau ob-
served on her visit, American parents seemed even then to be
8. See, for an interesting example, Michael S. Olmsted, "Charac-
ter and Social Role," American Journal of Sociology, LXIII (1957), 9. "A Changing American Character?" in Lipset and Lowenthal,
49-57, describing a small study where a group of Smith College stu- eds., Sociology of Culture. See also, in the same volume, an argument
dents were asked to say whether they considered themselves more by Talcott Parsons and Winston White that American values have
inner-directed or other-directed than their parents, their friends of remained approximately the same from the beginning, "The Link
both sexes, and the "average" girl at Smith. Most considered them- between Character and Society."
selves more "inner-directed" than other students.
 1961 PREFACE XXX111
XXXII 1961 PREFACE

more the prisoners than the masters of their children, courting enable them to want "the good life" rather than the full dinner
them and caring for their good opinion. I think that this judgment pail, although at the same time the multiplicity in choices has
should not be taken to mean that American child-rearing practices raised doubts as to what is good. There has been a general tend-
in the nineteenth century were as child-centered as they have ency, facilitated by education, by mobility, by the mass media,
become in our own day, but rather that children were expected toward an enlargement of the circles of empathy beyond one's
in this country to be self-reliant earlier than in Europe, and were clan, beyond even one's class, sometimes beyond one's country as
well. That is, there is not only a great psychological awareness of
somewhat less sternly subordinated.
Of course, no historical change happens all at once. Precursors one's peers but a willingness to admit to the status of peer a wider
of what we term "other-direction" can be found in the nineteenth range of people, whether in one's own immediate circle or vicari-
century and earlier. It cannot be emphasized enough, however, ously through the mass media. The problem for people in Amer-
that other-direction is one step beyond conformist concern for ica today is other people. The social and psychological landscape
the good opinion of others (see pp. 23-24). Americans have al- has become enlarged because those other people are more in num-
ways sought that good opinion and have had to seek it in an un- ber and, possibly, in heterogeneity than ever before. But other
stable market where quotations on the self could change without figures in the landscape—nature itself, the cosmos, the Deity—
the price-pegging of a caste system or an aristocracy. What we have retreated to the background or disappeared, with the result
mean by other-direction (though the term itself connotes this that aspects of character that were always in some sense "there" or
only in part) involves a redefinition of the self, away from Wil- available become more salient, and other aspects recede.
liam James' emphasis on the externals of name, dress, possessions,
and toward inner or interactional qualities. The other-directed The concepts of inner-direction and other-direction, loosely
person wants to be loved rather than esteemed; he wants not to used to refer at once to social setting and to social character,
gull or impress, let alone oppress, others but, in the current helped us organize into clusters a number of possibly related his-
phrase, to relate to them; he seeks less a snobbish status in the eyes torical developments. However, in the course of history various
of others than assurance of being emotionally in tune with them. social and psychological configurations which have seemed per-
He lives in a glass house, not behind lace or velvet curtains. manent splinter and give way to new alignments—much as politi-
In the self-conscious society of our times,10 the negative aspects cal parties in this country have served at once to divide some inter-
of these qualities have been emphasized by many readers of The ests and to bring others together. Likewise, some of the behavioral
Lonely Crowd, and the positive aspects underemphasized. The items we linked with inner-direction or other-direction can no
authors of The Lonely Crowd are not conservatives harking back longer be classified in the same way. For example, many upper
to a rugged individualism that was once a radical Emersonian middle-class people who, in the 1940's, were proponents of "life
ideal.11 No lover of toughness and invulnerability should forget adjustment" in school, would today, after Korea and Sputnik, be
the gains made possible by the considerateness, sensitivity, and found in the ranks of those demanding discipline and "hardness."
tolerance that are among the positive qualities of other-direction. So, too, an investigation of a California suburb by Harold Hodges
Young, well-educated Americans today want more and different indicated that the language of popularity and group-adjustment is
things out of life than their ancestors did: security and affluence favored by the lower middle class and eschewed by the upper
middle class.
10. Cf. Eric Larrabee, The Self-Conscious Society (New York, The concept of social character, as employed in The Lonely
Doubleday, 1960). Crowd, involved a tentative decision as to what was important for
11. For a brief discussion of the paradox in the concept of indi-
salient groups in contemporary society. It was thus a different con-
vidualism, see John W. Ward, "Individualism Today," Yale Review
cept from national or modal character, which is usually a more
(Spring 1960), pp. 380-392. aggregative statement about personality dispositions in a group or
 1961 PREFACE XXXV
XXXIV 1961 PREFACE
variety of escapes); and once the institutions are there—created as
nation; we were only interested in certain aspects of character in Kenneth Boulding points out in The Organizational Revolution by
very imprecisely specified parts of the population, and even the achievements of the full-time organizer—enough facets of
there primarily in what was changing. But we did not differentiate enough people prove adaptable to the going concern. Karl Marx
carefully enough between character, behavior, values, and a style saw the factories of the industrial revolution as a massive power,
or ethos of particular institutions—the sorting out that this in- wrung from the labor of the workers and now confronting them
volves is a still uncompleted task for research. When we were with that labor in alienated form so that they in turn were alien-
working on The Lonely Crowd, we were convinced that the ated. Max Weber saw the bureaucracies of a later stage of capi-
older social sciences—history, political science, economics—gave talism and socialism as an "iron cage" within which man was
far too little weight to the understanding of social change that caught and to which he could only resign himself with stoicism,
might be gleaned from a better grasp of psychoanalytic psychol- his historical perspective garnishing his sense of duty.
ogy, even so, we sought in the book to emphasize both the social
It is in line with this view that many social scientists have con-
character and the major institutions of the modern world and not cluded that individual and social character may become of de-
to assume that the institutions were merely the frozen shapes creasing importance as "factors of production" in the modern
given to their childhood dreams by rigidly imprisoned adults. And
world; that indeed to interpret society one need not inquire into
yet all our experience of the world since the book was written has
the motives of men, but rather notice that the situations they face
led us to believe that modern industrial society can press into serv-
are much alike, that the power of modern technology and science,
ice a great variety of social character types. Thus we see in Japan
modern economic organization, modern ideological and party or-
contemporary institutions which have been powerful enough to ganization is such that a single style of society becomes possible
incorporate people without waiting twenty or thirty years for a everywhere: a society based on efficient bureaucracies and the
new generation to be created. What the Japanese do and what
production of great quantities of goods, which may be used either
they say has changed more radically than their social character.12
to advance national prestige or power or to improve the material
Any sufficiently large society will throw up a slate of psycholog- circumstances of life. Many Americans, including the authors of
ical types varied enough to suggest possibilities in many different
The Lonely Crowd, have been reluctant to accept these versions
directions; if America is not fascist, for example, it is not for want of determinism and have thought it possible to moderate the in-
of sadists or authoritarians. There are plenty of these to staff the tractabilities of institutions, believing particularly that it made an
more benighted jails and mental hospitals, or to compete for the enormous difference whether these institutions were created and
post of sheriff in many Southern communities; it is the institutional
controlled by a central elite for definite objectives, as in totali-
and juridical forms—and their own limitations—that make it dif- tarian countries, or were developed with less central guidance,
ficult for these men to coalesce into a political movement. To be growing up in more vegetable fashion, as in democratic coun-
sure, these protections for liberty would collapse in the absence tries.
of men of appropriate character to run or watch over them; but
our point is that, within wide limits, in a large society institutions On reconsideration, we still resist simplistic answers to the ques-
evoke within individuals the appropriate character. Or, more pre- tion as to the relative weight of social character and social institu-
cisely, given the range of responses of which men are capable, tions even in a world unsettled by the drastic message written in
institutions may select certain of these for reinforcement (while the sky above all countries: "You, too, can be modern and indus-
other, more rebellious, impulses are channeled off through a trial."
12. Compare the illuminating discussion of social and psychological Despite the residual plasticity of most adults which renders
change in Communist China by Robert J. Lifton, Thought Reform them employable under a variety of social systems, there are lim-
and the Psychology of Totalism (New York, Norton, 1961).
 1961 PREFACE XXXV11

tion and behavioristic psychology have already done, to take the

XXXVI 1961 PREFACE
place of nineteenth-century economic man, and to get rid of the
its. The American Indians made poor slaves, the Africans good "problem of man" in the social sciences.
ones—and this is not only because (as Stanley Elkins points out in We may indeed be coming to the end of the human story. But
Slavery) the slave ships broke the spirit and destroyed the cultural if man does survive this period, we think we shall see that plastic
cohesion of the latter; some African tribes were better for planta- man was but one of the stages of historical development, interme-
tion work, others for household work. For empirical reasons of diate between the widely variegated social character types of an
experience, not on ideological grounds, the Spaniards found them- un-unified world and the even more widely divergent individual
selves eliminating native West Indians and replacing them with character of a unified but less oppressive world.
more adaptable imports, whose social character made survival un- Looking backward in history (in Chapter 12) we saw "tradi-
der harsh conditions possible. Under our tutelage, the Pueblo In- tion-directed" centuries in which relatively set forms of social
dians have proved less friable than other Indian tribes, more character confront each other, and in which group conflict often
resistant if not more resilient. So, too, the history of immigration has the appearance of a collision between specialized and fixed
in this country is dramatically full of instances of differential re- human breeds. Of course, this is too abstract; these groups did
sponse to apparently similar conditions: second-generation Japa- learn from each other, yet they did not dream of imitating or be-
nese-Americans sought education, while third-generation Chinese coming each other. And in our own Western history, as perhaps
were still running laundries and restaurants—and so on through- also at other times and places, a superlatively efficient and impres-
out the list of entrants, who only begin to approach each other in sive social character was created (which we termed "inner-di-
the third and later generations. Quite apart from the importance rected"), which gave Portuguese and Spaniards and Dutchmen,
of individuals in history, and of their idiosyncratic character, the Englishmen and Frenchmen, Russians and Americans, power to
role of social character independent of institutions can at times be impose their aims and their very physical characteristics on vast
decisive. Moreover, as pointed out in The Lonely Crowd, while populations (including greatly increased populations of their own
different kinds of social character can be used for the same kind kind) over large parts of the globe—so that a Spanish Philippine
of work within a society or institution, we believe that there will commander in the sixteenth century could write his superior at
eventually be consequences of the fact that character types who home that with six thousand men they could conquer China.13
fit badly pay a high price in anomie, in contrast to the release of We do not in The Lonely Crowd explain how the inner-
energy provided by congruence of character and task. directed social character came about, though we followed Max
This is not to say that those leaders of the "developing" peoples Weber's lead in seeing the Protestant Ethic as linking a Greek
are correct who believe that they can retain their unique cultural type of rationality to a Judeo-Christian type of this-worldly mo-
or racial tradition while also going "modern"; as many are poign- rality. Family structure also seemed to us of decisive importance,
antly aware, the effective means they employ tend to become since the nuclear family makes possible the bringing up of chil-
their own ends, so that one can foresee eventual supersession of dren with very intense identifications with parental models, al-
the regionally distinct religions and cultures which once were cre- though this alone is insufficient to account for that definiteness of
ated and carried, if not unequivocally cherished, by people of set and conviction, that endoskeletal quality and hardness, which
very different social character. Against these means and against
13. I think at once of those Americans today who argue that, if we
the hope of power and plenty (and at times as revenge against
gave Chiang his head and hardly more men than that, he could take
those who had previously monopolized these), traditional values China; but those Americans do not realize that all the world is now in
fight everywhere a rearguard action, buttressed by decaying insti- on what were once the white man's secret weapons: his character, his
tutions and the ineffectively recalcitrant social character of the values, and his organization.
older generation. If this were the end of the human story, one
could invent a new "plastic man," as many writers of science fic-
 1961 PREFACE XXXIX
xxxviii 1961 P R E F A C E
studies done in many countries it seems that students everywhere
makes many inner-directed individuals into "characters" in the
now begin to resemble each other in basic outlook as well as su-
colloquial sense. Historical and cross-cultural investigation would
perficial fads, so that, despite many cleavages, these students are
be necessary before one could better understand how inner-di-
more like each other than any one of them is like his father or
rection came about—and why it may now be disappearing.
mother They are alike, as we have been suggesting, in their plas-
This incipient disappearance of inner-direction, with a loosen-
ticity their dependence on situation and circumstance and institu-
ing of the sense of personal destiny, seems in part a conse-
tions. Indeed, their alikeness has struck many observers who speak
quence of those forbiddingly powerful and efficient institutions
of the whole world as becoming "Americanized."
that inner-directed men conceived, organized, and rendered trans-
But the similarity must not be overstated. For better as well as
portable. One of these institutions was the free market which, in
for worse the specific types of resonance, anxiety, and sensibility
late capitalism, affects not only the market for money and goods
characteristic of many well-educated Americans are seldom to be
but the self-salesmanship of individuals (as Erich Fromm's term
found in countries which have still to eliminate caste barriers and
in Man for Himself, "the marketing orientation," makes clear).
to suffer the pangs of affluence. The current preoccupation in
The term "other-direction" may emphasize too much the role of
this country with national purpose is not to be found in the
specific others (or their surrogates in the mass media) and insuffi-
countries whose goal is to share (or overthrow) our prowess. And
ciently the role of such institutions as the personality market, for
of course there are many other differences, where local color and
whose often implicit directions the "others" are mere agents.14
character affect the impact of the transcultural institutions, so that
Men of conviction have not disappeared; they matter very
a Japanese factory preserves certain traditional values that an
much at present, precisely because they are relatively rare. And
they seem to be most rare among young adults. As we went American or a Russian factory disrupts.
But these differences are all under pressure of the discovery-
through our interview materials to select examples for Faces in
as important as Darwinism in changing the face of the world, and
the Crowd, there were very few respondents under thirty who
in the West in part reflecting Darwinism-that cultures and reli-
could not have been put, with qualifications, under the heading
gions hold no absolute truth, authority, self-evidentness. Fixed
"Varieties of Other-direction"; whatever else might be true of
them, they had enough plasticity for that. An analysis of inter- social characters could be maintained by fixed beliefs. Inner-direc-
views with nearly two hundred college seniors, though far less tion wedded fixed social character to flexible behavior, but not to
intensive, later gave an even stronger picture of malleability and relativistic values. Inner-directed men were able, for a relatively
brief historical period, to act as if the Chinese, Indians, Malayans,
acquiescence. Africans they encountered were radically different from them-
Does it follow that the specific American upper middle-class
social character we termed other-directed is also the social char- selves (and from each other); they could act this way because
acter of the young in general elsewhere in the world—of those they were obviously so much superior in power and hence, in
who have what Daniel Lerner refers to (in The Passing of Tra- many encounters, in poise as well. If they were missionaries they
ditional Society) as the "mobile sensibility"? Despite the very might ask of the others, even in the heart of darkness, that they
great differences of culture which persist, from observations and learn to act like white men; and—astonishingly, as it now seems to
us-millions sought to do so and were converted, impressed by
14. Cf. Talcott Parsons and Winston White, "The Link between the rectitude as well as the power of their captors and models. It
Character and Society," in Lipset and Lowenthal, eds., Sociology of has now become difficult for thoughtful Western men, not encap-
Culture. Parsons and White draw a clarifying distinction between
sulated by prejudice and ignorance, to take their own cultures
goals (the direction toward which) and the agents (those who give
and practices as absolutes; they cannot, by merely willing it,
directions).
 xl 1961 PREFACE 1961 PREFACE xli
take them with deadly seriousness—in fact, the current wave of unself-conscious, taken-for-granted rituals, and hence paradoxi-
talk about the American Way of Life is a propagandist's vain de- cally speeds initiation into the modern world where tradition itself
fensiveness against this very discovery. becomes an ideology, an aspect of deracination. Modernization
Another way of looking at this development is to see that, be- thus appears to proceed with an almost irreversible impact, and no
neath all or virtually all cultural absolutes, has lain a basic human tribe or nation has found a place to hide.
ambivalence. Anthropologists understandably regret the disin-
tegration of most nonliterate cultures with the coming of the In an age when many educated Americans are preoccupied with
white man (or, today, the white-influenced man of any color); the nature of their own identities and values, many non-profes-
and we, too, feel that many of these cultures have created values sional readers have come to The Lonely Crowd for clues as to
our own society lacks. But a great number of nonliterates, not sub- what they are like and how they might live. Indeed, many have
ject to physical coercion or dispersal, have plainly concluded read it as a test of their character, in the old-fashioned and non-
that their once seemingly given culture lacked something; technical sense of the word "character." We did not anticipate
they have gone off, singly or in groups, to join the Big Parade— such an audience, not only when the book was first published by
often meeting the more disenchanted Westerners going the other a university press, but later when it was one of the first ''quality
way. To repeat: the most important passion left in the world is paperbacks," for we and the publishers alike thought it might sell
not for distinctive practices, cultures, and beliefs, but for certain a few thousand copies as a reading in social science courses. While
achievements—the technology and organization of the West— the professional academic reader would easily locate the book in
whose immediate consequence is the dissolution of all distinctive the tradition of work in culture and personality, the untrained
practices, cultures, and beliefs. If this is so, then it is possible that reader often tended to give us too much credit, or to assume that
the cast of national characters is finished: men have too many to we spoke with the authentic univocal accent of sociology. We

I choose from to be committed to one, and as their circumstances

become more similar, so will many attributes held in common, as
against those unique to particular countries. Increasingly, the dif-
explained in the Preface to the first paperback edition what is still
true for this one; namely, that we were not only preparing an
abridgment (about four-fifths as long as the original) but to some
ferences among men will operate across and within national extent a new edition with many passages rewritten and others
boundaries, so that already we can see, in studies of occupational rearranged. However, in editing, we aimed only at greater clarity
values in industrial societies, that the group character of managers and conciseness: we did not try to take into account the criticisms
or doctors—or artists—becomes more salient than the group made of the original work, so that the reader may be assured that
character of Russians or Americans or Japanese, or indeed the any critique he may have read of the original work holds also for
conscious ideologies held in these societies. the paperback editions; what we have taken out has been removed
It would of course be premature to say that nations are no for convenience in understanding, and not to minimize con-
longer important, when they have the power of life and death troversy.
over us all; and when, since social and national character is a leg- Of course, all this was said on the assumption that student readers
acy of history, there will remain for a long time differences in na- would be familiar with the controversy concerning the method,
tional character just as great as differences arising from occupa- the interpretations, and the value judgments of the book. For
tion, sex, and style of life. So, too, relics of parochialism can persist those who want a reasonable sampling of these, let me again refer
—although as soon as a group or tribe seeks to protect its unique to the volume of criticisms edited by professors Lipset and Lowen-
historical legacy by a nativist or revivalist movement, this very thal. I want now to turn to a few of the items where the book
effort (as suggested in Faces in the Crowd) betokens the end of seems to me a dozen years later to be probably wrong, quite be-
xlii 1961 PREFACE 1961 PREFACE xliii

yond the general considerations about the importance of social oriented Americans and the more internally resonant and "softer"
character which have just been discussed. I shall take these up in descendants of today. In any event, in 1949 we felt that we should
more or less the order in which they appear in the book. not try at the last minute to take account of this issue, but simply
to present the population hypothesis as an interesting but un-
Population. My collaborators and I were well aware, before we proved idea.
published The Lonely Crowd, that our linkage of stages of histor- There was, too, another element in our decision to retain the
ical development to stages on the S-curve of population, posited population theory despite our own misgivings and the cogent ar-
by such demographers as Notestein, was rather shaky; readers of gument of friends who had read the manuscript that it was not
our manuscript reminded us that the concepts of tradition- essential to the book. One of these, an anthropologist, said in ef-
direction, inner-direction, and other-direction might be useful, fect: "It doesn't matter what the actual birth and death rates in a
even if there were no such deterministic historical sequence as the country are, or its actual population, but what people believe
first chapter of our book propounds.13 Moreover, our speculations about it: thus, if the Rumanians think they have the same popula-
concerning population had already been thrown in doubt almost tion pyramid as the Germans, it will have a comparable influence
as soon as they had been formed. Shortly before The Lonely on character structure." However, as Margaret Mead rightly
Crowd went to press in 1949, we read the pamphlet of Joseph states, the demographic hypothesis "may be regarded as a choice
Davis, of the Stanford Food Research Institute, derisively criticiz- among possible ways of asserting the significance of large-scale
ing the demographers, such as Notestein, on whom we had relied, historical trends, such as the progress of technology, which be-
and insisting that the post-World War II baby boom had de- come, at least in part, independent of the characterological
stroyed the theory of incipient decline. (Davis himself ventured peculiarities of the peoples caught in their sweep." 16 Ours was an
no alternative theory of population shifts, but merely hooted at effort to say that there is a real as well as a perceived world; how-
the demographers' wrong guess in the past.) We debated among ever, our use of the population cycle as an illustration of this
ourselves whether we should seek to take account of Davis' position is probably less effective than would have been discussion
views and of the mounting evidence of a decisive change, not of economic development, urbanization, and the spread of edu-
merely a temporary fluctuation, in the value placed by the middle cation.
class on having more children as against the value placed on saving We were not, it should be understood, suggesting that the
or on acquiring consumer goods. Only later did it strike us that shape of a population pyramid caused a particular social character
the option for children rather than more saving or splendor could to emerge; social-psychological developments are always mediated
be regarded as itself a demonstration of the change away from through institutions. Yet, just as Karl Wittfogel has argued (in
conspicuous consumption and toward a high value on personal Oriental Despotism) that, where water is scarce, individuals can-
relations that we (along with Parsons and White) regard as mark- not survive without an interdependent social fabric to preserve
ing a distinction between Tocqueville's and Veblen's externally the water (whereas if food is periodically scarce the imperatives
are less unequivocal and pressing), so in a less clear-cut way pat-
15. Many ethnographers and students of peasant society have terns of population growth or stability tend to go together with
pointed out the enormous variety of cultures sharing the character- societal patterns to meet the requirements of that stage. At pres-
istics of nonliteracy and high birth and death rates. Any reader of
ent, the technologically advanced societies such as our own have
ethnographic reports can sample this variety for himself. In The
Lonely Crowd, however, the concept of tradition-direction was pri- reached a situation of interdependence analogous to that of the
marily useful as a metaphorical background, setting the stage for Hopi, who will all die if they do not collectively preserve the rain-
what we term the "characterological struggle" between inner-direc- 16. See Margaret Mead, "National Character and the Science of
tion and other-direction. Anthropology," in Lipset and Lowenthal, eds., Sociology of Culture.
xliv 1961 PREFACE
1961 PREFACE xlv
fall. Indeed, the very fact that human beings can destroy them-
selves and their society illustrates why ecological and technologi- of a too great readiness to consider traditional interpretations as
cal requirements may narrow the alternatives within which social dated.
character is formed but can never create a society which is a sim- Thus we rejected as explanations of American malaise, espe-
ple reflex of what "has to" be done; thus, all "hydraulic societies" cially among the more privileged, the usual complaints about the
are cooperative, but the cooperation is assured by very different power and greed of the business classes, nor did we think that the
mechanisms and beliefs among the Hopi and among the Chinese shallowness, the lack of conviction, of many Americans reflected
or the traditional Egyptians. merely the loss of hegemony by a traditional and aristocratic
upper class, or the violations of democratic procedures by corrupt
Politics: the veto groups and the power elite. The Lonely politicians. In stressing the passivity and joylessness of Americans,
Crowd grew out of a critical view of American public life, but at their obedience to unsatisfying values, we followed in the wake
the same time one that rejected many interpretations that were of other observers, notably Erich Fromm, Karen Horney, Harold
current among intellectuals. We were writing at a time when the Lasswell, C. Wright Mills, and John Dollard. In emphasizing cul-
miasma that settled in on the land during the era of the Cold tural and psychological matters, we implicitly made clear our lack
War and the Eisenhower Administration was not yet at hand; of confidence in easy political remedies, although in urging
complacency about America combined with anti-Communism individuals to "feel free," we understated the depth of our politi-
had not yet been merged into the American Way. It was not then cal despair. Our understatement reflected not only lack of moral
heretical to regard America as a land ruled by a few big business- clarity but genuine doubt about contradictory trends in American
men and their political stooges and allies; it will be recalled that life. There is great generosity among Americans; there is also
Henry Wallace's followers, many of whom proclaimed that view, enormous meanness and mindlessness. There has been an immense
garnered a million votes, while the Communist party in 1948, al- increase of openness, tolerance, and empathy—not only an equal-
though already discredited among avant-garde intellectuals, had ity resulting from envy and the fear of eminence but also from a
more than fifty thousand members and was only beginning to lose more humane and accommodating responsiveness; this increase
its influence in the labor movement. Furthermore, many radicals must be balanced against the political passivity and personal limp-
who saw America as a country ruled by Wall Street joined many ness which The Lonely Crowd attacks.
conservatives who neither knew nor cared how it was ruled, in The Lonely Crowd was one of a number of books which in
regarding it as a cultural desert in which a few isolated figures recent years have eschewed dogmatism and fanaticism and pre-
maintained an authentic personal vision amid the corruption ferred openness, pluralism, and empiricism. Many intellectuals,
wrought by consumer goods and the mass media. Neither cultur- influenced by Reinhold Niebuhr or George Kennan, have done
ally nor politically were the authors of The Lonely Crowd and battle against American tendencies to unrealistic moralizing with
Faces in the Crowd at ease with the dominant styles of life in the its implications of total engagement in war and politics. We our-
United States, but we were convinced that to interpret what was selves in The Lonely Crowd sought to indicate, for example, that
wrong by a combination of Marxist class-analysis and aristocratic political bossism in America was not entirely evil and certainly
cultural disdain looked backward to an age that was already dis- not as evil as are attempts to extirpate it totally. So too, we saw the
appearing. (Cultural disdain is not necessarily mistaken because it veto groups as giving a certain leeway for freedom in their inter-
is aristocratic; rather, our point is that this traditional outlook stices. Speaking for myself, I have always felt it important to
missed creative although as yet uncodified elements in American think on two levels simultaneously: a middle level area of re-
popular culture.) Undoubtedly, our skeptical impatience arose not formist concerns and possibilities where one works within the
only out of a vivid curiosity about contemporary life but also out given system, and a more long-run Utopian concern with funda-
mental transformations. It would simplify both understanding and
xlvi 1961 PREFACE 1961 PREFACE xlvii
action to merge these two levels into an uncompromising attack so had the Marshall Plan. Both initiatives had been turned down
on the status quo, and the need over the course of years to resist by the Soviet Union and, we knew, this had prevented their be-
the temptation to simplify was an element in the severity of The coming matters of great domestic controversy, as would have hap-
Lonely Crowd's critique of political fanaticism, enthusiasm, and pened to any serious proposal to "give something away" to the
moral indignation. I like fanaticism no better than I did, when it Russians. Still, both plans made clear that men in high places could
is brought to the mindless defense of vested ideological interests, have large aims; and under the Marshall Plan (whatever disingen-
whether in our own South, or in the nation as a whole, or in uous and eventually self-defeating Cold War arguments were
totalitarian enclaves or countries. Yet it was a mistake to link deployed in its wake) money was appropriated by Congress for
fanaticism and the kind of moral indignation that is an outlet for economic aid alone. Before Korea and McCarthy, foreign policy
sadism and authoritarianism with only seemingly similar qualities could still be debated, though of course not without pressure from
in those who protest against injustice and oppression or wasted jingos, and a story in Time or the New York Times about Mo-
life. A dozen years later, at the tail end of the Eisenhower regime, rocco or Pakistan was not almost invariably angled in terms of
"extreme" political feelings are a danger in some quarters, but the the Cold War and the American bases. We had not yet put our-
fear of them is a danger in others, and the ravages extremism can selves by domestic exploitation of the struggle with world Com-
make of individual and group life have become almost too well munism into the bi-partisan deep freeze of the last ten years.
recognized. In its attitude toward politics, The Lonely Crowd Nevertheless, even if one recalls the relatively less oppressive
may have overemphasized the peripheral and the complicated at and less terrifying political climate of 1948, it is hard to justify
the expense of the obvious. now the implicit assumption in The Lonely Crowd that the frag-
On a more factual plane, we assumed in The Lonely Crowd mentation of American political power by the veto groups and
that the political accomplishments of the New Deal—social secu- the political apathy of most Americans could be taken somewhat
rity, reasonably full employment, labor's right to organize, and so lightly, since the major tasks of our national life were those of per-
on—would not be reversed and would in fact be readily extended. sonal development, the removal of "privatization," and the devel-
Although we had regarded the New Deal as shifting power away opment of city planning. Preoccupied with our own bewildering
from Wall Street toward the industrial managers (less enlightened, country, we concerned ourselves only marginally with the entry
we thought, than the bankers), we regarded neither Wall Street of Asia, Africa, and Latin America into the arena dominated by
nor big business as monolithic; and we saw that America had European peoples. (In 1948, India was just becoming independ-
made the tacit but irreversible discovery, after 1939, that a war ent, in the midst of massacres; the Communists were only then
economy is a politically feasible cure for depression; hence, we consolidating power in a disorganized China; the only industrial-
took for granted an economy of abundance, however sustained. ized non-Western state was under American occupation, and,
All this was probably too complacent. Stimson Bullitt correctly save for Liberia and Ethiopia, there were as yet no independent
points out (in To Be a Politician) that the postwar increase in the African Negro states, or near prospect of any.) In seeking to
size and opulence of the middle class pushed the residual poor describe the moral climate of American abundance, The Lonely
and unorganized still further away from political influence. About Crowd treated this in isolation from a world which was just begin-
the all too evident dangers of the war economy we shall have more ning to clamor for like blessings, and in which the most sensitive
to say hereafter. and intelligent Americans recognized the justice, the realism, and
In judging The Lonely Crowd today, however, it should be re- the complexities of the claim.
membered that in 1948 political imagination and flexibility, even These are matters of the book's focus, and its tone and tem-
though rare, could still be reasonably hoped for. The Lilienthal- per, but the largest controversy having to do with Part II of The
Baruch plan for the control of atomic energy had been proposed; Lonely Crowd has been over the issue of who has the power;
 1961 PREFACE xlix
xlviii 1961 PREFACE
civilian leadership. Even so, SAC has not gone unchallenged. De-
that is, whether, as we contended, there is no clear hierarchy of spite the help provided by diplomatic stalemates and provocations,
power and an inhibition by veto groups of decisive action by lead- it was not able to persuade President Elsenhower to order a per-
ers, or whether, as C. Wright Mills argues, there is a power elite. manent alert; and despite its enormous influence in Congress, it
The concept of the veto groups is analogous to that of counter- has periodically felt—like most rich people—pinched for money.
vailing power developed in Galbraith's American Capitalism, al- So, too, the AEC has met countervailing power, from the un-
though the latter is more sanguine in suggesting that excessive likely source (if one follows Mills) of the scientific community;
power tends to call forth its own limitation by opposing power, indeed, for Mills even a zealous innovator like Teller must be a
resulting in greater freedom and equity all round (at a possible mere aide-de-camp of the big brass, the big businessmen, and the
slight price in inflation). Both books agree that there is no big politicians.18 Reflecting on particular decisions since the end
single coherent, self-conscious power elite, but an amorphous set of World War II, such as the decision not to intervene in Indo-
of would-be elites, bidding for and forming coalitions. In The china or the series of decisions on disarmament policy and a test
Lonely Crowd we argued that this state of affairs made it easier
ban,19 we think people may well come to feel as we do, that there
to stop than to initiate action on the national scene (locally there are few cohesive groups which consistently know what they want
were bosses and elites), the result being a leaderless society in and get it (though some men of SAC and of the AEC do have
which people withdrew from affairs that had become unmanage- clear, one-eyed aims), but rather a continual intramural combat,
able and incomprehensible.17 resting not only on the personal feuds of a palace guard (that,
We do not see that this general picture has changed radically; it too) but also on divergent economic and ideological interests and
has changed some. The Strategic Air Command seems to us to on different understandings of the world and how to cope with it.
have considerably greater power than any single agency possessed The main problem, then, of our approach does not lie in our
in 1948. For a time, it brought the Navy along (by sharing closing our eyes to the existence of a power elite, or in our being
nuclear capability) and reduced the Army to a role of minor taken in by what Mills regards as the illusory and distracting game
irritant and occasional veto group. In alliance with the AEC, it being played at the middle levels of power, which were once the
forced the Oppenheimer hearings and temporarily silenced the major levels. What we failed properly to understand was that our
opponents of Teller and an H-bomb foreign policy. In alliance government is at once much too powerful, being able to threaten
with the big and little contractors, their unions and workers, and the whole world, including Americans, with extermination (and
"their" senators, it has made the war economy so central to our to risk this result in a series of provocative bluffs), while being at
whole economy that the stock market rises when the Summit the same time too powerless in the face of the veto groups to
breaks down. Many of these things have happened, not because move toward the control of this threat. Just as our cities are help-
SAC has planned it that way, but rather because it has had a
clearer sense of mission than the other services, has been led by 18. I share the anxieties that led Mills to write The Causes of World
men of great dedication, and has often worked in a vacuum of War HI, but not the hopefulness we would dimly glimpse if we
thought there was someone in charge who could negotiate effectively
17. Only in later writings have we clearly drawn the distinction without fear of what Mills' middle-level politicians might say and
between "civic" activity (e.g., concern with the schools, zoning, play- the guerillas they could mobilize within the agencies, as well as the
grounds) and "political" activity on the larger scene, commenting on easily aroused jingoism and bellicosity of what Veblen spoke of as
the attraction of the manageable and seemingly "nice" civic realm as
the underlying population.
against the opacity, repulsiveness, and controversiality of politics. See 19. See, e.g., the revealing account by Saville Davis of the Christian
Riesman, "Work and Leisure in Post-Industrial America," in Eric Science Monitor, "Recent Policy-making in the United States Gov-
Larrabee and Rolf Meyersohn, eds., Mass Leisure (Glencoe, Illinois, ernment," Daedalus (Fall 1960), Vol. 89, pp. 951-966.
Free Press, 1958), pp. 363-388.
 1 I96I PREFACE 1961 PREFACE li
less before the bulldozers that herald the highways that herald the Lonely Crowd suggests, but the institutions shaped by them hang
clogged transport and flight from the city—the auto industries be- on; there is nothing to take their place. We refer not only to the
ing the peacetime analogue of SAC—so our national government emphasis on individual profit, from which the more sensitive or
only managed to hold the line against the massed vendors of "de- apathetic escape, but also to the credentials by which institutions
fense" because a general as President cared deeply for peace and survive and are judged. Quite apart from forms of ownership, an
was somewhat less vulnerable to fear of being thought soft or an industrial society nourishes a certain psychological set or drive: it
appeaser than most public men, and because of the fortunate com- tends to be expansionist, so that people feel inferior if "their" or-
placency and fear of inflation he shared with the Coca-Cola kings ganization does not grow or progress; certain measurable, calcu-
and other non-defense-oriented golfing partners. lable, "rational" values are understood, while others can hardly be
But, as we have just indicated, there is no security for the citi- stated, let alone supported. Here again, the institutions that inner-
zen in the incoherence of the government and its incapacity to act. directed men set going now appear to run, as it were, under their
The veto groups in an earlier epoch provided in their interstices own inertia, foreclosing by their very existence some alternatives
and clashes some areas of freedom for the individual. Now, how- while opening others. Men no longer conspire enthusiastically in
ever, the relative helplessness of government often has the effect their own alienation: they are often somewhat disaffected, but
of making citizens feel more rather than less helpless. When one they lack the conviction that things could be done any other way
man can give the order or make the mistake that will decimate the —and therefore cannot see, save in a peripheral way, what is
planet, countervailing power now works no better than the tradi- wrong with how things are.
tional constitutional balance of power. The fait accompli of a Thus, at this moment of history, men cannot afford to take pride
strategically placed group—often subordinate officials or officers, and hope in the release of atomic energy, imaginative and appeal-
not necessarily holders of the "command posts"—can replace ing as this may appear to a later age; nor can men take pride in the
democratic politics. In this situation, many men see a strengthened industrial institutions created by ingenuity and dedication, insti-
national executive as the only way out, even though one result tutions which now inspire neither devotion nor new visions of
may be an increase in the very nationalism and chauvinism which what men might do. For the most part, the so-called leaders are
contribute to international anarchy and the likelihood of total only the more pampered and overworked, but hardly less helpless,
and near-total war.
prisoners. They "have" a greater power than the rest, but are often
Nationalism, however, whether in its creative guise as a source confused as to how to deploy it. To see the world in the same ster-
of a sense of pride and of effectiveness in overcoming tribalism ile way, it is not necessary (as we understand Mills to contend) to
or in its phase of rigor mortis among the big powers, is more than have attended the same schools, shared the same economic inter-
a tool manipulated by a power elite which itself remains detached ests, or joined the same clubs. We believe that there are still large
and immune: elites are as much the captives as the creators of na- reservoirs of imagination and a sense of responsibility among
tionalism. And the failure of American initiatives in 1953, when Americans, but political activation of new ways of thought can no
the death of Stalin made a rapprochement with the Soviet Union longer depend on capturing the leadership of an unorganized non-
conceivable, was not the result of a decision made by such an elite group as the basis for a political movement; with the growth
elite; the causes lie deeper and are still more serious. of affluence, it is the malaise of the privileged rather than of the
It is when we turn, all too briefly, to these causes that we begin underprivileged that becomes increasingly relevant.20
to see the limitations of analysis in terms of veto groups and coun-
tervailing power. For these groups, quite apart from the specific 20. For further discussion, see David Riesman and Michael Mac-
coby, "An American Crisis: Political Idealism and the Cold War,"
economic interests they may draw upon, are inevitably shaped in
New Left Review (January 1961), no. 5, pp. 1-12. Reprinted in
their ways of perceiving and acting by the climate of a business Arthur Waskow, ed., The Liberal Papers (New York, Random House,
culture. The old capitalist values have decayed, in ways The 1961).
 1961 PREFACE liii
lii 1961 PREFACE
the individual, guiding the latter's interpretation and selection.
In its own emphases and certainly in the minds of its readers, We emphasized, for example, how the mass media operated in the
The Lonely Crowd directed attention more to problems of "free- socialization of young people, by providing an agenda for the peer
dom from" than to problems of "freedom to." Here, of course, group as well as ephemeral materials for it to consume. And we
not being Manchester liberals, we regarded the state as an ally, not saw controllers of the media as themselves vulnerable to group
as an enemy, though one rendered weak and impotent by the veto pressure, led by their aspirations to respectability to make poli-
groups. But we focused primarily on areas outside of formal poli tics a more prominent part of the news than strict attention to
tics: on group pressures, on the encircling demands for participa- profit-making might dictate. Thus, we saw the mass media, not
tion, for agreeableness, for emotional and not merely behavioral as distracting Americans from their political tasks, but as an in-
assent. We contributed to the gnawing fear of conformity—a fear vitation to politics—one, to be sure, greatly distorted by the cult
that often has confused cooperative action in pursuit of common of personality and by the audience appeal of outbursts of indig-
ends with duplicitous acquiescence and values imitated from some nation.
reference group or accepted out of fear of seeming to be different, Being not too impressed by the massiveness of the media in
whether the issue was important or not or whether it involved a short-run campaigns, either to sell goods or to sell ideas—seeing
matter of principle or not. here also the veto groups and countervailing power at work—we
A quite different concern in the book, namely, "privatization," concentrated on the problem of long-run effects. We asked, for
had much less impact, perhaps because we were not read by those instance, what was the influence on the political climate of the
whose isolated situation cut them off from people and ideas, either United States of the fact that the media, whether as advertisers or
because they were members of minority groups, or were subordi- as vendors of entertainment and news, presented an image of life
nated women, or were poor or elderly. (No doubt, privatization as smiling, tolerant, urbane, and (save in sports and politics) rela-
has declined, as more women have entered the labor force, as iso- tively affectless. Did this increase the inside-dopester orientation,
lated farmers have gained access to town and to the mass media, at the expense of a deeper involvement for some, a deeper indif-
and as literacy has spread, and leisure also.) While our treatment ference for others? What was the result for the cultural climate of
of an imposed and empty gregariousness was still primarily in the fact that the media presented consumer goods so glamorously,
terms of "freedom from" (freedom in the older liberal vein from in competition with other less touted values—a theme greatly
societal pressures and in the newer one from those enforced by clarified by Galbraith's argument in The Affluent Society that the
"private" bodies), our treatment of privatization was in, terms of private sector mercilessly competes with the unadvertised needs
"freedom to." Still, we wish we could have said much more con- and unshowy goods of the public sector?21 What was the in-
cerning the kind of society in which these individual feelings of fluence on American emotional life and private life (as distin-
freedom and effectiveness could flourish, the Utopia which would guished from the private sector) of bombardment by the mass
make of autonomy not only an individual achievement, against the media's emphasis on personal relations, even or especially when
grain of our common life, but an increment to the effectiveness of this was accomplished with more subtlety than critics steeped in
that life and hence to the individual's own sense of himself. the traditions of high culture were prepared to recognize?
So far as we can see, it is no easier to answer such questions now
The mass media. In dealing with the mass media, The Lonely than when we wrote. (The advent of television, which arrived
Crowd reflected the discovery of researchers, particularly Paul F. 21. Even before the rise of advertising, Tocqueville saw Americans,
Lazarsfeld, that political propaganda and campaigns did not have somewhat as Veblen later did, as competing with each other in the
an easy, conscienceless victory over the isolated and helpless mem- race for and display of possessions. Americans were ready for the
bers of an anonymous mass, but that groups and "cells" mediated mass media even before the mass media were ready for them.
between the messages coming from the centers of diffusion and
 liv 1961 PREFACE 1961 PREFACE lv

with a rush after our book was written, did not lead to much pains- imagination in the tone of treatment (a theme Reuel Denney deals
taking study of the differences between the pre-TV and the post- with in his book The Astonished Muse). Furthermore, the veto
TV quality of group life—nothing comparable to the investiga- groups operate with particular potency in the field of the media,
tion recently done in England by Hilde Himmelweit and her co- so that a single irate letter to a network or a sponsor or a congress-
workers.22) It is obviously impossible neatly to separate the man can affect a whole program—usually adversely.
media from their wider cultural context, just as it is impossible to Our gravest concern about the media, however, is not their
separate the messages of advertising in the media from the "mes- long-run impact on culture, but the fact that the press, the news
sages" carried by the goods themselves, displayed in the stores, the magazines, and particularly the newsreels have become far more
streets, and the home. We still believe that the long-run impact of ethnocentric if less parochial than in 1948; they cover somewhat
the media on the style of perception, the understanding (or, more more foreign news, if only to smother it in the self-serving slogans
often, the misunderstanding) of life, the sense of what it means to and misleading rhetoric of the Cold War. In this perspective, we
be an American boy or girl, man or woman, or old folk, is immense are forced by events and by our own developing thought to view
—more important than the often overestimated power of the media the mass media more soberly and less hopefully than we did when
to push one marginally differentiated product or candidate over we wrote The Lonely Crowd.
another.
But even in this field, where speculation must reign in the ab- Autonomy and Utopia. In a review of The Lonely Crowd,
sence of probing, we refused in The Lonely Crowd and we still Richard L. Meier and Edward C. Banfield wrote:
refuse to join the undifferentiated assault against the shoddy sym-
What kind of a person is the autonomous man in a predominately
bolic goods carried by the media. The vast amount of time most
other-directed society likely to be in the future? This is a question
Americans spend with television is appalling, but the pre-TV al-
which the authors treat fleetingly. We suggest that—if our children
ternatives, such as driving aimlessly about, sitting vacantly, attend-
and our students are any criteria—the new autonomous type will
ing sports events, or playing canasta, are hardly more "real" or less
appalling. he very much affected by the tremendous quantities of information
that are open to him, and by the comprehensive quick-acting, and
Yet there is certainly the danger that The Lonely Crowd could
relatively unbiased institutions which he can use. His relationship
be read as an invitation to intellectuals to go slumming in the mass
to the machine, will be that of designer or diagnostician, but not
media, and to patronize rather than to seek to alter the folksy pur-
slave. His logic will be multi-valued, often with concrete statistical
suits of the semi-educated. Nevertheless, we think that the book
formulations. When probabilities are equal for all alternatives, he
might help those who want to reform the media to go about it in a
will choose spontaneously. His loyalties will not be intense; how-
more intelligent way. For one thing, we encouraged people to dis-
ever, internationalism as an ideal will appeal to him. Play of the
criminate among the media; and today we would point out that
imagination will be more varied, but plans for the future will be
the movies are less cowardly than they were when we wrote,
more prominent (the present vogue of science fiction may be
partly because, beaten like radio by TV, they have the relative
symptomatic of this). His moral outlook will be inquisitive and
freedom of a small power. Even in television, the networks differ
pragmatic: unfortunate circumstances lead to antisocial actions.
among themselves in their sense of responsibility, and individual
Sin, therefore, will have been explained away when its causes are
stations have sometimes shown courage in the topics chosen for a
understood. But antisocial action will remain the one thing these
few dramas and documentaries, even if they have seldom shown
otherwise independent personalities will have to avoid. What the
22. Hilde T. Himmelweit, Television and the Child, in collaboration consensus establishes as the social good will still be sacred.23
with D. Blumenthal and others. Published for the Nuffield Foundation
by Oxford University Press, 1958. 23. In Ethics, January 1952.
 Ivi 1961 PREFACE 1961 PREFACE Ivii

The attitude of these reviewers is markedly different from the pseudo-participation evoked in a corporate happy family.
that of most reviewers and, so far as we can tell from correspond- Undoubtedly for many people, perhaps particularly for women
ence and discussion, most articulate readers of The Lonely Crowd, whose main concern is their families, a job does not need to be
who, as already stated, tended to regard inner-direction and auton- "meaningful," provided that the hours are short and convenient,
omy as much the same thing, and who would regard with horror transport no problem, and the work itself neither exhausting nor
the fluid and perhaps overloaded sensibilities hopefully viewed by demeaning. The center of gravity, of seriousness, for many peo-
Messrs. Meier and Banfield. Partly, I suppose, the confusion be- ple can and does lie outside their occupation. Yet we failed fully
tween autonomy and inner-direction that many readers fell into to appreciate the costs of that relocation, not only for men trained
reflects our own inability to make the idea of autonomy a more in a work-driven age but for their descendants in the foreseeable
vivid and less formal one—to give it content, as inner-direction future. The criticism Daniel Bell voices of us as "prophets of play"
gained content because the concept called to mind many historical in Work and Its Discontents seems to us just.24
exemplars available to everyone's experience. Beyond that, a Here, too, the problem that faces us is one of imagination, per-
strand of nostalgic thinking has always been strong in America haps also of courage. The alternative to drifting toward make-
despite the waves of boosterism and progress-oriented optimism work on the one hand and play on the other, for the millions of
that have often been more dominant. people whose work is obviously not socially vital, is so drastic a
Indeed, in the 1950`s, as we have said, it sometimes appeared reorganization of work and hence of society that it is hard to en-
that many educated young people saw only two possible roles visage. Not only must we get rid of needless, parasitical work but
for themselves: that of the well-heeled organization man (other- we must also reduce the scale of the workplace and make the man-
directed), and that of the well-shod cowboy (inner-directed); it agement of it a shared enterprise. For the first time, social wealth
was in this period that "togetherness" joined "do-gooder" as a and organizational knowledge make it conceivable to move in
term of contempt. In this shrinkage of alternatives, little gestures this direction, so that work becomes more demanding, more
of personal assertion—or a solipsistic lack of concern for others— varied, more participative, and less compartmentalized from edu-
have often masqueraded as autonomy. The degeneration of in- cation and politics. Something like this was the goal of the guild
dividuality into egocentrism and eccentricity is an old American socialists; elements can be found—mostly, alas, ideological trim—
story. in the Yugoslav factories; adumbrations occur in a few American
We were not entirely blind to these possibilities when compos- corporations, such as Polaroid. In any event, we agree with Paul
ing The Lonely Crowd, and we sought in writing the last chapter Goodman, in Growing Up Absurd, that men need to feel ade-
on "Autonomy and Utopia" to modify the emphasis on "freedom quate: to hold down a job, and then to be related to life through
from" and to give a picture of human relatedness that would be consumership, is not enough. In fact, we soon realized that the
visionary without being too formal or sentimental. Our imagi- burden put on leisure by the disintegration of work is too huge
nations proved unequal to the task of inventing a Utopia in line to be coped with; leisure itself cannot rescue work, but fails with
with our analysis. it, and can only be meaningful for most men if work is meaningful,
The one strongly Utopian note that remains in the book now so that the very qualities we looked for in leisure are more likely
seems to us the least satisfactory, namely, the whole idea that au- to come into being there if social and political action fight the
tonomy in the post-industrial culture was to be found in play and two-front battle of work-and-leisure.
leisure, and not in work. We were right to conclude that the old The Lonely Crowd tended to minimize the objective pressures
subsistence motives of hunger and gain were evaporating. We 24. Work and Its Discontents (Boston, Beacon Press, 1956) has been
were also right to reject the alternative of persuading workers that reprinted in Bell, The End of Ideology (Glencoe, Illinois, Free Press,
what they are doing is meaningful by making it chummy and by 1960), pp. 222-262.
 Iviii 1961 PREFACE 1961 PREFACE lix

that were making work harder for the professional and managerial cans.27 Many are in search of a cause, in search of commitment,
strata, even while hours were being reduced and grim conditions and some look for this outside the United States, very rarely be-
alleviated for the declining proportions of farm, personal service, hind the Iron Curtain, but in India, Africa, Cuba, or Israel. It
and blue-collar workers. A division of labor is hardly ideal that would seem that men cannot live for long in a static, sober world
demands a 70-hour week for doctors, top executives, and high drained of ideology—a world of veto groups and countervailing
civil servants, with little regard for their own personal rhythms power and modest, commonsensical gains within the system; nor
(professors and artists may work in spurts for quite as long hours, will it be efficacious for the old to tell the young that to try for
but under somewhat less outside pressure), while the rest of the anything better will bring worse evils in its train: fear can act as a
population finds its work so boring and meaningless that it seeks to damper on hope only in a static society or for a short period.
cut down the working day and to retire early if finances permit.25 If in the "developing" countries today men see ahead the goal
of eliminating poverty and exploitation, in the "overdeveloped"
Although some of the more articulate critics of The Lonely ones men become aware of more subtle frustrations, more indirect
Crowd have attacked it as too sanguine about American leisure alienation. As yet, they see no way to make a political program
and abundance, there are others who have criticized it (notably out of personal demands for meaningful work, unphony per-
my colleague Talcott Parsons) for overemphasizing alienation sonal relations, and unmilitaristic foreign policy. It is only in the
from work and from family life when, as much objective evidence field of race relations, where tolerance can be practiced individu-
indicates, so many aspects of American life have been up- ally and expressed among colleagues and where the issue is clear,
graded.26 One thing that has happened as the result of the very that the more sensitive young people have been able to make their
order of changes The Lonely Crowd discusses is a rise in the ex- views vocal and effective. In the field of foreign policy, the toler-
pectations held of life by many Americans who have risen above ant remain at the mercy of the curdled indignants; and many
subsistence. This is the American form of "the revolution of ris- Americans have no better Utopia than a mad return to the epoch of
ing expectations," of which the motto is "If things are good, why Theodore Roosevelt, imitating both the bravado of our own past
aren't they better still?" Alexis de Tocqueville, in his book on the and that of the Soviet Union—as if it were possible to make a
ancien regime, was perhaps the first observer to notice that revo- whole nation inner-directed again by internalizing the arms race
lutions occurred, not when people were implacably oppressed, but under the label of national purpose. If they win out, the fragile
when standards of living were rising and political oppression be- chance will be lost that America might offer to the rest of the
coming somewhat less harsh; the revolution in Hungary and the world some clues to the uses of literacy and abundance.
overturn in Poland in 1956 are only among the most recent illus- Here we find ourselves back at a national boundary, even
trations. Kenneth Keniston has recently described the alienation though earlier, in discussing social character, we agreed that the
that has been spreading among many privileged young Ameri- world is getting more homogeneous, and that enclaves, whether
national or regional, are bound to disappear, providing the exist-
25. Financial pressure often leads men on a short work week to take ing enclaves do not make us all disappear. Contrary, however, to
a second job, sometimes as in Akron even a full-time second job, but what many nostalgic people believe, the loss of older fixed bound-
it is the lure of the paycheck and not of the work itself that is aries of class, caste, and nation does not inevitably mean a grow-
responsible for moonlighting.
ing sameness in the world in terms of the development of personal
26. See Talcott Parsons, "A Tentative Outline of American Values,"
unpublished manuscript, 1958. See also Clyde Kluckhohn, "Has There styles of, life. Disappearance of the more exotic differences will
Been a Change in American Values in the Last Generation?" in Eking
Morison, ed., The American Style: Essays in Value and Performance 27. Kenneth Keniston, "Alienation and the Decline of Utopia,"
(New York, Harpers, 1958). American Scholar, XXIX (Spring 1960), 1-40.
Ix ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

only discomfit tourists, provided that the differences that once

the final manuscript. Nathan Glazer worked with me in the first
arose among men due to their geographic location can be replaced
half year of research at Yale, helping in the planning and carry-
by differences arising from the still unexplored potentialities of
ing out of our initial interviews and in clarifying our joint think-
human temperament, interest, and curiosity. The current preoc- ing on the relation between politics and character structure.29
cupation with identity in this country (notable in the great im-
His curiosity of mind and generosity of spirit enlarged our col-
pact of Erik H. Erikson's work) reflects the liberation of men
leagueship. The treatment of the role of character structure and
from the realm of characterological necessity. The power of in-
history in Chapter I, of the relation between character and poli-
dividuals to shape their own character by their selection among
tics in Part II, and of the concept of autonomy in Chapter XIII
models and experiences was suggested by our concept of auton- owes much to drafts written by him. Moreover, the abridgment
omy; when this occurs, men may limit the provinciality of being
of the paperback edition originally published by Doubleday and
born to a particular family in a particular place. To some, this here, with minor editing, republished, was largely his work, and
offers a prospect only of rootless men and galloping anomie. To
the preface to this revised edition was written in collaboration
more hopeful prophets, ties based on conscious relatedness may
some day replace those of blood and soil.28 with him.
While engaged in writing this book, Mr. Glazer and I were
also conducting interviews with Americans of different ages,
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS both sexes, from various social strata, and we were also soliciting
interviews from friends and collaborators in other parts of the
This book could not have been written without the support country. These interviews—plainly not intended to be repre-
provided by the Committee on National Policy of Yale Uni- sentative of the enormous diversity of America, but rather to be
versity. The Committee invited me to Yale, gave me a completely a source of illustrative data—were drawn on only to a slight
free hand to do what I wanted, with whom I wanted, and sup- extent for the writing of The Lonely Crowd. Indeed, it should be
ported the work from funds provided by the Carnegie Corpora- emphasized that this book is based on our experiences of living
tion, to which my thanks are also due. I am particularly grateful in America—the people we have met, the jobs we have held, the
to Harold D. Lasswell and Eugene V. Rostow, now Dean of books we have read, the movies we have seen, and the landscape.
the Yale Law School, the Committee members most closely con- However, the fact that we were simultaneously conducting inter-
cerned with the work. views and planning several community studies forced us toward
My indebtedness to my two collaborators is very great. It was the clarification and systematization of our ideas, which then
with Reuel Denney that I first began to explore the world of served in some measure to guide interviewing and the analysis
the teen-agers, their tastes in music, literature, movies, and so on. of interviews (some of the later phases of this work are reported
The discussion of the socializing and escapist functions of litera- in Faces in the Crowd, published by Yale University Press in
ture in Chapters IV, V, VII, and IX draws heavily on memoranda 1952). The study of a community in Vermont, briefly reported
written by him; and the treatment of work and play in the con- there, was made under the direction of Martin and Margy
temporary middle class in Chapters XIV through XVI draws on Meyerson, assisted by Rosalie Hankey (now Rosalie Hankey
his contributions and on the work of students whom we have Wax) who also provided us with many interviews. In collabora-
jointly encouraged in the study of these problems. In 1949, tion with the Meyersons, Dr. Genevieve Knupfer undertook a
Mr. Denney worked with me in the task of revising and recasting group of interviews in East Harlem and elsewhere; coding of
these interviews was done by Rose Laub Coser; Erika Eichhorn
28. Erich Fromm, The Sane Society (New York, Rinehart, 1955),
29. See Riesman and Glazer, "Criteria for Political Apathy," in
p. 362. Alvin Gouldner ed. Studies in Leadership (New York, Harper, 1950).
lxii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS P A R T I: C H A R A C T E R
(now Erika Bourguignon) gathered and analyzed a group of
Rorschach tests in the Vermont community. Sheila Spaulding
assisted with research on American history and on the theory
of the population cycle. Among friends who read the manuscript,
or portions of it, I want especially to thank Lewis Dexter, Herman
Finer, Erich Fromm, Everett Hughes, Nathan Leites, Evelyn
T. Riesman, John R. Seeley, Milton Singer, M. Brewster Smith,
and Martha Wolfenstein.

D R
Cambridge, Mass.
November 1960
 Some types of character and society

. . nor can the learned reader be ignorant, that in human nature,

though here collected under one general name, is such prodigious
variety, that a cook will sooner have gone through all the several
species of animal and vegetable food in the world, than an author
will be able to exhaust so extensive a subject.
Fielding, Tom Jones

/ speak of the American in the singular, as if there were not mil-

lions of them, north and south, east and west, of both sexes, of all
ages, and of various races, professions, and religions. Of course
the one American I speak of is mythical; but to speak in parables
is inevitable in such a subject, and it is perhaps as well to do so
frankly.
Santayana, Character and Opinion in the United States

This is a book about social character and about the differences in

social character between men of different regions, eras, and
groups. It considers the ways in which different social character
types, once they are formed at the knee of society, are then de-
ployed in the work, play, politics, and child-rearing activities of
society. More particularly, it is about the way in which one kind
of social character, which dominated America in the nineteenth
century, is gradually being replaced by a social character of quite
a different sort. Why this happened; how it happened; what are
its consequences in some major areas of life: this is the subject of
this book.
Just what do we mean when we speak of "social character"?
We do not speak of "personality," which in current social psy-
chology is used to denote the total self, with its inherited tempera-
ments and talents, its biological as well as psychological compo-
3
 4 THE LONELY CROWD CHARACTER AND SOCIETY 5
nents, its evanescent as well as more or less permanent attributes.
Nor even do we speak of "character" as such, which, in one of its
contemporary uses, refers to only a part of personality—that part
which is formed not by heredity but by experience (not that it is
/. Character and Society
any simple matter to draw a line between the two): Character, in
this sense, is the more or less permanent socially and historically What is the relation between social character and society? How
conditioned organization of an individual's drives and satisfactions is it that every society seems to get, more or less, the social char-
—the kind of "set" with which he approaches the world and peo- acter it "needs"? Erik H. Erikson writes, in a study of the social
ple.
character of the Yurok Indians, that ". . . systems of child train-
"Social character" is that part of "character" which is shared ing . . . represent unconscious attempts at creating out of hu-
among significant social groups and which, as most contemporary man raw material that configuration of attitudes which is (or once
social scientists define it, is the product of the experience of was) the optimum under the tribe's particular natural conditions
these groups. The notion of social character permits us to speak, and economic-historic necessities."1
as I do throughout this book, of the character of classes, groups, From "economic-historic necessities" to "systems of child train-
regions, and nations. ing" is a long jump. Much of the work of students of social char-
I do not plan to delay over the many ambiguities of the con- acter has been devoted to closing the gap and showing how the
cept of social character—whether it may properly be ascribed to satisfaction of the largest "needs" of society is prepared, in some
experience rather than to heredity; whether there is any empirical half-mysterious way, by its most intimate practices. Erich Fromm
proof that it really exists; whether it deserves to be regarded here succinctly suggests the line along which this connection between
as more important than the elements of character and personality society and character training may be sought: "In order that any
that bind all people everywhere in the world together, or those society may function well, its members must acquire the kind of
other elements of character and personality that separate each character which makes them want to act in the way they have to
individual from every other, even the closest. The assumption that act as members of the society or of a special class within it. They
social character exists has always been a more or less invisible have to desire what objectively is necessary for them to do. Outer
premise of ordinary parlance and is becoming today a more or force is replaced by inner compulsion, and by the particular kind
less visible premise of the social sciences. It will consequently be of human energy which is channeled into character traits." 2
familiar under one name or another to any of my readers who are Thus, the link between character and society—certainly not
acquainted with the writings of Erich Fromm, Abram Kardiner, the only one, but one of the most significant, and the one I choose
Ruth Benedict, Margaret Mead, Geoffrey Gorer, Karen Horney, to emphasize in this discussion—is to be found in the way in
and many others who have written about social character in gen- which society ensures some degree of conformity from the indi-
eral, or the social character of different people and different times. viduals who make it up. In each society, such a mode of ensuring
Most of these writers assume—as I do—that the years of child- conformity is built into the child, and then either encouraged or |
hood are of great importance in molding character. Most of them
agree—as I do—that these early years cannot be seen in isolation 1. "Observations on the Yurok: Childhood and World Image," Uni-
from the structure of society, which affects the parents who raise versify of California Publications in American Archaeology and
the children, as well as the children directly. My collaborators and Ethnology, XXXV (1943), iv.
2. "Individual and Social Origins of Neurosis," American Sociologi-
I base ourselves on this broad platform of agreement, and do not cal Review, IX (1944), 380; reprinted in Personality in Nature, Society
plan to discuss in what way these writers differ from each other and Culture, edited by Clyde Kluckhohn and Henry Murray (New
and we from them. York, Alfred A. Knopf, 1948).
 CHARACTER AND SOCIETY 7
6 THE LONELY CROWD

frustrated in later adult experience. (No society, it would appear, traditional and feudal societies which were overturned by the
is quite prescient enough to ensure that the mode of conformity first revolution is in the nature of backdrop for these later shifts.
it has inculcated will satisfy those subject to it in every stage of
One of the categories I make use of is taken from demography,
life.) I shall use the term "mode of conformity" interchangeably
the science that deals with birth rates and death rates, with the ab-
with the term "social character"—though certainly conformity is
solute and relative numbers of people in a society, and their distri-
not all of social character: "mode of creativity" is as much a part
of it. However, while societies and individuals may live well bution by age, sex, and other variables, for I tentatively seek to
link certain social and characterological developments, as cause
enough—if rather boringly—without creativity, it is not likely
that they can live without some mode of conformity—even be it and effect, with certain population shifts in Western society since
the Middle Ages.
one of rebellion.
My concern in this book is with two revolutions and their re- It seems reasonably well established, despite the absence of re-
liable figures for earlier centuries, that during this period the curve
lation to the "mode of conformity" or "social character" of West-
of population growth in the Western countries has shown an
ern man since the Middle Ages. The first of these revolutions has
S-shape of a particular type (as other countries are drawn more
in the last four hundred years cut us off pretty decisively from the
closely into the net of Western civilization, their populations also
family- and clan-oriented traditional ways of life in which man-
show a tendency to develop along the lines of this S-shaped
kind has existed throughout most of history; this revolution in-
curve). The bottom horizontal line of the S represents a situation
cludes the Renaissance, the Reformation, the Counter-Reforma-
where the total population does not increase or does so very
tion, the Industrial Revolution, and the political revolutions of
slowly, for the number of births equals roughly the number of
the seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth centuries. This revo-
deaths, and both are very high. In societies of this type, a high
lution is, of course, still in process, but in the most advanced coun- proportion of the population is young, life expectancy is low, and
tries of the world, and particularly in America, it is giving way to the turnover of generations is extremely rapid. Such societies are
another sort of revolution—a whole range of social developments said to be in the phase of "high growth potential"; for should
associated with a shift from an age of production to an age of con- something happen to decrease the very high death rate (greater
sumption. production of food, new sanitary measures, new knowledge of the
The first revolution we understand moderately well; it is, under causes of disease, and so on), a "population explosion" would re-
various labels, in our texts and our terminology; this book has sult, and the population would increase very rapidly. This in effect
nothing new to contribute to its description, but perhaps does con- is what happened in the West, starting with the seventeenth cen-
tribute something to its evaluation. The second revolution, which tury. This spurt in population was most marked in Europe, and the
is just beginning, has interested many contemporary observers, countries settled by Europeans, in the nineteenth century. It is
including social scientists, philosophers, and journalists. Both de- represented by the vertical bar of the S. Demographers call this
scription and evaluation are still highly controversial; indeed, the stage of "transitional growth," because the birth rate soon be-
many are still preoccupied with the first set of revolutions and gins to follow the death rate in its decline. The rate of growth
have not invented the categories for discussing the second set. In then slows down, and demographers begin to detect in the grow-
this book I try to sharpen the contrast between, on the one hand, ing proportion of middle-aged and aged in the population the
conditions and character in those social strata that are today most signs of a third stage, "incipient population decline." Societies in
seriously affected by the second revolution, and, on the other this stage are represented by the top horizontal bar of the S, again
hand, conditions and character in analogous strata during the indicating, as in the first stage, that total population growth is
earlier revolution; in this perspective, what is briefly said about the small—but this time because births and deaths are low.
8 THE LONELY CROWD
CHARACTER AND SOCIETY 9

The S-curve is not a theory of population growth so much as an concerned here with making the detailed analysis that would be
empirical description of what has happened in the West and in necessary before one could prove that a link exists between popu-
those parts of the world influenced by the West. After the S runs lation phase and character type. Rather, the theory of the curve
its course, what then? The developments of recent years in the of population provides me with a kind of shorthand for referring
United States and other Western countries do not seem to be sus- to the myriad institutional elements that are also—though usually
ceptible to so simple and elegant a summing up. "Incipient popu- more heatedly—symbolized by such words as "industrialism,"
lation decline" has not become "population decline" itself, and "folk society," "monopoly capitalism," "urbanization," rational-
the birth rate has shown an uncertain tendency to rise again, which ization," and so on. Hence when I speak here of transitional
most demographers think is temporary.3 growth or incipient decline of population in conjunction with
It would be very surprising if variations in the basic conditions shifts in character and conformity, these phrases should not be
of reproduction, livelihood, and chances for survival, that is, in taken as magical and comprehensive explanations.
the supply of and demand for human beings, with all these imply My reference is as much to the complex of technological and
for change in the spacing of people, the size of markets, the role of institutional factors related—as cause or effect—to the develop-
children, the society's feeling of vitality or senescence, and many
ment of population as to the demographic facts themselves. It
other intangibles, failed to influence character. My thesis is, in
would be almost as satisfactory, for my purposes, to divide socie-
fact, that each of these three different phases on the population ties according to the stage of economic development they have
curve appears to be occupied by a society that enforces conform-
reached. Thus, Colin Clark's distinction between the "primary,"
ity and molds social character in a definably different way. "secondary," and "tertiary" spheres of the economy (the first re-
The society of high growth potential develops in its typical fers to agriculture, hunting and fishing, and mining; the second to
members a social character whose conformity is insured by their
manufacturing; the third to trade, communications, and services)
tendency to follow tradition: these I shall term tradition-directed
corresponds very closely to the division of societies on the basis of
people and the society in which they live a society dependent on
demographic characteristics. In those societies which are in the
tradition-direction. phase of "high growth potential," the "primary" sphere is domi-
The society of transitional population growth develops in its
nant (for example, India); in those that are in the phase of "transi-
typical members a social character whose conformity is insured
tional" growth, the "secondary" sphere is dominant (for example,
by their tendency to acquire early in life an internalized set of
Russia); in those that are in the phase of "incipient decline," the
goals. These I shall term inner-directed people and the society in
"tertiary" sphere is dominant (for example, the United States).
which they live a society dependent on inner-direction.
And of course, no nation is all of a piece, either in its population
Finally, the society of incipient population decline develops in
characteristics or its economy—different groups and different re-
its typical members a social character whose conformity is insured
gions reflect different stages of development, and social character
by their tendency to be sensitized to the expectations and prefer-
reflects these differences.
ences of others. These I shall term other-directed people and the
society in which they live one dependent on other-direction.
Let me point out, however, before embarking on a description HIGH GROWTH POTENTIAL: TRADITION-DIRECTED TYPES
of these three "ideal types" of character and society, that I am not
The phase of high growth potential characterizes more than half
3. The terminology used here is that of Frank W. Notestein. See the world's population: India, Egypt, and China (which have al-
his "Population—The Long View," in Food for the World, edited ready grown immensely in recent generations), most preliterate
by Theodore W. Schultz (University of Chicago Press, 1945). peoples in Central Africa, parts of Central and South America,
IO THE LONELY CROWD CHARACTER AND SOCIETY II

in fact most areas of the world relatively untouched by industrial- jectively experience much violence and disorganization. In the
ization. Here death rates are so high that if birth rates were not last analysis, however, he learns to deal with life by adaptation, not
also high the populations would die out. by innovation. With certain exceptions conformity is largely
Regions where the population is in this stage may be either given in the "self-evident" social situation. Of course nothing in
sparsely populated, as are the areas occupied by many primitive human life is ever really self-evident; where it so appears it is be-
tribes and parts of Central and South America; or they may be cause perceptions have been narrowed by cultural conditioning.
densely populated, as are India, China, and Egypt. In either case, As the precarious relation to the food supply is built into the go-
the society achieves a Malthusian bargain with the limited food ing culture, it helps create a pattern of conventional conformity
supply by killing off, in one way or another, some of the potential which is reflected in many, if not in all, societies in the stage of
surplus of births over deaths—the enormous trap which, in Mal- high growth potential. This is what I call tradition-direction.
thus' view, nature sets for man and which can be peaceably es-
caped only by prudent cultivation of the soil and prudent unculti- A definition of tradition-direction. Since the type of social order
vation of the species through the delay of marriage. Without the we have been discussing is relatively unchanging, the conformity
prevention of childbirth by means of postponement of marriage or of the individual tends to reflect his membership in a particular
other contraceptive measures, the population must be limited by age-grade, clan, or caste; he learns to understand and appreciate
taking the life of living beings. And so societies have "invented" patterns which have endured for centuries, and are modified but
cannibalism, induced abortion, organized wars, made human sac- slightly as the generations succeed each other. The important re
rifice, and practiced infanticide (especially female) as means of lationships of life may be controlled by careful and rigid eti-
avoiding periodic famine and epidemics. quette, learned by the young during the years of intensive social-
Though this settling of accounts with the contradictory im- ization that end with initiation into full adult membership. More-
pulses of hunger and sex is accompanied often enough by upheaval over, the culture, in addition to its economic tasks, or as part of
and distress, these societies in the stage of high growth potential them, provides ritual, routine, and religion to occupy and to
tend to be stable at least in the sense that their social practices, in- orient everyone. Little energy is directed toward finding new
cluding the "crimes" that keep population down, are institutional- solutions of the age-old problems, let us say, of agricultural tech-
ized and patterned. Generation after generation, people are born, nique or medicine, the problems to which people are acculturated.
are weeded out, and die to make room for others. The net rate of It is not to be thought, however, that in these societies, where
natural increase fluctuates within a broad range, though without the activity of the individual member is determined by charactero-
showing any long-range tendency, as is true also of societies in the logically grounded obedience to traditions, the individual may not
stage of incipient decline. But unlike the latter, the average life be highly prized and, in many instances, encouraged to develop
expectancy in the former is characteristically low: the population his capabilities, his initiative, and even, within very narrow time
is heavily weighted on the side of the young, and generation re- limits, his aspirations. Indeed, the individual in some primitive so-
places generation far more rapidly and less "efficiently" than in cieties is far more appreciated and respected than in some sectors
the societies of incipient population decline. of modern society. For the individual in a society dependent on
In viewing such a society we inevitably associate the relative tradition-direction has a well-defined functional relationship to
stability of the man-land ratio, whether high or low, with the te- other members of the group. If he is not killed off, he "belongs"
nacity of custom and social structure. However, we must not —he is not "surplus," as the modern unemployed are surplus, nor
equate stability of social structure over historical time with psy- is he expendable as the unskilled are expendable in modern so-
chic stability in the life span of an individual: the latter may sub- ciety. But by very virtue of his "belonging," life goals that are his
12 THE LONELY CROWD CHARACTER AND SOCIETY 13

in terms of conscious choice appear to shape his destiny only to a society" (as against "civilization"), "status society" (as against
very limited extent, just as only to a limited extent is there any "contract society"), "Gemeinschaft'''' (as against "Gesellschaft"),
concept of progress for the group. and so on. Different as the societies envisaged by these terms are,
In societies in which tradition-direction is the dominant mode the folk, status, and Gemeinschaft societies resemble each other
of insuring conformity, relative stability is preserved in part by in their relative slowness of change, their dependence on family
the infrequent but highly important process of fitting into insti- and kin organization, and—in comparison with later epochs—their
tutionalized roles such deviants as there are. In such societies a tight web of values. And, as is now well recognized by students,
person who might have become at a later historical stage an in- the high birth rate of these societies in the stage of high growth
novator or rebel, whose belonging, as such, is marginal and prob- potential is not merely the result of a lack of contraceptive knowl-
lematic, is drawn instead into roles like those of the shaman or edge or techniques. A whole way of life—an outlook on chance,
sorcerer. That is, he is drawn into roles that make a socially ac- on children, on the place of women, on sexuality, on the very
ceptable contribution, while at the same time they provide the meaning of existence—is the basis of distinction between the so-
individual with a more or less approved niche. The medieval mo- cieties in which human fertility is allowed to take its course and
nastic orders may have served in a similar way to absorb many toll and those which prefer to pay other kinds of toll to cut down
chnracterological "mutations." on fertility by calculation, and, conceivably, as Freud and other
In some of these societies certain individuals are encouraged to- observers have suggested, by a decline in sexual energy itself.
ward a degree of individuality from childhood, especially if they
belong to families of high status. But, since the range of choice,
TRANSITIONAL GROWTH: INNER-DIRECTED TYPES
even for high-status people, is minimal, the apparent social need
for an individuated type of character is also minimal. It is prob- Except for the West, we know very little about the cumulation of
ably accurate to say that character structure in these societies is small changes that can eventuate in a breakup of the tradition-
very largely "adjusted," in the sense that for most people it appears directed type of society, leading it to realize its potential for high
to be in tune with social institutions. Even the few misfits "fit" to population growth. As for the West, however, much has been
a degree; and only very rarely is one driven out of his social world. learned about the slow decay of feudalism and the subsequent rise
This does not mean, of course, that the people are happy; the of a type of society in which inner-direction is the dominant mode
society to whose traditions they are adjusted may be a miserable of insuring conformity.
one, ridden with anxiety, sadism, and disease. The point is rather Critical historians, pushing the Renaissance ever back into the
that change, while never completely absent in human affairs, is Middle Ages, seem sometimes to deny that any decisive change
slowed down as the movement of molecules is slowed down at occurred at all. On the whole, however, it seems that the greatest
low temperature; and the social character comes as close as it ever social and characterological shift of recent centuries did indeed
does to looking like the matrix of the social forms themselves. come when men were driven out of the primary ties that bound
In western history the Middle Ages can be considered a period them to the western medieval version of tradition-directed society.
in which the majority were tradition-directed. But the term All later shifts, including the shift from inner-direction to other-
tradition-directed refers to a common element, not only among direction, seem unimportant by comparison, although of course
the people of precapitalist Europe but also among such enor- this latter shift is still under way and we cannot tell what it will
mously different types of people as Hindus and Hopi Indians, look like when—if ever—it is complete.
Zulus and Chinese, North African Arabs and Balinese. There is
comfort in relying on the many writers who have found a similar A change in the relatively stable ratio of births to deaths, which
unity amid diversity, a unity they express in such terms as "folk characterizes the period of high growth potential, is both the cause
14 THE LONELY CROWD
CHARACTER AND SOCIETY 15
and consequence of other profound social changes. In most of the
mation and the effects of the Renaissance, between the puritan
cases known to us a decline takes place in mortality prior to a de-
ethic of the European north and west and the somewhat more
cline in fertility; hence there is some period in which the popu-
hedonistic ethic of the European east and south, while all these
lation expands rapidly. The drop in death rate occurs as the re-
are valid and, for certain purposes, important distinctions, the con-
sult of many interacting factors, among them sanitation, improved
centration of this study on the development of modes of con-
communications (which permit government to operate over a
formity permits their neglect. It allows the grouping together of
wider area and also permit easier transport of food to areas of
these otherwise distinct developments because they have one thing
shortage from areas of surplus), the decline, forced or otherwise,
in common: the source of direction for the individual is "inner"
of infanticide, cannibalism, and other tribal kinds of violence.
in the sense that it is implanted early in life by the elders and di-
Because of improved methods of agriculture the land is able to
rected toward generalized but nonetheless inescapably destined
support more people, and these in turn produce still more peo-
goals.
ple.
We can see what this means when we realize that, in societies
Notestein's phrase, "transitional growth," is a mild way of put-
in which tradition-direction is the dominant mode of insuring
ting it. The "transition" is likely to be violent, disrupting the sta-
conformity, attention is focused on securing strict conformity in
bilized paths of existence in societies in which tradition-direction
generally observable words and actions, that is to say, behavior.
has been the principal mode of insuring conformity. The imbal-
While behavior is minutely prescribed, individuality of character
ance of births and deaths puts pressure on the society's customary
need not be highly developed to meet prescriptions that are ob-
ways. A new slate of character structures is called for or finds its
jectified in ritual and etiquette—though to be sure, a social char-
opportunity in coping with the rapid changes—and the need for
acter capable of such behavioral attention and obedience is requi-
still more changes—in the social organization.
site. By contrast, societies in which inner-direction becomes
important, though they also are concerned with behavioral con-
A definition of inner-direction. In western history the society
formity, cannot be satisfied with behavioral conformity alone.
that emerged with the Renaissance and Reformation and that is
Too many novel situations are presented, situations which a code
only now vanishing serves to illustrate the type of society in which
cannot encompass in advance. Consequently the problem of per-
inner-direction is the principal mode of securing conformity. Such
sonal choice, solved in the earlier period of high growth potential
a society is characterized by increased personal mobility, by a
by channeling choice through rigid social organization, in the
rapid accumulation of capital (teamed with devastating tech-
period of transitional growth is solved by channeling choice
nological shifts), and by an almost constant expansion: intensive
through a rigid though highly individualized character.
expansion in the production of goods and people, and extensive
This rigidity is a complex matter. While any society dependent
expansion in exploration, colonization, and imperialism. The
on inner-direction seems to present people with a wide choice of
greater choices this society gives—and the greater initiatives it
aims—such as money, possessions, power, knowledge, fame, good-
demands in order to cope with its novel problems—are handled
ness—these aims are ideologically interrelated, and the selection
by character types who can manage to live socially without strict
made by any one individual remains relatively unalterable
and self-evident tradition-direction. These are the inner-directed
throughout his life. Moreover, the means to those ends, though
types. not fitted into as tight a frame of social reference as in the society
The concept of inner-direction is intended to cover a very wide
dependent on tradition-direction, are nevertheless limited by the
range of types. Thus, while it is essential for the study of certain
new voluntary associations—for instance, the Quakers, the Ma-
problems to differentiate between Protestant and Catholic coun-
sons, the Mechanics' Associations—to which people tie themselves.
tries and their character types, between the effects of the Refor- Indeed, the term "tradition-direction" could be misleading if the
 16 THE LONELY CROWD CHARACTER AND SOCIETY 17

reader were to conclude that the force of tradition has no weight had to make themselves at home in the world in novel ways. They
for the inner-directed character. On the contrary, he is very con- still have to.
siderably bound by traditions: they limit his ends and inhibit his
choice of means. The point is rather that a splintering of tradition
INCIPIENT DECLINE OF POPULATION: OTHER-DIRECTED TYPES
takes place, connected in part with the increasing division of labor
and stratification of society. Even if the individual's choice of tra- The problem facing the societies in the stage of transitional
dition is largely determined for him by his family, as it is in most growth is that of reaching a point at which resources become
cases, he cannot help becoming aware of the existence of compet- plentiful enough or are utilized effectively enough to permit a
ing traditions—hence of tradition as such. As a result he possesses rapid accumulation of capital. This rapid accumulation has to be
a somewhat greater degree of flexibility in adapting himself to achieved even while the social product is being drawn on at an
ever changing requirements and in return requires more from his accelerated rate to maintain the rising population and satisfy the
environment. consumer demands that go with the way of life that has already-
As the control of the primary group is loosened—the group been adopted. For most countries, unless capital and techniques
that both socializes the young and controls the adult in the earlier can be imported from other countries in still later phases of the
era—a new psychological mechanism appropriate to the more population curve, every effort to increase national resources at a
open society is "invented": it is what I like to describe as a psy- rapid rate must actually be at the expense of current standards of
chological gyroscope.4 This instrument, once it is set by the par- living. We have seen this occur in the U.S.S.R., now in the stage
ents and other authorities, keeps the inner-directed person, as we of transitional growth. For western Europe this transition was
shall see, "on course" even when tradition, as responded to by his long-drawn-out and painful. For America, Canada, and Australia
character, no longer dictates his moves. The inner-directed person —at once beneficiaries of European techniques and native re-
becomes capable of maintaining a delicate balance between the sources—the transition was rapid and relatively easy.
demands upon him of his goal in life and the buffetings of his The tradition-directed person, as has been said, hardly thinks of
external environment. himself as an individual. Still less does it occur to him that he might
This metaphor of the gyroscope, like any other, must not be shape his own destiny in terms of personal, lifelong goals or that
taken literally. It would be a mistake to see the inner-directed man the destiny of his children might be separate from that of
as incapable of learning from experience or as insensitive to pub- the family group. He is not sufficiently separated psychologically
lic opinion in matters of external conformity. He can receive and from himself (or, therefore, sufficiently close to himself), his fam-
utilize certain signals from outside, provided that they can be rec- ily, or group to think in these terms. In the phase of transitional
onciled with the limited maneuverability that his gyroscope per- growth, however, people of inner-directed character do gain a
mits him. His pilot is not quite automatic. feeling of control over their own lives and see their children also
Huizinga's The Waning of the Middle Ages gives a picture of as individuals with careers to make. At the same time, with the
the anguish and turmoil, the conflict of values, out of which the shift out of agriculture and, later, with the end of child labor, chil-
new forms slowly emerged. Already by the late Middle Ages peo- dren no longer become an unequivocal economic asset. And with
ple were forced to live under new conditions of awareness. As the growth of habits of scientific thought, religious and magical
their self-consciousness and their individuality developed, they views of human fertility—views that in an earlier phase of the
4. Since writing the above I have discovered Gardner Murphy's use population curve made sense for the culture if it was to reproduce
of the same metaphor in his volume Personality (New York, Harper, itself—give way to "rational," individualistic attitudes. Indeed,
I947). just as the rapid accumulation of productive capital requires that
18 THE LONELY CROWD C H A R A C T E R AND SOCIETY 19

people be imbued with the "Protestant ethic" (as Max Weber the economic opportunity to be prodigal and the character struc-
characterized one manifestation of what is here termed inner- ture that allows it.
direction), so also the decreased number of progeny requires a Has this need for still another slate of character types actually
profound change in values—a change so deep that, in all probabil- been acknowledged to any degree? My observations lead me to
ity, it has to be rooted in character structure. believe that in America it has.
As the birth rate begins to follow the death rate downward,
societies move toward the epoch of incipient decline of popula- A definition of other-direction. The type of character I shall
tion. Fewer and fewer people work on the land or in the extractive describe as other-directed seems to be emerging in very recent
industries or even in manufacturing. Hours are short. People may years in the upper middle class of our larger cities: more promi-
have material abundance and leisure besides. They pay for these nently in New York than in Boston, in Los Angeles than in Spo-
changes however—here, as always, the solution of old problems kane, in Cincinnati than in Chillicothe. Yet in some respects this
gives rise to new ones—by finding themselves in a centralized and type is strikingly similar to the American, whom Tocqueville and
bureaucratized society and a world shrunken and agitated by the other curious and astonished visitors from Europe, even before the
contact—accelerated by industrialization—of races, nations, and Revolution, thought to be a new kind of man. Indeed, travelers'
cultures. reports on America impress us with their unanimity. The Ameri-
The hard enduringness and enterprise of the inner-directed can is said to be shallower, freer with his money, friendlier, more
types are somewhat less necessary under these new conditions. uncertain of himself and his values, more demanding of approval
Increasingly, other people are the problem, not the material en- than the European. It all adds up to a pattern which, without
vironment. And as people mix more widely and become more stretching matters too far, resembles the kind of character that a
sensitive to each other, the surviving traditions from the stage of number of social scientists have seen as developing in contempo-
high growth potential—much disrupted, in any case, during the rary, highly industrialized, and bureaucratic America: Fromm's
violent spurt of industrialization—become still further attenu- "marketer," Mills's "fixer," Arnold Green's "middle class male
ated. Gyroscopic control is no longer sufficiently flexible, and a child."6
new psychological mechanism is called for. It is my impression that the middle-class American of today is
Furthermore, the "scarcity psychology" of many inner- decisively different from those Americans of Tocqueville's writ-
directed people, which was socially adaptive during the period of ings who nevertheless strike us as so contemporary, and much of
heavy capital accumulation that accompanied transitional growth this book will be devoted to discussing these differences. It is also
of population, needs to give way to an "abundance psychology" my impression that the conditions I believe to be responsible for
capable of "wasteful" luxury consumption of leisure and of the other-direction are affecting increasing numbers of people in the
surplus product. Unless people want to destroy the surplus prod- metropolitan centers of the advanced industrial countries. My
uct in war, which still does require heavy capital equipment, they analysis of the other-directed character is thus at once an analysis
must learn to enjoy and engage in those services that are expen- of the American and of contemporary man. Much of the time I
sive in terms of man power but not of capital—poetry and philos- find it hard or impossible to say where one ends and the other be-
ophy, for instance.5 Indeed, in the period of incipient decline, gins. Tentatively, I am inclined to think that the other-directed
nonproductive consumers, both the increasing number of old
people and the diminishing number of as yet untrained young, 6. See Erich Fromm, Man for Himself; C. Wright Mills, "The Com-
petitive Personality," Partisan Review, XIII (1946), 433; Arnold
form a high proportion of the population, and these need both
Green, "The Middle Class Male Child and Neurosis," American
5. These examples are given by Allan G. B. Fisher, The Clash of Sociological Review, XI (1946), 31. See also the work of Jurgen
Progress and Security (London, Macmillan, 1935). Ruesch, Martin B. Loeb, and co-workers on the "infantile personality."
2O THE LONELY CROWD CHARACTER AND SOCIETY 21

type does find itself most at home in America, due to certain national and class differences, connected with differences in liter-
unique elements in American society, such as its recruitment from acy and loquacity, takes place everywhere in the industrialized
Europe and its lack of any feudal past. As against this, I am also lands. Increasingly, relations with the outer world and with one-
inclined to put more weight on capitalism, industrialism, and ur- self are mediated by the flow of mass communication. For the
banization—these being international tendencies—than on any other-directed types political events are likewise experienced
character-forming peculiarities of the American scene. through a screen of words by which the events are habitually
Bearing these qualifications in mind, it seems appropriate to atomized and personalized—or pseudo-personalized. For the inner-
treat contemporary metropolitan America as our illustration of a directed person who remains still extant in this period the tend-
society—so far, perhaps, the only illustration—in which other- ency is rather to systematize and moralize this flow of words.
direction is the dominant mode of insuring conformity. It would These developments lead, for large numbers of people, to
be premature, however, to say that it is already the dominant mode changes in paths to success and to the requirement of more "so-
in America as a whole. But since the other-directed types are to cialized" behavior both for success and for marital and personal
be found among the young, in the larger cities, and among the adaptation. Connected with such changes are changes in the
upper income groups, we may assume that, unless present trends family and in child-rearing practices. In the smaller families of
are reversed, the hegemony of other-direction lies not far off. urban life, and with the spread of "permissive" child care to ever
If we wanted to cast our social character types into social class wider strata of the population, there is a relaxation of older pat-
molds, we could say that inner-direction is the typical character terns of discipline. Under these newer patterns the peer-group
of the "old" middle class—the banker, the tradesman, the small (the group of one's associates of the same age and class) becomes
entrepreneur, the technically oriented engineer, etc.—while much more important to the child, while the parents make him
other-direction is becoming the typical character of the "new" feel guilty not so much about violation of inner standards as about
middle class—the bureaucrat, the salaried employee in business, failure to be popular or otherwise to manage his relations with
etc. Many of the economic factors associated with the recent these other children. Moreover, the pressures of the school and
growth of the "new" middle class are well known. They have the peer-group are reinforced and continued—in a manner whose
been discussed by James Burnham, Colin Clark, Peter Drucker, and inner paradoxes I shall discuss later—by the mass media: movies,
others. There is a decline in the numbers and in the proportion of radio, comics, and popular culture media generally. Under these
the working population engaged in production and extraction— conditions types of character emerge that we shall here term
agriculture, heavy industry, heavy transport—and an increase in other-directed. To them much of the discussion in the ensuing
the numbers and the proportion engaged in white-collar work chapters is devoted. What is common to all the other-directed
and the service trades. People who are literate, educated, and pro- people is that their contemporaries are the source of direction for
vided with the necessities of life by an ever more efficient machine he individual—either those known to him or those with whom he
industry and agriculture, turn increasingly to the "tertiary" eco- is indirectly acquainted, through friends and through the mass
nomic realm. The service industries prosper among the people as media. This source is of course "internalized" in the sense that
a whole and no longer only in court circles. dependence on it for guidance in life is implanted early. The goals
Education, leisure, services, these go together with an increased toward which the other-directed person strives shift with that
consumption of words and images from the new mass media of guidance: it is only the process of striving itself and the process of
communications. While societies in the phase of transitional paying close attention to the signals from others that remain un-
growth step up the process of distributing words from urban cen- altered throughout life. This mode of keeping in touch with
ters, the flow becomes a torrent in the societies of incipient popu- others permits a close behavioral conformity, not through drill in
lation decline. This process, while modulated by profound behavior itself, as in the tradition-directed character, but rather
 CHARACTER AND SOCIETY 23
22 THE LONELY CROWD
party Stepan manifests exceptional social skills; his political skills
through an exceptional sensitivity to the actions and wishes of
as described in the following quotation are also highly social:
others.
Of course, it matters very much who these "others" are: Stepan Arkadyevitch took in and read a liberal newspaper, not an
whether they are the individual's immediate circle or a "higher" extreme one, but one advocating the views held by the majority.
circle or the anonymous voices of the mass media; whether the And in spite of the fact that science, art, and politics had no special
individual fears the hostility of chance acquaintances or only of interest for him, he firmly held those views on all subjects which
those who "count." But his need for approval and direction from were held by the majority and by his paper, and he only changed
others—and contemporary others rather than ancestors—goes be- them when the majority changed them—or, more strictly speaking,
yond the reasons that lead most people in any era to care very he did not change them, but they imperceptively changed of them-
much what others think of them. While all people want and need selves within him.
to be liked by some of the people some of the time, it is only the Stepan Arkadyevitch had not chosen his political opinions or his
modern other-directed types who make this their chief source of views; these political opinions and views had come to him of them-
direction and chief area of sensitivity.7 selves, just as he did not choose the shapes of his hats or coats, but
It is perhaps the insatiable force of this psychological need for simply took those that were being worn. And for him, living in a
approval that differentiates people of the metropolitan, American certain society—owing to the need, ordinarily developed at years of
upper middle class, whom we regard as other-directed, from very discretion, for some degree of mental activity—to have views was
similar types that have appeared in capital cities and among other just as indispensable as to have a hat. If there was a reason for his
classes in previous historical periods, whether in Imperial Canton, preferring liberal to conservative views, which were held also by
in eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Europe, or in ancient many of his circle, it arose not from his considering liberalism more
Athens, Alexandria, or Rome. In all these groups fashion rational, but from its being in closer accord with his manner of
not only ruled as a substitute for morals and customs, but it was a life . . . And so liberalism had become a habit of Stepan Arkadye-
rapidly changing fashion that held sway. It could do so because, vitch's, and he liked his newspaper, as he did his cigar after dinner,
although the mass media were in their infancy, the group cor- for the slight fog it diffused in his brain.
responding to the American upper middle class was comparably Stepan, while his good-natured gregariousness makes him seem
small and the elite structure was extremely reverberant. It can be like a modern middle-class American, is not fully other-directed.
argued, for example, that a copy of The Spectator covered its po- This gregariousness alone, without a certain sensitivity to others
tential readership more thoroughly in the late eighteenth century as individuals and as a source of direction, is not the identifying
than The New Yorker covers its readership today. In eighteenth- trait. Just so, we must differentiate the nineteenth-century
and nineteenth-century English, French, and Russian novels, we American—gregarious and subservient to public opinion though
find portraits of the sort of people who operated in the he was found to be by Tocqueville, Bryce, and others—from the
upper reaches of bureaucracy and had to be prepared for rapid other-directed American as he emerges today, an American who
changes of signals. Stepan Arkadyevitch Oblonsky in Anna in his character is more capable of and more interested in main-
Karenina is one of the more likable and less opportunistic exam- taining responsive contact with others both at work and at play.
ples, especially striking because of the way Tolstoy contrasts him This point needs to be emphasized, since the distinction is easily
with Levin, a moralizing, inner-directed person. At any dinner misunderstood. The inner-directed person, though he often sought
7. This picture of the other-directed person has been stimulated by, and sometimes achieved a relative independence of public opin-
and developed from, Erich Fromm's discussion of the "marketing ion and of what the neighbors thought of him, was in most cases
orientation" in Man for Himself, pp. 67-82. I have also drawn on my very much concerned with his good repute and, at least in Amer-
portrait of "The Cash Customer," Common Sense, XI (1942), 183.
24 THE LONELY CROWD CHARACTER AND SOCIETY 25

ica, with "keeping up with the Joneses." These conformities, how- Contrasted with such a type as this, the other-directed person
ever, were primarily external, typified in such details as clothes, learns to respond to signals from a far wider circle than is consti-
curtains, and bank credit. For, indeed, the conformities were to a tuted by his parents. The family is no longer a closely knit unit
standard, evidence of which was provided by the "best people" to which he belongs but merely part of a wider social environment
in one's milieu. In contrast with this pattern, the other-directed to which he early becomes attentive. In these respects the other-
person, though he has his eye very much on the Joneses, aims to directed person resembles the tradition-directed person: both live
keep up with them not so much in external details as in the quality in a group milieu and lack the inner-directed person's capacity to
of his inner experience. That is, his great sensitivity keeps him in go it alone. The nature of this group milieu, however, differs radi-
touch with others on many more levels than the externals of ap- cally in the two cases. The other-directed person is cosmopolitan.
pearance and propriety. Nor does any ideal of independence or of For him the border between the familiar and the strange—a border
reliance on God alone modify his desire to look to the others—and clearly marked in the societies depending on tradition-direction
the "good guys" as well as the best people—for guidance in what —has broken down. As the family continuously absorbs the
experiences to seek and in how to interpret them. strange and reshapes itself, so the strange becomes familiar. While
the inner-directed person could be "at home abroad" by virtue
The three types compared. One way to see the structural dif- of his relative insensitivity to others, the other-directed person is,
ferences that mark the three types is to see the differences in the in a sense, at home everywhere and nowhere, capable of a rapid
emotional sanction or control in each type. if sometimes superficial intimacy with and response to everyone.
The tradition-directed person feels the impact of his culture as The tradition-directed person takes his signals from others, but
a unit, but it is nevertheless mediated through the specific, small they come in a cultural monotone; he needs no complex receiving
number of individuals with whom he is in daily contact. These equipment to pick them up. The other-directed person must be
expect of him not so much that he be a certain type of person but able to receive signals from far and near; the sources are many,
that he behave in the approved way. Consequently the sanction the changes rapid. What can be internalized, then, is not a code
for behavior tends to be the fear of being shamed. of behavior but the elaborate equipment needed to attend to such
The inner-directed person has early incorporated a psychic messages and occasionally to participate in their circulation. As
gyroscope which is set going by his parents and can receive sig- against guilt-and-shame controls, though of course these survive,
nals later on from other authorities who resemble his parents. He one prime psychological lever of the other-directed person is a
goes through life less independent than he seems, obeying this in- diffuse anxiety. This control equipment, instead of being like a
ternal piloting. Getting off course, whether in response to inner gyroscope, is like a radar.8
impulses or to the fluctuating voices of contemporaries, may lead
to the feeling of guilt. The Case of Athens. Could other civilizations, such as the an-
Since the direction to be taken in life has been learned in the cient Hebrew, Greek, and Roman, also be characterized at suc-
privacy of the home from a small number of guides and since cessive stages in their population-subsistence development as
principles, rather than details of behavior, are internalized, the tradition-directed, inner-directed, and other-directed? In all likeli-
inner-directed person is capable of great stability. Especially so hood the tremendous growth of world population since about
when it turns out that his fellows have gyroscopes too, spinning 1650—and consequently the S-curve of population growth—is
at the same speed and set in the same direction. But many inner- unique in the history of mankind and the consequence of an al-
directed individuals can remain stable even when the reinforce- together new (industrialized) type of technological, economic,
ment of social approval is not available—as in the upright life of and social organization. Nonetheless, the fact that every society
the stock Englishman isolated in the tropics. 8. The "radar" metaphor was suggested by Karl Wittfogel.
20 THE LONELY CROWD CHARACTER AND SOCIETY 27

has some form of organization and some "technology," be it the bringing of children; the laws which enhanced the freedom of
most unscientific ritual, constitutes proof of an effort, more or less the individual, for example, the significant reforms which per-
successful, to bring down the death rate and improve the standard mitted the free alienation of property and the initiation of a crimi-
of living over that of mere animal existence. And an exploratory nal prosecution by a "third party"; the multiplication of oppor-
study of the Athenian empire suggests that there, too, a correlation tunities for profitable employment in commerce, agriculture, and
between population growth and social character of the type we industry; the drift from country to city; the enthusiasm for ex-
have described for the recent West may be discerned.9 ploration and conquest; and the increasing interest in philosophic
What scant evidence we have of the long-term trend of popu- speculation and science.
lation growth in the empire must be derived from the patient By the turn of the fifth century the Athenian empire had
studies of present-day demographers and from the remarks of an- reached the zenith of its power; and the Greeks of this period were
cient Greek authors. The Homeric epics depict a volatile society familiar with the idea of an expanding population. Both Plato and
in which the institution of private property had already disrupted Aristotle advocated a stationary population. Two centuries later
the tradition-directed communal organization of tribe, phratry, we find that the problem has radically shifted and the fear of over-
and clan. Revolutionary improvements in cultivation of the soil, population has been replaced by the fear of depopulation. Po-
made possible by continued settlement in one place, increased the lybius, writing in the second century, declared that the population
standard of living and, as a corollary, initiated a phase of popula- of Greece was dying out because of the practice of infanticide.
tion growth that was to continue for several centuries. Private This is undoubtedly an overstatement; infanticide was confined,
ownership, the development of an exchange economy, and the as contraception tends to be today, largely to the upper and upper
patrilineal inheritance of property encouraged the concentration middle classes. Nevertheless, it indicates the trend toward artifi-
of wealth and produced economic and social inequality. A new, cial limitation of the size of the family and suggests that the popu-
three-fold social stratification interpenetrated the traditional or- lation had reached the period not only of incipient but of actual
ganization and not only loosened the hold of the clan upon its decline. It is as an expanding population begins to reach its peak
members but also encouraged the coalescence of individuals with that we see the rise of social forms that seem to indicate the pres-
like economic status from different tribes and phratries. The re- ence of the other-directed mode of conformity.
form measures taken by Solon and others in succeeding genera- For example, the institution of ostracism, introduced as a means
tions also clearly imply that some individuals and families were of preventing tyranny, became in the fifth century a formidable
far more successful than others in achieving the new economic weapon of public opinion, wielded capriciously as a means of in-
goals of leisure and material wealth. suring conformity of taste and "cutting down to size" those states-
During the five hundred years after the founding of the Athe- men, playwrights, and orators of markedly superior ability. In
nian state there seems to have existed an expanding "frontier" addition, the common people produced a numerous brood of in-
economy, based in part upon the exploitation of internal resources, formers "who were constantly accusing the better and most in-
made possible by technological improvement and the institution fluential men in the State, with a view to subjecting them to the
of slavery, and in greater part upon the conquest of other peoples envy of the multitude." In The Jealousy of the Gods and Criminal
and the incorporation of their wealth into the domestic economy. Law in Athens Svend Ranulf has meticulously traced the inci-
One might well adduce as indications of inner-direction during dence and development of the "disinterested tendency to inflict
this period the changing attitudes toward the family and the up- punishment" which, based upon a diffuse characterological anx-
iety, could perhaps be described as the ascendancy of an omnipo-
9. The following discussion draws on an unpublished monograph by
Sheila Spaulding, "Prolegomena to the Study of Athenian Democracy" tent "peer-group."
(Yale Law School Library, 1949). All this was accompanied by a decline in inner-directed duti-
 CHARACTER AND SOCIETY 29
28 THE LONELY CROWD

fissures, and grave incompatibilities between the social charac-

fulness toward the political sphere. In spite of the deference
ter and the societal requirements, without succumbing to total
shown by many authors to Athenian "democracy" of the fifth
ruin and disorganization.
century, one is struck by the apathy of the voting population.
Nor must we overestimate the role of character in the social
What had earlier been a hard-won privilege of the lower classes
process. It is not a sufficient explanation, for instance, to say, as
—attendance at the ecclesia or popular assembly—became during
some students have said, that the German army held together be-
the rule of the demos an obligation. Various punitive measures
cause "the Germans" had an authoritarian character, since armies
were introduced to insure a quorum; and when these failed, the
of very diverse character type do in fact hold together under
"right to vote" became a paid service to the state.
given conditions of battle and supply. Nor will it do to assume, as
Here in the history of the Athenian empire we have an area in
American aptitude-testers sometimes do, that certain jobs can be
which more detailed research and analysis might very profitably
successfully handled only by a narrowly limited range of charac-
be undertaken; obviously, no more has been done in these remarks
ter types: that we need "extrovert" or "oral" salesmen and admin-
than to suggest certain problems that would be relevant for such
istrators, and "introvert" or "anal" chemists and accountants. Ac-
research. Similarly, the problems of Rome during the reign of
tually, people of radically different types can adapt themselves to
Augustus suggest the emergence and ascendancy of the other-
perform, adequately enough, a wide variety of complex tasks. Or,
directed character type as the population reached the phase of
to put the same thing in another way, social institutions can har-
incipient decline. The importation of a new poetic language legit-
ness a gamut of different motivations, springing from different
imating the importance of subtle states of personal feeling, in the
character types, to perform very much the same kinds of socially
Alexandrian-influenced work of such poets as Catullus, and prob-
demanded jobs. And yet, of course, this is not to say that charac-
ably Gallus, may evidence shifts toward other-direction in the
ter is merely a shadowy factor in history, like some Hegelian
dominant classes. spirit. Character will affect the style and psychic costs of job
performances that, in economic or political analysis, look almost
Some necessary qualifications. The limitations of language lead identical.
me to speak as if I saw societies as always managing to produce the
Thus we are forced to take account of the possibility that peo-
social organization and character types they need in order to sur-
ple may be compelled to behave in one way although their char-
vive. Such an assumption, raising the image of a separate body,
acter structure presses them to behave in the opposite way. So-
"society," making certain demands on people and testing out
ciety may change more rapidly than character, or vice versa. In-
various processes, would introduce an unwarranted teleology into
deed, this disparity between socially required behavior and
social change. What seems to happen is that by sheer "accident"
characterologically compatible behavior is one of the great le-
any of a number of ways of insuring characterological conformity
vers of change. Fortunately we know of no society like the one
may exist in a given society. Those which have been successful
glumly envisaged by Aldous Huxley in Brave New World, where
in preserving a coherent society are transmitted as unconsciously
the social character types have been completely content in their
as they arose; but, since by their historical success they present
social roles and where consequently, barring accident, no social
themselves for study and investigation, it appears as if some teleo-
change exists.
logical force, serving the interest of society, has introduced the Finally, it is necessary to point out that social character types
successful—or fairly successful—mode of insuring conformity. are abstractions. To be sure, they refer back to the living, con-
Yet we must recognize that societies do disintegrate and die out crete human being, but in order to arrive at them, as we saw at the
despite what may appear to be successful methods of insuring the beginning of this chapter, it is necessary first to abstract from the
perpetuation of the social character. Correspondingly, it would real individual his "personality," then to abstract from that his
seem that societies can continue to endure enormous strains and
3° THE LONELY CROWD C H A R A C T E R AND SOCIETY 31

"character," finally to abstract from that the common element heavy reliance on tradition, much as this may appear to be over-
that forms "social character." laid by swings of fashion.
In fact, the discerning reader may already have realized that in It is important to emphasize these overlappings of the several
the nature of the case there can be no such thing as a society or a types in part because of the value judgments that readers are
person wholly dependent on tradition-direction, inner-direction, likely to attach to each type in isolation. Since most of us value
or other-direction: each of these modes of conformity is univer- independence we are likely to prefer the inner-directed type
sal, and the question is always one of the degree to which an indi- and overlook two things. First, the gyroscopic mechanism allows
vidual or a social group places reliance on one or another of the the inner-directed person to appear far more independent than
three available mechanisms. Thus, all human beings are inner- he really is: he is no less a conformist to others than the other-di-
directed in the sense that, brought up as they are by people older rected person, but the voices to which he listens are more distant,
than themselves, they have acquired and internalized some per- of an older generation, their cues internalized in his childhood.
manent orientations from them. And, conversely, all human be- Second, as just indicated, this type of conformity is only one,
ings are other-directed in the sense that they are oriented to the though the predominant, mechanism of the inner-directed type:
expectations of their peers and to the "field situation" (Kurt the latter is not characteristically insensitive to what his peers
Lewin) or "definition of the situation" (W. I. Thomas) that these think of him, and may even be opportunistic in the highest de-
peers at any moment help to create.10 gree. Thus, he need not always react to other people as if they
Since, furthermore, each of us possesses the capacity for each were merely stand-ins for his parents. Rather, the point is that he
of the three modes of conformity, it is possible that an individual is somewhat less concerned than the other-directed person with
may change, in the course of his life, from greater dependence continuously obtaining from contemporaries (or their stand-ins:
on one combination of modes to greater dependence on another the mass media) a flow of guidance, expectation, and approba-
(though radical shifts of this kind, even when circumstances en- tion.
courage them, are unlikely). For, unless individuals are com- Let me repeat: the types of character and society dealt with in
pletely crazy—and, indeed, they are never completely crazy— this book are types: they do not exist in reality, but are a con-
they both organize the cues in their social environment and at- struction, based on a selection of certain historical problems for
tend to those cues. Thus, if a predominantly other-directed indi- investigation. By employing more types, or subtypes, one could
vidual were placed in an environment without peers, he might take account of more facts (or mayhap, the same facts with less
fall back on other patterns of direction. Similarly, it is clear that violence!), but my collaborators and I have preferred to work
no individual, and assuredly no society, ever exists without a with a minimum of scaffolding; throughout, in seeking to de-
10. In this connection, it is revealing to compare the conceptions scribe by one interrelated set of characteristics both a society and
of the socialization process held by Freud and Harry Stack Sullivan. its typical individuals, we have looked for features that connect
Freud saw the superego as the internalized source of moral life-direc- the two and ignored those aspects of behavior—often striking—
tions, built in the image of the awesome parents, and transferred which did not seem relevant to our task.
thereafter to parent-surrogates such as God, the Leader, Fate. Sullivan
does not deny that this happened but puts more emphasis on the role of
the peer-group—the chum and group of chums who take such a decisive
hand in the socialization of the American child. Sullivan's very insist- II. The characterological struggle
ence on the importance of interpersonal relations—which led him to
believe, much more than Freud, in the adaptability of men and the We can picture the last few hundred years of western history in
possibilities of social peace and harmony—may itself be viewed as a terms of a gradual succession to dominance of each of the later
symptom of the shift toward other-direction. two types. The tradition-directed type gives way to the inner-
 CHARACTER AND SOCIETY
32 THE LONELY CROWD 33

directed, and the inner-directed gives way to the other-directed. ity, to one in which other-direction is the dominant mode. More
Shifts in type of society and type of character do not, of course, frequently the jump is made in two generations: the peasant is
occur all at once. Just as within a given culture one may find converted to inner-directed ways; his children then make the
groups representing all phases of the population curve, so, too, jump to other-direction.
we may find a variety of characterological adaptations to each The mixing of people of different character types, as of differ-
particular phase. This mixture is made even more various by the ent races and religions, as a result of industrialization and coloniza-
migration of peoples, by imperialism, and by other historical de- tion, is to be found everywhere in the world. Character types that
velopments that constantly throw together people of different would have been well adapted to their situation find themselves
character structures, people who "date," metaphorically, from under pressure from newer, better-adapted types. They may re-
different points on the population curve. sign themselves to a subordinate position. Or they may be
These character types, like geological or archaeological strata, tempted by the new goals which enter their view and may even
pile one on top of the other, with outcroppings of submerged seek these goals without reference to the culturally prescribed
types here and there. A cross section of society at any given time means of attaining them.
reveals the earlier as well as the later character types, the earlier Inner-directed types, for instance, in the urban American en-
changed through the pressure of being submerged by the later. vironment may be forced into resentment or rebellion. They
Tradition-direction seems to be dominant in Latin America, agri- may be unable to adapt because they lack the proper receiving
cultural southern Europe, in Asia and Africa. Inner-directed equipment for the radar signals that increasingly direct attitude
types seem to be dominant in rural and small-town United States and behavior in the phase of incipient population decline. They
and Canada, in northwestern Europe, and to a degree in Central may refuse to adapt because of moral disapproval of what the sig-
Europe. One notices an energetic campaign to introduce the in- nals convey. Or they may be discouraged by the fact that the sig-
ner-directed pattern in eastern Europe, in Turkey, and in parts of nals, though inviting enough, do not seem meant for them. This
Asia. And one notices the beginnings of dominance by other-di- is true, for instance, of minority groups whose facial type or col-
rected types in the metropolitan centers of the United States and, oring is not approved of for managerial or professional positions,
more doubtfully, their emergence in the big cities of northwest- or in the hierarchy of values portrayed in the mass media of com-
ern Europe. This last and newest type is spreading outward into munication. The same thing holds for those whose ancestry is
areas where inner-direction still prevails, just as the latter is adequate but whose personality in subtle ways lacks the pliabil-
spreading into unconquered areas where tradition-directed types ity and sensitivity to others that is required.
still hang on. Studies of American Indians provide analogies for some of the
Such a view may help us to understand American character things that may happen when an older character type is under
structures. In America it is still possible to find southern rural pressure from a newer one. Among Sioux reservation children, as
groups, Negro and poor white, in the phase of high growth po- described by Erik H. Erikson, there seem to be two reactions to
tential—and it is here that we look for the remnants of tradition- white culture: one is resentful resistance, the other is what might
directed types. Similarly, immigrants to America who came from be termed compliant resistance. The behavior of the former
rural and small-town areas in Europe carried their fertility seems, to the white educator, incorrigible; of the latter, almost too
rates and character patterns with them to our major cities as well ingratiating, too angelic. In both cases, because he has at least the
as to the countryside. In some cases these people were and are tacit approval of his parents and other Sioux adults, the child pre-
forced to make, in one lifetime, the jump from a society in which serves something of the Sioux character and tradition whether or
tradition-direction was the dominant mode of insuring conform- not he yields overtly to the whites. The conflict, however, drains
34 THE LONELY CROWD CHARACTER AND SOCIETY 35

the child of emotional energy; often he appears to be lazy. Both tion spreads down the class ladder and beyond the metropolitan
the resistant and the seemingly compliant are apathetic toward areas. In the absence of a home base, a reservation, these people
the white culture and white politics. have their choice, if indeed there be a choice, between homeless-
I think that there are millions of inner-directed Americans who ness and rapid acculturation to other-directed values.
reject in similar fashion the values that emanate from the grow-
ing dominance of other-directed types. Their resentment may The "characterological struggle" does not go on only within a
be conscious and vocal. As with the Sioux, this resentment is cul- single country and among the groups within that country who
turally supported both by the old-timers and by the long memory stand at different points on the curve of character and population.
of the past which is present to all in rural and small-town areas. Whole countries in the phase of incipient decline also feel threat-
This past is carried in the tales of the old men and the editorials of ened by the pressure of population and expansion from other
the rural press, not yet blotted out by urban sights and sounds. countries that are in the phase of transitional growth, and even
Hence, the resentment can express itself and win local victories more by the huge oriental countries still in the phase of high
over the representatives of other-directed types. Nevertheless, the growth potential. These international tensions, acting in a vicious
"moralizers," as we will later term them, do not feel secure—the circle, help to preserve, in countries of incipient decline, the in-
weight of the urban world outside is against them—and their re- ner-directed character types and their scarcity psychology, ap-
sentment hardens until these residual inner-directed persons are propriate in the earlier era of transitional growth. Thus the slate
scarcely more than caricatures of their characterological ancestors of character types befitting a society of abundance—a society of
in the days of their dominance. which men have dreamed for centuries—is held in historical
A second locus of resistance and resentment is to be found abeyance, and the gap between character structure and the poten-
among the vanishing tradition-directed migrants to America— tialities of the economic structure remains.
migrants both from America's colonies: Puerto Rico, the deep It is possible to take various attitudes toward this gap. One
South, and previously the Philippines, and from Mexico, Italy, would be that, because another world war—this time between
and the Orient. Here it is more difficult to find cultural support the two highly polarized world powers—is possible or even prob-
for one's resistance to the enforced change of signals called able, it makes little sense to talk about the age of abundance, its
"Americanization." The southern poor white or the poor Negro character types, and its anticipated problems. Or, the same con-
who moves North does not have to learn a new language, but he clusion might be reached by a different route, arguing that in ef-
is usually about as deracinated as are the migrants from abroad. fect it is immoral, if not politically impractical, to discuss abun-
The costume and manners of the zoot-suiter were a pathetic ex- dance in America when famine and misery remain the lot of most
ample of the effort to combine smooth urban ways with a resent- of the world's agriculturists and many of its city dwellers. These
ful refusal to be completely overwhelmed by the inner-directed are real issues. But I would like to point out as to the first—the
norms that are still the official culture of the city public schools. imminence and immanence of war—that to a slight degree na-
A similar style of resentment is to be found among miners, tions, like neurotics, bring on themselves the dangers by which
lumberjacks, ranch hands, and some urban factory workers. As in they are obsessed, the dangers that, in place of true vitality and
many other societies, the active dislike of these workers for the growth, help structure their lives; though obviously the decision,
dominant culture is coupled with a feeling of manly contempt war or not, does not rest with the United States alone. As to the
for smooth or soft city ways. These men have their own cocky second issue, it seems to me that to use world misery as an argu-
legends as the Sioux have stories of the cowboy as well as of their ment against speculation about possible abundance is actually to
own belligerent past. We must ask to what extent all these groups help prolong the very scarcity psychology that, originating in
may be dying out, like their Sioux counterparts, as other-direc- misery, perpetuates it. Pushed to its absurd extreme, the argument
36 THE LONELY CROWD II
would prevent leadership in human affairs except by those who
are worst off. On the other hand, those who are best off may fail From morality to morale:
as models not only out of surfeit but out of despair. Contrary to
the situation prevailing in the nineteenth century, pessimism has
changes in the agents of character formation
become an opiate, and the small chance that the dangers so obvi-
ously menacing the world can be avoided is rendered even smaller
by our use of these menaces in order to rationalize our resignation
and asceticism.
Fundamentally, I think the "unrealistic" Godwin was correct Q. Do you think the teachers should punish the children for
who, in contrast to his great opponent Malthus, thought that we using make-up?
would someday be able to grow food for the world in a flower- A. Yes, I think they should punish them, but understand, I'm
pot. Technologically, we virtually have the flowerpots. a modern mother and while I'm strict with my daughters, I am
still modern. You know you can't punish your children too much
or they begin to think you are mean and other children tell them
you are mean.
From an interview

Population curves and economic structures are only a part of the

ecology of character formation. Interposed between them and
the resultant social character are the human agents of character
formation: the parents, the teachers, the members of the peer-
group, and the storytellers. These are the transmitters of the so-
cial heritage, and they wield great influence over the lives of
children and hence on the whole society. For children live at the
wave front of the successive population phases and are the par-
tially plastic receivers of the social character of the future. In this
chapter we consider the changing role of parents and teachers in
socializing the young in each of the three population phases. Chap-
ter III considers the socializing function of the peer-group.
Chapter IV treats of the changes in the role of the storytellers, or,
as they are now called, the mass media of communication.
We shall concentrate here on the shift from inner-direction to
other-direction as the principal mode of insuring conformity
in the urban American middle class. Perspective, however, re-
quires a glance at societies in which tradition-direction is the
principal mode of insuring conformity; and since the tradition-di-
37
38 THE LONELY CROWD FROM MORALITY TO MORALE 39

rected types have played a very minor role in America, we will are almost unchanging from generation to generation, and apart
take examples from primitive and medieval society. As we com- from training toward technical and manual skill, which may often
pare methods of socialization we shall see what is new about the be intensive, grown-up life demands little in the way of complex
newer types—and particularly what is new about other-direc- and literate instruction. Children begin very early to learn how
tion. to act like adults simply by watching adults around them. In the
population phase of high growth potential there are many chil-
dren to imitate a comparatively small number of adult models.
/. Changes in the Role of the Parents The children live, ordinarily, in a large family setting. What the
adults do is simple enough for children to grasp, so simple that
There has been a tendency in current social research, influenced children can often understand and imitate it before they have the
as it is by psychoanalysis, to overemphasize and overgeneralize physical skills to take a full part. Social maturity waits on biologi-
the importance of very early childhood in character formation. cal maturity. Yet the biological roles of adult life are, in many
Even within this early period an almost technological attention cases, not themselves remote, for since there is little inhibition of
has sometimes been focused on what might be called the tricks childhood play and curiosity, children know what there is to
of the child-rearing trade: feeding and toilet-training schedules. know about sex and other adult functions—even though certain
The view implicit in this emphasis happens to be both a counsel ceremonial mysteries may remain to testify to the power of the
of optimism and of despair. It is an optimistic view because it adult and the helplessness of the child.
seems to say that facile mechanical changes in what the parent Physical living patterns are an important factor in this setting.
does will profoundly alter the character of the progeny. It is pes- Houses consist typically of one room, without walls to separate
simistic because it assumes that once the child has reached, say, the age groups and their varied functions. The households are
the weaning stage its character structure is so formed that, bar- often also economic units; the man does not go off to office or
ring intensive psychiatric intervention, not much that happens factory—and he does not go far. People are not yet so worried
afterward will do more than bring out tendencies already set. about saving time that they feel children are a nuisance; indeed,
Increasingly it is recognized, however, that character may they may not feel themselves to be so very different from chil-
change greatly after this early period and that cultural agents
dren anyway.
other than the parents may play important roles. Cultures differ
Furthermore, societies in the phase of high growth potential
widely not only in their timing of the various steps in character
are characterized by a very low degree of social mobility. The
formation but also in the agents they rely on at each step. Each
parents train the child to succeed them, rather than to "succeed"
new historical phase on the curve of population is marked by an
increase in the length of life and in the period of socialization— by rising in the social system. Within any given social class soci-
that is, the period before full entry into one's adult social and eco- ety is age-ranked, so that a person rises as a cork does in water: it
nomic role. At the same time there is an increase in the respon- is simply a matter of time, and little in him needs to change.
sibility placed on character-forming agents outside the home, the The upper social groups in such a society mature almost as
clan, or the village. quickly as the lower ones; the roles to be learned by children in
both ranks of society differ only slightly in complexity. Even so,
it is likely that a greater degree of individualization occurs at an
PARENTAL ROLE IN THE STAGE OF TRADITION-DIRECTION
earlier historical point in the upper strata than in the lower—as
In societies depending on tradition-direction, children can be Seems to have been the case in the Middle Ages when nobles, wan-
prepared at an early point to assume an adult role. Adult roles dering artists, and priests were often closer to inner-direction than
40 THE LONELY CROWD FROM MORALITY TO MORALE 41

to the peasant's type of tradition-direction. Yet while the training driven by conscience and anxious about his salvation.1 Yet both
of the leaders is of course somewhat more prolonged and their types are very much individuals, both are internally driven, and
characters are more individuated, the young at all social levels both are capable of pioneering. Finally, a society in which many
take their places quickly in work, ceremony, and sexual role. people are internally driven—and are driven toward values, such
In summary: the major agency of character formation in soci- as wealth and power, which are by their nature limited—contains
eties dependent on tradition-direction is the extended family and in itself a dynamic of change by the very competitive forces it
its environing clan or group. Models for imitation are apt to be sets up. Even those who do not care to compete for higher places
generalized in terms of the adult group as a whole rather than must do so in order not to descend in the social system, which has
confined to the parents. What is imitated is behavior and specific become a more open and less age-graded and birth-graded one.
traits such as bravery or cunning. The growing child does not All these tendencies are reinforced when roles become more
confront problems of choice very different from those he complicated as the division of labor progresses. The acceleration
watched his elders face; and his growth is conceived as a process of the division of labor means that increasing numbers of chil-
of becoming an older, and therefore wiser, interpreter of tradi- dren can no longer take their parents' roles as models. This is es-
tion. pecially true on the male side; characterological change in the
west seems to occur first with men. Mothers and grandmothers
could until very recent times train daughters for the feminine
PARENTAL ROLE IN THE STAGE OF INNER-DIRECTION role on the basis of tradition alone. Thus in the recent movie,
House of Strangers, the Italian-born banker who, like Giannini
Character and social mobility. With the onset of the transitional- or Ponzi, rises out of an immigrant setting and departs from his
growth phase of the population curve, opportunities open for a own father's pattern, sets for himself ambitious goals of power
good deal of social and geographical mobility. People begin to and money such as he believes to be characteristic of a true-born
pioneer on new frontiers: frontiers of production, of colonization, American, while his wife is a stereotype of the woman who
of intellectual discovery. Although this affects only a few di- clings to the tradition-directed ways of her early background.
rectly, society as mediated by the primary group no longer pro- Yet, while parents in the stage of transitional growth of popula-
claims unequivocally what one must do in order to conform. tion cannot be sure of what the adult working role and mode of
Rather, the growing child soon becomes aware of competing sets life of their children will be, neither can conformity to that role
of customs—competing paths of life—from among which he is, be left to chance and behavioral opportunism. To possess the
in principle, free to choose. And while parentage and social ori- drive that is required to fulfill demanding and ever more demand-
gins are still all but determinative for most people, the wider ho- ing roles calls for greater attention to formal character training.
rizon of possibilities and of wants requires a character which
can adhere to rather generalized and more abstractly defined 1. Margaret Mead, whose contribution to this whole field has been
goals. Such a character must produce under its own motive power tremendously stimulating, has pointed out how the Protestant parent
passed on to the child the legacy of his own unfulfilled strivings to
the appropriate specific means to gain these general ends.
live up to an ideal and how this drive spurred progress and change
To be sure, the goals and ideals that are held up to children even though the statement of the ideal as such did not change. See,
and exemplified for them by their parents' own goals and ideals e.g., "Social Change and Cultural Surrogates," Journal of Educational
differ between, on the one hand, the confident, secular man of Sociology, 14 (1940), 92; reprinted in Personality in Nature, Society,
the Renaissance, glorying in his individuality and freedom from and Culture, ed. Kluckhohn and Murray, p. 511, and especially pp.
old restraints, and, on the other hand, the God-fearing puritan, 520-521.
42 THE LONELY CROWD F R O M M O R A L I T Y TO M O R A L E 43

Especially in the Protestant countries character training becomes In this way begins the process we see in extravagant form in
an important part of education, though of course this does not the forced-draft childhood of John Stuart Mill, who studied the
mean that most parents consciously undertake to produce chil- classics and wrote long essays under the zealous eye of his father
dren to meet new social specifications. before he was ten. Even when parents are less self-consciously
The new situation created by increased social mobility implies pedagogical than James Mill, they may unconsciously impose
that children must frequently be socialized in such a way as to be their demands on children merely by being forceful, tense, and
unfitted for their parents' roles, while being fitted for roles not as highly charged themselves. Indeed, the inner-directed man is fre-
yet fully determined. Homing pigeons can be taught to fly home, quently quite incapable of casual relationships. For one thing, he
but the inner-directed child must be taught to fly a straight course is preoccupied with his own concerns and therefore worried
away from home, with destination unknown; naturally many about wasting time; conversely, by not wasting time he avoids
meet the fate of Icarus. Nevertheless, the drive instiled in the anxious self-preoccupation. For another thing, his relation to peo-
child is to live up to ideals and to test his ability to be on his own ple, his children included, is mediated by his continuing, charac-
by continuous experiments in self-mastery—instead of by follow- ter-conditioned need to test and discipline himself.
ing tradition. This process, in the Renaissance-Reformation character which
we term inner-directed, is less tense in the Latin countries than
Character training as a conscious parental task. In a society de- in the Protestant or Jansenist north, and in the north less tense in
pending on tradition-direction to insure conformity, much of Lutheran or Anglican communicants than in the Calvinistic and
the parent's effort is directed toward keeping the child from Pietistic sects. Wherever inner-direction has attained relatively
being a nuisance to the adult world; and this task is regularly dele- undisputed sway in a significantly large middle class, however,
gated to older brothers or sisters or to other adults. The child soon the production of the character structures of the coming genera-
learns that behavioral conformity is the price of peace, and he tion becomes increasingly rationalized, just as is production in
learns to propitiate—or at least not to annoy—those around him. the non-domestic economy. In both cases the task of production
The inner-directed parent, on the other hand, asks more of his is no longer left to an external group sanction or situational pres-
child, just as he asks more of himself. He can do this because, sure but is installed as a drive in the individual, and tremendous
with the passing of the extended kinship family, the parent has energies are unleashed toward the alteration of the material, social,
his children much more under his own undivided and intensive and intellectual environment and toward the alteration of the
scrutiny and control. Not satisfied with mere behavioral conform- self.
ity, such a parent demands conformity of a more subtle sort, con- The social and spatial arrangements of middle-class life make it
formity as evidence of characterological fitness and self-discipline. hard for the child to see through, let alone evade, the pressures
The Puritan, especially, relentlessly scrutinizes his children as put upon him to become inner-directed. As compared with the
well as himself for the signs of election, that is, of salvation by one-room house of the peasant or the "long house" of many prim-
the predestining God. And with secularization these signs are itive tribes, he grows up within walls that are physical symbols of
translated into signs predicting social mobility—signs that indi- the privacy of parental dominance. Walls separate parents from
cate a future facility in "passing," not from hell to heaven, but in children, office from home, and make it hard if not impossible for
the status hierarchy. On the one hand the parent looks for signs the children to criticize the parents' injunctions by an "undress"
of potential failure—this search arises in part from guilty and view of the parents or of other parents. What the parents say be-
anxious preoccupation about himself. On the other hand he looks comes more real in many cases than what they do—significant
for signs of talent—this must not be wasted. training for a society in which words become increasingly impor-
44 THE LONELY CROWD
FROM M O R A L I T Y TO MORALE 45
tant as a means of exchange, direction, and control. The conversa- from his family or clan, makes him sensitive to the signals ema-
tion between parents and children, interrupted by the social dis- nating from his internalized ideal. If the ideal, as in the puritan, is
tance that separates them, is continued by the child with him- to be "good" or, as in the child of the Renaissance, to be "great,"
self in private. what must he do to fulfill the injunction? And how does he know
The very pressure applied to the process of socialization by that he has fulfilled these difficult self-demands? As Max Weber
strict child rearing prolongs, as compared with the earlier era, and R. H. Tawney saw very clearly in their portraits of the puri-
the period in which socialization takes place. Freud has described tan, little rest is available to those who ask themselves such ques-
this situation wonderfully in his concept of the watchful superego tions.
as a socializing agency incorporated into the child and accom- The relative uncomfortableness of the more powerfully inner-
panying him throughout life with ever renewed injunctions. This directed homes—the lack of indulgence and casualness in dealing
concept, while less fruitful in application to other societies, does with children—prepares the child for the loneliness and psy-
seem to fit the middle class during the heyday of inner-direction chic uncomfortableness of such questions and of the social situa -
in the west. One might even say that the character structure of tions that he may confront. Or, more exactly, the child's charac-
the inner-directed person consists of the tension between super- ter is such that he feels comfortable in an environment which, like
ego, ego, and id. In a current cliche children are "brought up" his home, is demanding and which he struggles to master.
rather than, as some would have it, "loved up"; and even when We may say, then, that parents who are themselves inner-di-
they have left home they continue to bring themselves up. They rected install a psychological gyroscope in their child and set
rend to feel throughout life that their characters are something to it going; it is built to their own and other authoritative specifica-
be worked on. The diary-keeping that is so significant a symptom tions; if the child has good luck, the governor will spin neither
of the new type of character may be viewed as a kind of inner too fast, with the danger of hysteric outcomes, nor too slow, with
time-and-motion study by which the individual records and the danger of social failure.
judges his output day by day. It is evidence of the separation be-
tween the behaving and the scrutinizing self.
PARENTAL ROLE IN THE STAGE OF OTHER-DIRECTION

Passage from home. As the growing child takes over from his Character and social mobility. In the phase of incipient popula-
parents the duty of self-observation and character training, he tion decline, the conditions for advancement alter significantly.
becomes prepared to face and meet situations that are novel. In- The inner-directed person is able to see industrial and commer-
deed, if he rises in the occupational hierarchy that becomes in- cial possibilities and to work with the zeal and ruthlessness re-
creasingly elaborated in the phase of transitional growth or if he quired by expanding frontiers in the phase of transitional growth
moves toward the various opening frontiers, he finds that he can of population. Societies in the phase of incipient population de-
flexibly adapt his behavior precisely because he need not change cline, on the other hand, need neither such zeal nor such inde-
his character. He can separate the two by virtue of the fact that pendence. Business, government, the professions, become heav-
he is an individual with an historically new level of self-awareness. ily bureaucratized, as we see most strikingly, for instance, in
This awareness of the self is cause and consequence of the France. Such societies increasingly turn to the remaining refrac-
fact that choice is no longer automatically provided—or, rather, tory components of the industrial process: the men who run the
excluded—by the social setting of the primary group. Under the machines. Social mobility under these conditions continues to
new conditions the individual must decide what to do—and exist. But it depends less on what one is and what one does than
therefore what to do with himself. This feeling of personal re- on what others think of one—and how competent one is in ma-
sponsibility, this feeling that he matters as an individual, apart nipulating others and being oneself manipulated. To look at it
46 THE LONELY CROWD FROM MORALITY TO MORALE 47

from another point of view, when the basic physical plant of a ferences" for the pride which individuals, groups, and nations
society is felt to be built, or rather when the building can be rou- manifest about small insignia which distinguish them from other
tinized by management planning, there begins to be room at the individuals, groups, and nations. Marginal differentiation some-
top for the other-directed person who can see the subtle oppor- times does have this quality of pride or of what Veblen called "in-
tunities given in the human setting.2 Though material abundance vidious distinction." But the phenomenon I have in mind is one
becomes technologically possible, people continue to work—and of anxiety rather than pride, of veiled competition rather than
do make-work—at a pace more in keeping with the earlier era of openly rivalrous display; the narcissism is muted or, as we shall
transitional growth: drives for mobility are still imbedded in their see, alloyed with other, stronger elements.
character. But the product now in demand is neither a staple nor In these circumstances parents who try, in inner-directed fash-
a machine; it is a personality. ion, to compel the internalization of disciplined pursuit of clear
To bring the other-directed personality type and his typical goals run the risk of having their children styled clear out of the
economic framework together it might be observed that there personality market. Gyroscopic direction is just not flexible
exists in the production of personality the same sort of product enough for the rapid adaptations of personality that are required,
differentiation that is characteristic of monopolistic competition precisely because there will be other competitors who do not have
generally. The economists apply the term product differentia- gyroscopes. Inhibited from presenting their children with sharply
tion to a firm's effort to distinguish products not by price but by silhouetted images of self and society, parents in our era can only
small differences, sufficient, however, in connection with adver- equip the child to do his best, whatever that may turn out to be.
tising, to take the product out of direct price competition with What is best is not in their control but in the hands of the school
otherwise similar competing products. Thus one cigarette is made and peer-group that will help locate the child eventually in the
slightly longer, another nearly oval, while still another is given a hierarchy. But even these authorities speak vaguely; the clear
cork tip or a green box. Time and Newsweek engage in product principles of selection that once guided people of inner-directed
differentiation. So do the makers of automobiles, streamliners, character no longer apply. For example, social climbing itself
and toothpastes, and the operators of hotels and universities. So, may be called into public question at the same time that it is no
too, people who are competing for jobs in the hierarchies of longer so unequivocally desirable in terms of private wish. As
business, government, and professional life try to differentiate some Fortune surveys indicate, a safe and secure job may be pre-
their personalities (as contrasted with their actual technical skills) ferred to a risky one involving high stakes. What is more, it is no
—without getting as far out of line, let us say, as a 1934 prema- longer clear which way is up even if one wants to rise, for with
turely streamlined Chrysler. In this study, the social aspect of this the growth of the new middle class the older, hierarchical pat-
competitive procedure, since it will be extended to cover persons terns disintegrate, and it is not easy to compare ranks among the
and services as well as commodities, will be termed "marginal dif- several sets of hierarchies that do exist. Does an army colonel
ferentiation," and thus distinguished from the related concept "rank" the head of an international union? A physics professor, a
used by the economists. bank vice-president? A commentator, the head of an oil com-
Freud coined the phrase "narcissism with respect to minor dif- pany?
2. Of course there is no law that societies in the stage of incipient Increasingly in doubt as to how to bring up their children, par-
population decline have to become top-heavy and bureaucratic. It is ents turn to other contemporaries for advice; they also look to the
conceivable that even more mobility could be opened up by shifting mass media; and like the mother quoted at the outset of this chap-
population and other resources rapidly into tertiary services, by ter they turn, in effect, to the children themselves. They may,
greatly expanding leisure and the industries catering to leisure. We nevertheless, fasten on some inflexible scheme of child rearing
shall return to these matters in Part III. and follow that. Yet they cannot help but show their children,
48 THE LONELY CROWD F R O M M O R A L I T Y TO M O R A L E 49

by their own anxiety, how little they depend on themselves and Under the new social and economic conditions, the position of
how much on others. Whatever they may seem to be teaching the children rises. They are not subjected to a period of deprivation
child in terms of content, they are passing on to him their own and hardship which leads to compensatory dreams of a life of ease
contagious, highly diffuse anxiety. They reinforce this teaching and pleasure. Girls are not, as they were in some earlier societies,
by giving the child approval—and approving themselves be- drudges at home until, at puberty, they were suddenly given the
cause of the child—when he makes good. only "capital" they were ever likely to find—that of their bodies
To be sure, inner-directed parents also often were able to —to live on as income, or exhaust as principal. Even boys from
"love" only those children who made good in the outer world. comfortable homes were expected until recently to hit the sun-
But at least the canons of success were reasonably clear. The rise trail with paper routes or other economically profitable and
other-directed child, however, faces not only the requirement "character-building" chores.
that he make good but also the problem of defining what making The parents lack not only the self-assurance that successful
good means. He finds that both the definition and the evaluation inner-direction brings but also the strategy of withdrawal avail-
of himself depend on the company he keeps: first, on his school- able to many unsuccessful inner-directed types. The loss of old
mates and teachers; later, on peers and superiors. But perhaps the certainties in the spheres of work and social relations is accom-
company one keeps is itself at fault? One can then shop for other panied by doubt as to how to bring up children. Moreover, the
preferred companies in the mass circulation media. parents no longer feel themselves superior to the children. While
Approval itself, irrespective of content, becomes almost the children no longer have immediate economic value, they are less
only unequivocal good in this situation: one makes good when numerous, scarcer in relation to the number of adults: the ef-
one is approved of. Thus all power, not merely some power, is in fort is made, and it is objectively possible, to want all children
the hands of the actual or imaginary approving group, and the who are conceived and to raise very nearly all children who are
child learns from his parents' reactions to him that nothing in born. More is staked on every single child than in the earlier
his character, no possession he owns, no inheritance of name or epoch when many children were not raised to maturity. In addi-
talent, no work he has done is valued for itself but only for its ef- tion, apart from the fact that the children may be better Amer-
fect on others. Making good becomes almost equivalent to mak- icans than the parents, in ethnic or social terms—as Jiggs's daugh-
ing friends, or at any rate the right kind of friends. "To him that ter is more up to date than he—there are undoubtedly other solid
hath approval, shall be given more approval." reasons (which I shall not go into) for the general emphasis on
youth which runs through all forms of popular culture.3
From bringing up children to "Bringing up Father." The typi- Historical changes in the lives of adolescents can be seen most
cal other-directed child grows up in a small family, in close urban clearly, perhaps, if one looks back to those Bildungsromane of
the nineteenth century that described the misunderstood youth
quarters, or in a suburb. Even more than in the earlier epoch the
who struggled against the harsh or hypocritical tyranny of his
father leaves home to go to work, and he goes too far to return
parents, particularly if one compares one of the best of such nov-
for lunch. Home, moreover, is no longer an area of solid privacy.
els, Samuel Butler's The Way of All Flesh, with one of the best of
As the size and living space of the family diminish and as the our contemporary examples, for instance Lionel Trilling's short
pattern of living with older relatives declines, the child must di- story, "The Other Margaret." 4 In Trilling's story we have a pic-
rectly face the emotional tensions of his parents. There is a height-
3. This, too, is a development whose importance Margaret Mead
ening of awareness of the self in relation to others under these
has stressed. See And Keep Your Powder Dry (New York, William
conditions, especially since the parents, too, are increasingly self- Morrow, 1942).
conscious. 4. Partisan Review, XII (1945), 381.
50 THE LONELY CROWD FROM M O R A L I T Y TO MORALE 51

ture of a precocious young girl in the intellectual, urban, upper As already noted, the parents also have their sources of direc-
middle class. Margaret, who goes to a progressive school, believes tion in the mass media. For in their uneasiness as to how to bring
that Negroes are exploited, and she resents the inferior position in up children they turn increasingly to books, magazines, govern-
the home of "the other Margaret," a Negro domestic. It is the ment pamphlets, and radio programs. These tell the already anx-
daughter Margaret who is self-righteous, not the parents. ious mother to accept her children. She learns that there are no
In the face of her criticism, buttressed as it is by the authority problem children, only problem parents; and she learns to look
of the school, the parents, themselves progressive, are on the de- into her own psyche whenever she is moved to deny the children
fensive. They are tense and very much concerned with what anything, including an uninterrupted flow of affection. If the
their daughter thinks—and thinks of them. Eventually, all three children are cross then the mother must be withholding some-
adults manage to destroy Margaret's illusion of the virtues of the thing. And while these tutors also tell the mother to "relax" and
other Margaret—the parents by reasoning; the other Margaret by to "enjoy her children," even this becomes an additional injunc-
bad behavior. But in the end the parents are anxious about their tion to be anxiously followed.
victory, lest it harm their sensitive child. They possess little of the
certainty and security of Theobald's parents in The Way of All It may be that children today do not gain the strength that
Flesh. adults—no longer inner-directed—have lost. To be sure, this was
In this change of parental attitude the mass media of commu- often a factitious strength, as Samuel Butler saw; but it was usu-
nication play a dual role. From the mass media—radio, movies, ally sufficient both to crush the child's spontaneity and anesthe-
comics—as well as from their own peers, children can easily learn tize his diffuse anxiety. "Shades of the prison-house begin to close
what the norm of parental behavior is, and hold it over their par- upon the growing boy"—and the prisoner might feel oppressed,
ents' heads. Thus a kind of realism is restored to the child which even guilty, but not too anxious behind his bars. In contrast, what
was his property much more simply in the societies depending the other-directed child does "learn" from his parents is anxiety
on tradition-direction: the other-directed child is often more —the emotional tuning appropriate to his other-directed adjust-
knowing than his parents—like the proverbial Harvard man, there ment.
is little they can tell him.5
The rule of "reason." Despite the diminution of their author-
5. Yet the knowingness, particularly in the middle class, has limits
that were less important in the tradition-directed family. There the
ity, the parents still try to control matters; but with the loss of
child, knowledgeable for example about sex, could see reflections of self-assurance their techniques change. They can neither hold
it in the daily adult life around him. He would know that if his uncle themselves up as exemplars—when both they and the child know
was particularly gay or particularly cross at work this was connected better—nor resort, in good conscience, to severe corporal punish-
with what happened in the village the night before. As against this, ment and deprivations. At most there are token spankings, with
the other-directed child knows about sex only, so to speak, in the open physical warfare confined to the lower classes.
abstract. He cannot reasonably connect the night life he knows exists The parents' recourse, especially in the upper middle class, is
with the seriousness of the adult world that faces him at school, at to "personnel" methods—to manipulation in the form of reason-
the store, or at home. While he has doffed the myths of sex that ing, or, more accurately, of rationalizing. The child responds in
Freud found among the young of his day, he still finds passion play-
ing a greater role in the comics and the movies than in the life he is all his learning, all his disenchantment, and even all his experience of
able to observe—the latter being a life in which people are trained it. And, in general, the other-directed child's realism about the adult
to hide their passions and to act generally in a disembodied way. world is hampered not so much by Victorian inhibitions as by the far
Perhaps this is one reason why sex often remains an exciting mystery subtler partitions of adult life itself, such as the shadowy partitions
for the other-directed adult—as we shall see in Chap. VII—despite between work and play to be discussed later.
 52 THE LONELY CROWD FROM M O R A L I T Y TO M O R A L E 53

the same manner. One might summarize the historical sequence believe but must share it with him, subject to his determination of
by saying that the tradition-directed child propitiates his par- when it applies. That the daughter and father finally come into
ents; the inner-directed child fights or succumbs to them; the open conflict over the little girl's fantasy friend is only to be ex-
other-directed child manipulates them and is in turn manipulated. pected; the girl cannot put a lock on the door of her room or the
A movie of several years ago, The Curse of the Cat People, door of her mind. (In a lower-class home there would be, spatially
while it testified to American preoccupation with certain child- at least, even less privacy; but there might be more psychic pri-
rearing themes which do not directly concern us here, also pro- vacy because the parents would often be less interested in the
vides an interesting example of these manipulative relations be- child.)
tween parent and child. A little girl lives in a suburban, middle- Notice, in the second place, the "reasonable" but subtly ma-
class home with its typical neatness, garden, and Negro servant. nipulative tone of parent-child relations. This is evidenced by the
As in "The Other Margaret," there is a terrific pressure of adult parental planning of the party for the daughter and her peers and
emotion focused around this one child from the parents and serv- by the parental irritation when the plan miscarries. Still more sig-
ant. The child is supposed to invite the other children in the nificant is the way in which the family meets the crisis of blocked
neighborhood for her birthday party; but believing her father's peer-group communication symbolized by the nonoperative mail-
joke that the big tree in the yard is a mailbox, she puts the invita- box—a failure that is itself occasioned by a blockage of under-
tions there and they never go out. When her birthday arrives, the standing about the real and the unreal between daughter and par-
other children whom she had said she would invite tease her and ents.
refuse to play with her. Her father scolds her for taking him seri- The fiasco is, obviously enough, a matter that requires imme-
ously, and she is also in difficulties for not getting along better diate corrective action; parents in this pass, it seems, should do
with the other children. But the parents (plus servant) decide to something. The parents of the child in this movie do nothing;
go ahead with the party anyway, "as if." There follows a "party" they prefer to talk away the situation, to manipulate the child into
which tries to persuade the child that there has been no tragedy, the acceptance of a formal illusion of party making. The result is
that this party is just as good as the one which failed. to produce a sort of exaggeration and burlesque of the way in
The parents insist that the child somehow know, without a for- which other-directed persons, in parent-child as in all other rela-
mal etiquette, when things are supposed to be "real" and when tions, constantly resort to manipulation and countermanipulation.
"pretend." The tree as the mailbox is pretend; the party real. As contrasted with all this, the inner-directed parent is not par-
Feeling misunderstood and alone, the little girl discovers a real ticularly worried by his child's resentment or hostility. Nor is he
friend in a strange woman who lives almost as a recluse in a as apt to be as aware of it. He and the child are both protected by
, great house. The parents frown upon this "friend" and her gift of the gap that separates them. The other-directed parent, however,
a ring to the child. The little girl then discovers an imaginary has to win not only his child's good behavior but also his child's
friend at the bottom of the yard, a beautiful older woman with good will. Therefore, he is tempted to use his superior dialectic
whom she talks. The father cannot see, that is to say "see," this skill to "reason" with the child. And when the child learns—this
latter friend and punishes the child for lying. is part of his sensitive radar equipment—how to argue too, the
Notice this fictional family's lack of privacy for the child. The parent is torn between giving in and falling uneasily back on the
discovery of the gift of the ring seems to be typical of the fact sterner methods of his inner-directed parents. The father in The
that few of her excitements escape parental scrutiny. Moreover, Curse of the Cat People, after trying to reason away the little
the very fact that the father suggests to the daughter the secret girl's belief in her fantasy friend, finally spanks her. But such
about the make-believe • "mailbox tree" is symbolic of the intru- scenes are always succeeded by parental efforts at reconciliation,
sion of his knowledge: the daughter is not allowed her own make- turning the spanking itself into a step in the manipulative chain.
54 THE LONELY CROWD FROM MORALITY TO M O R A L E 55
Finally, we must observe the change in the content of the is- decided, one has to resort to models outside the particular home—
sues at stake between parent and child. The more driving and in search of the ever changing norms of the group in which the
tense inner-directed parents compel their children to work, to parents happen to live. And indeed the radio and print bring the
save, to clean house, sometimes to study, and sometimes to pray. models into the home, like a trial record from which the child
Other less puritanical types of inner-directed parent want their and parent legalists prepare briefs.6
boys to be manly, their girls to be feminine and chaste. Such de-
mands make either economic or ideological sense in the popula- To sum up: parents in the groups depending on other-direc-
tion phase of transitional growth. The large home could absorb tion install in their children something like a psychological radar
enormous amounts of labor; even today those who putter in small set—a device not tuned to control movement in any particular
house and small garden can still find lots to do. The parents direction while guiding and steadying the person from within but
themselves often set the example, in which they are supported by rather tuned to detect the action, and especially the symbolic ac-
the school, of work and study: these are believed to be the paths tion, of others. Thereafter, the parents influence the children's
of upward mobility both in this world and in the next. character only insofar as (a) their own signals mingle with others
In the other-directed home, on the other hand, the issues be- over the radar, (b) they can locate children in a certain social
tween parent and child concern the nonwork side of life. For in environment in order to alter to a very limited degree what sig-
the phase of incipient population decline—most markedly, of nals they will receive, (c) they take the risks of a very partial
course, in America but elsewhere too—there is no work for and precarious censorship of incoming messages. Thus the pa-
children to do inside the urban home, and little outside. They rental role diminishes in importance as compared with the same
need not brush and clean (except themselves)—they are less effi- role among the inner-directed.
cient than a vacuum cleaner. Nor is there an array of younger
brothers and sisters to be taken care of. The American mother,
educated, healthy, and efficient, has high standards for care of the II. Changes in the Role of the Teacher
apartment or small home and would, where she is not working,
often feel quite out of a job if the children took over the house- Much could be said about the changing configuration of adult
work. Fortunately released from the quandary of the old woman authorities, other than the parents, as society moves from depend-
who lived in a shoe, she faces—just, as we shall see, as her husband ence on inner-direction to dependence on other-direction.
does—the problem of leisure; care for the house and children is Largely for economic reasons the governess, mammy, or hired
frequently her self-justification and escape. tutor, for instance, virtually disappears from middle- and upper
So parents and children debate over eating and sleeping time as middle-class homes. One significant consequence is that children
later they will debate over use of the family car. And they argue are no longer raised by people who hold up to them the stand-
tensely, as in The Curse of the Cat People, about the contacts of
the child with the "others" and about the emotional hue of the 6. Morris Janowitz has suggested that if one wanted to get a very
rough index of homes in which other-direction was being transmitted,
argument itself. But by the nature of these discussions the par-
as against those in which inner-direction prevailed, one might separate
ents have a less easy victory. In the population phase of transi- the homes which took only such magazines as Life, Look, the comics,
tional growth they can point to self-evident tasks that need do- or movie journals from those which took such periodicals as the
ing—self-evident at least according to accepted standards that Saturday Evening Post or Collier's. The former group is for the whole
have survived from the still earlier epoch. In the phase of incipi- family, interpreted as easily or more easily by children than by adults.
ent decline, however, the issues involving consumption or leisure The latter group is mainly for the grownups and not shared with the
are no longer self-evident; to decide them, if they are to be children.
50 THE LONELY CROWD F R O M M O R A L I T Y TO M O R A L E 57
ard of a family or class. Such a standard is good training in inner- ated people live without characterological defenses against each
direction—in the acquisition of generalized goals; it is at the same other.
time a partial buffer against the indiscriminate influence of the The elimination of the grandmother from a central role in the
peer-group. But there is another more subtle consequence. The home is, moreover, symbolic of the rapidity of the changes we
child who has been raised by a governess and educated by a tutor are discussing. She is two generations removed from current prac-
gains a very keen sense for the disparities of power in the home tices on the frontier of consumption. While the parents try to
and in the society. When he goes off to boarding school or col- keep up with their children, both as a means of staying young
lege he is likely to remain unimpressed by his teachers—like the and as a means of staying influential, this is seldom possible for the
upper-class mother who told the school headmaster: "I don't see grandparents. Hence their role in the formation of the other-di-
why the masters can't get along with Johnny; all the other serv- rected character is negligible. Far from presenting the child with
ants do." Such a child is not going to be interested in allowing his a relatively consistent "family portrait," standing in back of the
teachers to counsel him in his peer-group relations or emotional parents and strengthening them, grandparents stand as emblems
life. of how little one can learn from one's elders about the things that
Furthermore, the presence of these adults in the home—some- matter.
what like the extended family in earlier eras—helps reduce the A parallel development removes another set of parent surro-
emotional intensity of parent-child relations. Though the child gates who played an important role in earlier periods: the older
knows who is boss in the home, he can still play these other brothers or sisters who, like sophomores, hazed the younger in
"officials" off against parental authority. And, indeed, the inner- subjecting them to the family pattern of discipline. Today the
directed parents, frequently not overeager for warmth from the older children—if there are any—are frequently more willing to
child, are quite willing to have the child's experience of affection earn cash as baby sitters than to supervise the training of their
associated with persons of lower status. The inner-directed young own younger brothers and sisters. The lure of a job may get chil-
man raised under these conditions learns to find emotional re- dren to work outside their homes; that still makes sense to them.
lease with prostitutes and others of low status. He becomes ca- But within their own home they are the privileged guests in a
pable of impersonal relations with people and sometimes inca- rather second-rate hotel, a hotel whose harassed but smiling man-
pable of any other kind. This is one of the prices he pays for his agers they put under constant pressure for renovation.
relative impermeability to the needs and wishes of his peers, and
helps account for his ability, when in pursuit of some end he THE TEACHER S ROLE IN THE STAGE OF INNER-DIRECTION
values, to steel himself against their indifference or hostility.
One important authority, however, remains: a proxy parent
Grandmothers as authorities are almost as obsolete as govern- whose power has probably increased as a consequence of the shift
esses. There is no room for them in the modern apartment, nor to other-direction. This is the schoolteacher, and we turn now to
can they, any more than the children themselves, find a useful a fuller exploration of the change in her role.
economic role. Nevertheless they endure, concomitant with the In the period when inner-direction insures middle-class con-
increased longevity of the later population phases. The increased formity, school starts relatively late—there are few nursery
personalization of relationships that other-direction brings means schools. The teacher's task is largely to train the children in de-
that "strangers" in the home are less and less endurable: the in- corum and in intellectual matters. The decorum may be the mini-
law problem, a standard joke in many cultures over many cen- mum of discipline needed to keep order in the classroom or the
turies, takes on new meaning where sensitive, highly individu- maximum of polish needed to decorate girls of the upper social
58 THE LONELY CROWD FROM MORALITY TO M O R A L E 59

strata. As schools become more plentiful and more readily acces- and salvation. Their charges break or bend or run away or join
sible and democratic, the obligation to train the child in mid- the church—they do not open up to the nuns as friends. The uni-
dle-class speech and manners—that he may be aided in his rise versal uniforms, as in a military school, symbolize the barriers of
above his parents' rank—falls upon the teacher. But the teacher rank and restraint that separate the authorities from the children.
does not work close to the child's emotional level. And the We may sum all this up by saying that the school of this period
teacher regards her job as a limited one, sharply demarcated from is concerned largely with impersonal matters. The sexes are seg-
the equally rigorous task of the home. regated. The focus is on an intellectual content that for most chil-
The physical setting in school reflects this situation. Seating dren has little emotional bite. Elocution, like female accomplish-
is formal—all face front—and often alphabetical. The walls are ment, is impersonal, too; the child is not asked to "be himself"—
decorated with the ruins of Pompeii and the bust of Caesar. For nor does the school aim to be like "real life." Teachers, whether
all but the few exceptional children who can transcend the dead spinsterly or motherly types, do not know enough, even if they
forms of their classical education and make the ancient world had the time and energy, to take an active hand in the socializa-
come alive, these etchings and statues signify the irrelevance of tion of tastes or of peer-group relations. While parents may per-
the school to the emotional problems of the child. mit the teachers to enforce certain rules of morality directly
The teacher herself has neither understanding of nor time for related to school, such as modesty of dress and honesty in exam-
these emotional problems, and the child's relation to other chil- inations, and to inculcate certain rules of manners directly related
dren enters her purview only in disciplinary cases. Often she has to social ascent, they hardly allow interference with play groups,
simply no authority: she is a common scold with too large a even in the interests of enforcing ethnic or economic democ-
brood. Or she manages to maintain discipline by strictures and racy. The teacher is supposed to see that the children learn a cur-
punishments. But these absorb the emotional attention of the chil- riculum, not that they enjoy it or learn group cooperation. The
dren, often uniting them in opposition to authority. present practice of progressive grammar schools which decide
In the recent Swedish movie Torment we see this pattern still whether or not to take a child by putting him in his putative
at work in the near-contemporary scene. Teachers and parents group and seeing how he fits in would hardly have been conceiv-
share the task of instilling inner-directed values. The villain is a able.
harsh and overbearing, neurotic prep-school teacher. All the Nevertheless, despite the social distance between teacher and
boys hate him; some fear him; no self-respecting boy would child, the school's unquestioning emphasis on intellectual ability
dream—despite the teacher's groping efforts—of being his friend. is profoundly important in shaping the inner-directed character.
The hero is a boy who rebels, not so much because he wants to It affirms to the child that what matters is what he can accomplish,
but rather because he is forced to by his teacher. He and his not how nice is his smile or how cooperative his attitude. And
friends suffer, but their parents and teachers do not invade their while the objectivity of the criteria for judging these skills and
lives, and they have privacy with each other and with girls, so competences is rightfully called into question today—when we
long as no serious breach of decorum is evident. This rebellion it- can see very clearly, for instance, the class bias in intelligence tests
self—its success is not the issue—is part of the process of develop- and written examinations—the inner-directed school is not aware
ing an inner-directed character. of such biases, and hence its standards can appear unequivocal and
An equally moving portrait is Antonia White's novel of a girl's unalterable. For this reason these standards can be internalized
convent school, Frost in May. Though the nuns at the school go both by those who succeed and by those who fail. They are felt as
quite far in "molding character" and viciously cut down signs of real and given, not as somebody's whim. Thus the school rein-
spontaneity and open-mindedness in the gifted heroine, they forces the home in setting for the child goals that are clear to all
have back of them only the old-fashioned sanctions of penance and that give direction and meaning to life thereafter.
6o THE LONELY CROWD F R O M M O R A L I T Y TO M O R A L E 6l

Whatever the security children gain from knowing where they ress—indeed, to scan the intellectual performance for signs of
stand—a security they no longer have in the other-directed pro- social maladjustment. These new teachers are more specialized.
gressive school—we must not forget how harshly this system They don't claim to "understand children" but to have studied
bears on those who cannot make the grade: they are often Gessell on the "fives" or the "nines"; and this greater knowledge
broken; there is little mercy for them on psychological grounds. not only prevents the children from uniting in a wall of distrust
Brains, status, perhaps also docility, win the teacher, rather than or conspiracy against the school but also permits the teacher to
"personality" or "problems." Some of the failures rebel. But these, take a greater hand in the socialization of spheres—consumption,
too, are hammered into shape by the school—bad shape. Occa- friendship, fantasy—which the older-type teacher, whatever her
sionally the frontier and other opportunities for mobility provide personal desires, could not touch. Our wealthier society can af-
an exit for the academically outclassed; and, still more occasion- ford this amount of individuation and "unnecessary" schooling.
ally, the rebel returns, like a mythical hero, having lived his trou- Physical arrangements, too—in seating, age-grading, decoration
bles down, to alleviate the guilt of other misfits and give them —symbolize the changes in the teacher's function. The sexes are
hope for their own future. By and large, however, the very un- mixed. Seating is arranged "informally." That is, alphabetic forms
equivocality of the school's standards that gives the children a cer- disappear, often to be replaced by sociometric forms that bring
tain security also means that the standards will be internalized together compeers. This often means that where to sit becomes
even by those who fail. They will carry with them the after- problematical—a clue to one's location on the friendship chart.
effects of emotional shock whose violence lies beyond criticism Gesell grading is as severe as intellectual grading was in the
—sometimes even beyond recall. earlier era; whatever their intellectual gifts, children stay with
their presumed social peers.7 The desks change their form, too;
THE TEACHER'S ROLE IN THE STAGE OF OTHER-DIRECTION 7. Howard C. Becker ("Role and Career Problems of the Chicago
Progressive education began as a movement to liberate children Public School Teacher," unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, University
from the crushing of talent and breaking of will that was the fate of Chicago, 1951) has been observing the classroom consequences
of the decline of the practice both of skipping grades and of holding
of many, even of those whose inner-direction might have seemed
children back who must repeat the grade. The teachers, faced with a
to them and to the observer stable and sound enough. Its aim, and group of identical age but vastly different capacities and willingness,
to a very considerable degree, its achievement, was to develop meet the situation by dividing the class into two or three like-minded
the individuality of the child; and its method was to focus the groups. Mobility between groups is discouraged, and children are
teacher's attention on more facets of the child than his intellectual encouraged to imitate their groupmates. The teacher herself, in the
abilities. Today, however, progressive education is often no longer public schools, is probably inner-directed, but she is forced by her
progressive; as people have become more other-directed, educa- situation to promote other-direction among her charges.
tional methods that were once liberating may even tend to thwart The following quotation from Mr. Becker's interviews is a poignant
individuality rather than advance and protect it. The story can be example of how a teacher will promote other-direction in her efforts
to get the children to have more interesting weekends: "Every class
quickly told.
1 have I start out the year by making a survey. I have each child get
Progressive schools have helped lower the age of school entry; up and tell what he did over the weekend. These last few years I've no-
the two- to five-year-old groups learn to associate school not with ticed that more and more children get up and say, 'Saturday I went
forbidding adults and dreary subjects but with play and under- to the show, Sunday I went to the show' . . . I've been teaching
standing adults. The latter are, increasingly, young college gradu- twenty-five years, and it never used to be like that. Children used to
ates who have been taught to be more concerned with the child's do more interesting things, they would go places instead of 'Saturday
social and psychological adjustment than with his academic prog- I went to the show, Sunday I went to the show' . . . What I do is
62 THE LONELY CROWD FROM MORALITY TO MORALE 63

they are more apt to be movable tables with open shelves than stores, and, later, by material on race relations or the United Na-
places where one may hide things. The teacher no longer sits on
tions or our Latin American neighbors.
a dais or struts before a blackboard but joins the family circle.
Above all, the walls change their look. The walls of the modern These changes in arrangement and topic assist the breakdown
grade school are decorated with the paintings of the children or of walls between teacher and pupil; and this in turn helps to break
their montages from the class in social studies. Thus the competi- down walls between student and student, permitting that rapid
tive and contemporary problems of the children look down on circulation of tastes which is a prelude to other-directed social-
them from walls which, like the teacher herself, are no longer
ization. Whereas the inner-directed school child might well have
impersonal. This looks progressive, looks like a salute to creative-
hidden his stories and paintings under his bed—like the adult
ness and individuality; but again we meet paradox. While the who, as we saw, often kept a diary—the other-directed child
school de-emphasizes grades and report cards, the displays seem reads his stories to the group and puts his paintings on the wall.
almost to ask the children: "Mirror, mirror on the wall, who is Play, which in the earlier epoch is often an extracurricular and
fairest of us all?" 8
private hobby, shared at most with a small group, now becomes
While the children's paintings and montages show considerable part of the school enterprise itself, serving a "realistic" purpose.
imaginative gift in the pre-adolescent period, the school itself is The teacher's role in this situation is often that of opinion
nevertheless still one of the agencies for the destruction of fantasy, leader. She is the one who spreads the messages concerning taste
as it was in the preceding era. Imagination withers in most of the that come from the progressive urban centers. She conveys to the
children by adolescence. What survives is neither artistic craft children that what matters is not their industry or learning as such
nor artistic fantasy but the socialization of taste and interest that but their adjustment in the group, their cooperation, their (care-
can already be seen in process in the stylization of perception in fully stylized and limited) initiative and leadership.
the children's paintings and stories. The stories of the later pro- Especially important is the fact that the cooperation and leader-
gressive grades are apt to be characterized by "realism." This ship that are inculcated in and expected of the children are fre-
realism is subtly influenced by the ideals of the progressive move- quently contentless. In nursery school it is not important whether
ment. Caesar and Pompeii are replaced by visits to stores and Johnny plays with a truck or in the sandbox, but it matters very
dairies, by maps from Life, and by The Weekly Reader; and fairy much whether he involves himself with Bill—via any object at
tales are replaced by stories about trains, telephones, and grocery all. To be sure, there are a few, a very few, truly progres-
to give a talk on all the interesting things that could be done—like sive schools where the children operating on the Dalton plan and
going to museums and things like that. And also things like playing similar plans exercise genuine choice of their program, move at
baseball and going on bike rides. By the end of the term a child is their own pace, and use the teacher as a friendly reference library;
ashamed if he has to get up and say, 'Saturday I went to the show, here cooperation is necessary and meaningful in actual work on
Sunday I went to the show.' All the rest of the children laugh at him. serious projects. Far more frequently, however, the teacher con-
So they really try to do some interesting things." tinues to hold the reins of authority in her hands, hiding her au-
8. Still more paradoxically, it often happens that those schools that thority, like her compeer, the other-directed parent, under the
insist most strongly that the child be original and creative by this very
cloak of "reasoning" and manipulation. She determines the pro-
demand make it difficult for him to be so. He dare not imitate an es-
tablished master nor, in some cases, even imitate his own earlier work.
gram and its pace—indeed, often holding the children back be-
Though the introduction of the arts into the school opens up the cause she fails to realize that children, left to themselves, are ca-
whole art world to many children, who would have no time or stimu- pable of curiosity about highly abstract matters. She may delay
lation outside, other children are forced to socialize performances that them by making arithmetic "realistic" and languages fun—as well
would earlier have gone unnoticed by peers and adults. as by substituting social studies for history. In extreme forms of
64 THE LONELY CROWD F R O M M O R A L I T Y TO M O R A L E 65

this situation there is nothing on which the children have to co- spread from the progressive private schools to a good number of
operate in order to get it done. The teacher will do it for them the public schools—and the role of the industrial relations depart-
anyway. Hence when she asks that they be cooperative she is ment in a modern factory. The latter is also increasingly con-
really asking simply that they be nice. cerned with cooperation between men and men and between
However, though the request seems simple, it is not casually men and management, as technical skill becomes less and less of a
made: the teacher is very tense about it. Deprived of older meth- major concern. In a few of the more advanced plants there is even
ods of discipline, she is, if anything, even more helpless than the a pattern of democratic decision on moot matters—occasionally
parents who can always fall back on those methods in a pinch, important because it affects piecework rates and seniority rules,
though guiltily and rather ineffectively. The teacher neither dares but usually as trivial as the similar decisions of grammar-school
to nor cares to; she has been taught that bad behavior on the chil- government. Thus the other-directed child is taught at school
dren's part implies poor management on her part. Moreover, she to take his place in a society where the concern of the group is
herself is not interested in the intellectual content of what is less with what it produces than with its internal group relations,
taught, nor is this content apt to come up in a staff meeting or its morale.
PTA discussion. These adult groups are often concerned with
teaching tolerance, both ethnic and economic; and the emphasis
on social studies that results means that intellectual content and
skill become still more attenuated. Consequently, the teacher's
emotional energies are channeled into the area of group relations.
Her social skills develop; she may be sensitive to cliques based on
"mere friendship" and seek to break them up lest any be left out.
Correspondingly, her love for certain specific children may be
trained out of her. All the more, she needs the general cooper-
ation of all the children to assure herself that she is doing her job.
Her surface amiability and friendliness, coupled with this under-
lying anxiety concerning the children's response, must be very
confusing to the children who will probably conclude that to be
uncooperative is about the worst thing one can be.
Of course the teacher will see to it that the children practice
cooperation in small matters: in deciding whether to study the
Peruvians or the Colombians, in nominating class officers for early
practice in the great contemporary rituals of electioneering and
parliamenteering, and in organizing contributions for the Red
Cross or a Tag Day. Thus the children are supposed to learn de-
mocracy by underplaying the skills of intellect and overplaying
the skills of gregariousness and amiability. A democratically open
field for talent, in fact, based on respect for ability to do some-
thing, tends to survive only in athletics.
There is, therefore, a curious resemblance between the role of
the teacher in the small-class modern school—a role that has
 III A J U R Y OF T H E I R P E E R S 67

The problems of training children to play with other children

outside the home or to cooperate amicably with them do not pre-
A jury of their peers: changes in the agents sent themselves to the inner-directed adult as part of his parental
responsibility.
of character formation (continued) As a result the child, surrounded by inner-directed adults, often
faces demands that are quite unreasonable. He is not held back
but neither is he given a break. The growing child may respond
to these demands by guilt and desperate effort to live up to the
Individualism is a stage of transition between two types model or by rebellion in solitude against it; he does not respond,
of social organization. as in the other-directed environment, by using the peer-group as
a club to bring anxious adults into line if they have unreasonable
W. I. Thomas, The Unadjusted Girl
or even unusual expectations of him. Indeed, in this era, it is some-
times possible to bring up the child in relative isolation from the
peer-group, even though he has formal contact with other chil-
dren at school. The images of the poor little rich boy and poor
I. The Peer-group in the Stage of Inner-direction little rich girl are creations of this epoch, when children are often
the social prisoners of parents and governesses.
With the decline of the extended family (the type of tradition- In fact, the location of the home tends to have entirely dif-
directed family that may include uncles, aunts, cousins, and ferent meanings in each of the three phases of the population
other relatives), the child is often confronted in the inner- curve. In the phase of high growth potential the home, except
directed home with the close oppressiveness of idealized parents. among the hunting and nomadic peoples, is fixed. As the locus of
He may compete with his brothers and sisters for the parents' most activities in the socialization process, it symbolizes the ex-
favors, or to ward off their disapprobation. In theory the children tended family's overwhelming importance in that process. In the
in a family can unite against tyrannical parents, but, judging from phase of transitional growth the young adult must navigate the
the novels, it is more likely that parents divide and rule. Children passage from home and found a new home somewhere else. He
in a family cannot react as a peer-group because of the age differ- goes to an undeveloped frontier or an undeveloped city; there he
entials among them. Consequently any given child at any single marries and settles down. This new home plays a part of decisive
moment faces obviously unique problems and is alone with them significance in the socialization of his children, though the school
—barring the luck of a sympathetic maid or aunt. and other specialized agencies outside the home also play an in-
This is the price the inner-directed child pays for a situation creasing part.
in which his maturity is not delayed by having to wait for his In the phase of incipient population decline people still move
age-graded peer-group. His parents do not hold him down be- around, but in search of frontiers of consumption as well as of
cause, according to "authorities," he is not ready for something. production. That is, they look for nice neighborhoods in which
In Lord Chesterfield's letters to his son we find the assumption their children will meet nice people. Although much of the mov-
that pervades much literature of the earliest industrial period, that ing about in America today, within and between cities, is in
the child is simply a young, somewhat inexperienced adult. Lord search of better jobs, it is also increasingly in search of better
Chesterfield writes as though his fifteen-year-old son had gained neighborhoods and the better schools that go with them. Since
full sexual and intellectual maturity and needed only to ripen many others, too, will also be shopping for better neighborhoods,
in wisdom and to acquire influence in his commerce with adults. this pressure, combined with the rapid shift of residential values
66
68 THE LONELY CROWD A J U R Y OF T H E I R P E E R S 69

and fashions characteristic of American cities, means that no one be highly idiosyncratic and that are often continued into adult
can ever settle down assuredly for the rest of life. (For when the life. One can still observe this pattern at an English boys' school,
children have grown up and make homes of their own, the where almost everyone has a hobby. Some hobbyists are quite
parents will feel inclined to move again, perhaps in search of such satisfied to be by themselves—their hobby is company enough.
consumption values as sunlight for themselves.) Thus by their Or one will find fast friendships among bird lovers, motorcycle
very location the other-directed parents show how much store fans, mineral collectors, poetry fanciers.
they put on their children's contacts. And, of course, living in a As we shall see in Chapter XV, a hobby or craft is not of itself
small space with one child or two, the urban and suburban fam- a clear sign of inner-direction: hobbies may be pursued also by
ily needs to use space—physical and emotional space—outside the children who are other-directed. Even, to a degree, the hobbies
confined home for the activities of the growing children. (Dur- of both types may nominally coincide. But the meaning and so-
ing the same period the working-class family has obtained access cial context of the hobbies are quite different for the two types of
to much greater living space than during the earlier stages of in- children. The inner-directed child will seldom share his hobby
dustrialization; but it is the history of the middle-class family with a large peer-group—though stamp collecting may be an
only that we are discussing here.) exception—and when hobbyists of this sort meet it is to swap
Returning now to the situation of the inner-directed child, we technical details and enthusiasms, as two dairy farmers might swap
see that he finds his playmates either among his own brothers and accounts of their respective favorite breeds. There is nothing
sisters or in an equally wide age range outside the home. This anxious about such a meeting: no problem of maintaining mar-
pattern still exists in rural areas, where the gang at the swim- ginal differentiation (difference, that is, but not too much) in
ming hole or ball field will be widely ranged in age; there are taste such as we find in other-directed hobbyists. The child is not
no partitioned playgrounds. However, after an age of "social shaken in his own hobby by the fact that others have a different /
discretion" is reached, the inner-directed child is expected to con- hobby; rather, he is confirmed in the idiosyncrasy which, within
fine his friendships to those of approximately his own social class. wide limits, is respected.
Class has to be a conscious barrier because neighborhoods are Let me warn the reader, however, not to view all this too nos-
somewhat less carefully restricted along class and ethnic lines talgically with, say Penrod or Huckleberry Finn or even per-
than many suburbs are today—just as the southern whites and haps his own idealized childhood, in mind. In sports and studies
Negroes still frequently live in close physical proximity. Be- the peer-group can become fiercely competitive, aided and
tween five and fifteen, sex is also a barrier for the inner-directed abetted by coaches, teachers, and other adults. Many boys and
child, since coeducation is infrequent and even where it formally girls who win honors in grade school are crushed when they do
exists little more effort is made to mix the sexes than to mix the not surmount the tougher competition of high school. Much is at
social classes: proms for sixth and seventh graders are not yet stake—and still more seems to be at stake—in such contests; and
known. The inner-directed child, limited in his choice of friends the inner-directed child cannot easily, sour-grapes fashion, change
and limiting himself by a clear recognition of his status and the the instilled goals when they loom unattainable. Moreover, par-
status to which he aspires, would seem choosy to many other- ents and teachers in their psychological naivete may hold up as
directed children of today. models the detestable young who work hard, dress neatly, and are
Within the limits permitted by geography and taboo, then, the polite.
inner-directed child approaching his teens seeks out a chum or Beyond all that, the fate of many inner-directed children is
two. He may find in an older relative or friend someone to imitate loneliness in and outside the home. Home, school, and way-
and admire. But in many cases he will choose a chum on the basis stations between may be places for hazing, persecution, mis-
of an interest in similar games and hobbies—hobbies that tend to understanding. No adult intervenes on behalf of the lonely or
7° THE LONELY CROWD A J U R Y OF T H E I R P E E R S 71
hazed child to proffer sympathy, ask questions, or give advice. is hemmed in by rules which give the jury a power it has in no
Adults do not think children's play is very important anyway; other common-law land, so the American peer-group, too, cannot
they will criticize children who seem too much concerned with be matched for power throughout the middle-class world.
play and too little with work. No sociometrically inclined teacher
will try to break up cliques in school to see that no one is left The Trial. While the inner-directed parent frequently forced
out. How savagely snobbish boys and girls can be is typified the pace of the child in its home "duties," as, for example, in
by the story, in the Lynds' Middletown, of the daughter who habits of cleanliness and toilet-training, the other-directed parent,
quit high school because her mother could not afford to give her more apt to be permissive in such matters, forces the pace, with
silk stockings. Often the children, unaware that they have rights like impatience, in the child's social life, though often hardly aware
to friendship, understanding, or agreeable play—unaware, indeed, of doing so. Parents today are the stage managers for the meetings
that the adults could be greatly interested in such matters—suffer of three- and four-year-olds, just as, in earlier eras, the adults
in silence and submit to the intolerable. managed marriages. Hence, while self-demand feeding schedules
Only with the perspective of today can we see the advantages are gaining ground for infants, self-demand is not observed when
of these disadvantages. We can see that in a society which values it comes to socialization outside the home. The daily schedule
inner-direction loneliness and even persecution are not thought is an effort, with mother as chauffeur and booking agent, to culti-
of as the worst of fates. Parents, sometimes even teachers, may vate all the currently essential talents, especially the gregarious
have crushing moral authority, but the peer-group has less moral ones. It is inconceivable to some supervising adults that a child
weight, glamorous or menacing though it may be. While adults might prefer his own company or that of just one other child.
seldom intervene to guide and help the child, neither do they tell The child is thus confronted by what we have termed his socio-
him that he should be part of a crowd and must have fun. metric peers and is not surrounded by those who are his peers in
less visible matters, such as temperament and taste. Yet since there
are no visible differences he is hard put to it to justify, even to be
//. The Peer-group in the Stage of Other-direction aware of, these invisible differences. On the overt level the situ-
ation is highly standardized: any given child faces the culture of
The parents in the era dominated by other-direction lose their the fives or the sixes at a particular moment of the fashion cycle
once undisputed role; the old man is no longer "the governor"— in child-training and child-amusement practices. Indeed it is this
and the installer of governors. Other adult authorities such as the very standardization which, as we saw, weakens the power of the
governess and grandmother either almost disappear or, like the parents, whose deviation from the standards is felt by them and
teacher, take on the new role of peer-group facilitator and medi- by the child to demonstrate their inexperience and inadequacy.
ator—a role not too different perhaps from that of many clergy- In this setting the adults are anxious that the child succeed in the
men who, in the adult congregation, move from morality to peer-group and therefore are concerned with his adjustment.
morale. They, too, tend to ignore and even suppress invisible differences
As already indicated, moreover, the city in which the other- between their child and the children of others. Such differences
directed child grows up is large enough and stratified enough— might cast doubt on their own adjustment, their own correct tun-
taking into account its ring of suburbs—to create an age- and ing to the signals concerning child rearing.
class-graded group for him. It will be possible to put him into The majority of children learn very fast under these conditions;
school and playground, and camp in the summer, with other chil- the same adult authorities who patronize children's intellects (and
dren of virtually the same age and social position. If the adults are therefore slow them down) are perhaps not sufficiently impressed
the judge, these peers are the jury. And, as in America the judge with how poised in many social situations modern other-directed
72 THE LONELY CROWD A JURY OF T H E I R P E E R S 73
children are. These children are not shy, either with adults or ticular child can afford to ignore these judgments. On the con-
with the opposite sex whom they have accompanied to proms and trary he is, as never before, at their mercy. If the peer-group were
parties and seen daily in and out of school. This adaptability, - a n d we continue to deal here with the urban middle classes only
moreover, prepares the child for a type of social mobility some- -a wild, torturing, obviously vicious group, the individual child
what different from the social-climbing experiences of the par- might still feel moral indignation as a defense against its com-
venu in an inner-directed environment. The latter only rarely mands. But like adult authorities in other-directed processes of
acquired the intellectual and social graces of his new associates— socialization, the peer-group is friendly and tolerant. It stresses
or he ridiculously accentuated them. He either kept his rough fair play. Its conditions for entry seem reasonable and well mean-
and lowly manners or painfully tried to learn new ones as he ing. But even where this is not so, moral indignation is out of
moved up; in either case the standard, limited code of conduct fashion. The child is therefore exposed to trial by jury without
expected of him was unequivocal. In contrast with this the other- any defenses either from the side of its own morality or from the
directed child is able to move among new associates with an al- adults. All the morality is the group's. Indeed, even the fact that
most automatic adjustment to the subtlest insignia of status. it is a morality is concealed by the confusing notion that the func-
Bearing in mind these positive achievements of other-directed tion of the group is to have fun, to play; the deadly seriousness of
sociability, let us turn our attention from what the peer-group the business, which might justify the child in making an issue of
teaches and evokes to what it represses. Today six-year-olds and it, is therefore hidden.
up have a phrase—"he [or she] thinks he's big" (or "he thinks
he's something")—which symbolizes the role of the peer-group "The Talk of the Town": The Socialization of Preferences. In
in the creation of other-directed types. The effort is to cut every- the eyes of the jury of peers one may be a good guy one day, a
one down to size who stands up or stands out in any direction. stinker the next. Toleration, let alone leadership, depends on hav-
Beginning with the very young and going on from there, overt ing a highly sensitive response to swings of fashion. This ability
vanity is treated as one of the worst offenses, as perhaps dishon- is sought in several ways. One way is to surrender any claim to
esty would have been in an earlier day. Being high-hat is for- independence of judgment and taste—a kind of plea of nolo con-
bidden. tendere. Another is to build a plea for special consideration by
Temper, manifest jealousy, moodiness—these, too, are offenses acquiring unusual facility in one's dudes as a consumer—in per-
in the code of the peer-group. All knobby or idiosyncratic formance, that is, of the leisurely arts. With good luck one may
qualities and vices are more or less eliminated or repressed. And even become a taste and opinion leader, with great influence over
judgments of others by peer-group members are so clearly mat- the jury.
ters of taste that their expression has to resort to the vaguest Each particular peer-group has its fandoms and lingoes. Safety
phrases, constantly changed: cute, lousy, square, darling, good consists not in mastering a difficult craft but in mastering a bat-
guy, honey, swell, bitch (without precise meaning), etc. Soci- tery of consumer preferences and the mode of their expression.
ometry reflects this situation when it asks children about such The preferences are for articles or "heroes" of consumption and
things as whom they like to sit next to or not to sit next to, to have for members of the group itself. The proper mode of expression
for a friend, a leader, and so on. The judgments can be meaning- requires feeling out with skill and sensitivity the probable tastes
fully scaled because, and only because, they are all based on un- of the others and then swapping mutual likes and dislikes to ma-
complicated continua of taste, on which the children are con- neuver intimacy.
stantly ranking each other. Now some of this is familiar even in the period depending on
But to say that judgments of peer-groupers are matters of taste, inner-direction; it is important, therefore, to realize the degree
not of morality or even opportunism, is not to say that any par- to which training in consumer taste has replaced training in eti-
74 THE LONELY CROWD A JURY OF THEIR PEERS 75
quette. Formal etiquette may be thought of as a means of handling can be different—in look and talk and manner—from oneself as
relations with people with whom one does not seek intimacy. It one was yesterday. Here, also, it is necessary to see precisely what
is particularly useful when adults and young, men and women, has changed. In general the processes of fashion are expanded
upper classes and lower classes, are sharply separated and when a in terms of class and speeded in terms of time. In the leisure econ-
code is necessary to mediate exchanges across these lines. Thus omy of incipient population decline the distributive machinery of
etiquette can be at the same time a means of approaching people society improves, in terms of both distribution of income and of
and of staying clear of them. For some, etiquette may be a matter commodities. It becomes possible to accelerate swings of fash-
of little emotional weight—an easy behavioral cloak; for others ion as well as to differentiate goods by very minute gradients.
the ordering of human relations through etiquette can become For, in its late stages, mass production and mass distribution per-
highly charged emotionally—an evidence of characterological mit and require a vast increase not only in quantity but in quali-
compulsiveness. But in either case etiquette is concerned not with tative differences among products—not only as a consequence of
encounters between individuals as such but with encounters monopolistic efforts at marginal differentiation but also because
between them as representatives of their carefully graded social the machinery and organization are present for rapidly design-
roles. ing, producing, and distributing a wide variety of goods.
In comparison with this, training in consumer taste, which tends This means that the consumer trainee has a lot more to learn
to replace etiquette among the other-directed, is useful not so than in the early days of industrialization. To take one example,
much across age and social class lines as within the jury room of the foreigner who visits America is likely to think that salesgirls,
one's peers in age and social class. As in some groups—children as society ladies, and movie actresses all dress alike, as compared
well as adults—discussion turns to the marginal differentiation be- with the clear status differences of Europe. But the American
tween Cadillacs and Lincolns, so in other groups discussion centers knows—has to know if he is to get along in life and love—that
on Fords and Chevrolets. What matters in either case is an ability this is simply an error: that one must look for small qualitative
for continual sniffing out of others' tastes, often a far more in- differences that signify style and status, to observe for instance
trusive process than the exchange of courtesies and pleasantries the strained casualness sometimes found in upper-class dress as
required by etiquette. Not, of course, that the child always gets against the strained formality of working-class dress. In the days
close to the others with whom he is exchanging and ratifying pref- of etiquette the differences were far more sharp.
erences—these exchanges are often mere gossip about goods. Yet One must listen to quite young children discussing television
a certain emotional energy, even excitement, permeates the trans- models, automobile styling, or the merits of various streamliners
action. For one thing, the other-directed person acquires an in- to see how gifted they are as consumers long before they have a
tense interest in the ephemeral tastes of the "others"—an interest decisive say themselves—though their influence in family coun-
inconceivable to the tradition-directed or inner-directed child cils must not be underestimated. Children join in this exchange
whose tastes have undergone a less differentiated socialization. of verdicts even if their parents cannot afford the gadgets under
For another thing, the other-directed child is concerned with discussion; indeed, the economy would slow down if only those
learning from these interchanges whether his radar equipment were trained as consumers who at any given moment had the
is in proper order. wherewithal.
The wider ambit of socialization of taste today is shown in still
It has always been true in social classes dominated by fashion another decisive change from the era depending on inner-direc-
that to escape being left behind by a swing of fashion requires the tion. Then, by the rules of etiquette and class, certain spheres of
ability to adopt new fashions rapidly; to escape the danger of a life were regarded as private: it was a breach of etiquette to in-
conviction for being different from the "others" requires that one trude or permit intrusion on them. Today, however, one must be
76 THE LONELY CROWD A JURY OF THEIR PEERS 77
prepared to open up on cross-examination almost any sphere in erences. In the fall of 1947 I conducted some interviews among
which the peer-group may become interested. It may become teen-agers in Chicago concerning their tastes in popular music
fashionable, as some articles in the "Profile of Youth" series in and also consulted professional musicians, juke-box listings, and
the Ladies' Home Journal have shown, for young girls to discuss other sources to round out my impressions. My interest was prin-
their rivals' necking techniques with their particular partner.1 cipally in seeing how these young people used their musical in-
While the game of post office is old, the breakdown of privacy terests in the process of peer-group adjustment. Like the trading
for reasonably serious love-making is new. Dating at twelve and cards which symbolize competitive consumption for the eight-
thirteen, the child is early made aware of the fact that his taste in to eleven-year-olds, the collection of records seemed to be one
emotions as well as in consumer goods must be socialized and way of establishing one's relatedness to the group, just as the abil-
available for small talk. Whereas etiquette built barriers between ity to hum current tunes was part of the popularity kit. The re-
people, socialized exchange of consumer taste requires that pri- quirements were stiffer among girls than boys, though the latter
vacy either be given up, or be kept, like a liberal theologian's were not exempt. Tunes meant people: roads to people, remem-
God, in some interstices of one's nature. Before the peer-group brances of them. At the same time the teen-agers showed great
jury there is no privilege against self-incrimination. anxiety about having the "right" preferences. When I had the oc-
casion to interview a group its individual members looked around
The same forces that consolidate the socialization of tastes also to see what the others thought before committing themselves—at
make for more socialized standards of performance. The other- least as to specific songs or records, if not as to a general type of
directed child, learning to play the piano, is in daily competition music, such as symphonic or hillbilly, where they might be cer-
with studio stars. He cannot remember a period when either his tain as to their group's reactions. Readers who have not them-
peers or their adult guides were not engaged in comparing his selves observed the extent of this fear of nonconformity may be
performance with these models. Whatever he attempts—an artistic inclined to dismiss it by remarking that young people have always
accomplishment, a manner of speaking, a sleight-of-hand trick— been conformists in their groups. True; yet it seems to me that the
the peer-group is on hand to identify it in some way and to pass point is one of degree and that the need for musical conformity is
judgment on it with the connoisseurship typical of the mass-media today much more specialized and demanding than it was in an
audience. Soon enough this process becomes internalized, and the earlier era, when some children could be, or were forced by their
child feels himself in competition with Eddie Duchin or Horowitz parents to be, musical, and others could leave music alone.
even if no one else is around. Hence it is difficult for the other- Even among those interviewed who took piano lessons musi-
directed child to cultivate a highly personal gift: the standards cal interest as such seemed virtually nonexistent. One boy of four-
are too high, and there is little private time for maturation. teen did appear to have genuine musical interests, playing
The newer pattern of popularity depends less on ability to play "classics" on the piano. His mother told the interviewer, however
an instrument than on ability to express the proper musical pref- that she was not letting him practice too much lest he get out of
step with the other boys, and was insisting that he excel in sports.
1. A student has written me: "In male bull sessions one can no
longer play the gentleman and keep quiet about sexual adventures. "I hope to keep him a normal boy," she said. These experiences
He has to furnish names, dates, and all the exact details of the con- in my research seem to hint that preferences in consumption
quest. Where fellows get into trouble is when they have a sincere are not viewed as a development of the human ability to relate
feeling for a girl and yet are forced to tell. The measure of the peer- oneself discriminatingly to cultural objects. For the objects are
group's strength and their other-directedness is that they can be hardly given meaning in private and personal values when they
forced to tell." are so heavily used as counters in a preferential method of relat-
78 THE LONELY CROWD A J U R Y OF T H E I R P E E R S 79

ing oneself to others. The cultural objects, whatever their nature, daily in the higher social strata less affected by Puritan asceticism,
are mementos that somehow remain unhumanized by the force the inner-directed person consumed—with time out, so to speak,
of a genuinely personal, idiosyncratic attachment. for saving and for good behavior—as relentlessly as he (or his
Moving somewhere beyond mere exchanging of taste are those progenitors) produced. Most clearly in the case of upper-class
opinion leaders2 who try to influence verdicts as well as to re- conspicuous consumption, he lusted for possessions and display,
peat them—a dangerous game indeed. The risks are minimized, once the old tradition-directed restraints had worn away. He
however, by playing within the limits imposed by marginal dif- pursued with a fierce individualism both the acquisition and con-
ferentiation. Thus my interviews showed that each age group sumption of property. To be sure, his goals were socially deter-
within a limited region and class had its own musical taste; the mined, but less by a contemporary union of consumers than by
younger ones, for instance, liked "sweet" stuff that was "corn" inherited patterns of desire, hardly less stable than the desire for
to those slightly older. Within this general trend a girl might de- money itself. Goals such as fine houses, fine horses, fine women,
cide that she could not stand Vaughn Monroe or that Perry Como fine objets d'art—these could be investments because their value
was tops. If she expressed herself so forcibly in detail, the chances scarcely changed in the scale of consumer preference.
were that she was, or wanted to be, an opinion leader. For many These relatively stable and individualistic pursuits are today
of the young people did not express any strong likes or specific being replaced by the fluctuating tastes which the other-directed
dislikes—though they might share a strong revulsion against a person accepts from his peer-group. Moreover, many of the de-
whole range of taste, like hot jazz or hillbilly. These latter were sires that drove men to work and to madness in societies depend-
the opinion followers, scarcely capable even of marginal differ- ing on inner-direction are now satisfied relatively easily; they are
entiation. incorporated into the standard of living taken for granted by mil-
The other-directed person's tremendous outpouring of energy lions. But the craving remains. It is a craving for the satisfactions
is channeled into the ever expanding frontiers of consumption, as others appear to attain, an objectless craving. The consumer to-
the inner-directed person's energy was channeled relentlessly into day has most of his potential individuality trained out of him by
production. Inner-directed patterns often discouraged consump- his membership in the consumers' union. He is kept within limits
tion for adults as well as children. But at other times, and espe- on his consumption not by goal-directed but by other-directed
guidance, kept from splurging too much by fear of others' envy,
2. The concept of the opinion leader and empirical methods for and from consuming too little by his own envy of the others.
spotting him in a community have been developed particularly by
Today there is no fast line that separates these consumption
Paul Lazarsfeld, Robert K. Merton, C. Wright Mills of the Bureau of
Applied Social Research of Columbia University, and Bernard Berel-
patterns of the adult world from those of the child, except the
son of the University of Chicago. The concept is an important one objects of consumption themselves. The child may consume
for our purposes, since the spread of other-directed patterns beyond comics or toys while the adult consumes editorials and cars; more
the metropolitan centers is often due to the influence of opinion and more both consume in the same way. In the consumers' union
leaders who have learned these patterns while away at high school, at of the peer-group the child's discipline as a consumer begins to-
college, or on a job and who continue to keep in touch with the day very early in life—and lasts late. The inner-directed child was
newer values through the mass media, which in turn support their supposed to be job-minded even if the job itself was not clear in
efforts with their local "constituency." The Columbia group has ob- his mind. Today the future occupation of all moppets is to be
served this process in the spread of attitudes and preferences; to see skilled consumers.
how these in turn shape character is a more complex and as yet unac-
This is visible early in children's play-at-consumption, facili-
complished task. Walter Bagehot has some interesting speculations on
the problem. Physics and Politics, ed. Barzun (New York, Alfred A.
tated by a noticeable increase in the range of children's toys.
Knopf, 1948), pp. 91 et seq. Added to boys' toys, for example production-imitating equip-
 THE LONELY CROWD A JURY OF THEIR PEERS 8l

ment like trucks and steam shovels or toy soldiers and miniature father. Life magazine once ran a leading article on "Teen-age
war materiel, is a whole new range of objects modeled after the Fun," showing the etiquettes and pastimes prevailing in certain
service trades: laundry trucks, toy telephones, service stations, and American cities; these pastimes were news even to some recent
so forth. Added to girls' toys, the doll and her wardrobe, are high-school graduates. Teen-agers must initiate adults rather than
juvenile make-up outfits and voice recorders. vice versa; typical is the case, also cited in Life, where teachers
These props of the child's playtime hours, however, are not so at a Denver high school imitated the idiomatic greeting style of
striking as the increasing rationalization of children's preferences the "most popular" boy.
in everything they consume. In the period of inner-direction
children accepted trade-marked cereals largely because that was
THE ANTAGONISTIC COOPERATORS OF THE PEER-GROUP
what was set for them at table. Today they eat Wheaties, or some
other breakfast food, to the tune of some specific reason that all It is, possibly, no accident that it was his greeting style on which
can talk about: "Wheaties makes champions." And comics, chil- this boy exercised his gifts for opinion leadership and marginal
dren will say if pressed, "relax champions." In this way the other- differentiation. For indeed, over and beyond the socialization of
directed child rapidly learns that there always is and always consumption preferences and the exchange of consumption shop-
must be a reason for consuming anything. One reason is that the talk by this consumers' union, the membership is engaged in con-
commodity he is consuming is the "best" in its line. As the child suming itself. That is, people and friendships are viewed as the
develops as a consumer trainee, advertising no longer is given all greatest of all consumables; the peer-group is itself a main object
the credit for answering the question of what is the best in its line. of consumption, its own main competition in taste. The "socio-
The product approved by most of the others, or by a suitable metric" exchange of peer-group ratings is ceaseless and is car-
testimonial from a peer consumer, becomes the "best." The most ried on, as a conversation with the self, in "private" also; who is
popular products, by this formula, are the products that happen my best friend, my next best, and so on, down to the most dis-
to be used by the most popular. And to be sure, these pace setters liked. The more thoroughly other-directed the individual is, the
themselves have a "reason," often enough picked out from the more unhesitatingly able he is to classify his preferences and to
mass media, if not from the advertising pages; thus the hunt for compare them with those of others. In fact, as compared with
the reason goes on in an endless regress. Blake wrote: "The child's their inner-directed predecessors, other-directed children are
toys and the old man's reasons/Are the fruits of the two seasons." extraordinarily knowledgeable about popularity ratings. Physical
In the consumers' union, toys and reasons become amalgamated prowess probably remains a chief road, though declining, to status
and, as already stated, the line between childhood and age tends among working-class boys. However, popularity among upper
to become an amorphous one. middle-class boys and girls seems to hinge on much more vague
These patterns place extra burdens on girls, partly because criteria, frequently impenetrable to the adult observer but, while
women are the accepted leaders of consumption in our society, they last, crystal clear to the peer-group itself.
partly because women, much more than men, feel pressure to The tremendous competitive energies which the inner-directed
play any role they are accepted in by the men. At every social person had available for the sphere of production and, secondarily,
level boys are permitted a greater amount of aggression than girls; for consumption seem now to flow into competition for the much
they are also permitted a wider range of preferences and can get more amorphous security of the peer-group's approval. But just
by with a good deal of aggressive resistance to the taste-exchang- because it is approval for which one is competing one must repress
ing process. one's overt competitiveness. Here the phrase "antagonistic co-
Finally, the child consumer trainee becomes a tutor in con- operation," borrowed from other contexts, is apt.
sumption in the home circle, "bringing up" mother as well as This transformation is so important that we devote several
82 THE LONELY CROWD IV
sections to it in Chapter VI, but now we need only note a few
reference points. The parents, harking back as they do in their
character structures to an earlier era, are themselves competitive
Storytellers as tutors in technique: changes in the
—more overtly so than the children. Much of our ideology—free agents of character formation (continued)
enterprise, individualism, and all the rest—remains competitive
and is handed down by parents, teachers, and the mass media.
At the same time there has been an enormous ideological shift
favoring submission to the group, a shift whose decisiveness is
concealed by the persistence of the older ideological patterns. A. I like Superman better than the others because they can't do
The peer-group becomes the measure of all things; the individual everything Superman can do. Batman can't fly and that is very im-
has few defenses the group cannot batter down. In this situation portant.
the competitive drives for achievement sponsored in children by Q. Would you like to be able to fly?
the remnants of inner-direction in their parents come into con- A. I would like to be able to fly if everybody else did, but other-
flict with the cooperative demands sponsored by the peer-group. wise it would be kind of conspicuous.
The child therefore is forced to rechannel the competitive drive
From an interview with a twelve-year-old girl.1
for achievement, as demanded by the parents, into his drive for
approval from the peers. Neither parent, child, nor the peer-
group itself is particularly conscious of this process. As a result all
three participants in the process may remain unaware of the de-
gree to which the force of an older individualistic ideology pro-
Language, as we noted in the previous chapter, becomes a refined
vides the energies for filling out the forms of a newer, group-
and powerful tool of the peer-group. For the insider language be-
oriented characterology.
comes a chief key to the currents of taste and mood that are
prevalent in this group at any moment. For the outsiders, includ-
ing adult observers, language becomes a mysterious opacity, con-
stantly carrying peer-group messages which are full of precise
meanings that remain untranslatable.
When we look more closely at the use of language in the young
peer-groups we see how various its aspects are. Language itself
becomes a sort of consumer good. It is used neither to direct the
work economy, nor to relate the self to others in any really inti-
mate way, nor to recall the past, nor yet as sheer word play.
Rather it is used in the peer-groups today much as popular tunes
seem to be used: as a set of counters by which one establishes that
one is "in" and by which one participates in the peer-group's ar-
duously self-socializing "work." And the peer-groups, while they
1. Katherine M. Wolfe and Marjorie Fiske, "The Children Talk
About Comics," Communications Research 1948-1949, ed. Paul F.
Lazarsfeld and Frank Stanton (New York, Harper, 1949), pp. 26-27.
83
84 THE LONELY CROWD S T O R Y T E L L E R S AS TUTORS 85

exercise power more than ever before through the use of words, ization. They picture the world for the child and thus give both
are more than ever before the victims of words. While they learn form and limits to his memory and imagination.2
to cling desperately to words—most signals are given in words— In exploring this topic we must not confuse the genres of liter-
at the same time they learn to distrust them. As we have seen, ature with the problem of social-psychological effects. I am going
verdicts in the peer-group are often quite ambiguous. Some of the to use "story" broadly in this chapter to include not only poetry
older words, such as "bastard" and "skunk," remain, but their and fiction but any fabulous and embroidered account: a "true"
meaning is vaguer—they may even be said with a smile! Whole newsreel might by this definition be a story.
new glossaries crop up every few years.
The peer-group stands midway between the individual and the Societies in the phase of incipient population decline can afford,
messages which flow from the mass media. The mass media are can technically provide, and have both the time and the need to
the wholesalers; the peer-groups, the retailers of the communi- receive a bounteous flow of imagery from urban centers of dis-
cations industry. But the flow is not all one way. Not only do the tribution. Industrialism and mass literacy seem to go together.
peers decide, to a large extent, which tastes, skills, and words, ap- These same societies, moreover, rely more heavily than their
pearing for the first time within their circle, shall be given ap- predecessors on character-forming agencies outside the home.
proval, but they also select some for wider publicity through con- Hence, as we would expect, the storytellers of the mass media
tiguous groups and eventually back to the mass media for still play a considerable role among other-directed children. We can
wider distribution. If we look at this process we see that the in- see what has changed in recent generations only by contrasting
dividual who develops, say, a particular style of expression, is today's experience with that of children in societies depending on
either ignored by the peers or accepted by them. If he and his tradition-direction and inner-direction.
style are accepted, his style is taken over by the group, and in at
least this sense it is no longer his. But the same thing can happen
to a given peer-group in its turn, as in the case of the boy with 7. Song and Story in the Stage of Tradition-direction
the individual greeting style we spoke of at the end of the last
chapter. The mass media play the chief role in thus reducing to Chimney-corner media. Almost by definition, a society depend-
impersonality and distributing over a wide area the personal styles ing on tradition-direction makes use of oral traditions, myths,
developed by individuals and groups. legends, and songs as one of its mechanisms for conveying the
In this chapter, however, our focus will be less on the media relative unity of its values. Ambiguity is not absent from these
themselves and their patterns of operation and control than on forms. But since the story is told children by a family member or
the effects of imagery and storytelling on the child audience. And a person closely connected with the family, it can be modulated
of course these effects cannot be considered in isolation from the for them and indeed, since they can criticize, question, and elab-
constellation of parents, teachers, and peer-groupers who operate orate, put into a manageable context by them. Storytelling, that
on the assembly line of character. If we find, for instance, a child is, remains a handicraft industry, carried on in the home and in
who seems more affected by print than by people, it may be be- connection with the other processes of socialization that go on
cause people are so overwhelming for him that he must take ref- there.
uge in print. Furthermore, cultures differ very much in the per- 2. See the remarkable discussion by Ernest Schachtel, "On Memory
ceptions they stress in teaching the child to differentiate among and Childhood Amnesia," Psychiatry, X (1947), i; see also Evelyn
images and to differentiate among people. But in general it seems T. Riesman, "Childhood Memory in the Painting of Joan Miro,"
fair to say that the storytellers are indispensable agents of social- E T C . 1 9 4 9
86 THE LONELY CROWD S T O R Y T E L L E R S AS T U T O R S 87

Under these circumstances, it is not surprising that songs and tales and stories which are the predecessors of the mass media is a
stories rendered in face-to-face performance among relatives and dual one. The elders use the stories to tell the young: you must
friends are often baldly cautionary tales; they tell what happens be like so-and-so if you are to be admired and to live up to the
to those who disobey the community or the supernatural authori- noble traditions of the group. But the young are also told—some-
ties. Or they illustrate by reference to the illustrious what kind times in the very same message—that there have been people like
of person one ought to be in the culture in terms of such traits as so-and-so who broke the rules, who did many worse things than
bravery and endurance. A surprising number of tales, however, you ever did, and perhaps ever dreamed of, and whether he lived
in many cultures depending on tradition-direction are not cau- to tell the tale or not, he did live and we speak of him. This very
tionary in this direct sense. As in the Bible, some tales recount re- ambivalence of the stories helps the young to integrate their for-
bellions, successful or tragic, against the powers that be—though bidden impulses by recognizing them as part of their legacy as
in many cases the theme of rebellion is disguised. human beings, making it possible to form an underground con-
nection, via myth, between repressed sectors of the adults and
Tales of Norm and "Abnorm." The rebellious note struck in sectors of the young. Finally, these stories make it possible to hold
these tales indicates that even in a society depending on tradition- the young to both more and less than what they see around them,
direction there still remain strivings which are not completely either of approved behavior or of behavior which, while disap-
socialized. While people accept the harness of their culture, and proved, is still done; in other words, they provide models for be-
can hardly conceive of another, they are not unaware of con- havior not to be found completely in any given face-to-face
straint: their stories, as frequently their dreams, are the refuge group.
and succor of this awareness and help to make it possible to go on And yet it is more complicated than that. Indeed, we may sup-
with daily life. The communal load of shame and guilt is reduced pose that the change to inner-direction occurs first in circles
by the common "confession," the common release which the which, through literacy or otherwise, acquire access to many
myth permits. There is in these myths, then, a good deal of real- multiplying ambiguities of direction. As in the mathematical
ism about stubborn, unsocialized human nature—this is one theory of communications all channels mix what is technically
reason they appeal to us across the centuries and across the cul- called noise with what is technically called information and thus
tural boundaries. They show people to be more fierce, more jeal- limit the freedom of the sender, so also messages intended or be-
ous, more rebellious than appears on the surface. lieved to socialize the young cannot help but contain noises which
Why is this so? It appears that if people were only "adjusted"— may have diverse effects, effects which may oversocialize or un-
if they never had even a thought which transcended the cul- dersocialize them.
tural prohibitions—life would have so little savor as to endanger
the culture itself. Cultures depending upon tradition-direction
usually manage to institutionalize a degree of rebellion not only //. The Socializing Functions of Print in the
for their deviants but for everybody. Sometimes this is done on a Stage of Inner-direction
life-cycle basis. Thus some cultures permit, even encourage, sau-
ciness from children only to clamp down on the adult; others When societies enter the phase of transitional growth of popula-
allow the older women a bawdiness denied the younger ones. tion, formal schooling increases, in part to train people for the
Sometimes there are special days—feast days—when bars are new, more specialized tasks of industry and agriculture, in part
down. to absorb the young who are no longer needed on farms
To the degree that the aperture for rebellion lies in the realm and whose schooling can be supported by the greater productiv-
of culturally approved fantasy, the socializing function of the ity of the society. Of course, these young people learn to read.
88 THE LONELY CROWD S T O R Y T E L L E R S AS T U T O R S 89
But old as well as young are affected by the excitement and Thus the reader could escape into print from the criticisms of
novelty of literacy: there is a widespread hunger for the press his neighbors and could test his inner-direction against the models
and for books—a hunger that the technology and distributive given in the press. And by writing for the press himself, as he oc-
facilities arouse but do not entirely satisfy. This excitement, this casionally might do as local correspondent, he could bring his
hunger, is a sign of the characterological revolution which is ac- performance up for approval before an audience which believed
companying the industrial one. in the magic attached to print itself—much like the Americans
In the United States, as in other countries of incipient popula- who, in the last century, contributed poetry to the local press.
tion decline, this hunger has abated; indeed, it has been succeeded By this public performance, no longer for a face-to-face audience,
for many by a kind of satiety with serious print, coupled with the former peasant confirmed himself on his inner-directed course
insatiability for the amusements and agenda of popular culture.
To remind ourselves of the older pattern we can look at countries
THE WHIP OF THE WORD
such as Mexico and Russia, now undergoing industrialization,
where the old are avid for print and the young admired for learn- The tradition-directed person had not only a traditional standard
ing. Some of this we can still see among the largely self-educated of living but a traditional standard of how hard and long he
Negroes of the deep South who live among our surviving stratum should work; and print serves, along with other agencies of so-
of white and black illiterates. cialization, to destroy both of these standards. The inner-directed
How this development aided the shift from tradition-direction man, open to "reason" via print, often develops a character struc-
to inner-direction can be vividly traced in Thomas and Zna- ture which drives him to work longer hours and to live on lower
niecki's Polish Peasant.3 These writers describe the way in which budgets of leisure and laxity than would have been deemed pos-
the Polish rural press helped to restructure attitudes and values sible before. He can be driven because he is ready to drive him-
among the peasantry at the turn of the last century. They show self.
that an individual peasant who learned to read at that time did not Words not only affect us temporarily; they change us, they
merely acquire a skill with little impact on his character; rather he socialize or unsocialize us. Doubtless the printing press alone can-
made a decisive break with the primary group, with tradition- not completely assure any particular form of social coercion—
direction. The press picked him up at this turning point and and of course not all children, even in the inner-directed middle
supported his uncertain steps away from the primary group by class, are readers. But print can powerfully rationalize the
criticizing the values of that group and by giving him a sense of models which tell people what they ought to be like. Reaching
having allies, albeit anonymous ones, in this move. children directly as well as through their parents and teachers, it
In this way the press helped link the newly individuated person can take the process of socialization out of the communal chim-
to the newly forming society. The Polish press also supported ney corner of the era depending on tradition-direction and pene-
very specific "character-building" measures, such as temperance trate into the private bedrooms and libraries of the rising middle
and thrift, and fostered scientific farming as the American agricul- class: the child is allowed to gird himself for the battle of life in
tural extension services have done; science was viewed as a kind the small circle of light cast by his reading lamp or candle.
of inner-directed morality as against the superstition of the re- To understand this more fully we must realize that the rise of
maining, tradition-directed peasantry. These attitudes, expounded literacy affects not only the content and style of the literary and
in newspaper nonfiction, were reinforced in the same media by journalistic genres but also their reception by the audience. The
highly moralistic fiction. increased quantitative flow of content brings about an enormous
3. W. I. Thomas and Florian Znaniecki, The Polish Peasant in increase in each child's power to select, as compared with the era
Europe and America (New York, Knopf, 1927), II, 1367-1396. of tradition-direction. As a result, more and more of the readers
90 THE LONELY CROWD S T O R Y T E L L E R S AS T U T O R S 91

begin to see messages not meant for them. And they read them soon as literacy becomes widespread. And not only formal cen-
in situations no longer controlled and structured by the teller— sorship. In America the increasing piety of print, if we compare,
or by their own participation. This increase in the number, va- for instance, today's press with that of the early republic, may be
riety, and "scatter" of the messages, along with the general im- in part explained by the sheer weight of the informal pressure
personalization in print which induces these specific effects, be- put by near-universal literacy on editors who take their responsi-
comes one of the powerful factors in social change. The classic bility seriously. As the editor of a metropolitan paper used to say
instance in western history, of course, is the translation of the if his staff verged on bawdry: "Don't forget, gentlemen, that this
Vulgate into the spoken languages, a translation which allowed paper goes into the homes.'" Or as the New York Times puts it:
the people to read a book which only the priests could read be- "All the news that's fit to print."
fore. While it is beyond my ability to measure precisely to what
Some of the difficulties of discussing the shift from the era de- degree the media of the early capitalist period might have
pending on tradition-direction to that of inner-direction arise been dysfunctional, by reaching unintended audiences in unin-
from the teleological drift of the language we are likely to use. tended ways, it seems reasonable to suppose that print contains
For example, we are prone to overlook the unintended audience more noise along its channels than does oral, face-to-face trans-
because it is always easier to assume that a given medium was mission.
deliberately aimed at the audience it actually succeeded in reach-
ing. Yet there is no proof that the media have ever been so accu- MODELS IN PRINT
rate in aim. The very impersonality of the situation in which print
is absorbed helps to increase the chances of under-reception or One main purpose of print in the period dependent on inner-
over-reception. Thus the aristocrats were often displeased by direction is to teach the child something about the variety of
what they considered the over-reception to ideas of mobility in adult roles he may enter upon and to permit him to try on these
many they would have liked to keep "in their place." roles in fantasy. Life during the period of transitional population
The over-effects I have most in mind, however, are those in growth differs from earlier epochs in that the adult frequently
individuals whose characterological guilts and tensions were in- engages in activities which the growing child no longer observes
creased by the pressure of print. Their character structure simply or understands. He needs not only the rich vicariousness of print
could not handle the demand put upon them in a society depend- but also a mode of internal direction other than tradition to guide
ing on inner-direction. Their gyroscopes spun wildly and errati- him in unaccustomed places and situations. Both the printed
cally. Not finding justification in print—not finding, as many media and other forms of popular culture meet this need by add-
modern readers do, a "union of sinners," the "One Big Union" of ing their own spurs to the parents' admonitions on behalf of am-
mankind extending back through the past—they experienced bition as well as by offering more specific guidance about the
print simply as an intensified proof of their maladjustment. A variety of new paths to success.
colonial divine armed with print could get his readers to cast These new paths, in both northern and southern lands after the
themselves into hell-fire on weekdays, even if he could only ad- Renaissance, are conceived and described in adult terms. For in
dress them in person on Sundays. the earlier stages of population growth adult life is not long, on
Thus, while the myths and symbolism of the societies depend- the average; the age difference—and perhaps the difference in
ing on tradition-direction support the tradition by integrating maturity—between the literate child and the full-grown adult is
the rebellious tendencies of the listener into a pattern of the cul- less than in the period of incipient decline of population. More-
ture, the word-in-print may disorient as well as orient its audi- over, while the distribution of imagery and print becomes wider
ence. This is evident in the cry for censorship which goes up as and cheaper than ever before, there are still many people excluded
92 THE LONELY CROWD S T O R Y T E L L E R S AS T U T O R S 93
by poverty from the storyteller's market; some of these are also folk. Often, as is well known, they are not in verbal form at all,
the overworked young. In such a society the adult stories and like the superabundance of messages in the glass and stone of a
adult styles of narrative are often made to do for children. Even cathedral. The child is trained to understand—or, better, he is not
when the trick, later so prevalent, of using the child's own lan- trained away from understanding—symbolic meanings. As against
guage, gets started, the storyteller works on the notion that he this, the rising middle class dependent on inner-direction estab-
can more successfully instill adult ideas if he uses the language lishes for itself a new style of realism from which any direct use
of children. of symbolism is rigorously excluded.
Among the earliest signposts erected on the printed path to This documentary style is one literary index of an era increas-
success, aside from the indirect guides of catechism and religious ingly dependent on inner-direction. There is leisure in such an
teaching, were the great authorities on etiquette. A volume like era for fiction—but little for fantasy. Defoe may be taken as
Castiglione's The Courtier, for example, was meant for adults; archetypical. He used a variety of techniques, such as first-person
but there was nothing else on the subject for the near-adult to narration, elaborate descriptions of food, clothing, and shelter,
read. At the same time people were willing to assume, as Lord diary-like accounts of transactions, and collaborative witnesses,
Chesterfield did, that the young man was ready in his teens to to provide a realistic setting for his wildly adventurous tales. In
operate successfully in situations requiring etiquette. In the Prot- this respect he is certainly the ancestor of the comic book, which
estant lands and classes however, after 1600 or so, the purpose of excels in exploiting realism of detail as a distraction to hide im-
print is concerned more and more directly with how to succeed probability of situation. Such handling of literary material is con-
not in love or diplomacy but in business. Then follows the com- nected in subtle ways with the handling of life experiences gen-
mercial inspirational literature that reached a sort of climax in erally for the inner-directed middle-class Protestant. For him
Victorian England with the success biographies written by Sam- life is lived in its detailed externals; symbolic meanings must be
uel Smiles—and in the United States with the Horatio Alger filtered through the strenuously concrete.
books, which come closer to being slanted for the teen-age mar- Gradually, the early naturalism of Defoe gives way, both in
ket. England and on the continent, to a more detailed handling of the
Franklin's Poor Richard's Almanack, the text selected by Max complex interpersonal relations of town life that arise in the era
Weber as a typical self-inspirational document of the period of of transitional growth of population when people are pouring into
the Protestant ethic, was preceded by books such as Pilgrim's the cities. With the growth of social classes in the modern sense,
Progress or Robinson Crusoe which, while not explicitly con- the novel begins to concern itself with subtle class differences be-
cerned with proper conduct for would-be enterprisers, neverthe- tween individuals: rises, falls, and collisions of status are perhaps
less purvey many similar exhortations. Thus, in Pilgrim's Progress its prime preoccupation. The child is instructed in an ambiguous
we can trace the motive of social election and salvation which social world, into which he will later move, by learning to recog-
can so easily become secularized, while in Robinson Crusoe the nize the subtly individualizing traits that bespeak class position
motive of economic self-sufficiency is expressed in its classical and class morality.4 Thus fiction as well as almanac and manual
paradigm. Both works aim to fire the ambition and elan, spiritual provide vocational (and status-oriented avocational) guidance.
and adventurous, of inner-directed youth. Thus, with an expand- To us today many of the individuals in the early Victorian
ing bourgeois market, marked changes occur in the style of myth, novels, or in American Victorian melodrama like East Lynne or
as contrasted with the pre-industrial era dependent on tradition- Intolerance—or even in some of Balzac's novels—appear as stereo-
direction. In the Middle Ages, for example, the individual learns types. To their earliest audiences, however, these studies of
about human nature from accounts no less realistic because 4. Compare the brilliant discussion by Lionel Trilling in "Art and
couched in symbolic language—whether Christian, classical, or Fortune," Partisan Review, XV (1948), 1271.
 THE LONELY CROWD S T O R Y T E L L E R S AS T U T O R S
94
personality and class in a society of shifting possibilities—a so-
ciety of more people, and more people moving around—were THE OVERSTEERED CHILD
perhaps not cliches which hindered understanding but explora-
tions of a confusing world, helping to make sense of that world There is, however, a danger for the child in such pious bio-
for the young. One can still attend a modern rural high school graphical portraits of exemplary persons and roles because of the
production of Aaron Slick of Punkin Crick and see to what ex- very fact that he can read in isolation, without the intervention
tent an unsophisticated inner-directed audience will respond to either of adults or peers; he can be "oversteered," that is, find
the characterological "realism" of the play in terms of the older himself set on a course he cannot realistically follow. The inner-
stereotypes of class, ambition, and virtue. directed child, trying to shape his character according to the
Biography as well as fiction allows children, in a society depend- ideals presented in print, does not see these models, any more
ent on inner-direction, to move in imagination away from home than he sees his parents, in a state of undress. There is none of the
and into a rationalized world—cooperating in this way with the familiarity with the hero, even the gods in the guise of heroes, to
parental installation of internal, self-piloting processes. In the be found in the orally-mediated myths of the society depending
George Washington myth, for instance, little boys learn that they on tradition-direction. Thus, Washington or Cromwell, Gari-
may grow up to be president and are given scales by which to baldi or Bismarck, Edison or Ford, take on some of the awesome-
measure and discipline themselves for the job during boyhood: ness of the Calvinist God. The result for many is a dreadful in-
if they do not tell lies, if they work hard, and so on—if, that is, security as to whether they live up to their exalted models. This
they act in their boyhoods as the legendary Washington acted in insecurity not even the parents (when they do not themselves
his—then they may succeed to his adult role. The role, moreover, make matters worse by trying to be such models) can easily as-
by its very nature, is a continuing one; somebody is always presi- suage.
dent; thus its heroes do not have the once-for-all quality of those Nevertheless, this unmitigated pressure for inner-directed ac-
in the myths and legends of the earlier era. In fantasy the little tivity in pursuit of goodness and fame succeeded, as we know, in
boy not only identifies with young Washington in the French and producing in many cases an "adjusted" person because social con-
Indian wars but also with the adult role of president—either role ditions rewarded inhibitions and solaced insecurities. In other cases,
will take him far from home, socially and geographically. however, the gap between the demand for inner-direction and
What the story of George Washington could be for a white the capacity for it became too great and the individual broke
child the story of Booker T. Washington could be for a black one. down—the revival meeting both released and renewed, at one class
Booker T. Washington's whole career could be described as an level, some of the emotional pressures of such a conflict.
effort to turn the Negro away from dependence on tradition- I want to emphasize here the dangers of putting some of the
direction toward dependence on inner-direction. One of his books task of socializing the child onto other than the face-to-face
addressed to Negroes was called Character Building; and The adults. Just as the whipping Kachinas of the Hopi Indians can
Negro Worker, a journal published at Tuskegee, with its strong tailor their punishing or initiatory blows to a particularly sensitive
emphasis on thrift, diligence, and manners, is one of the laggard child, so the adults in the era of tradition-direction can see to it
remnants (of course, under violent attack from northern urban that the bite of the story is not too grim for any in the audience.
Negroes) of a vast literature concerned not with improving The child in the inner-directed era, however, leaves home both
"personality" but with improving "character." to go to school and to go to books and other mass-media; and
here such tailoring is no longer possible.
Moreover, the child in a period of rising literacy is much more
likely than his parents to be able to read. Thus, while some chil-
96 THE LONELY CROWD STORYTELLERS AS T U T O R S 97
dren learn from books and plays how to act in a career which ances of their own at four or five; they have, as opinion leaders in
will be different from that of their parents—or indeed that it is the home, some say in the family budget. The allowances are ex-
possible to have such a career—other children, less able to con- pected to be spent, whereas in the earlier era they were often
form in the characterologically prescribed ways, less self-disci- used as cudgels of thrift. Moreover, the monopolistic competition
plined and systematic, for instance, learn from precisely the characteristic of this era can afford, and is interested in, building
same media how lost they are. They learn this particularly if their up in the child habits of consumption he will employ as an adult.
parents are lacking in the proper ethos and have not been able For he will live long, and so will the monopoly. Monopoly is, in
to give them the proper early training in inner-direction. Others fact, distinguished by this very ability to plan ahead, because it
may find that print reinforces their feelings of inadequacy vis- can afford specialists to do the planning as well as resources saved
a-vis their parents if they are characterological black sheep un- from profits to pay for it and its later implementation.
able to live up to steep demands of the home. For all these reasons, then, it has become worth while for pro-
While the stream of print has many dangers, it is seldom with- fessional storytellers to concentrate on the child market; and as
out some alleviating tendencies, even in the theocratic regimes. the mass media can afford specialists and market research on the
Almost always there is an underground of a more picaresque sort particular age cultures and class cultures involved, the children
in which the growing boy, if not his sister, can take some refuge. are more heavily cultivated in their own terms than ever before.
To be sure, the power of the parents in an era dependent on inner- But while the educator in earlier eras might use the child's lan-
direction may keep out such literature, just as the pastors in puri- guage to put across an adult message, today the child's language
tan countries might also keep it out of the community. But they may be used to put across the advertiser's and storyteller's idea of
can hardly destroy the refuge of print itself—and we must not what children are like. No longer is it thought to be the child's
forget that the great reading-hour storehouse of the era depend- job to understand the adult world as the adult sees it; for one
ing on inner-direction is the Bible and that the Bible is not one thing, the world as the adult sees it today is perhaps a more com-
book but many, with an inexhaustible variety of messages. plicated one.5 Instead, the mass media ask the child to see the
Such a refuge may encourage and permit the child to free him- world as "the" child—that is, the other child—sees it. This is
self from his family and primary group; and he may learn to criti- partly the result of the technical advances that make it possible
cize what he leaves behind, as did the self-emancipating readers for the movies to create the child world of Margaret O'Brien and
of the Polish peasant press. It opens up to him a whole range of her compeers, for the radio to have its array of Hardys, Al-
models—the "five-foot wardrobe" from which he can try on driches, and other juveniles, and for advertising and cover art to
new roles. The Renaissance is itself testimony to this potency of make use of professional child models. The media have created
the written word. Individualistic strivings find support as well as a picture of what boyhood and girlhood are like (as during the
oversupport in the variety of paths of life described in print and war they created the picture of the GI, again using the consid-
drama. To be alone with a book is to be alone in a new way. erably edited language of the soldier) and they force children
either to accept or aggressively to resist this picture of themselves.
///. The Mass Media in the Stage of Other-direction The child begins to be bombarded by radio and comics from
the moment he can listen and just barely read. The bombard-
THE CHILD MARKET 5. Certainly the adult literature is more complicated and/or more
salacious on its top levels, as compared with the earlier era when both
As we have already seen, in the era of incipient decline of popula- child and adult could read Mark Twain even at his most bitter,
tion children begin their training as consumers at an increas- Dickens even at his most crude, H. G. Wells even at his most in-
ingly young age. In America middle-class children have allow- volved.
98 THE LONELY CROWD S T O R Y T E L L E R S AS T U T O R S ,99

ment—which of course inevitably over- and undershoots—hits This little pig went wee-wee-wee
specifically at very narrow age-grades. For example, there seems All the way home."
to be for many children a regular gradation of comic-reading
stages: from the animal stories like Bugs Bunny to invincible he- The rhyme may be taken as a paradigm of individuation and
roes like Superman, and from there to heroes like Batman who, unsocialized behavior among children of an earlier era. Today,
human in make-up, are vulnerable, though of course they always however, all little pigs go to market; none stay home; all have
win. The study from which the quotation at the head of this chap- roast beef, if any do; and all say "we-we."
ter is taken finds that the children themselves are aware of the
progression, aware of those laggards who still read romper media WINNER TAKE ALL?
when they should have gradutaed to blue jeans.
To be sure, the change from the preceding era of inner-direc- Yet perhaps the most important change is the shift in the situa-
tion in America is not abrupt; such changes never are. Formerly tion in which listening and reading occur. In contrast with the
the mass media catered to the child market in at least three fields: lone reader of the era of inner-direction, we have the group of
school texts or homilies, magazines designed for children, and kids today, lying on the floor, reading and trading comics and
penny dreadfuls. But when these are compared with the con- preferences among comics, or listening to "The Lone Ranger."
temporary media we are at once aware of differences. The ap- When reading and listening are not communal in fact, they are
praisal of the market by the writers of this earlier literature was apt to be so in feeling: one is almost always conscious of the
amateurish in comparison with market research today. Moreover, brooding omnipresence of the peer-group. Thus the Superman
they aimed generally to spur incentives and stimulate mobility fan quoted at the head of the chapter cannot allow herself to iden-
rather than to effect any socialization of taste. The English boys' tify with Superman—the others would think her foolish—while
weeklies, as Orwell describes them,6 usually opposed liquor they would not think her foolish for believing that flying is very
and tobacco—as did the clergyman authors of school and church important.
readers. Such admonitions remind us of the "crime doesn't pay" In a society dependent on tradition-direction children are, as
lesson of the comics, a facade for messages of more importance. we have seen, introduced to stories by adult storytellers. The lat-
The boys' weeklies and their American counterparts were in- ter do not feel themselves to be in critical competition with the
volved with training the young for the frontiers of production young. Hence they can encourage, or at least patronize, chil-
(including warfare), and as an incident of that training the em- dren's unsophisticated reactions of alarm or excitement at the
bryo athlete might eschew smoke and drink. The comparable tales they are told—and, later on, encourage the youngster's own
media today train the young for the frontiers of consumption— tall talk and embroidery. But the peer-groupers who read or
to tell the difference between Pepsi-Cola and Coca-Cola, as later listen together without the protective presence of adults are in no
between Old Golds and Chesterfields. such cozy relation of "listen my children and you shall hear . . ."
We may mark the change by citing an old nursery rhyme: They cannot afford to let go—to fly.
One correlate is that the comic book differs from the fairy
"This little pig went to market; tale in several important respects. In the fairy tale the protagonist
This little pig stayed at home. is frequently an underdog figure, a younger child, an ugly duck-
This little pig had roast beef; ling, a commoner, while the villain is frequently an authority
This little pig had none. figure, a king, a giant, a stepmother. In the comics the protago-
6. George Orwell, Dickens, Dali & Others (New York, Reynal & nist is apt to be an invulnerable or near-invulnerable adult who
Hitchcock, 1946), p. 76. is equipped, if not with supernatural powers, at least with two
 THE LONELY CROWD STORYTELLERS AS TUTORS

guns and a tall, terrific physique. Magical aid comes to the under- Thus we come to a paradox. The other-directed child is
dog—who remains a peripheral character—only through the trained to be sensitive to interpersonal relations, and often he un-
mediation of this figure. Thus, whereas Jack of Jack and the Bean- derstands these with a sophistication few adults had in the era of
stalk gains magical assistance chiefly through his own daring, curi- inner-direction. Yet he can be strikingly insensitive to problems
osity, and luck, a comic-book Jack would gain magical assistance of character as presented by his favorite storytellers; he tends to
chiefly through an all-powerful helper. While vaguely similar race through the story for its ending, or to read the ending first,
themes may be found in the stories of Robin Hood and Sir Gala- and to miss just those problems of personal development that are
had, the comics show a quantitative increase in the role of the not telltale clues to the outcome. It looks as though the situation
more or less invulnerable authority-hero. of group reading, of having to sit on the jury that passes out
The relative change in this pattern7 is not the fault of the Hooper ratings, forces the pace for the other-directed child. He
comics. These merely play into a style of reception that is fitted cannot afford to linger on irrelevant detail or to daydream
to peer-group reading. Indeed, if other-directed child comic fans about the heroes. To trade preferences in reading and listening
read or hear stories that are not comics they will read them as if he needs to know no more about the heroes than the stamp trader
they were comics. They will tend to focus on who won and needs to know about the countries the stamps come from.
to miss the internal complexities of the tale, of a moral sort or
otherwise. If one asks them, then, how they distinguish the "good Fairy tales and the Frank Merriwell books also emphasize win-
guys" from the "bad guys" in the mass media, it usually boils ning hence it is important to see the precise differences intro-
down to the fact that the former always win; they are good duced by the contemporary media as well as by the changed
guys by definition. focus of the readers. One striking difference is that between the
But of course the child wants to anticipate the result and so older ambition and newer antagonistic cooperation. Ambition
looks for external clues which will help him pick the winner. In I define as the striving for clear goals characteristic of the period
the comics this is seldom a problem: the good guys look it, being of inner-direction; it may be a striving for fame or for goodness:
square-jawed, clear-eyed, tall men; the bad guys also look it, to get the job, to win the battle, to build the bridge. Competition
being, for reasons of piety, of no recognizable ethnic group in the era depending on inner-direction is frequently ruthless,
but rather of a generally messy southern European frame—oafish but at the same time people are in no doubt as to their place in the
and unshaven or cadaverous and oversmooth. But in movies (and race—and that there is a race. If they feel guilt it is when they
in some comics with slinky beauties in them) this identification is fail, not when they succeed. By contrast, antagonistic coopera-
not easy: the very types that are good guys in most comics may tion may be defined as an inculcated striving characteristic of
turn out to be villains after all. A striking example I have ob- the groups affected by other-direction. Here the goal is less im-
served is the bafflement of several young comic fans at the movie portant than the relationship to the "others." In this new-style
portrayal of the Countess de Winter (Lana Turner) in The Three competition people are often in doubt whether there is a race at
Musketeers. If she looked so nice, how could she be so mean? all, and if so, what its goals are. Since they are supposed to be co-
operative rather than rivalrous, they may well feel guilt about
7. Here, too, the abruptness of the change from inner-direction success and even a certain responsibility for others' failure.
should not be exaggerated. Eliot Freidson, studying the ability of Certainly, it is ambition that strikes us as an outstanding trait
young children to remember stories, found them much more apt to of the heroes of boys' literature in the era of inner-direction.
recall a few traditional fairy tales like Goldilocks or The Three Little
Moreover, it is an ambition with which the child reader can iden-
Pigs than either Golden Books or comics or movies. "Myth and the
Child: an Aspect of Socialization" (Master's thesis, University of tify, even if the particular goal—to fight Indians or find the treas-
Chicago, 1949). ure or North Pole or swim icy rivers or detect crime—is at the
 THE LONELY CROWD S T O R Y T E L L E R S AS T U T O R S

moment a remote one; that is, the reader could in fantasy emulate There is paradox in the reception of this realism. On the one
the moral qualities of the hero, such as his bravery and his self- hand, every additional brush stroke of the comic-strip artist rules
control. Thus, while these heroes, like the modern heroes, almost out identifications for millions; the small-breasted girl, for exam-
invariably won, the reader was encouraged to be concerned not ple, may find only disapproval for herself in the comics. On the
only with the final victorious outcome but with the inner strug- other hand, the same realism is one source of the fear of being
gles that preceded it and made it possible. conspicuous in our little Supergirl cited at the chapter head. If
It is sometimes loosely said that the comic strip merely contin- she were Superman, she would be instantly recognizable. She
ues this older set of themes in a new medium, but the fact is that would lack the privacy of narcissism permitted the reader of an
the themes change and the identifications change even more. earlier day who could gloat over the fact that he was M. Vidocq
Where, as often happens, children prefer comics in which the or Sherlock Holmes—only nobody knew it.
hero is not man but Superman or Plastic Man, possessing obvi- These generalizations need not be pushed too far. There are
ously unique powers, identification languishes: no amount of will- children—at least one has heard of them—who identify with
power, no correspondence course with Lionel Strongfort, will Superman, or, more easily, with Terry or the Saint. Nor is it out
turn one into Superman even in the wildest flight of fantasy. And of the question to identify, at the same time, on one level of con-
such flights of fantasy appear to be less available today. Exposed sciousness with the hero and on another level with the person he
to ever more sophisticated media, the children are too hep for rescues. And while the heroes of the comics are ageless, having
"unrealistic" daydreams; at the movies they soon learn the fine discovered the secret of eternal youth, the growing child can
points and will criticize a Western because the hero fired seven move from one hero to another who better fits his own changing
shots running from his six-shooter. The media in turn encourage needs and aspirations. These counter-tendencies are encouraged
this realism with their color effects and sound effects, which ex- by the gadgetry—Superman cloaks, and so on—that relates chil-
ceed by far the realism of petty detail which Defoe and his succes- dren to their radio, movie, and comic-book heroes. But it would
sors strove for. The characters in much fiction of the era depend- be a mistake to assume that each wearer of a Superman cloak
ent on inner-direction were props—stereotypes of the sort indi- identifies with Superman; he may only be a fan, wearing his hero's
cated in the preceding section. In Jules Verne, for instance, it is colors.
the adventures, the mechanical details, not the characters, that
are sharply delineated; the latter are loose-fitting uniforms into Perhaps it is also significant that the comic book compresses
which many boys could fit themselves. The imaginative, tene- into a few minutes' reading time a sequence which, in the earlier
brous illustrations of an artist like Howard Pyle also left openings era, was dragged out in many pages of print. Think of the Count
for identification on the part of the reader who wanted to pic- of Monte Cristo's years in jail, his suffering, his incredible pa-
ture himself as the hero. tience, his industry and his study of the abbe's teaching; both his
Little of this looseness of fit remains for the imagination of the gain and his vengeance are moralized by these prolongations, and
modern reader or listener to fill in. Though comic-strip and he is an old man when, after many chapters, he wins. By contrast,
comic-book characterization is, if anything, less sharp, externals the comic-book or radio-drama hero wins almost effortlessly; the
are pinned down conclusively: every detail of costuming and very curtailment of the telling time itself makes this more appar-
speech is given. This is the more necessary because, with so many ent. To be sure, like his movie counterpart, this hero does fre-
mass-media heroes competing for attention, their portrayers must quently get beaten up, but this adds to excitement, not to moral-
engage in marginal differentiation in search of their trade-mark. ity or inner change, and helps justify an even worse beating ad-
Bodies by Milton Caniff must be as instantly recognizable as bod- ministered to the crooks.
ies by Fisher. Still another aspect of this change is worth looking at. If one
 THE LONELY CROWD STORYTELLERS AS TUTORS

does not identify with the winner hut is at the very same time development. The slant of that lesson is suggested by a passage
preoccupied with the process of winning itself, as the best handle from a book in use by teachers and PTA groups:
by which one grasps a story, one is prepared for the role of con- The usual and desirable developmental picture is one of increasing
sumer of others' winnings. One is prepared, that is, for the adult self-control on the part of the individual children, of increasingly
role of betting on the right horse, with no interest in the jockey smooth social or play technics, and of an emergence at adolescence
or horse or knowledge of what it takes to be either. The content or early adulthood of higher forms of cooperation. The adolescent
of the identification is impoverished to the point where virtually should have learned better "to take it" in group activity, should
the only bond between reader and hero is the fact of the hero's have developed an improved, though not yet perfect, self-control,
winning. The spectator—the same holds for a quiz game, a sport and should have real insight into the needs and wishes of others.8
contest, and, as we shall see, a political contest—wants to become
involved with the winner simply in order to make the contest
Tootle the Engine (text by Gertrude Crampton, pictures by
meaningful: this hope of victory makes the event exciting, while Tibor Gergely) is a popular and in many ways charming volume
the game or contest or story is not appreciated for its own sake. in the "Little Golden Books" series. It is a cautionary tale even
The victory of the hero, then, is only ostensibly a moral one. though it appears to be simply one of the many books about an-
To be sure, vestiges of older moralities hang on, often as conven- thropomorphic vehicles—trucks, fire engines, taxicabs, tugboats,
tions enforced by censorship or the fear of it. But morality in and so on—that are supposed to give a child a picture of real life.
the sense of a literary character's development, rather than moral- Tootle is a young engine who goes to engine school, where two
ity in the sense of being on the side of law and right, is not ex- main lessons are taught: stop at a red flag and "always stay on the
plored in the story. Consequently, morality tends to become an track no matter what." Diligence in the lessons will result in the
inference from winning. Just as in a whodunit all appear guilty young engine's growing up to be a big streamliner. Tootle is obe-
until they are retroactively cleared by finding the real killer, so dient for a while and then one day discovers the delight of going
the victory of the hero retroactively justifies his deeds and mis- off the tracks and finding flowers in the field. This violation of
deeds. "Winner take all" becomes a tautology. the rules cannot, however, be kept secret; there are telltale traces
in the cowcatcher. Nevertheless, Tootle's play becomes more and
more of a craving, and despite warnings he continues to go off
TOOTLE: A MODERN CAUTIONARY TALE the tracks and wander in the field. Finally the engine schoolmas-
Parents are sometimes apt to assume that comic books and the ter is desperate. He consults the mayor of the little town of En-
radio, as the cheapest and most widespread media, are the prin- gineville, in which the school is located; the mayor calls a town
cipal vehicles of these newer attitudes and values and that, in a meeting, and Tootle's failings are discussed—of course Tootle
home barricaded against Roy Rogers and Steve Canyon, these knows nothing of this. The meeting decides on a course of action,
patterns of audience response would also be excluded. The fact is, and the next time Tootle goes out for a spin alone and goes off
however, that many important themes of other-direction are the track he runs right into a red flag and halts. He turns in an-
introduced into the socializing and informative books of the non- other direction only to encounter another red flag; still another—
comic variety which middle- and upper-middle-class children are the result is the same. He turns and twists but can find no spot of
given—conversely, these "educative" books are probably not grass in which a red flag does not spring up, for all the citizens
without influence on the more socially conscious radio and comic- of the town have cooperated in this lesson.
book artists. A whole range of these media teaches children the 8. M. E. Breckenridge and E. L. Vincent, Child Development
lesson given parents and teachers in many recent works on child (Philadelphia, W. B. Saunders, 1943), p. 456.
 THE LONELY CROWD S T O R Y T E L L E R S AS T U T O R S

Chastened and bewildered he looks toward the track, where hand in bringing it about. Yet with all that, there is something
the inviting green flag of his teacher gives him the signal to re- overvarnished in this tale. The adult world (the teachers) is not
turn. Confused by conditioned reflexes to stop signs, he is only that benevolent, the citizenry (the peer-group) not that partici-
too glad to use the track and tears happily up and down. He prom- pative and cooperative, the signals are not that clear, nor the re-
ises that he will never leave the track again, and he returns to the wards of being a streamliner that great or that certain. Neverthe-
roundhouse to be rewarded by the cheers of the teachers and the less, the child may be impressed because it is all so nice—there is
citizenry and the assurance that he will indeed grow up to be a none of the grimness of Red Riding Hood. There is, therefore, a
streamliner. swindle about the whole thing—a fake like that the citizens put
The story would seem to be an appropriate one for bringing up on for Tootle's benefit. At the end Tootle has forgotten that he
children in an other-directed mode of conformity. They learn it ever did like flowers anyway—how childish they are in compari-
is bad to go off the tracks and play with flowers and that, in the son with the great big grown-up world of engines, signals, tracks,
long run, there is not only success and approval but even free- and meetings!
dom to be found in following the green lights.9 The moral is a
very different one from that of Little Red Riding Hood. She, too,
AREAS OF FREEDOM
gets off the track on her trip to the grandmother; she is taught by
a wolf about the beauties of nature—a veiled symbol for sex. We have discussed the social situation in which the mass media
Then, to be sure, she is eaten—a terrifying fate—but in the end of today are absorbed by their child readers. We have seen the
she and grandmother both are taken from the wolf's belly by the effects of this situation on the process by which the reader iden-
handsome woodchopper. The story, though it may be read as a tifies with the protagonists and their roles. We have stressed espe-
cautionary tale, deals with real human passions, sexual and aggres- cially the ambiguously competitive nature of these identifications
sive; it certainly does not present the rewards of virtue in any which on the one hand emphasize winning and on the other
unambiguous form or show the adult world in any wholly be- hand stringently limit all emotional identifications by the code of
nevolent light. It is, therefore, essentially realistic, underneath the the peer-group.
cover of fantasy, or, more accurately, owing to the quality of the If this were all, we would have to conclude that the peer-group,
fantasy. as one of the mediating agencies in child readership and listening,
There is, perhaps, a streak of similar realism in Tootle. There is simply open to manipulation by the professional storytellers.
the adults play the role we have described earlier: they manipu- But I want to raise very briefly the alternative possibility:
late the child into conformity with the peer-group and then re- namely, that the peer-group may have a relatively independent
ward him for the behavior for which they have already set the set of criteria which helps it maintain not only marginal differen-
stage. Moreover, the citizens of Engineville are tolerant of tiation but even a certain leeway in relation to the media. It is
Tootle: they understand and do not get indignant. And while conceivable that, in those peer-groups which succeed in feeding
they gang up on him with red flags they do so for his benefit, back styles and values to the mass media, there is some feeling of
and they reward him for his obedience as if they had played no achievement, of having one's contribution recognized. To be
9. It is not made clear in the story what happens to Tootle's school- sure, the feeling of having been invaded and chased by popular-
mates in engine school. The peer-group relations of Tootle, either to ity or unpopularity off one's island of individuation will also be
the other engines or the other citizens of Engineville, are entirely present, and the total outcome may depend on whether the peer-
amiable, and Tootle's winning can hardly mean that others fail. Who group feels the mass media to be in pursuit of it or whether the
can be sure that Tootle would want to be a streamliner if others were group enjoys playing follow the leader, when it is the leader.
not to be streamliners too? In all probability it is rare enough that a youthful peer-group
108 THE LONELY CROWD
V
forces the mass media—and hence other peer-groups—to follow
its lead. Far more frequent will be the peer-group's opportunity
to establish its own standards of criticism of the media. Groups of THE INNER-DIRECTED ROUND OF LIFE
young hot-jazz fans, for instance, have highly elaborate standards
for evaluating popular music, standards of almost pedantic pre-
cision. We must go further, then, and ask whether there may be
areas of privacy which children learn to find inside a superficial
adjustment to the peer-group and under the cover of a superficial In
permeability to the mass media. In other words, we must re-ex- Memory of
plore the assumption made so far that the other-directed child is Thomas Darling, Esq.
almost never alone, that by six or seven he no longer talks to him- who died Nov. 30, 1789 —
self, invents songs, or dreams unsupervised dreams. A Gentleman of strong mental powers,
We are aware that children who have been brought up on the well improved with science and literature,
radio can shut out its noise like those automatic devices that are ———— to the study of philosophy,
dreamed up to silence commercials. Perhaps such children can habituated to contemplation and reading
also shut out the noise of the peer-group, even while they are ———— in moral reasoning,
contributing to it. Moreover, the comics themselves may be not of deep penetration and sound judgment,
only a part of peer-group consumption patterns but on occasion a respected for modesty and candor,
refuge from the peer-group and a defiance against that official benignity and self command
adult world which abhors the comics. We shall return in Part in his intercourse with mankind
III to the question whether the mass media can foster autonomy honest and benevolent,
as well as adjustment, independence from the peer-group as well amiable in all the relations of social life
as conformity to it. and filled a variety of public offices
with fidelity and dignity
eminent abilities as statesman and judge
an early professor of Christianity
its steady friend, ornament, and defender
with a rational and firm faith in his God
and Savior: he knew no other master.
A G R A V E S T O N E I N S C R I P T I O N IN A NEW H A V E N C E M E T E R Y

The oldest historical types in America, in terms of the scheme

set forth in this book, are a few still partially tradition-directed
people such as some of the French Canadians of the northeast, the
delta Negroes, and the Mexican "wetbacks" of Texas. These
groups survive from societies and social classes whose modes of
109
 I N N E R - D I R E C T E D R O U N D OF L I F E III
THE LONELY CROWD

conformity were etablished in a phase of high population growth is arbitrary because the paths of work and pleasure are deeply
potential. The next oldest type, the inner-directed, survive intertwined. Moreover, the argument in this and the next two
from the period of transitional population growth in America chapters advances in a somewhat dialectic fashion: the inner-
and abroad. They are still dominant in many regions and many directed and other-directed patterns are occasionally stated in
occupations, even in the cities. They are also probably the most their most extreme forms, in order to bring out sharply the con-
numerous type, if we include among them not only those whose trast between them. Since, however, the problems of the inner-
inner-direction is clear and unequivocal but also many working- directed are no longer problems many of us face, the reader as
class people who aspire to be inner-directed but are actually un- well as the writer must be on guard against a tendency to over-
able to adjust either to inner-directed or to other-directed modes idealize inner-direction and to be overcritical of other-direction.
of conformity. Finally, the newest type, the other-directed, are
the product of the changes in the agents of character formation /. Men at Work
discussed in the three preceding chapters—changes most pro-
nounced in the big cities and among the upper income groups. THE ECONOMIC PROBLEM: THE HARDNESS OF THE MATERIAL
In this and the following two chapters we shall explore in more
detail the way in which the shift of the American population Our task in this and the following chapter is to compare the
meaning of work in the epochs depending on inner-direction and
curve into the phase of incipient decline corresponds to a change
other-direction respectively. The change is one of degree, like
in the texture of adult work and play. Other-directed character
most historical changes. The inner-directed man tends to think
types are produced not only by influences affecting the parents
of work in terms of non-human objects, including an objectified
and other early character-forming agents but also by institutions
that shape or reshape the character of adults who grew up in an social organization, while the other-directed man tends to think
of work in terms of people—people seen as something more than
environment more undilutedly inner-directed. While children
are the pioneers of the characterological frontiers of population, the sum of their workmanlike skills and qualities. Thus for the
it is the adults who, even in a child-centered culture, run the en- inner-directed man production is seen and experienced in terms
gines, rig the signals, write the books and comics, and play poli- of technological and intellectual processes rather than in terms of
human cooperation. Human relations in industry, as well as rela-
tics and other grown-up games.
tions among industries and between industry and society as a
whole, seem to the inner-directed man to be managed by the
An inscription such as the one at the head of this chapter re-
anonymous cooperation brought about through the "invisible
minds us of the exemplary types of men who flourished in an era
hand"—Adam Smith's wonderful phrase for economic planning
depending on inner-direction. Not all of them, of course, were as
through the free market.
good as Mr. Darling is said to have been; we must not equate in-
Men were of course aware, in the period most heavily depend-
ner-direction with conscience direction. A scoundrel who knows
ent on inner-direction, that the achievement of cooperation in
what he aims for can be as unequivocally inner-directed as a God-
the organization of work was not simply automatic. There was
fearing puritan. Yet as we turn now to recapture the flavor of
much talk of the need for discipline, sobriety, integrity. Yet it
an era that is near enough to be thought familiar and not far
is fair to say that the human mood of the work force was not yet
enough away to be fully understood, it is well to think of a man
felt to be a major problem. Labor was still too numerous—it
who knew no other master than his God.
spilled over into the factory from the prolific farms and could
In the first part of this chapter we look at the meaning of work
easily be moved elsewhere in an age before passports. Moreover,
for the inner-directed man of the nineteenth century in America;
labor's work force was disciplined by the new values as well as
in the second, we look at the uses he made of leisure. The division
112 THE LONELY CROWD
I N N E R - D I R E C T E D R O U N D OF L I F E 113

some kept from the era of tradition-direction; in addition, by numerous communistic experiments the product of imaginative
evangelistic religion in the advanced industrial countries. The individualistic thinking. Likewise, intellectual entrepreneurs
managerial work force, on the other hand, was not felt as a prob- staked out fields of knowledge and threw themselves with pas-
lem either, because the size of the administrative staff was small sionate curiosity into discovering the secrets of nature. Though
and because inner-directed types could cooperate with each they might be as jealous and competitive as Newton, their con-
other on physically and intellectually evident tasks whether or tacts with co-workers remained on the whole impersonal; they
not they liked or approved of each other. Their inner-directed were in communication with one another through very simple
code, rather than their cooperative mood, kept them from con- channels of papers and congresses and without much formal or-
stant sabotage. ganization of team research. Here, too, the invisible hand seemed
As a result, even in large and bureaucratized organizations to rule, and work was felt as a mode of relating oneself to physical
people's attention was focused more on products (whether these objects and to ideas, and only indirectly to people.
were goods, decisions, reports, or discoveries makes little differ-
ence) and less on the human element. It was the product itself, It is apparent to us today that, in the economic field at least, the
moreover, not the use made of it by the consumer, that com- invisible hand was partly a fact, though its historically tempo-
manded attention. Despite what Marx called "the fetishism of rary nature escaped people, and partly a myth.1 Government did
commodities," the inner-directed man could concern himself a good deal of planning even after mercantilism waned—plan-
with the product without himself being a good consumer: he did ning nonetheless forceful for being relatively unbureaucratized
not need to look at himself through the customer's eyes. The and nonetheless systematic for being operated through such
problem of marketing the product, perhaps even its meaning, re- time-honored levers as the tariff, the judiciary, and canal and
ceded into the psychological background before the hardness of railroad subsidies. Moreover, the impersonality of economic life
the material—the obduracy of the technical tasks themselves. against which moralists and socialists complained in steady chorus
The opening frontiers called people to a seeming oversupply from Sir Thomas More to R. H. Tawney was never quite so great
of material tasks in industry and trade, geography, and scientific as it seemed. Business was often paternal; as we can see in such a
discovery. This is especially clear if we look at the geographical novel as Thomas Mann's Buddenbrooks, it relied heavily on values
frontier. While the frontiersman cooperated with his sparse that survived from feudalism. Tradition-directed tones of person-
neighbors in mutual self-help activities, such as housebuilding alization survived in many situations, despite the ideology and,
or politics, his main preoccupation was with physical, not with to some degree, the existence of free competition. These person-
human, nature. The American frontiersman, as Tocqueville en- alizations undoubtedly ameliorated some of the severities and
countered him in Michigan, was, though hospitable, uninterested abuses of inner-directed individualism.
in people. He found physical nature problematical enough: to Nevertheless, as compared with today, the economy was quite
alter and adapt it required that he become hard and self-reliant. loose-jointed and impersonal and perhaps seemed even more im-
The same thing was true in other fields of enterprise and pio- personal than it actually was. This encouraged the ambitious labors
neering. Missionary zeal, with its determination to carry the of men who could attend to society's expanding capital plant, to
gospel to such far distant lands as India, China, and the Pacific the bottlenecks in the technology of agriculture, extractive indus-
isles, reflected the nineteenth-century pioneering spirit fully as try, and manufacturing. The capital goods industries were of
much or more than it did any religious impulse of brotherhood. decisive importance; internally, they were needed to bridge the
The missionary and his family frequently—as, for example, in gap between population and subsistence; externally, they were
Hawaii—became the nucleus of a European element which was
1. See Karl Polanyi's excellent discussion in The Great Transforma-
finally to gain economic and financial control. So also were the
tion (New York, Farrar & Rinehart, 1944).
114 THE LONELY CROWD I N N E R - D I R E C T E D R O U N D OF L I F E "5
needed to support war-making and colonization. Indeed, the over- Even today we can watch similar types emerging in India
steered men of the period, especially in the regions touched by among the leaders of industry and government. It looks as if, in
Puritanism or Jansenism, went far beyond the specifically eco- any large and differentiated population, reservoirs of potential
nomic requirements and rewards held out to them. They cut inner-direction exist, only awaiting the onset of a western-ori-
themselves off from family and friends, often from humanity in ented type of industrialization in order to come to the fore.
general, by their assiduity and diligence.
Work, one might add, provided a strategic protection for those
AD ASTRA PER ASPERA
who could not live up to all the requirements of the prevailing
character ideal. For we have no right to assume that even the The ambitious note in the inner-directed person's attitude toward
successful men of the period were in complete adjustment with work in the phase of transitional growth of population was ex-
the social character imposed on them. Many apparently well-ad- pressed in the schoolbook proverb: ad astra per aspera. The stars
justed men of an older time in American life must have been were far away, but still he aimed from them, in terms of a lifetime
aware that their acceptance of inner-direction involved their own of effort. He could afford such a long-term commitment because
efforts to conform—that their conformity was far from auto- of the generality of the aim: he wanted money or power or fame
matic. or some lasting achievement in the arts or the professions. He
The linkage between work and property in an era of private wanted to leave a reputation, a memorial, something as tangible
competitive capitalism (as compared with the later capitalism de- as Mr. Darling's tombstone inscription, still fairly legible after
scribed by Berle and Means in The Modern Corporation and one hundred and fifty years of New England weather.
Private Property) reinforced the possibilities of isolation from But there was another, a social, reason why long-term ambition
people. Property, for the inner-directed man, became freely of this sort could be afforded. The beckoning frontier of colo-
transferable; the individual was not attached to it as in the earlier nization and industrialization, the beckoning frontier of intellec-
era by sentimental and traditional ties, but he attached it to him- tual discovery, too, required long-term investment. To build a
self by his choices, by his energetic actions. No longer an affair railroad or an Indian civil service or the intellectual system of a
of the extended family, property became an extended part, a Comte, a Clerk Maxwell, or a Marx was not an affair of a few
kind of exoskeleton, for the individual self.2 months. Competition was keen. Still, the number of competitors
Yet private property of this sort, though useful as a safeguard in any single field was small, and if a man was bright and ener-
and testing ground for the inner-directed man, is probably not an getic, he could hope that his invention, capital investment, or or-
essential condition for his rise in our time. On the frontiers of the ganizational plan would not be rendered rapidly obsolete by
expanding Russian economy of the early five-year plans, there others. For, although the invisible hand of technological and
were entrepreneurs very much like European and American types intellectual change moved immeasurably faster than it had done
of many decades earlier: ambitious, energetic, self-reliant men en- in the still earlier population phase of high growth potential, it
gaged in transforming physical nature, instituting large-scale moved slowly nonetheless in comparison with today. Change was
formal organization, and revolutionizing technology. The inner- on the scale of a working lifetime; that is, an individual could
directed man—sometimes models of him were imported from hope to keep up with the others, even without paying special no-
America and Germany—made his appearance at Dneprostroi, tice to them: they were not likely to repeal or revise overnight
Magnitogorsk, and the Turk-Sib railroad. what he knew or did on his own.
2. Cf. William James's definition of the self in Principles of Psy- As recently as 1920 an American boy of the middle class was
chology (New York, Henry Holt, 1896), I, 291-292; and discussion in not too worried about the problem of committing himself to a
Erich Fromm, Man for Himself, pp. 135-136. career. If he came of good family, he could count on connec-
116 THE LONELY CROWD INNER-DIRECTED ROUND OF LIFE 117

tions; if not, he could count on the credit of his social—that is, his where theocratic controls are relaxed, he must decide on his own
visibly inner-directed—character. He could dream of long-term how much time to allot to play. To be sure, not much room is left
goals because the mere problem of career entry and survival was for leisure in terms of time- hours are long and work is arduous:
not acute; that he might for long be out of a job did not occur the tired businessman is invented. Nevertheless, the width of
to him. He could orient himself, if he chose a profession, by his choice is sufficient to allow us to distinguish between those who
daydreaming identification with the stars in his field. A young work at consumption with the passion of acquisition and those
doctor might think of Osier, a young lawyer of Choate or Elihu who consume as a more or less licit and occasional escape.
Root or Justice Holmes, a young scientist of Agassiz or Pasteur,
a young painter or writer of Renoir or Tolstoy. Yet there is THE ACQUISITIVE CONSUMER
often tragedy in store for the inner-directed person who may
fail to live up to grandiose dreams and who may have to struggle In an era depending on inner-direction men who exhibit the de-
in vain against both the intractability of the material and the lim- sired arduousness in the sphere of work—as shown by their pro-
itations of his own powers. He will be held, and hold himself, to ductivity—can afford a good deal of independence in their mo-
his commitment. Satirists from Cervantes on have commented on ments spared for consumption. One result, in the America of
this disparity between pursuing the stars and stumbling over the the last century, was the crazy millionaire who, having estab-
mere earthiness of earth. lished his status, save in the most exalted circles, by satisfying soci-
ety's requirements on the productive front, could do as he
pleased on the pleasure front. He could hang the "do not dis-
//. The Side Show of Pleasure turb" sign over his play as well as over his work. Once possessed
of commanding wealth, he could resist or accept as he chose the
The sphere of pleasure and consumption is only a side show in the ministrations of wives and daughters and even more specialized
era of inner-direction, work being of course the main show. This advisers on consumption, taste, and connoisseurship.
is truer for men than for women. Some men diminish attention to A period when such men live is, therefore, the heyday of con-
pleasure to the vanishing point, delegating consumption problems spicuous consumption, when energies identical with those de-
to their wives; these are the good providers. Others turn con- ployed at work are channeled by the rich into their leisure
sumption itself into work: the work of acquisition. Still others, budget. While the producer dynamically creates new networks
perhaps the majority, are able to use the sphere of pleasure as an of transportation in order to exploit resources and distribute the
occasional escape from the sphere of work. finished and semi-finished product, the consumer of this period
This divergence is characteristic of the shift from tradition-di- begins to act with equal dynamism on the market. The producer
rection to inner-direction. The tradition-directed man does not pushes; the consumer pulls. The first stage in his consumership is
make a choice whether to work or to play or whether to create a passionate desire to make things his.
a private blend of his own; matters are decided for him by tradi- Perhaps he lavishes money and energy on a house, to the point
tion. To some degree play is marked off from work, linguistically where it comes to resemble a department store—recall the won-
and by special costuming and ceremonial. To some degree work derful sets and furnishings in the films Citizen Kane and The
and play are blended, for instance in handicraft art applied to Ghost Goes West. Perhaps he gathers the treasures of Europe,
articles of daily use or in ceremonials that accompany a socially or including titled sons-in-law. Perhaps he goes in for steam yachts
economically useful activity. The inner-directed man, however, or diamonds or libraries or, united with rich cronies in civic spirit,
is freed from the direction of tradition and he is consciously and for theaters, planetariums, and zoos. In most cases the activity is
sharply aware of the difference between work and play. At least as self-justifying as the search for the North Pole, pursued with
118 THE LONELY CROWD
I N N E R - D I R E C T E D R O U N D OF LIFE 119

hardly more hesitation or boredom than the tasks of the produc- ferent way, Keynes' emphasis on what we might call relentless
tion frontier. There is no need to hesitate because in this period spending—are indexes of the social changes paving the way for
most consumer goods, like work commitments, do not become and accompanying the characterological ones.
rapidly obsolete but are good for a lifetime.
The type of acquisitive consumer who is less concerned with
building up a private hoard or hobby and more concerned with AWAY FROM IT ALL
showing off his possessions with style seems at first glance other- The acquisitive consumer brings to the sphere of consumption
directed in his attention. Yet, if we go back to Veblen's classic motivations and ideals similar to those he manifests in the sphere
work, we can see, I think, that the consumers he describes are of production. The escaping consumer seeks, on the contrary, to
other-directed in appearance only. The Veblenese conspicuous dramatize an emotional polarity between work and play.
consumer is seeking to fit into a role demanded of him by his Because the whole concept of escape is a very slippery one, we
station, or hoped-for station, in life; whereas the other-directed must always ask: escape from what and to what? The inner-
consumer seeks experiences rather than things and yearns to be directed individual can afford a certain kind of escape since his
guided by others rather than to dazzle them with display. The character and situation give him a core of sufficient self-reliance
conspicuous consumer possesses a standard allowing him readily to to permit dreaming without disintegration. He learns this as a
measure what others have, namely cash. This standard can pene- boy when he escapes by himself a good deal of the time—playing
trate the opacity of objects, even objects unique in their nature, hooky from the dreary and demanding tasks of home and school.
such as a geographical site (so much a front foot) or a beautiful Unlike Tootle the engine, he is seldom worried by the fear that,
woman (the best money can buy). This gives the consumption of if he gathers primroses by the river's brim, he will not make the
the inner-directed man its relatively impersonal quality—it is as grade—though he may be punished, since the right to play has
impersonal as his production, of which it is a reflection. Similarly, not yet been granted school children. Perhaps he will feel guilt
if he collects old masters, he is taking a standardized step on the when he escapes, but the guilt will lend savor to the adventure,
gradient of consumption for his social class at the same time that he turning escape into escapade. Like the Victorian father, the sta-
is buying a good investment or at least a good gamble. Moreover, bility of whose family life often depended on an occasional visit
he is, in a way, a "master" himself, a technical man, and he can to a prostitute, the inner-directed person can let himself go in "un-
admire the technique of the Renaissance artist, while few other-di- socialized" ways because in the ways that count, the ways of work,
rected consumers of today, even though they may know a good he has a definitely socialized self to return to.
deal more about art, dare admire the esoteric technique, or seem- To be sure, he may often be too inhibited for that. He may be
ing lack of it, of a non-representational artist. The conspicuous unable to stop timetabling himself by the internalized pocket
consumer is engaged, therefore, in an externalized kind of ri- watch that he has substituted for the chimes of the Middle Ages.
valry, as indicated by Veblen's use of such terms as "ostensible," He may be unable to shift his one-price, one-role policy even
"emulative," "conspicuous," and the rest of his beautifully ironic in dealing with status inferiors, though this, in the explicit class
thesaurus. The other-directed consumer may compete in what structure of the era, is unusual. Above all, he may feel that, with
looks like the same way, but only to the degree that the peers im- the reining in and observing of the self on all fronts, he cannot
pel him to. His desire to outshine, as I have already tried to show, afford to undertake unsanctioned experiments in spontaneity. He
is muted. may feel his character, covert as well as overt, as a kind of capital
To be sure, all these changes are changes in degree, and Veb- that might be dissipated in a catastrophic gamble—all the more
len's emphasis on leisure and consumption—like, in a very dif- dangerous in view of the lifetime goals to which he is committed.
 INNER-DIRECTED ROUND OF LIFE 121
120 THE LONELY CROWD

We see this complex process rationalized by the puritan in terms

himself the swagger and versatility of a Benvenuto Cellini or a
of "saving himself." The puritan treats himself as if he were a firm Leonardo. As the Chautauqua circuit spreads accounts of con-
and, at the same time, the firm's auditor. temporary travel and discovery, so there exists a semipopular
But we speak in this section of those who, despite internal and culture about the achievements of the ancient world — note the
popularity of Ben Hur — and of the Renaissance. Very often the
external inhibitions, are able to escape in some fashion. Escape as
we use it here means a shift of pace and attitude from the nearly occupational hardness of the era has its obverse side in sentimen-
all-embracing domain of work. Thus, as we shall see below, it tality concerning the non-work side of life.
Though fashion, of course, plays a role in the vogue of ancient
may be escape onto a "higher" level than that of business or pro-
fessional life, or onto a "lower" level. history, of European travel, and of these other escapist pursuits,
it is important, I think, for the security of the inner-directed peo-
Onward and upward with the arts. The great events of "escape ple that these spheres of interest are remote not only from their
upward" in leisure time are intermittent: Chautauqua, the travel- work but also from their immediate social concerns. Reading
ing theater, the Sunday service complete with one antibusiness about Greece — even visiting Florence — they are not forced to
preacher per year or per city, the itinerant book peddler. To think about their own epoch or themselves in any realistic sense;
come into contact with them requires some effort, and making such identifications with ancient heroes as there are can be fan-
the effort is itself a sign of virtue. There is even a change of dress tastic. We must qualify this only when we arrive at the late Vic-
—Sunday-go-to-meeting dress or top hats—to signify the change torian or Edwardian stories of Henry James or E. M. Forster, in
of role. which travel in Italy may turn out to be much more emotionally
There is, moreover, a good deal of amateur performance. Even problematic than mere escape upward for Anglo-Saxon ladies
more perhaps than plumbing, the piano and the cultivation of and gentlemen. These fictional tourists, concerned with whether
amateur musical skills mark the boundary of middle-class aspi- they are experiencing to the full the cultural contrasts and sensi-
rations to respectability. At the same time, for the mobile youth tivities they seek, find foreshadowed the ambiguities of escape
from the working class there are the mechanics' institutes and the that are typical for other-direction.
many traveling lecturers, from prison reformers to single taxers,
who analyze the workings of the system for their eager audiences. Feet on the rail. The inner-directed person may escape down
We need only recall the tremendous mushrooming of discussion as well as up. He finds in dime novels, in cock fighting, in trotting
clubs that greeted Bellamy's Looking Backward. races, in barbershop song, a variant from his working role. While
Obviously the motives of such participants are not purely es- some visit Chartres, others visit the hootchy-kootch on the Mid-
capist. There is the desire, often thinly disguised, to move on- way. Despite the efforts of the puritans and womenfolk to drive
ward and upward in the social hierarchy. Through religious re- out of life these recreations that are reminiscent of medieval pas-
vivalism and Bible reading the individual may seek to escape not times, the middle-class men of the nineteenth century make a
from this world but from the dangers of the next. Daily life is firm effort to hang on to them.
hard and drab; leisure is an occasional essay at refinement. Sherwood Anderson's work is an epic of men coming into the
Aspirations for culture make people want to escape into an house after midnight on stocking feet. How much of this lore
image of some past heroic period, as inherited from the pre-nine- survives was made plain a few years ago by Alien Funt, on one of
teenth-century upper class. Thus, the cultivated bourgeois of the "Candid Microphone" programs. Funt stood on a street cor-
the nineteenth century looks back in his leisure to an earlier and ner at three in the morning and pretended he was afraid to go
more heroic quasi-bourgeois epoch, in Periclean Athens or Ren- home. He buttonholed passing men and asked them to come home
aissance Italy. Work-driven, chained to routines, he pictures for with him, to explain to the wife why he was overfilled and over-
122 THE LONELY CROWD I N N E R - D I R E C T E D R O U N D OF L I F E I23

due. All the men were sympathetic. Though none wanted the the game), it was not part of an act designed to prove himself
role of go-between, each suggested the dodge that he himself had "one of the boys."
found workable in the same spot. One wanted him to telephone However, we must not exaggerate these distinctions between
first. Another would help him get bandaged up. Still another inner-directed and other-directed escapes. Many inner-directed
thought that a present might fix matters. Some suggested stories, men worked painfully hard to maintain their showing of recre-
others courage. Most of the men, judging from their voices, ational competence. The Reverend Endicott Peabody, later
seemed to be of middle age. Perhaps the major point of all this is founder of Groton, established himself as the hero of a western
that in earlier generations the strictness of the American proper- frontier town in which he held a pastorate by getting up a base-
female regime gave a glamour to sin that obscured its inevitable ball team. A similar strategy, with its roots in an era depending on
limitations. tradition-direction, appears in the modern movie characterization
In thinking of the meaning of escape for the inner-directed of the Catholic priest, brother, or nun who is a good sport—as in
man we must not, however, put too much emphasis on the Bing Crosby's Going My Way, Moreover, many inner-directed
merely convention-breaking patterns of Victorian amusement, American business and professional men exploited, and still ex-
vice, and sinful fantasy. Even where the conventions were absent ploit, their leisure to make contacts. Their golf game was any-
or fragile, another issue was involved. This was the issue of com- thing but an escape, and their wives' gardening was often har-
petence in the enjoyment and judgment of recreation. nessed to the same drives for mobility. Such men had a great deal
On the one hand, the American inner-directed man was com- at stake economically, even if they had less at stake psychologi-
mitted in every generation to face increasingly the demand that cally than the other-directed.
his escape be upward with the arts. Sometimes he sought out this But there were often psychological stakes, too. The over-
escape on his own. More usually, perhaps, mobility strivings and steered men of the period, unable either to throw off or accept
feminine influence put pressure on the man to go beyond the their inhibitions, were not always able to guard them by with-
sphere where he felt competent: the sleepy businessman dragged drawal into privacy. Where there was pressure to prove oneself a
to the opera sung in a language he could not understand. But on good fellow in tavern or brothel, their bodies sometimes betrayed
the other hand, he combatted becoming merely a passive con- them into nausea or impotence—in the effort to be competent
sumer by protecting, as a rebel in shirt sleeves, his escape down- weakness of the flesh gave away unwillingness of the spirit. On
ward to the lower arts of drink mixing and drink holding, poker, the whole, however, the inner-directed man was much less sus-
fancy women, and fancy mummery. Thus he protected in his ceptible than men are today to the requirement that he be liked
minor sphere of play, as in his major sphere of work, his feeling for his recreations and loved for his vices.
of competence in the living of life. The separateness of the play
sphere was dramatized precisely because the personal competence
involved in these downward escapes could contribute little, or ///. The Struggle for Self-approval
negatively, to his social status in the world of work and family.
Because competence in play could not be directly geared to the We may sum up much that is significant about inner-direction by
production economy, the inner-directed man was somewhat less saying that, in a society where it is dominant, its tendency is to
likely than other-directed men today to exploit his recreation by protect the individual against the others at the price of leaving
telling himself that he owed it to himself to have fun. If he went him vulnerable to himself.
to baseball games (one of the few sports where the other-directed One bit of evidence for this is in the widespread fear of and
man's competence, too, rests considerably on having once played attack upon apathy which seems to date from the era of inner-
I24 THE LONELY CROWD I N N E R - D I R E C T E D R O U N D OF L I F E 125

direction. The monastic orders had faced the problem of sloth or These internalized standards of the inner-directed man allow
accidie as psychological dangers to their regimen—dangers of him, on the other hand, a certain freedom to fail in the eyes of the
which St. Augustine was acutely aware in his own struggle with others without being convinced by them of his own inadequacy.
himself. When puritanism, as Max Weber put it, turned the world Like Edison he will try and try again, sustained by his internal
into a monastery, the fear of this inner danger began to plague judgment of his worth. For while the others cannot protect him
whole social classes and not merely a few select monks. The puri- against self-criticism, self-criticism can protect him against the
tan inner-directed man was made to feel as if he had constantly to others. The inner-directed man can justify his existence not only
hold on to himself; that without ceaseless vigilance he would let by what he has done but what he will do. But this holds only up
go and drift—on the assumption that one can let go if one wills to a point. If repeated failures destroy his hope of future accom-
or, rather, if one stops willing. It is as if his character, despite its plishment, then it is likely that his internal strengths can no longer
seeming stability, did not feel stable and, indeed, the puritan, in a hold the fort against the external evidence. Overwhelmed with
theological projection of this inner feeling, had constantly to fight guilt, he will despise himself for his failures and inadequacies. The
against doubts concerning his state of grace or election. judgment, though set off by external happenings, is all the more
Out of his continuing battle against the Demon of Sloth that severe for being internalized. Durkheim was right to see com-
sometimes turned into a hypochondria about apathy, he built up paratively high suicide rates in the advanced industrial countries
a myth, still very much with us, that the tradition-directed person as symptoms of a psychological malaise uncontrolled by any cul-
is completely easy going, lacking "get up and go." This attack tural tradition.
against others as apathetic—as today, for instance, in the constant
complaints over political and civic apathy—sometimes served as a
way of fighting against apathy in oneself. In fact, the inner-
directed person testifies to his unconscious awareness that his
gyroscope is not his but is installed by others through his chronic
panic fear that it will stop spinning, that he is really not a self-
starter, that life itself is not a process of renewal but an effortful
staving off of psychic death.
Moreover, for easier bookkeeping in the control of apathy, the
inner-directed person frequently divides his life into sectors, in
each of which he can test his psychic defenses against it. Within
himself he remains the child, committed early to goals and ideals
that may transcend his powers. If these drives are demanding, no
amount of contemporary acclaim can drown the feeling of in-
adequacy: the acclaim of others may in fact be the by-product of
efforts to satisfy the self. Within himself he must find justifica-
tion not only in what he does but in what he is—not by works but
by faith is he saved. And while clever bookkeeping can trans-
mute works into faith, self-criticism is seldom completely silenced.
Mere behavioral conformity cannot meet the characterological
ideal.
 O T H E R - D I R E C T E D R O U N D OF L I F E 127
VI

The other-directed round of life: /. The Economic Problem: the Human Element
from invisible hand to glad hand As the phase of transitional growth drew to an end in America,
the "no help wanted" sign was posted on the frontier in 1890, in
imagination if not in actual land-grant practice, and the same sign
was hung out on our borders in 1924 with the virtual cutting off
Since sociability in its pure form has no ulterior end, no content of immigration from Europe. With these valedictories a great
and no result outside itself, it is oriented completely about person- symbol of hope and movement in the western world was
alities. . . . But precisely because all is oriented about them, the destroyed. The combination of curtailed immigration and a fall-
personalities must not emphasize themselves too individually. ing birth rate eventually altered the population profile of the
country; and, in the ways already hinted at, its characterological
Georg Simmel, The Sociology of Sociability
profile as well. Today it is the "softness" of men rather than the
"hardness" of material that calls on talent and opens new channels
of social mobility.
Whereas the production frontier, and even the land frontier,
may actually be roomy even in the phase of incipient population
The inner-directed person is not only chained to the endless de-
decline, it nevertheless feels crowded; and certainly the society is
mands of the production sphere; he must also spend his entire life
no longer felt to be a wilderness or jungle as it often was earlier.
in the internal production of his own character. The discomforts
This is particularly true in industry and the professions. Take,
of this internal frontier are as inexhaustible as the discomforts of
for example, the position of the foreman. He no longer stands
the frontier of work itself. Like the fear of being retired or un-
alone, a straw boss in a clear hierarchy, but is surrounded with
employed in the economic realm, apathy in many sectors of his
people. He is a two-way communication channel between the
inner or outer life is felt as underemployment of characterological
men under him and a host of experts above and around him: per-
resources. The inner-directed man has a generalized need to master
sonnel men, safety directors, production engineers, comptroller's
resource exploitation on all the fronts of which he is conscious.
representatives, and all the rest of the indirect managerial work
He is job-minded.
force. The plant manager is hardly better off for emotional el-
The frontiers for the other-directed man are people; he is
bowroom: he is confronted not only with the elaborate intra-
people-minded. Hence both work and pleasure are felt as activi-
plant hierarchy but with the public outside: the trade association
ties involving people. Many of the job titles that exist today ex-
group, the unions, consumers, suppliers, the government, and
isted in the earlier era; many recreations likewise. My effort is to
public opinion. Likewise, the professional man feels surrounded
see how change of character is connected with change of mean-
by a swarm of competitors, turned out by the vastly expanded
ing in the same pursuits as well as with development of new pur-
educational system of a society whose capital plant is in such good
suits.
shape that it can afford to devote—in fact, can hardly help de-
voting—a large share of the national income to the service trades
and professions and to education for their proper use.
People, therefore, become the central problem of industry.
This does not mean that the older revolutions in tooling, the ma-
126
128 THE LONELY CROWD I29
O T H E R - D I R E C T E D R O U N D OF L I F E

chine process, and factory organization come to a halt. Rather, He also told the interviewer that his principal worry is that he
advances here are increasingly routinized; the continuing incre- does not get along too well with another top executive of his com-
ment in productivity becomes a by-product of institutional forms. pany. He was troubled when a suggestion of his that was rejected
However, the newer industrial revolution which has reached its later turned out to be right—and the other chap knew it was right.
greatest force in America (although it is also beginning to be In such a situation he felt exposed. He cannot eat before going
manifest elsewhere, as in England) is concerned with techniques into a board meeting, and wondered to the interviewer whether
of communication and control, not of tooling or factory layout. he might not be better off running his own small company rather
It is symbolized by the telephone, the servomechanism, the IBM than as an official of a large one. For recreation he plays golf,
machine, the electronic calculator, and modern statistical methods though he does not seem to care for it and, in good inner-directed
of controlling the quality of products; by the Hawthorne coun- style, or perhaps simply good American style, does "a little fool-
seling experiment and the general preoccupation with industrial ing around with tools in the basement."
morale. The era of economic abundance and incipient population Material from interviews is, of course, open to a variety of pos-
decline calls for the work of men whose tool is symbolism and sible interpretations, and I have no great confidence that those
whose aim is some observable response from people. These manip- here suggested are correct. It would surely be erroneous to con-
ulators, of course, are not necessarily other-directed in character. clude that this executive has doubts about himself because he is
Many inner-directed people are successful manipulators of people; not fully other-directed or inner-directed (by the very definition
often, their very inner-direction makes them unaware of how of these terms, no one is fully one or the other). The point is
much they do manipulate and exploit others. Nevertheless, for rather that the modern executive, regardless of the blend of the
manipulating others, there is a somewhat greater compatibility two modes of conformity he displays, is put under constant social
between characterological other-direction and sensitivity to pressure, in and out of the office. This executive is perhaps better
others' subtler wants. able than most to verbalize the strain this pressure sets up.
This can be explained more clearly by reference to one of our
interviews. The man interviewed is the vice-president for sales
and advertising of a large west coast machine-tool company, and FROM CRAFT SKILL TO MANIPULATIVE SKILL
he is also head of one of the leading trade associations for his in- The pressure toward social competence, with its concurrent play-
dustry. In origin he is the son of a Congregationalist preacher in ing down of technical competence, suggests another aspect of this
a small midwestern town. His background, his mobility drive, his executive's history which is typical for the emergence of a new
initial technical orientation are typical for the inner-directed; but pattern in American business and professional life: if one is suc-
his situation calls for the negotiating skill and interpersonal sensi- cessful in one's craft, one is forced to leave it. The machine-tool
tivity more characteristic of the other-directed. This conflict pro- man began in the shop; as V.P. for sales and advertising he has
duces strain. Asked about political issues on which he has recently become an uneasy manipulator of people and of himself. Like-
changed his mind, he says: wise, the newspaperman who rises becomes a columnist or desk-
man, the doctor becomes the head of a clinic or hospital, the pro-
I don't think this fits the category you're working on now, but fessor becomes a dean, president, or foundation official, the fac-
I've become a great deal more tolerant of labor leaders and organ- tory superintendent becomes a holding company executive. All
izers [then catching himself]—not agitators, necessarily. I've come these men must bury their craft routines and desert their craft
to appreciate what they're doing. They don't have much choice in companions. They must work less with things and more with
taking the particular methods and means sometimes. I need a psy- people.
choanalyst. To be sure, business was always work with people. But when
130 THE LONELY CROWD O T H E R - D I R E C T E D R O U N D OF L I F E 131

the size of enterprises was small, the new head of the enterprise and businessman as a society in the earlier stages of industriali-
could remain a colleague among other colleagues; he did not cut zation is destructive of the handicraft-oriented peasant and artisan.
connections entirely and enter a new milieu. William Alien The professional of the more recent period is pushed upstairs into
White's Autobiography shows that he was able to maintain all his the managerial class while the artisan of the earlier period was
life the amiable fiction that he was only a working newspaper- pushed into the proletariat; and this testifies to a profound dif-
man. Similarly, the older generation of college presidents was ference in the two historic situations. Yet in both cases the in-
composed largely of men who continued to think of themselves dustrial process advances by building into machines and into
as scholars. So, too, the older generation of business executives smooth-flowing organizations the skills that were once built, by
kept their hats on in the office, chewed tobacco, and otherwise a long process of apprenticeship and character-formation, into
tried to retain their connections with the shop. Today, however, men.
the familiar organizational concepts of "staff and line" symbolize Despite this pattern, there are many positions in business, and
the cutting off of direct contact between the executive and the in particular in the older professions, that offer comfortable places
working staffs of both staff and line. To sit at his new big to inner-directed types. In medicine and law the ideology of free
desk—or to get there—he has to learn a new personality-oriented enterprise is strong. The attempt to apply objective criteria in
specialty and unlearn or at least soft-pedal his old skill orientation. selecting personnel persists, and is strengthened by the otherwise
To the point is a story of an engineer who is offered the far odious emphasis on grades in the educational and licensing sys-
more lucrative job of sales manager.1 He loves engineering, but tem. In a hospital, a law firm, a university, there is room not only
his wife won't let him turn down the promotion. His sponsor in the for those who can bring people together but for those who can
organization tells him it is now or never: does he want to be bring together chemicals, citations, or ideas. There are many
wearing a green eyeshade all his life? He reluctantly accepts. That niches for the work-minded craftsman who does not care to learn,
night he has a dream. He has a slide rule in his hands, and he sud- or cannot learn, to move with the crowd.
denly realizes that he does not know how to use it. He wakes in Even in big industry some such areas can continue to exist be-
panic. The dream clearly symbolizes his feeling of impotence in a cause not all technological problems—problems of the hardness
new job where he is alienated from his craft. of the material—have been solved or put on a routine problem-
The executive who has moved up from a professional position I solving basis. Moreover, there are certain key spots in big business
can hardly help feeling that his work is air conditioned: fine only and big government where at times it is precisely an inner-
so long as the machinery below runs smoothly. Those colleagues directed rate-buster who is needed—for instance, a man who can
whom he has left behind will not be slow, in their envy, to remind say no without going through an elaborate song and dance. At
him that he can no longer consider himself a competent crafts- the same time the values characteristic of other-direction may
man among his fellow craftsmen, that he does not fool them if, spread at such a rate as to hit certain sectors of the economy be-
as an editor or by-line columnist, he occasionally attends a presi- fore these sectors have solved their technological problems. In
dential press conference; or, as a college administrator, an occa- the United States the lure of other-directed work and leisure
sional scholarly convention; or, as a sales manager, occasionally styles cannot be everywhere modulated to the uneven front of
makes a mark on a drawing board. economic advance.
Indeed, a society increasingly dependent on manipulation of
people is almost as destructive of the craft-oriented professional
FROM FREE TRADE TO FAIR TRADE
1. Professor Everett Hughes of the University of Chicago, who has
guided me in the analysis of changing career lines in business and the Very soon after the Federal Trade Commission Act of 1914 out-
professions, tells this story. lawed unfair competition it became clear that what was unfair
132 THE LONELY CROWD O T H E R - D I R E C T E D R O U N D OF L I F E 133

was to lower the price of goods, though this view was concealed olistic, but what about television? In the small and marginal in-
under attacks against cheating or mislabeling of goods. But in the dustries, the monopolies not of today but of tomorrow, there is
NRA period this covert attitude received government and pub- often no need to be a good fellow. What is more, the dynamics of
lic sanction, and it became libelous to call someone a price cutter. technological change remain challenging; whole departments
With the passage of the Robinson-Patman Act and state fair-trade within industries, as well as whole industries themselves, can be-
laws, free trade and fair trade became antithetical terms. Prices come obsolete, despite their ability to negotiate repeated stays
come to be set by administration and negotiation or, where this of the death sentence imposed by technological change. Even
is too likely to bring in the Antitrust Division, by "price leader- within the great monopolistic industries there are still many tech-
ship." Relations that were once handled by the price mechanism nologically oriented folk as well as many technologically oriented
or fiat are now handled by negotiation. departments; no management planning in any one company can
Price leadership often looks to the economist simply as the completely smooth out and routinize the pressure resulting from
manipulation of devices to avoid price wars and divide the field. their innovations.
But price leadership has other aspects as well. It is a means by
which the burden of decision is put onto the "others." The so- To the extent that the businessman is freed by his character
called price leaders themselves look to the government for clues, and situation from considerations of cost, he must face the problem
since cost—that mythical will-of-the-wisp—is no longer, if it ever of finding new motives for his entrepreneurship. He must tune
really was, an unequivocal guide. Follow-the-leader is also in to the others to see what they are saying about what a proper
played in arriving at the price and working conditions of labor; business ought to be. Thus, a psychological sensitivity that begins
and unions have profited from their ability to play on the wishes with fear of being called a price cutter spreads to fear of being
of top management to be in stride with the industry leaders, and unfashionable in other ways. The businessman is as afraid of pur-
to be good fellows to boot. As we shall see later, the other- suing goals that may be obsolete as of living a style of life that
directed pattern of politics tends to resemble the other-directed may not be stylish. Oriented as he is to others, and to the con-
pattern of business: leadership is in the same amorphous state. sumption sphere, he views his own business as a consumer.
Moreover, both in business and in politics, the other-directed ex- By and large, business firms until World War I needed only
ecutive prefers to stabilize his situation at a level that does not three kinds of professional advice: legal, auditing, and engineering.
make too heavy demands on him for performance. Hence, at These were relatively impersonal services, even when, in the case
various points in the decision-making process he will vote for an of the lawyers, the services included buying—for cash on the
easier life as against the risks of expansion and free-for-all com- barrelhead—a few legislators or judges. Since the number of
petition. available specialists was fairly small in comparison with demand,
Such a business life does not turn out to be the "easy" one. For they could be absorbed into either or both of the two types of
one thing, the other-directed people do not have things all their prevailing nexus: one, the family-status-connection nexus which
own way in business any more than they do in politics. Free trade persisted from earlier times in the smaller communities and does
is still a powerful force, despite the incursions of the fair traders. so even today in these communities and in the South; the other,
Many observers, judging the degree of monopoly by looking at the cash nexus based on performance, or on "character" in the
the percentage of assets controlled by the large, administered- older sense. Today the buyer is, first of all, not sure which of
price corporations, overlook the fact that even a small percentage many services to buy: shall he get a lawyer or a public relations
of companies outside the range of the glad hand can have a lever- man or a market research agency or call in a management con-
age quite disproportionate to their assets. Rubber may be a mo- sulting firm to decide; second, he is not sure of his choice among
nopoly, but will we always need rubber? Movies may be monop- the many potential suppliers of each of these services—none of
 134 THE LONELY CROWD O T H E R - D I R E C T E D R O U N D OF L I F E 135
whom must he accept either for family-status-connection reasons The word fair in part reflects a carry-over of peer-group values
or for obviously superior character and performance. Thus choice into business life. The peer-grouper is imbued with the idea of
will turn on a complex of more or less accidental, whimsical fac- fair play; the businessman, of fair trade. Often this means that he
tors: a chance contact or conversation, a story in Business Week must be willing to negotiate matters on which he might stand on
or a "confidential" newsletter, the luck of a salesman. his rights. The negotiator, moreover, is expected to bring home
We can see the shift in many corporate histories. A business not only a specific victory but also friendly feelings toward him
that begins as a small family enterprise, whose founders have their and toward his company. Hence, to a degree, the less he knows
eye on the main chance—with a focus on costs and a "show me" about the underlying facts, the easier it will be to trade conces-
attitude about good will and public relations—often alters its sions. He is like the street-corner salesman who, reproached for
aims in the second generation. Fortune is put on the table, a trade selling for four cents apples that cost him five, said "But think of
association is joined, and the aim becomes not so much dollars as the turnover!" Here again craft skill, if not an actual drawback,
the possession of those appurtenances which an up-to-date com- becomes less important than manipulative skill.
pany is supposed to have. We see a succession of demi-intellectuals Obviously, much of what has been said applies to the trade
added to the staff: industrial relations directors, training directors, unions, the professions, and to academic life as well as to the busi-
\ safety directors. A house organ is published; consultants are called ness world. The lawyer, for instance, who moves into top posi-
in on market research, standard operating procedures, and so on; tions inside and outside his profession is no longer necessarily a
shop and store front have their faces lifted; and in general status craftsman who has mastered the intricacies of, let us say, corpo-
is sought, with profits becoming useful as one among many sym- rate finance, but may be one who has shown himself to be a good
bols of status and as the reserve for further moves toward a status- contact man. Since contacts need to be made and remade in
dictated expansion. every generation and cannot be inherited, this creates lucrative
In many cases this shift is accompanied by a conflict of the opportunities for the mobile other-directed types whose chief
older, more inner-directed with the younger, more other-directed ability is smooth negotiation.
generation. The older men have come up through the shop or
through a technical school with no pretensions in the field of hu-
FROM THE BANK ACCOUNT TO THE EXPENSE ACCOUNT
man relations. The younger ones are imbued with the new ethic.
They seem still to be concerned about making money, and to In this phrase Professor Paul Lazarsfeld once summed up some
some extent they are, but they are also concerned with turning recent changes in economic attitudes. The expense account is
their company into the model which they learned at business tied in with today's emphasis on consumption practices as firmly
school. Businessmen recognize this new orientation when they as the bank account in the old days was tied in with production
speak of themselves, as they frequently do, as trustees for a variety ideals. The expense account gives the glad hand its grip. In doing
of publics. And while they try to manipulate these publics and to so it still further breaks down the wall that in the era depending
balance among them, they, like the political leaders, are manip- on inner-direction separated the paths of pleasure and of work.
ulated by the expectations the public has, or is thought to have, of The successful other-directed man brings to business the set of
them. attitudes learned in the sphere of consumption not only when he
If one had to set a date for the change, one might say that the appraises his own firm with a customer's eye but also when he is
old epoch ended with the death of Henry Ford. After his death "in conference."
his firm, a last stronghold of older ways, completed the installation Business is supposed to be fun. As World War II inflation cooled
of new labor, accounting, and other managerial techniques and off, the business pages repeatedly carried speeches at conventions
orientations. on the theme: "Now selling will be fun again!" The inner-
136 THE LONELY CROWD O T H E R - D I R E C T E D R O U N D OF L I F E 137

directed businessman was not expected to have fun; indeed, it was Meanwhile, I do not wish to exaggerate the emphasis on human
proper for him to be gloomy and even grim. But the other- relations even in the bureaucratized sectors of the economy.
directed businessman seems increasingly exposed to the mandate There is much variety still: some companies, such as Sears Roe-
that he enjoy the sociabilities that accompany management. The buck, seem to be run by glad handers, while others like, let us
shortening of hours has had much greater effect on the life of the say, Montgomery Ward, are not; some, like Anaconda, are public
working class than on that of the middle class: the executive and relations conscious; others, like Kennecott, are less so. Much cur-
professional continues to put in long hours, employing America's rent progress in distribution, even in selling, tends to reduce the
giant productivity less to leave for home early than to extend importance of the salesman. This is clear enough in the Automat.
his lunch hours, coffee breaks, conventions, and other forms of Moreover, the personality aspects of selling can be minimized
combining business with pleasure. Likewise, much time in the wherever a technician is needed: for instance, salesmen of special-
office itself is also spent in sociability: exchanging office gossip ized equipment which requires a reorientation of the customer's
("conferences"), making good-will tours ("inspection"), talking work force. Though IBM salesmen have to be go-getters, they
to salesmen and joshing secretaries ("morale"). In fact, deplet- also have to know how to wire a tabulating machine and, still
ing the expense account can serve as an almost limitless occupa- more important, how to rationalize the information flow within
tional therapy for men who, out of a tradition of hard work, a a company. Hence, although they are facilitators of the commu-
dislike of their wives, a lingering asceticism, and an anxiety nications revolution, they must be no less craft oriented than the
about their antagonistic cooperators, still feel that they must put salesmen of the less complex equipment of an earlier era. Within
in a good day's work at the office. But, of course, Simmel would most such industries there is a great need for technically minded
not admit, in his brilliant essay from which I quoted at the head people who are, to a considerable degree, protected by their
of this chapter, that this kind of sociability, carrying so much indispensable skills from having to be nice to everybody, with
workaday freight, was either free or sociable. or without an expense account.
For the new type of career there must be a new type of edu-
cation. This is one factor, of course not the only one, behind the
increasing vogue of general education and the introduction of II. The Milky Way
the humanities and social studies into technical high school and
university programs. The educators who sponsor these programs In the preceding chapter, I symbolized the ambition of the inner-
urge cultivating the "whole man," speak of training citizens for directed man by referring to a frequent motto of his period: ad
democracy, and denounce narrow specialisms—all valuable astra per aspera. The inner-directed man, socialized with refer-
themes. Indeed this book grows in part out of the stimulation of ence to an older model, might choose for emulation a star from
teaching in a general social science program. But while it may be the heroes of his field. By contrast, the other-directed person does
doubtful that engineers and businessmen will become either better not so often think of his life in terms of an individualized career.
citizens or better people for having been exposed to these pro- He seeks not fame, which represents limited transcendence of a
grams, there is little question that they will be more suave. They particular peer-group or a particular culture, but the respect and,
may be able to demonstrate their edge on the roughnecks from more than the respect, the affection, of an amorphous and shift-
the "tech" schools by trotting out discourse on human relations. ing, though contemporary, jury of peers.
Such eloquence may be as necessary for professional and business To attain this goal he struggles not with the hardness of the
success today as a knowledge of the classics was to the English material but with the very antagonistic cooperators who are en-
politician and high civil servant of the last century. gaged in the same pursuit and to whom he looks at the same time
 138 THE LONELY CROWD O T H E R - D I R E C T E D R O U N D OF L I F E 139

for values and for judgments of value. Instead of referring him- recognizable claim on a new piece of territory—often with quite
self to the great men of the past and matching himself against his grandiose and imperialistic trappings. If he founded a firm, this
stars, the other-directed person moves in the midst of a veritable was his lengthened shadow. Today the man is the shadow of the
Milky Way of almost but not quite indistinguishable contempo- firm. Such long-term aims as exist are built into the firm, the in-
raries. This is partly a tribute to the size of the educated middle stitution; this is also the repository of the imperialistic drives that
class in the phase of incipient decline of population. sometimes take shape as the institution harnesses the mild and
The uncertainty of life in our day is certainly a factor in the tractable wills of many other-directed people who are competing
refusal of young people to commit themselves to long-term goals. for places of marginal differentiation on the Milky Way.
War, depression, military service, are felt today as obstacles to To outdistance these competitors, to shine alone, seems hope-
planning a career far more than in the period prior to World War less, and also dangerous. To be sure, one may try to steal a march
I. But these changes are not the whole story: the type of man - t o work harder, for instance, than the propaganda about work-
who will not commit himself to long-range goals rationalizes his ing would permit—but these are petty thefts, not major stick-ups.
perspective on the future and his deferral of commitment by point- They do, however, keep the competition for a position on the
ing to the all too evident uncertainties. We can conceive of people major streamlined runs of occupational life from being entirely
living at a time of equal uncertainty who would, out of ignorance cooperative. Yet even such behavior that may marginally flout
and insensitivity as much as out of strength of character, plow the prevailing concepts of fairness looks to the peer-group for its
ahead in pursuit of extensive aims. Doubtless, many other factors norms of what is to be desired. And since each projects his own
are also in the air: such as the fact, mentioned in a preceding sec- tendencies to unfair play onto the others, this, too, requires liv-
tion, that mobility often depends on leaving one's craft skill be- ing in a state of constant alert as to what the others may be up to.
hind; and this very fork in the road which separates avenues Hence the Milky Way is not an easy way, though its hardships
within a craft from those achievable only by leaving the craft, differ from those of the earlier era. Obliged to conciliate or ma-
suggests itself at an early stage of occupational life and compli- nipulate a variety of people, the other-directed person handles all
cates the planning of the mobile youth's career. men as customers who are always right; but he must do this with
There are certain positive sides to this development. The seem- the uneasy realization that, as Everett Hughes has put it, some are
ingly sure commitment of many inner-directed youths was based more right than others. This diversity of roles to be taken with a
on an unquestioning acceptance of parental orders and parental diversity of customers is not institutionalized or clear cut, and
ranking of occupations. The other-directed youth of today often the other-directed person tends to become merely his succes-
asks more of a job than that it satisfy conventional status and pe- sion of roles and encounters and hence to doubt who he is or
cuniary requirements; he is not content with the authoritative where he is going. Just as the firm gives up the one-price policy
rankings of earlier generations. The age of other-direction does for an administered price that is set in secrecy and differs with
open up the possibilities of more individual and satisfying choices each class of customer depending on the latter's apparent power
of career, once society's pressure for an early decision, and the per- and requirements of "good will," so the other-directed person
son's feeling of panic if he can make no decision, can be relaxed. gives up the one-face policy of the inner-directed man for a multi-
face policy that he sets in secrecy and varies with each class
It follows that the heavens of achievement look quite differ- of encounters.
ent to the other-directed youth than they did to his inner-di- United with others, however, he can seek a modicum of social,
rected predecessor. The latter found security in moving to the economic, and political protection. The peer-group can decide
periphery of the various frontiers and establishing an isolated and that there are certain outcasts, in class or ethnic terms, to whom
140 THE LONELY CROWD VII
the glad hand need not be extended, or who can (like the Negro
in the South) be forced to personalize without the privilege of
demanding a reciprocal response. A class of customers can be po- The other-directed round of life (continued)
litically created who are by definition wrong. Yet no amount of the night shift
exclusiveness, though it may make life a bit easier for the insiders,
can completely guarantee continuance in a place of visibility and
approval in the Milky Way.

But it must not be supposed that in the midst of all their toils the
people who live in democracies think themselves to be pitied; the
contrary is noticed to be the case. No men are fonder of their own
condition. Life would have no relish for them if they were delivered
from the anxieties which harass them, and they show more attach-
ment to their cares than aristocratic nations to their pleasures.
Tocqueville, Democracy in America

The only thing that has changed since Tocqueville wrote (no
small change, it is true) is that the sphere of pleasures has itself
become a sphere of cares. Many of the physical hardships of the
older frontiers of production and land use have survived in altered,
psychological form on the newer one of consumption. Just as we
saw in the previous chapter that the day shift of work-mindedness
is invaded by glad-hand attitudes and values that stem in part
from the sphere of leisure, so the night shift of leisure-mindedness
is haunted by the others with whom one works at having a good
time.
First of all, however, with the rise of other-direction, we see
the passing both of the acquisitive consumers and of the escapists
of the earlier era. The passion for acquisition diminishes when
property no longer has its old stability and objective validity;
escape diminishes by the very fact that work and pleasure are
interlaced. We can see these new tendencies, in what is perhaps
their most extreme form, the attitudes toward food and sexual
experience prevailing among some upper middle-class groups.

141
142 THE L O N E L Y CROWD T H E N I G H T SHIFT 143
abundance of America in the phase of incipient population
decline is perhaps the most important factor in this development;
/. Changes in the Symbolic Meaning of Food and Sex it has made the good foods available to nearly everybody. The
seasonal and geographic limitations that in the earlier period nar-
From the Wheat Bowl to the Salad Bowl. Among inner-directed rowed food variations for all but the very rich have now been
types there is of course great variation as to interest in food. In largely done away with by the network of distribution and the
America—the story is different among the food-loving peoples techniques of preserving food—both being legacies from the
of the rest of the world—puritans and nonpuritans of the recent phase of transitional population growth. The consumer's choice
past might use food for display, with relatively standardized among foods need therefore no longer be made on the basis either
menus for company and for dining out; what was put on display of tradition or of Malthusian limits.
was a choice cut of meat, an elegant table, and good solid cook- As a result, both the setting of the meal and its content are af-
ing. All this was an affair largely of the women, and in many cir- fected. Informality breaks down the puritan inhibition against
cles food was not a proper topic for dinner conversation. Having talking about food and drink, just as Mexican casseroles and cop-
the proper food was something one owed to one's status, one's per kettles replace the white napery and classic decor of the nine-
claim to respectability, and more recently to one's knowledge of teenth-century middle-class table. More important still, the house-
hygiene with its calories and vitamins. (This last pattern did not wife can no longer blame the preferential and limited cuisine of-
spread to the South, where an older, more gastronomically rugged fered by a kitchen servant for her failure to personalize her own
tradition of ceremonial fondness for food prevailed.) The earlier tastes in food. In the period of incipient population decline serv-
editions of the Boston Cooking School Cookbook breathe this air ants disappear from the middle-class home, and where they do
of solidity, conservatism, and nutrition-mindedness. not, they lack any traditional pattern of prerogatives that allows
The other-directed person of the midtwentieth century in them, rather than the host and hostess, to control the menu and its
America, on the contrary, puts on display his taste and not di- stylized serving. No walls of privacy, status, or asceticism remain
rectly his wealth, respectability, cubic capacity, or caloric to protect or prevent one from displaying personalized taste in
soundness. Indeed we saw in Chapter IV how the radio begins the food and decor as an element in one's competition with others.
other-directed person's training in food taste even before the child The diner has the power, unlike Jiggs, to decide that corned beef
goes to school and how seriously he takes his lessons. While well- and cabbage is an amusing dish; he can ransack immigrant cook-
educated upper middle-class parents are becoming hesitant to tell eries or follow the lead of food columnist Clementine Paddleford
children to eat something because it is good for them—lest they toward exoticism. Only at the conventional conventions can one
create oral complexes—they join the radio in discussion of what still find the uniform menu of steak or chicken, potatoes, and mar-
is "good" as a matter of taste. Often, in fact, this merely disguises bled peas. And at home, in place of the staple menu, the hostess
the emotion focused on the child's eating habits, almost as much today is encouraged to substitute her own specialty, such as la-
emotion as their parents concentrated on the regimen of no-non- sagna or rustoffel. Men are involved almost as much as women,
sense plate cleaning. The other-directed person is thus prepared and in the kitchen as well as at the back-yard grill.
for the search for marginal differentiation not only in what he sets The most popular cookbook today is said to be The Joy of
before his guests but in how it is talked about with them. Cooking, and the number of specialized cookbooks—ethnic,
Earlier there existed a small coterie of gourmets; fastidious en- chatty, and atmospheric—constantly increases to meet the de-
joyment of food was one hobby, among others, that inner- mand for marginal differentiation. The very change in titles—
directed people might choose. Today, in wide circles, many peo- from the Boston Cooking School Cookbook to How to Cook a
ple are and many more feel that they must be gourmets. The Wolf or Food Is a Four Letter Word—reveals the changing atti-
144 THE LONELY CROWD THE NIGHT SHIFT 145

tude. For the other-directed person cannot lean on such objective sauces, dishes en casserole, Gourmet magazine, wine and liqueurs,
standards of success as those which guided the inner-directed spread west from New York and east from San Francisco, as men
person: he may be haunted by a feeling that he misses the joy in take two-hour lunch periods and exhibit their taste in food and
food or drink which he is supposed to feel. Mealtime must now wine, as the personalized cookbook tends to replace the Boston
be "pleasurable"; the new Fireside Cookbook is offered to "peo- Cooking School type—in all these signs of the times we see indi-
ple who are not content to regard food just as something one cations of the new type of character. Recently, Russell Lynes, in
transfers periodically from plate to mouth." And if one still fails his article, "Highbrow, Lowbrow, Middlebrow,"2 sought to
to get much joy out of the recipes given there, he may search in delineate the contemporary urban American social system in
books like Specialite de la Maison to see what "others" are eating terms of similar consumption indexes. Thus, the tossed salad is the
—to get the "favorite recipes" of such people as Noel Coward sign of the high-brow, who may also be tagged by his taste in
and Lucius Beebe. Fred MacMurray and Claudette Colbert tes- cars, clothes, and posture. What we really see emerging is an em-
tify to the delights of new concoctions such as "The Egg and I bryonic social system whose criteria of status are inconsistent
Julep"; and "There is nothing," writes MacMurray in a little col- with the criteria of the more traditional class system. This has
lection of his favorite egg recipes, "so appealing as a pair of fried been seen by Lloyd Warner, who actually defines class less in terms
eggs with their limpid golden eyes gazing fondly at you from the of wealth or power and more in terms of who is sociable with
center of a breakfast plate, festooned with strips of crisp bacon whom, and of styles of consumer behavior. These observers, how-
or little-pig sausage. Or poached, gaily riding a raft of toast." The ever, are exceptional; as we shall see in Chapter XI, most Ameri-
most popular translation of an old French cookbook, Tante cans continue to see their social structure in terms of an older one
Marie, is also extremely chatty, and The Joy of Cooking explains based on wealth, occupation, and position in the society-page
its chattiness by saying that originally the recipes were collected sense. But beneath these older rubrics, I believe that a much more
and written down for the author's daughter, who in turn thought amorphous structure is emerging in which opinion leadership is
"other daughters" might like them. (As there is today less teach- increasingly important, and in which the "brow" hierarchy com-
ing of daughters by mothers, the daughter must rely on the in- petes for recognition with the traditional hierarchies based on
struction of an outsider, if she is to cook at all.) In short, the wealth and occupational position.
other-directed person in his approach to food, as in his sexual
encounters, is constantly looking for a qualitative element that Sex: the Last Frontier. In the era depending on inner-direction
may elude him. He suffers from what Martha Wolfenstein and sex might be inhibited, as in classes and areas affected strongly by
Nathan Leites call "fun-morality." 1 the Reformation and Counter Reformation. Or its gratification
Of course, putting matters this way exaggerates the disad- might be taken for granted among men and within given limits,
vantages of the shift: undeniably, many more people today really as in Italy, Spain, and the non-respectable elements, such as the
enjoy food and enjoy talk about food than they did when the "riverbottom people," in every population. In both cases there
monotony of the American diet was notorious. was a certain simplification of sex, in the one instance by taboos,
Many people, to be sure, follow the new fashions in food with- in the other by tradition. The related problems of livelihood and
out being other-directed in character, just as many personnel di- of power, problems of mere existence or of "amounting to some-
rectors in industry are zealous inner-directed believers in the glad thing," were uppermost; and sex was relegated to its "proper"
hand. Even so, if we wanted to demarcate the boundaries of other- time and place: night, the wife or whore, occasional rough speech,
direction in America, we might find in the analysis of menus a and daydreams. Only in the upper classes, precursors of modern
not too inaccurate index. As tossed salads and garlic, elaborate other-directed types, did the making of love take precedence over
1. In Movies (Glencoe, Illinois, Free Press, 1950). 2. Harper's, 198 (1949), 19.
146 THE LONELY CROWD THE N I G H T SHIFT 147

the making of goods (as alleged in France) and reach the status ter at best of a few additional horsepower. He knows anyway that
of a daytime agenda. In these circles sex was almost totally sep- next year's model will be better than this year's. Even if he has
arated from production and reproduction. not been there, he knows what the night clubs are like; and he has
This separation, when it goes beyond the upper class and seen television. Whereas the deprived inner-directed person often
spreads over almost the whole society, is a sign that a society, lusted for possessions as a goal whose glamour a wealthy adult-
through birth control and all that it implies, has entered the hood could not dim, the other-directed person can scarcely con-
population phase of incipient decline by the route of industrial- ceive of a consumer good that can maintain for any length of
ization. In this phase there is not only a growth of leisure, but time undisputed dominance over his imagination. Except perhaps
work itself becomes both less interesting and less demanding for sex.
many; increased supervision and subdivision of tasks routinize For the consumption of love, despite all the efforts of the mass
the industrial process even beyond what was accomplished in the media, does remain hidden from public view. If someone else has
phase of transitional growth of population. More than before, as a new Cadillac, the other-directed person knows what that is, and
job-mindedness declines, sex permeates the daytime as well as that he can duplicate the experience, more or less. But if someone
the playtime consciousness. It is viewed as a consumption good else has a new lover, he cannot know what that means. Cadillacs
not only by the old leisure classes but by the modern leisure have been democratized. So has sexual glamour, to a degree: with-
masses. out the mass production of good-looking, well-groomed youth,
The other-directed person, who often suffers from low respon- the American pattern of sexual competition could not exist. But
siveness, may pursue what looks like a cult of effortlessness in there is a difference between Cadillacs and sexual partners in the
many spheres of life. He may welcome the routinization of his degree of mystery. And with the loss or submergence of moral
economic role and of his domestic life; the auto companies may shame and inhibitions, but not completely of a certain uncon-
tempt him by self-opening windows and self-shifting gears; he scious innocence, the other-directed person has no defenses
may withdraw all emotion from politics. Yet he cannot handle against his own envy. He is not ambitious to break the quantita-
his sex life in this way. Though there is tremendous insecurity tive records of the acquisitive consumers of sex like Don Juan, but
about how the game of sex should be played, there is little doubt he does not want to miss, day in day out, the qualities of experi-
as to whether it should be played or not. Even when we are con- ence he tells himself the others are having.
sciously bored with sex, we must still obey its drive. Sex, there- In a way this development is paradoxical. For while cookbooks
fore, provides a kind of defense against the threat of total apathy. have become more glamorous with the era of other-direction, sex
This is one of the reasons why so much excitement is channeled books have become less so. The older marriage manuals, such as
into sex by the other-directed person. He looks to it for reassur- that of Van der Velde (still popular, however), breathe an ec-
ance that he is alive. The inner-directed person, driven by his in- static tone; they are travelogues of the joy of love. The newer
ternal gyroscope and oriented toward the more external prob- ones, including some high school sex manuals, are matter of fact,
lems of production, did not need this evidence. toneless, and hygienic—Boston Cooking School style. Neverthe-
While the inner-directed acquisitive consumer could pursue less, much as young people may appear to take sex in stride along
the ever receding frontiers of material acquisition, these frontiers with their vitamins, it remains an era of competition and a locus of
have lost much of their lure for the other-directed person. As we the search, never completely suppressed, for meaning and emo-
saw in Chapter III, the latter begins as a very young child to know tional response in life. The other-directed person looks to sex not
his way around among available consumer goods. He travels for display but for a test of his or her ability to attract, his or her
widely, to camp or with his family. He knows that the rich man's place in the "rating-dating" scale—and beyond that, in order to
car is only marginally, if at all, different from his own—a mat- experience life and love.
148 THE LONELY CROWD THE NIGHT SHIFT 149

One reason for the change is that women are no longer objects
for the acquisitive consumer but are peer-groupers themselves.
The relatively unemancipated wife and socially inferior mistresses
//. Changes in the Mode of
Consumption of Popular Culture
of the inner-directed man could not seriously challenge the qual-
ity of his sexual performance. Today, millions of women, freed
ENTERTAINMENT AS ADJUSTMENT TO THE GROUP
by technology from many household tasks, given by technology
many "aids to romance," have become pioneers, with men, on In Chapter IV we saw how the inner-directed youth was made
the frontier of sex. As they become knowing consumers, the anx- ready to leave home and go far both by directly didactic liter-
iety of men lest they fail to satisfy the women also grows—but ature and by novels and biographies that gave him a sense of pos-
at the same time this is another test that attracts men who, in sible roles on the frontiers of production. In contrast to this, the
their character, want to be judged by others. The very ability of other-directed person has recourse to a large literature that is in-
women to respond in a way that only courtesans were supposed tended to orient him in the noneconomic side of life. This orien-
to in an earlier age means, moreover, that qualitative differences tation is needed because, with the virtually complete disappear-
of sex experience—the impenetrable mystery—can be sought for ance of tradition-direction, no possibility remains of learning the
night after night, and not only in periodic visits to a mistress or art of life in the primary group—a possibility that persisted even
brothel. Whereas the pattern of an earlier era was often to make in the mobile families of the era dependent on inner-direction.
fun of sex, whether on the level of the music hall or of Balzac's The child must look early to his mass-media tutors for instruc-
Droll Stories, sex today carries too much psychic freight to be tion in the techniques of getting directions for one's life as well
really funny for the other-directed person. By a disguised asceti- as for specific tricks of the trade.
cism it becomes at the same time too anxious a business and too We can trace an edifying sequence that runs from the success
sacred an illusion. biography of the Samuel Smiles or the Horatio Alger sort to
This anxious competitiveness in the realm of sex has very little the contemporary books and periodicals that deal with peace of
in common with older patterns of social climbing. To be sure, mind. The earlier books are directly concerned with social and
women still use sex as a means to status in spheres controlled by economic advance, dealt with as achievable by the virtues of
men. But they can do this chiefly in industries that are still com- thrift, hard work, and so on. Then we find in the first years of this
petitive in the pre-monopolistic patterns. Thus until recently the century the development in America of the now almost forgotten
theater and the movies were controlled by novi homines who re- "New Thought" movement. As described by A. Whitney Gris-
mind us of those early nineteenth-century British mill owners wold, the movement's motto was: "Think Your Way to
who, before the Factory Acts, relied on their mills as a harem.3 Wealth." 5 That is, wealth was to be achieved no longer by ac-
And Warner, Havighurst, and Loeb in Who Shall Be Educated?4 tivity in the real world but by self-manipulation, a kind of eco-
describe how women schoolteachers may still cabin-date their nomic Coueism. But wealth itself as a goal was unquestioned.
way up the relatively unbureaucratized hierarchies of local school From then on, inspirational literature becomes less and less ex-
systems. These, however, are exceptional cases; the search for clusively concerned with social and economic mobility. Dale
experience on the frontier of sex is, in the other-directed era, gen- Carnegie's How to Win Friends and Influence People, written in
erally without ulterior motives. 1937, recommends self-manipulative exercises for the sake not
only of business success but of such vaguer, non-work goals as
3. See G. M. Young, Portrait of an Age (London, Oxford Uni-
versity Press, 1936), p. 16, n. i. 5. "The American Cult of Success" (Doctor's thesis, Yale Uni-
4. W. Lloyd Warner, Robert J. Havighurst, and Martin Loeb, versity, 1933); abstracted in American Journal of Sociology, XL
Who Shall Be Educated? (New York, Harper, 1944), e.g., p. 103. (1934). 309-318.
 THE LONELY CROWD THE NIGHT SHIFT 151

popularity. Perhaps it is not only the change from depression to From an examination of a group of women's magazines, Ladies'
full employment that led Carnegie to write How to Stop Worry- Home Journal, American, Good Housekeeping, and Mademoiselle,
ing and Start Living in 1948, in which self-manipulation is no for October, 1948, I concluded that a good many stories and
longer oriented toward some social achievement but is used in a features and, of course, far less subtly, many ads, dealt largely
solipsistic way to adjust one to one's fate and social state. The with modes of manipulating the self in order to manipulate others,
same tendencies can be found in a large group of periodicals primarily for the attainment of intangible assets such as affection.
with an interlocking directorate of authors and with titles such as Two stories will illustrate: "The Rebellion of Willy Kepper" by
Journal of Living, Your Personality, Your Life, which testified Willard Temple in Ladies' Home Journal and "Let's Go Out
to the alteration of paths to upward mobility and to the increase Tonight" by Lorna Slocombe in the American magazine.
of anxiety as a spur to seeking expert help. The New York Times
Book Review of April 24, 1949, advertises Calm Yourself and Handling the office. "The Rebellion of Willy Kepper" is un-
How to Be Happy While Single; the latter deals according to the usual in that it deals with a work situation rather than one of do-
advertisement with such problems as "how to handle the men in mestic and leisure life. It is the story of a paint salesman, Willy, a
your life (heavy dates, office companions, friends, drunks) . . shy young man who has worked himself up through the factory.
making conversation . . . liquor, boredom—just about every There is a pretty file clerk whom Willy wants to know better
problem you'll encounter on your own." Certainly, there are but does not know how to approach. At this point the stock-
many positive sides to a development that substitutes for the holder's son enters the business, gets the promotion Willy hoped
older, external, and often pointless goals such as wealth and power, for, and makes time with the file clerk. Willy, previously so mild,
the newer, internal goals of happiness and peace of mind, though loses his temper and becomes gruff and rasping with people in
of course, one must always ask whether, in changing oneself, the office and shop. This is his "rebellion." This change of mood
one is simply adapting to the world as it is without protest or criti- is of course noticed at once.
cism. Willy, however, has built up an enormous capital of good will
Here, however, I am not evaluating these trends but am in- by his previous good temper, so that plant people, instead of turn-
terested in showing how popular culture is exploited for group- ing on him, try to find out what the trouble is; it cannot be Willy's
adjustment purposes not only in the form of manifestly didactic fault. They discover that the stockholder's son is to blame, and
literature and services but also in fictional guise. There is nothing they set out to hex him—he trips into paint, gets orders mixed up,
new in the observation that people who would rather not admit and rapidly learns how dependent he is on others' liking him if
their need for help, or who prefer to spice it with fun, look to the he is to do his job. Willy, in fact, saves him from his worst jam
movies and other popular media as the sources of enlightenment. with a customer, and after a few knocks of this sort the son de-
In the studies of the movies made under the Payne Fund twenty cides to start at the bottom in the factory, in order to earn his
years ago, much evidence was gathered concerning use of the own capital of good will. Thus the road to Willy's promotion is
movies by young people who wanted to learn how to look, dress, reopened. At the end Willy asks the stockholder's son what tech-
and make love.6 The combination of learning and excitement niques he used with the file clerk. He tells Willy to compliment
was clear in these cases, especially among children of lower-class her on her eyes; he does so and succeeds in making a date.
origin suddenly brought face to face with sex and splendor. To- There are some fairly obvious things to be said about this story.
day, however, as audiences have become more sophisticated, In the first place, though it is set in the sphere of production, it
the mixture of messages has become more subtle. deals with the sales end of a factory which is a net of interper-
6. See, for example, Herbert Blumer and Philip Hauser, Movies, sonal relations that will deliver paint to the customer only against
Delinquency, and Crime (New York, Macmillan, 1933), pp. 102 et seq- a bill of lading marked "good will." The work situation is seen in
 152 THE LONELY CROWD THE NIGHT SHIFT 153
terms of its human element and its noneconomic incentives. There and sentimental. In contrast, the type of "realism" in modern
are no problems about paint, but only about people. In the second magazine fiction is neither uplifting nor escapist. There is an all
place, the stockholder's son was able to date the girl not because too sensible refusal, in a story like "Let's Go Out Tonight," to
of his wealth and position but because of his line, his skill in the admit that there can be decisively better marriages than this one,
leisure arts of language. Language is presented as a free con- with its continuous petty deception. The reader of these stories
sumers' good; one, moreover, of which the consumer is also a will by no means always find his ideals and ways of life ap-
producer; there is no patent or monopoly on lines. Finally, we proved—it is a mistake to suppose that such magazines as Ladies'
have a picture of the "antagonistic cooperators" of the same s e x - Home Journal are edited by a formula of giving "the pub-
Willy and the son—whose rivalry for job and girl is so muted that lic what it wants"—but he is seldom stimulated to make great
they can exchange advice on how to win both; in a way, they are demands on life and on himself. In both of the stories I have used
more interested in each other's approval than in victory. In the here as illustration, the assumption is made that a solution of con-
end Willy has regained his lost good temper and his rival has given flict is available that involves neither risk nor hardship but only
up his early arrogance. the commodities—interpersonal effort and tolerance—that the
other-directed person is already prepared to furnish.
Handling the home. "Let's Go Out Tonight" pictures the con-
sumption frontier of a young, college-bred suburban matron. Her "Conspiracy" theories of popular culture are quite old,
husband is a good provider and faithful; her two children are summed up as they are in the concept of "bread and circuses."
healthy; she has everything—except enough attention from her In "The Breadline and the Movies" Thorstein Veblen presented
tired businessman spouse. The latter comes home, reads a paper, a more sophisticated concept, namely, that the modern American
goes to bed, and his wife complains to her friend in their morn- masses paid the ruling class for the privilege of the very entertain-
ing telephone chat that they never go places and do things any ments that helped to keep them under laughing gas. Such views
more. She looks back nostalgically on her college days when he assume the culture to be more of a piece than it is. Group adjust-
was courting her and when life seemed glamorous. Suddenly she ment and orientational influence in contemporary popular culture
decides to go back to her college to see just what the magic was do not serve the interest of any particular class. In fact, pressures
in those days. for other-directed conformity appear strongest in the better edu-
When she gets to her old room she realizes that only in retro- cated strata. The form these pressures take may be illustrated by
spect was her college dating effortless. Actually, she recalls, she a few examples.
slaved to arrange parties for her future husband, to manipulate
him into kissing her and finally into proposing. She concludes Heavy harmony. The head of a progressive boarding school in
that she just has been loafing on her job as a housewife, and re- the East recently addressed the parents of its children as follows:
turns full of tolerant understanding for her husband and enthu-
siasm for new and improved manipulation. By buying a new dress, The music department at X School wishes to provide for every
arranging with a sitter to have the children taken care of, and child as rich a musical experience as possible.
similar measures, she inveigles her husband into a theater date and We believe that music is a necessary part of life and its influence
is able to report success to her friend on the telephone. is felt in every phase of living. Singing and playing together can
In the era of inner-direction, stories of a similarly orientational bring understanding and good-will and it seems to me that this
cast often encouraged the reader to aspire to distant horizons, to world needs more of this kind of harmony.
play for big stakes; many such stories today strike us as escapist At X, we try to provide some kind of music participation for
154 THE LONELY CROWD THE N I G H T SHIFT 155

every child and wish to encourage more musical activity, especially she would be forgiven even more, doubtless, if she learned to like
that of playing with a group in an orchestra. Ethelbert Nevin.8
Yet granting Dorothea should learn this interpersonal art as a
This letter does not betray much interest in music as such. It benefit to her work as a nurse's aid—perhaps the sick are a special
sees music primarily as a way of bringing people together locally case and do need warmth of this sort—it is striking that she must
and internationally too. Music as a way of escape into one's bring the identical attitude into her leisure time: no change of
individual creative life—a private refuge—would strike many roles is permitted. Leisure and work must, like Dorothea herself,
such school authorities today as selfish. be stretched (assuming, falsely, that Schumann's sentimentality
is "warmer") until they completely overlap. The theme of both
A similar theme appears in more refined form in Helen Howe's
is group adjustment.
novel of Harvard academic life, We Happy Few.7 The heroine What I have said is not to be understood as a polemic for cold-
Dorothea is viewed by Miss Howe as a selfish woman who, during ness as against warmth or as a criticism of the genuine elements
the war, escapes from her social duties by having a love affair and in the other-directed person's concern for warmth, in himself and
by playing Bach and Mozart to herself on the piano. She is taken in others. Certainly it is an advance from the compulsory emo-
in the novel through a series of group-adjustment experiences tional constriction, the frightening coldness, of many inner-di-
that deflate what Miss Howe regards as her intellectual snob- rected Americans to open up sociability to a wider and more out-
bery. Becoming a nurse's aid, she meets other nurse's aids socially;
going responsiveness.
they are fine and dull. Traveling to Coeur d'Alene to be near her
son in training, she "sees" America: in the stench of the ladies' Lonely successes. In our discussion of the comics, of Tootle,
room, the sadness of platform partings, the good-heartedness of and of "Willy Kepper," we saw how modern popular culture
midwesterners. The townsfolk of Coeur d'Alene are another stresses the dangers of aloneness and, by contrast, the virtues of
group-adjusting experience; they, too, are fine and dull. At the end group-mindedness. In a thoughtful article, "The Gangster as
Dorothea returns to Cambridge a sadder and wiser woman: her Tragic Hero," Robert Warshow deals with a number of recent
pride is gone, and she has learned humbly to admire the great gangster films from this perspective.9 He notes that, inevitably,
open spaces and the open sentiments usually associated with them the gangster's success spells his undoing. For it cuts him off from
in song and story. the group—not only the law-abiding community but also his
As a symbol of the learning process, Miss Howe writes that own gang. At the peak of success he is therefore miserable and
Dorothea, while a nurse's aid staggering through agonizing days frightened, waiting to be cut down from the heights.
at the hospital, learns in her few off hours to enjoy Schumann We can interpret this as a cautionary tale about what happens
as well as her beloved Bach and Mozart: "Her aesthetic as well if one goes off on one's own pursuits. Success is fatal. According
as her human taste was stretching, too—cruder, possibly, but 8. The reference to warmth is especially significant in the analysis
warmer and more inclusive." of peer-group preferences in people. In a very interesting set of experi-
This quotation hardly needs comment. Instead of permitting ments, Solomon E. Asch has shown that the warm-cold axis is for his
the heroine to escape either up or down from the exasperating student subjects the controlling dimension of personality: people who
human contacts of a nurse's workday, Dorothea must move side- are said to be warm are positively valued no matter what other traits
ways. She must acquire warmer, group-adjusted musical tastes— they have, while people who are cold are distrusted no matter how
honorable and brave they may be. See Solomon E. Asch, "A Test for
7. I have dealt with the implications of this book in more detail in Personality," Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 41 (1946),
"The Ethics of We Happy Few," University Observer, I (1947), 19; 258-290.
I draw on this article in what follows. 9. Partisan Review, XV (1948), 240.
 THE LONELY CROWD THE N I G H T SHIFT

to the code of the movies one is not permitted to identify training in group adjustment. In the same way, we may find
the lonely escapist; his lot is pictured, like that of Dorothea in the popular culture used as training in the orientation of consumers,
novel, as a set of miseries and penances. The movie Body and Soul which is hardly a less serious problem (in many ways it is the
points a similar moral. The hero is a Jewish boy from the East same problem) for the other-directed person. Despite appear-
Side who gets to be boxing champion and proceeds to alienate all ances, the other-directed person seems often unable to get away
surrounding groups: his family circle and faithful girl; his un- from himself or to waste time with any gestures of abundance or
ambitious, devoted retinue; the East Side Jews who see him as a abandon. (Of course, if we compared patterns of alcoholic es-
hero. He agrees for a large sum to throw his last fight and bets cape, we might come up with somewhat different results.)
against himself; his losing will complete his alienation from these The inner-directed person, if influenced by Protestantism, is
groups. En route to the fight he is told that the Jews see him as a of course also unable to waste time. The mobile youth from the
hero, a champion in the fight against Hitler. Recalled to "him- lower classes shows his commitment to inner-direction by cut-
self," he double-crosses his gangster backers by winning the ting himself off from hard-drinking horse-play-indulging pals:
fight; and, poor again, he is restored to the primary group of fam- he continues the production of an inner-directed character
ily, girl, and Jews. through practicing a kind of mental bookkeeping by which the
A movie or book occasionally comes along that departs from demons of Waste and Sloth are ruthlessly driven out. Such a per-
this formula. The Fountainhead, by Ayn Rand, a popular book son has little leisure, unless he can justify it as self-improving, and
and movie, pictures its architect hero as standing out, in violent a life that has never an idle moment must have many a tense one.
integrity, against the pressure for group adjustment and, in the On the face of it the other-directed person is no puritan; he seems
end, successfully bringing the jury of his peers along with him. much less preoccupied with waste; his furnishings, manners, and
He does take all: the heights of fame, his rival's wife, the death morals are more casual. But an attenuated puritanism survives in
of his rival. What is most striking in all this, however, is the un- his exploitation of leisure. He may say, when he takes a vacation
intended caricature, both of group adjustment and of group re- or stretches a weekend, "I owe it to myself"—but the self in ques-
sistance. The group is made out not tolerant but mean, inartistic, tion is viewed like a car or house whose upkeep must be carefully
and corrupt. And group resistance is seen in terms of nobility on maintained for resale purposes. The other-directed person has no
the part of the sadistic hero, who wants to deny any ties to hu- clear core of self to escape from; no clear line between produc-
manity, any dependency. This superman for adults is the very tion and consumption; between adjusting to the group and serv-
apotheosis of the lonely success, to be admired perhaps by the ing private interests; between work and play.
reader but too stagey to be imitated. One interesting index of this is the decline of evening dress,
In all likelihood, moreover, the Ayn Rand audience that ap- especially among men, and conversely, the invasion of the office
plauds fiery denunciations of group-mindedness and submission by sport clothes. This looks like an offshoot of the cult of effort-
to others is quite unaware of its own tendencies to submission in lessness, and of course men say "it's too much trouble" in explain-
the small, undramatic situations of daily life. In that sense The ing why they don't change for dinner or the evening. But the
Fountainhead is escapist. explanation lies rather in the fact that most men today simply do
not know how to change roles, let alone mark the change by
proper costuming. Another reason may be the fear of being
GOOD-BYE TO ESCAPE? thought high-hat; one can wear gaudy shirts but not stiff ones.
So far, in these illustrations, we have seen little that would cor- Thus the sport shirt and casual dress show that one is a good fel-
respond to the unambiguous escapes of the inner-directed. Rather, low not only on the golf course or on vacation but in the office
we have seen popular culture used, often quite desperately, for and at dinner too.
 THE LONELY CROWD THE NIGHT S H I F T

Women are still permitted to dress for the evening, a sign, per-
haps, of their laggard response to changing modes. They are
more involved than men in the dying patterns of conspicuous ///. The Two Types Compared
consumption. However, they probably make more of an actual
shift from housework and babies to dinner party than many men We have completed our direct confrontation of the two types;
do, who exchange office gossip both at work and play: moreover, and it now becomes necessary to redress the balance against other-
they really like the shift, dragging the men, who would just as direction, which, I know, has come off a bad second in these pages.
soon be in the office, along with them. I have observed that It is hard for us to be quite fair to the other-directed. The term
women's shop talk of children and domestic matters is often-— itself suggests shallowness and superficiality as compared to the
though certainly not always!—conducted with more skill, interest, inner-directed, even though direction in both cases comes from
and realism than that of men since the change of role refreshes outside and is simply internalized at an early point in the life cycle
both work and play. of the inner-directed.
What is it that drives men who have been surrounded with There are factors outside of terminology that may lead readers
people and their problems on the day shift to seek often exactly to conclude that inner-direction is better. Academic and pro-
the same company (or its reflection in popular culture) on the fessional people are frequently only too pleased to be told that
night shift? Perhaps in part it is the terror of loneliness that the those horrid businessmen, those glad-handing advertisers, are
gangster movies symbolize. But certainly it makes for strain. manipulative. And, as we all know, the businessmen and adver-
Though popular culture on one level fills in between people so tisers themselves flock to plays and movies that tell them what
as to avoid any demand for conversational or sexual gambits, on miserable sinners they are. Of course it is especially gratifying to
another level the popular-culture performance is not simply a look down one's nose at Hollywood, soap opera, and other phe-
way of killing time: in the peer-group situation, it makes a de- nomena of mass culture.
mand that it be appraised. The other-directed girl who goes in Inner-directed persons of high status, moreover, are associated
company to the movies need not talk to the others during the pic- with the Anglo-Saxon tradition and with the reverence we pay
ture but is sometimes faced with the problem: should she cry at to those among the aged who are still powerful. Furthermore,
the sad places or not? What is the proper reaction, the sophisti- since the inner-directed face problems that are not the problems
cated line about what is going on? Observing movie audiences of the other-directed, they seem to be made of sterner and more
coming out of a "little" or "art" theater, it is sometimes apparent intrepid stuff. As we already find the Victorians charming, so we
that people feel they ought to react, but how? can patronize the inner-directed, especially. if we did not per-
In contrast to this, the inner-directed person, reading a book sonally suffer from their limitations, and view the era depending
alone, is less aware of the others looking on; moreover, he has on inner-direction with understandable nostalgia.
time to return at his own pace from being transported by his Furthermore I do not want to be understood as saying it is
reading—to return and put on whatever mask he cares to. The wrong to be concerned with the "others," with human relations.
poker game in the back room, with its praise of masks, fits his That we can afford to be concerned with such problems is one of
habituation to social distance, even loneliness. His successor, the important abundances of a society of advanced technological
dreading loneliness, tries to assuage it not only in his crowd but accomplishment. We must ask anyone who opposes the manipula-
in those fantasies that, like a mirror, only return his own con- tion of men in modern industry whether he prefers to return to
cerns to him. their brutalization, as in the early days of the industrial revolution.
In my scheme of values, persuasion, even manipulative persua-
160 THE LONELY CROWD PART II: POLITICS
sion, is to be preferred to force. There is the danger, in fact, when
one speaks of the "softness of the personnel," that one will be
understood to prefer hardness. On the contrary, one of the main
contentions of this book is that the other-directed person, as
things are, is already too hard on himself in certain ways and that
his anxieties, as child consumer-trainee, as parent, as worker and
player, are very great. He is often torn between the illusion that
life should be easy, if he could only find the ways of proper
adjustment to the group, and the half-buried feeling that it is not
easy for him. Under these conditions it would only complicate
his life still further to hold up the opposite illusion of stern inner-
direction as an ideal, though this is just what many people pro-
pose. In fact, just because he is other-directed he is often over-
ready to take some intransigent and seemingly convinced person
as a model of what he himself ought to be like; his very sympathy
and sensitivity may undo him.
It is easy to score verbal triumphs over American personnel
practices and popular culture, for age-old snobberies converge
here. Thus, a critique of the glad hand can be made from many
points of view, radical or reactionary. The context out of which
I have written is, however, somewhat different—it is an effort
to develop a view of society which accepts rather than rejects
new potentialities for leisure, human sympathy, and abundance.
Both the glad hand and the search for lessons of adjustment in pop-
ular culture are themselves often poignant testimonials to these
potentialities. The values of the era of the invisible hand accom-
panied scarcity, and thus require re-interpretation before they
become relevant to an era of abundance. The promising alterna-
tive to other-direction, as I shall try to make clear in Part III, is
not inner-direction, but autonomy.
 VIII

Tradition-directed, inner-directed, and other-

directed political styles: indifferents,
moralizers, inside-dopesters

In some countries, the inhabitants seem unwilling to avail them-

selves of the political privileges which the law gives them; it would
seem that they set too high a value upon their time to spend it on
the interests of the community . . . But if an American were con-
demned to confine his activities to his own affairs, he would be
robbed of one half of his existence; he would feel an immense void
in the life which he is accustomed to lead, and his wretchedness
would be unbearable.
Tocqueville, Democracy in America

I turn in this part of the book to an introductory effort to apply

to American politics the theory of character developed in the
preceding part. First, however, the problems and limitations of this
sort of approach to politics must be pointed out. My general
thesis is that the inner-directed character tended and still tends in
politics to express himself in the style of the "moralizer," while
the other-directed character tends to express himself politically
in the style of an "inside-dopester." These styles are also linked
with a shift in political mood from "indignation" to "tolerance,"
and a shift in political decision from dominance by a ruling class
to power dispersal among many marginally competing pressure
groups. Some of these shifts may be among the causative factors
for the rise of other-direction.
Having said this, I must immediately make certain qualifica-
tions. Once again, I call to the reader's attention the limitations
of social class and region which bound the picture of character
in America I have presented. Furthermore, as I have also said be-
163
164 THE LONELY CROWD P O L I T I C A L STYLES

fore, real people are blends, more complicated and various- us neither whence the dancers come nor whither they move but
things of shreds and patches—than any scheme can encompass. only in what manner they play their parts and how the audience
They may, for example, be on the whole other-directed, but poli- responds.
tics may be a sphere in which they are more inner-directed than When I proceed, later on, from the problem of style to the
otherwise. Or, people may manage to be productive in politics—. problem of power, the connection between character structure
to have a style that is superior to that of the moralizer and that of and political structure will become even more tenuous than the
the inside-dopester—even though in their life as a whole they word "style" implies. It is obvious, on the one hand, that many
appear to be "lost": politics may be their most healthy activity; or people today flee from the realities of power into psychological
politics may be a sphere in which, for any number of reasons, they interpretations of social behavior in order either to avoid the
are less adequate than in others. challenge of contemporary political faiths or to restore a wished-
But these problems of character are not the only factors that for malleability to politics by reliance on a new analytical gadget.
forbid us to explain or predict specific political behavior on Nevertheless, it should be equally obvious that a political real-
psychological grounds alone. To take only one instance, the ism that ignores the dimension of character, that ignores how
chronic mood of crisis in which contemporary politics is gener- people interpret configurations of power on the basis of their
ally framed, and the general lack of imaginative alternatives, psychic needs, will only be useful in very short-run interpreta-
may be enough, or virtually enough, to explain the failure of tions and not always even there.
people to develop new political styles—to bring new motivations
to politics and new ways of defining what politics is, even though
their character may have changed. I. The Indifferents
My investigation is not directly concerned with the political
OLD STYLE
as defined from the point of view of the state or from the point of
view of the groups, parties, and classes into which the state is di- Just as the notion that all adult members of a community must
vided for purposes of formal political analysis, but is concerned be involved in its policy-making is recent, so is the view that po-
instead with the process by which people become related to poli- litical indifference and apathy constitute problems. Thus, in an-
tics, and the consequent stylizing of political emotions. Obvi- cient oriental societies where only the dynasty and a small group
ously, the line between these two spheres cannot be too neatly of advisers and nobles were called into the sphere of participa-
drawn; the great tradition of modern political science that runs tion, the rest of the population could not properly be termed
from Machiavelli and Hobbes to Tocqueville and Marx is con- apathetic: it was just politically asleep. Likewise, in the Greek
cerned with both. This is one reason why, in speaking of the po- city-state we can think of apathy as a problem only among the
litical consequences of character, I use the impressionistic term citizens—women, aliens, and slaves were simply excluded from
"style." 1 If politics is a ballet on a stage set by history, style tells the sphere of political involvement.
The few tradition-directed people in America are numbered
1. While the term "style" is used here in a different sense from that
among political indifferents of this type. Theirs is the classic indif-
employed by Lasswell in his "Style in the Language of Politics," in
Harold D. Lasswell, Nathan Leites, et al., Language of Politics (New ference of the masses of antiquity or the Middle Ages—the peo-
York, George W. Stewart, 1949), pp. 20-39, I am indebted to this ple who, throughout history, have accepted, with recurrent cyn-
essay; and my collaborators and I, in trying to relate politics to char- icism and sporadic revolts, the tyranny of an elite. They have no
acter, owe much to Lasswell's great body of work in this field which means of being articulate politically, nor have they any concep-
began with Psychopathology and Politics. tion of what this would involve. They lack the elementary politi-
 THE LONELY CROWD POLITICAL STYLES

cal tools of literacy, political education, and organizational expe- A. Oh . . . I believe more rich folks. Poor class would be too,
rience. but they don't have no chance.
In the United States today the number of such tradition-di- Q. Do you think wars can be avoided?
rected indifferents is small. There are few "reservations" where A. No. The Bible says the Romans will fight. (Something like
people can avoid being affected by inner-directed or other-di- that-I didn't quite get it.) I believe there will always be wars
rected values or both. However, among some immigrant groups (said almost with satisfaction, as you'd say "There'll always be an
and rural Negroes, the old indifference of tradition-direction re- England"). Generation after generation—the Bible tells you that.
mains, at least to a degree. I will take one example from an inter- Q. Do you think we can do something to avoid depressions?
view2 with a middle-aged cleaning woman from the British West A. I think you can work and try to have something—but some
Indies, now living in Harlem. Though she has been strongly af- times will be hard and some times better. And if you have a little
fected by inner-direction, her political attitudes (allowing for something it's better but you can get along somehow. . . .
guarded response) do seem representative of certain themes of Q. Do you think the people in Washington know better than
an indifference resting on tradition-direction. other people whether there'll be a war?
A. Only God in Heaven knows. Man don't know. We just
Q. Do you consider yourself a person who's very interested in hope. . . .
politics, not so interested, or hardly interested at all? Q. Do you think that on the whole the United States is a democ-
A. Nooooo. My husband yes. He's a talker. He can hold de- cracy?
bates. A. I'll say one thing, she is a blessed country. Out of all the
Q. Do you make up your mind about what's going on? Like do countries of the world, she is blessed.
you know who you want to win the election?
A. No. I believe the best man wins. Characteristic of the tradition-directed indifferent is an atti-
Q. You don't think it makes any difference who wins, then? tude that politics is someone else's job; with the interviewee
A. No difference. The best man wins. They're all alike anyway above, politics is for her husband, the rich, and very likely the
when they get in. All the same. They do the same things. A Re- club of the white man. The depth and tenacity of these proxy
publican gets in, or a Democrat. They're all the same. conventions are such that the political indifferent of this type,
Q. Do you ever hear things on the radio about politics that make though excluded from direct political participation, has no cause
you mad? to feel at sea. Having no sense of personal responsibility for the
A. No, I not interested so I no get mad. political sphere, such a person seeks no power over, and there-
Q. Do you hear anything else over the radio that makes you fore seldom feels frustrated or guilty about, politics. Indeed, be-
mad—not politics? yond the ministrations of the "wise, the good, and the rich"—to
A. No. use Fisher Ames's words—responsibility for the political is not
Q. Do you hear anything that makes you glad? man's, but God's.
A. No.
Q. What kind of people do you think are interested in politics?
NEW STYLE
2. The interview was one of a number conducted in 1948 by D r .
Genevieve Knupfer among migrants to Harlem from the deep South. So much for the increasingly rare indifferents whose political
the Caribbean, and Italy. It is published in full in Faces in the Crowd style is compatible with a tradition-directed character, lowly
pp. 98-119. class position, poverty, and lack of political education. Much
 THE LONELY CROWD POLITICAL STYLES 169

more important are the indifferents who, no longer tradition-di- trips than most people, in their security they can afford more po-
rected, have acquired the elementary political tools of literacy, a litical indifference. Contrariwise, a person may withdraw com-
certain amount of organizational competence, and a certain pletely from politics because the scene looks so confused that no
awareness of the uses that may be made of political activity. To action seems adequate or so hopeless that no action looks prom-
be sure, when we study the efforts to bring political education ising; and these, too, are the feelings of many Americans. A fail-
and organization to those who live either in rural or in urban ure to act politically or to inform oneself, motivated in any of
slum areas, it often appears that the conditions of their life do not these ways, does not mean that the individual's indifference has
train them in the political motivations or techniques (such anything to do with his character. However, a person's habit-
simple techniques, for instance, as the easy use of the telephone) ual failure over a long period of time to make any overt response
that are taken for granted in some politically conscious and ac- to political stimuli may contribute to, or in fact constitute, a
tive sections of the middle class. Yet in the course of the last withdrawal of affect, and this can spread from politics to other
century the spread of education, the shortening and easing of spheres as well as vice versa, with consequences for character
working hours, the rise of unions and other more or less formal formation.
associations, the increase in experience with government forms To illustrate the problem, I will draw on a group of interviews
and routines, seem to have increased the ability, if not the desire, conducted (by Martin and Margy Meyerson) in a small county-
of the poorer citizens to maneuver in the political sphere. seat town in Vermont, where the older generation seems to be
Nevertheless, these people are, in the main, indifferent to poli- heavily inner-directed, and the younger generation is becoming
tics, although their indifference is not the classic, quiescent indif- increasingly other-directed. The old people in this community
ference of the tradition-directed. It is to a large degree the indif- express feelings of responsibility for politics. Despite their lack
ference of people who know enough about politics to reject it, of actual participation, they feel their relatedness to govern-
enough about political information to refuse it, enough about ment, though it is often expressed only in grievance and guilt
their political responsibilities as citizens to evade them. Some of feelings. Thus, they say they ought to take part in politics. In
these new-style indifferents we may classify as inner-directed or referring to events they use the pronoun "I": "I" think, "I" want,
other-directed people who happen not to have adopted a political "I" hate, and so on. They talk as if it were up to them to judge
style more characteristic for their type. Otherwise, they are what happens in politics and, to the limit of their gifts and avail-
people who are on the move, characterologically and socially, able energies, to guide it.
from one character type and social situation to another: uprooted The young people of the town, on the other hand, while they
tradition-directed people not yet acculturated to inner-direction, have greater education and the elementary political tools, feel
inner-directed people not yet acculturated to other-direction, and that political doings are no business of theirs. They have less
all shades between. grievance and less guilt. Both kinds of feelings, which might
This is speculative, of course. External factors in the present relate them to politics, even though inadequately, have been
political scene are often sufficient to explain a similar indifference withdrawn. Instead, they take whatever government gives them,
in all classes and all character types. It is clear that an individual including the draft, with an almost total passivity.3 Their refer-
may withdraw completely from politics because the scene looks ences to politics are almost devoid of the pronoun "I"; sometimes
so hopeful that no action seems necessary. One might argue that
American life can be sufficiently satisfying, even for many in 3. I am not saying that they should resist the draft by becoming
conscientious objectors—that requires a rare heroism or fanaticism.
lower-income ranks, to justify indifference to political efforts at
It is their subjective attitude of which I speak, not their overt be-
improvement: in this light, as Americans are rich enough and havior: they have surrendered the privilege to criticize, to respect and
comfortable enough to afford more food, more telephones, more express at least their own feelings.
 170 THE L O N E L Y C R O W D POLITICAL STYLES 171
the reference is to a group "we" and mostly to a group "they." political self-interest nor with clear emotional ties to politics.
More "socialized," more cooperative than their parents, they do They resemble, rather, the peer-group exchange of consumer
not react as individuals to what happens to them. They have preferences, though unlike the latter, the preferences are seldom
passed from the indignation of their elders to indifference. This, taken into the political market and translated into purchases of
plainly, is not the indifference of the tradition-directed person. political commodities. For the indifferents do not believe that,
Perhaps it is the indifference of those caught between inner-di- by virtue of anything they do, know, or believe, they can buy a
rection and other-direction. political package that will substantially improve their lives. And
Whether their political style—even their character—will so, subject to occasional manipulation, they tend to view politics
change when they in turn are the elder generation, no one can in most of its large-scale forms as if they were spectators.
predict. Very likely, there may be a life cycle of political styles Since, however, these new-style indifferents have some edu-
for the individual, in which relatedness is gained as well as lost as cation and organizational competence and since they are neither
one grows older. Nevertheless, I am inclined to think that the morally committed to political principles nor emotionally related
new-style indifferents, passive and resigned today, will scarcely to political events, they are rather easily welded into cadres for
alter their political stance as they grow older—provided, of political action—much as they are capable of being welded into
course, that general social conditions do not change appreciably. a modern mechanized and specialized army. The old-style tra-
Their life experiences may bring them some degree of compe- dition-directed indifferents, on the other hand, have no such po-
tence—if, for instance, they get involved with the Farm Bureau tential; at best, they are capable of sporadic and more or less spon-
or union political leg work, but even their frustrations will be taneous action. The new-style indifferents, however, are attached
accepted, not resisted. We see here, if these speculations are cor- neither to their privacy, which would make politics intrusive,
rect, evidence of a long-range historical change in political style nor to their class groupings, which would make politics limited:
rather than evidence for the existence of a phase in the life cycle rather, like the young Vermonters previously described, they
in which anyone might be indifferent. are socialized, passive, and cooperative—not only in politics, of
course. Their loyalty is at large, ready to be captured by any
Indifferents, old style and new style, as I define them, probably
movement that can undercut their frequent cynicism or exploit
account for more than a majority of the American population.
it. In all these ways they place hardly any barriers, even those of
They are not necessarily equivalent to the non-voters: these
their own tastes and feelings, between themselves and the politi-
indifferents may perform quite a few political chores, for a price
cally organized community. The only barrier is their apathy.
or under pressure. Nor are they devoid of political opinions. In-
deed, if we accept the evidence of public opinion polls, it would This apathy cuts two ways. It deprives them of the capacity
seem that only some 10 per cent of the population refuses to be for enthusiasm and for genuine political involvement, but it also
polled at all, while another 10 per cent or so gets into the "Don't helps protect them from falling for many of the fairy tales about
Know" column. From this, we might conclude that people in all politics that have mobilized people in the past for political adven-
regions and social classes have a sense of direct and easy influ- tures. And while the tradition-directed person can sometimes be
ence on the forum of opinion and policy and that their willing- roused, in his inexperience, into indignation and is even some-
ness to have and state an opinion is a sign of political health. But times hungry for political indoctrination (as for literacy of any
closer examination of the attitudes that accompany the inter- sort) the modern indifferent in this country has built up a fairly
viewing and polling process fails to support that judgment. Ac- high and often fairly useful immunity to politics—though not
tually, these political opinions are connected neither with direct to cynical attacks on "politics."
172 THE LONELY CROWD POLITICAL STYLES 173
political articulation. He does not look to politics for intellectual
orientation in a confusing world, and generally he does not see it
//. The Moralizers as a game to be watched for its human interest. Rather, he turns
to politics to protect his vested interests, and whether these are of
a "practical" or an "ideal" sort, he feels little ambivalence about
Sometimes people call me an idealist. Well, that is the way I know
them. Thus we might find in the same characterological and even
I am an American. America is the only idealist nation in the world.
political camp a tariff logroller and a prohibitionist or prison re-
Woodrow Wilson former, provided only that the former had some emotional charge
The typical style of the inner-directed person in nineteenth- behind his political pressure.
century American politics is that of the moralizer. Since the in- As we saw in discussing the characterological struggle in the
ner-directed man is work driven and work oriented, his pro- first chapter, it makes a great deal of difference whether a char-
foundest feelings wrapped up in work and the competence with acter type is on the increase or the wane. The moralizer-in-
which work is done, when he turns to politics he sees it as a field power is representative of a class (the "old" middle class) and of
of work—and judges it accordingly. Presented with a political a character type (the inner-directed) dominant in the nineteenth
message, he sees a task in it, and, far from seeking to demonstrate century. The moralizer-in-retreat represents the same class and
his knowledge of its meaning in terms of personalities, he re- character in their mid-twentieth-century decline.
sponds with emotional directness and often naivete. (Of course
not all inner-directed people are responsive to politics and not THE STYLE OF THE MORALIZER-IN-POWER
all who are, are moralizers.)
One variant of the moralizer projects on the political scene his Much of what we know of nineteenth-century American politics
characterological tendency toward self-improvement: he wants may be seen in terms of inner-directed self-interest and inner-di-
to improve all men and institutions. The fringes of the Granger rected moralizing. While today we tend to think of moralizing
Movement harbored such types in the last quarter of the nine- and self-interest as contradictory approaches to politics, amalgam-
teenth century, and perhaps the Cross of Gold speech marked a ated only through hypocrisy, this very outlook says something
peak of enthusiastic moralizing of the "fisc." But by the time the about our own loss of political simplicities. In the nineteenth cen-
issue arose of American adherence to the League of Nations, tury moralizing and self-interested stances were compatible be-
Wilson was considered by many to be merely a moralizer, an cause, in comparison with today, there was little conflict between
idealist, unable to get his friends, his enemies, and perhaps him- the clear emotions felt and the clear interests recognized by the
self to understand how aware he was of practical, manipula- inner-directed. The Federalist Papers are perhaps the classic
tive problems. Another variant on the type expresses his moral- example of this. To be sure, with the broadening of the elector-
izing capacity less by desire to achieve the possible good than to ate it became increasingly difficult to be as frank as the Founding
prevent the perpetual recurrence of evil. This interest in repress- Fathers—as Nicholas Biddle learned to his sorrow—and one re-
ing the evil rather than in evoking the good is carried over from sult was an increasing tendency to divorce interest from morality
his own personal struggle. Evil defines itself for him with ease or to cloud their junction in vague, demagogic ideology. Even
and clarity: for instance, a lack of seriousness toward work is so, until the Civil War, unconcealed economic interests con-
sloth, a comfortable attitude toward pleasure is debauchery, a stantly intruded on the political sphere, shaping up in great argu-
skeptical attitude about property is socialism. ments over fiscal policy, internal development, taxation, and
The inner-directed man, when he approaches politics, has a property interests in slavery or antislavery. Likewise, moralizing
tendency to underestimate the values of easygoing looseness of interests made themselves felt quite openly in the government of
174 THE L O N E L Y C R O W D POLITICAL STYLES 175

towns, in arguments about manhood suffrage, universal educa- regional location, and morality, that each active person could find
tion, and slavery. satisfying political employment. This employment was satisfy-
The platforms and programs of the pre-Civil War unions and ing because many problems were indeed finally overcome by the
Mechanics' Associations illustrate these nineteenth-century pat- reformer's zeal: not only was the franchise extended and free
terns of political relatedness. The self-educated workmen of education spread, but the prisons and asylums were somewhat
these organizations were passionately concerned with questions ameliorated, factory legislation was introduced, and so on. Per-
of political, legal, and economic justice and only indirectly inter- haps it was only because these were, at least when taken singly,
ested in wages and working conditions. These workmen were relatively limited goals that reformers were so successful.
unashamed moralizers, eager to participate in middle-class reli- In fact, it was characteristic of the moralizers, and perhaps of
gious and educational values. Their press and their meetings did inner-directed people generally, not to be aware of the narrow
not look at everything from the labor angle. (Today such an out- limits they imposed on their relation to the political sphere. Each
look has all but vanished from the labor press and program, save reform movement of the nineteenth century powerfully chan-
for a few old-time Socialists or ex-ministers in the CIO. It has not neled the energies of its friends and foes, without necessarily pro-
been succeeded by a vision of clear labor interest, but rather by ducing in either group a larger, more comprehensive and hence
a labor line laid down as an ideology by the union officials to an more realistic political awareness. If the aim sought was attained,
indifferent mass of nominal union members.) whether it was emancipation or railroad legislation, the moral-
In general the press in the era depending on inner-direction izer's grip on politics vanished in success. If the aim sought did
fortified its readers in their political role playing—reassured them not succeed, as the women's movement did not succeed in the
that they had roles, and that politics was responding to their play- nineteenth century, its members remained prisoners of a cru-
ing of them. Journalism zealously preserved an individualistic sade. Even then, however, they felt the political sphere to be
slant, personal rather than personalized—as it could more easily malleable: success would come, as it would to their own strivings
do before the days of the AP, mailed boilerplate, and chain news- for upward mobility, if they worked hard enough and were of
papers—and its individualism helped foster the feeling of the good character.
reader that his individual political decision always mattered for In conclusion, when we think of the inner-directed man's polit-
him and usually mattered for the country. Cynicism toward poli- ical style, we must always think of the interests he brought to the
tics as a whole (as against cynicism about democracy or bossism political sphere. He participated not because he felt obliged to
or other specific political form or usage) was virtually un- further a highly cooperative group life but because he had some-
known. Indeed, a feeling prevailed in many circles that the mil- thing specific at stake: a responsibility to himself or to others or
lennium was near. The defined political problems of the period both. In general, and despite its partial compartmentalization,
were felt to be manageable by their customary devotees: a few the political sphere served to further the interests of his class po-
professionals (the bosses and a small corps of career officials) and sition, class aspirations, or class antagonisms. Since politics was
the amateurs who worked part time or full time (the statesmen regarded as a forum for satisfying needs other than amusement
and good government people). and psychic escape, it was felt to react passively to the pressure
Thus, the limits of the political sphere as well as its meaning of those needs; men were masters of their politics. Conversely,
were self-evident to the inner-directed man of the nineteenth politics could not and did not invade a man's privacy, since it
century. Political activity was no more baffling in terms of mo- could only touch him so far as he felt that it was responding, or
tivation than work. So many political tasks needed doing and refusing to respond, to the pressure of what he was sure were his
were obviously obligatory on the basis of one's class position, interests. And this is perhaps one major reason why the political
 THE LONELY CROWD

was a comparatively well-defined and indeed often overdefined

and constricted sphere in the nineteenth as compared to the twen- THE STYLE OF THE MORALIZER-IN-RETREAT
tieth century.
Many moralizers in the nineteenth century already viewed poli-
With new developments, the style of the moralizer-in-power is tics not only in a confused and ethically limited but also in a
no longer suitable. Politics today refuses to fit into its nineteenth- slightly paranoid and autistic way. These men, precursors of the
century compartment. With the mass media behind it, it invades modern displaced inner-directed, did not so much steer politics
the privacy of the citizen with its noise and claims. This invasion as permit themselves to be over-steered by their fears, which
destroys the older, easy transitions from individual to local, local they projected onto politics. How else can we explain the emo-
to national, and national to international interests and plunges tion generated by the recurrent antiforeign crusades, the cam-
the individual directly into the complexities of world politics, paigns against mysterious secret orders, Catholic, Masonic, Phi
without any clear-cut notion of where his interests lie. Beta Kappa? It was often difficult for some Americans to see
At the same time politics becomes more difficult to understand the difference between the mumbo-jumbo voluntary association
in a purely technical sense, partly because it invades previously such as the Masons, for example, and a social and class conspir-
semi-independent spheres like economics, partly because of the acy. Likewise, the feeling of political conservatives that the
growing scope and interdependence of political decisions. For world will come to an end if "that man" is elected does not
instance, in modern war people must understand that higher make its appearance for the first time under the second Roose-
taxes are necessary, not to meet government expenditures or velt.
even to redistribute income, but because industrial and private Morbid anxiety of this sort is the fruit of an envy and bewilder-
consumers must be kept from spending too much and fueling in- ment that are rooted in character. While the tradition-directed
flation and because the government needs to buy goods and serv- indifferents feel neither helpless about nor invaded by politics,
ices that would be scarce if people were left with money to buy because of the curtain that separates them from the political
them. world, the inner-directed indignants can easily feel helpless and
The incomprehensibility of politics gains momentum not invaded when things do not go well with them. As we saw in
only from the increase in its objective complexity but from what Chapter V, the inner-directed man becomes vulnerable to him-
is in some respects a drop in the general level of skills relevant self when he fails to achieve his internalized goals. Able to forger
to understanding what goes on in politics. While formal educa- the invisible hand as long as he is successful, he seeks in his baf-
tion has increased, the education provided by the effort to run a fled failure to make it visible so that he can smite it. His politics,
farm, an independent business, or a shop, has decreased along like his character, becomes curdled when lack of success reveals
with the increase in the number of employees; and while there and renders intolerable his lack of understanding.
may be little or no decline in the number of independent entre- It is in part the indignant person's baffled incomprehension
preneurs, a larger proportion of the factors leading to success or that makes him see the city slicker as having a great and disagree-
failure is no longer in the hands of those remaining as entre- able sureness of grasp compared with his own. He envies this, and
preneurs. No longer can one judge the work and competence of overrates it. The urban magnates and lawyers of the nineteenth
the political or government administrator from the confident, century were, in their character, almost as clearly inner-directed
often overconfident, base line of one's own work and compe- as their rural and small-town enemies. Yet, communications be-
tence. tween them, as between regions and classes, were always close
to breakdown.
178 THE LONELY CROWD POLITICAL STYLES 179

Today it is often assumed that, because the gap in education indignant in the quality of these emotions: these are rosy and
between city and country has narrowed and because such mass cheerful as against the darker emotional hue of the indignant.4
media as the radio attract both urban and rural audiences, it fol- In the nineteenth century the enthusiast was unceasingly active.
lows that the gap in character structure has also narrowed. Per- If challenged, he argued, as he would argue today, that there is
haps in some parts of the country this has occurred. But I think it always work, and political work, for idle hands to do. Such an
more likely that the gap between other-directed city dwellers argument rests on ascetic feelings of obligation about engaging
and inner-directed rural folk has increased and that the well- in or concerning oneself with politics and rests also on the
meant efforts to bridge the gap have frequently served only to American penchant for activity as such—a penchant outlasting
make the latter feel still more envious and unsure. the belief in progress which rationalized ceaseless activity for
Envy and the feeling of displacement—sources of a political many of the inner-directed in the nineteenth century.
style of curdled indignation—are of course also to be found Wars and technological changes, as well as the shift from inner-
among those rural immigrants to town who are city dwellers in direction to other-direction, have brought the moralizing style,
name only. As long as such people, urban or rural, have political in either its indignant or enthusiast versions, into disrepute. The
power, their malaise vis-a-vis the other-directed elements in Civil War, itself a complex catharsis of the moral indignation
American life may be muted; they can shape their world and that accompanied the political sphere in the preceding years, ini-
force it to make sense to them. But when even this avenue to- tiated a process that has since continued. Probably the few living
ward understanding is cut off, the curdled indignant lashes out in veterans of the Civil War still retain a fighting faith in the right-
helpless rage or subsides into the sort of passive, frustrated resist- eousness of their cause. The veterans of World War I are less
ance that we commented on in Chapter I in connection with involved in their cause, though still involved in their experience.
Erikson's studies of American Indians. The veterans of World War II bring scarcely a trace of moral
righteousness into their scant political participation. These men
Another variety of moralizer, those we might term the "enthu- "ain't mad at nobody." It looks as though since the Civil War
siasts," far from resigning themselves to political frustration, there has been a decline in the emotionality of political differ-
hopefully tackle the most intractable tasks. The changing mean- ences, a decline in the histrionic violence of electoral campaign-
ing of the word enthusiast says much about the history of politi- ing, and a decline in the reserves of indignation and enthusiasm
cal styles. The enthusiasts in the days of Cromwell and the Long available to any side of an easily moralized issue.
Parliament were the men of spirit and vision, the Quakers or Lev- Certainly, salient examples of the indignant style remain. The
ellers or Diggers. But in eighteenth-century England the word sallies of Mencken in the 2o's hit at the social groups in which
enthusiast had already begun to lose this religious meaning and most of the extreme moralizing was still to be found: the coun-
to become instead a term of ridicule rather than fear or admira- try people, the midwesterners, the small-town Protestants, the
tion. It is perhaps part of the same development which has added southern APAs, the corn-fed shouting sects, the small lodge-join-
"do-gooder," "world improver," "reformer," and "Boy Scout"
4. Indignation or hatred of this type is well described in the
to our colloquial vocabulary as terms of contempt or friendly essay by Svend Ranulf, Moral Indignation and Middle Class Psy-
dismissal: to want to "do good" in politics is obviously to be chology (Copenhagen, Levin & Monksgaard, 1938). Though our em-
naive! phasis throughout is on character, perhaps we cannot avoid here the
The enthusiast resembles the indignant in that his political bearing of temperament as distinguished from character—for instance,
emotions frequently outweigh his political intelligence; they such temperamental distinctions as the ancient one between choleric
lead him into half-thought-out crusades. But he differs from the and sanguine types.
18o THE LONELY CROWD POLITICAL STYLES 181
ing businessmen. That such groups have been somewhat more new, any more than other-direction is entirely new. Here, again,
cosmopolitan in recent years during which other-direction has the change is a matter of degree.
spread, does not mean the older patterns have vanished. The other-directed man possesses a rich store of social skills—
Today, however, just as inner-direction in character is partly skills he needs in order to survive and move about in his social
the result of a moralizing political style, so loss of emotion in pol- environment; some of these he can deploy in the form of political
itics leads to other-direction in character. In other words, politics skills. One of these is his ability to hold his emotional fire, which
itself, as it impinges on the lives of people and shapes their experi- he tries hard to do because of the cooperative pattern of life to
ences and interpretations of them, becomes one of the agencies which he is committed. This skill is related to his inescapable
of character formation. This complex interplay is one reason awareness, lacking in the inner-directed man, that in any situa-
why, within our broad scheme of character types linked to the tion people are as important as things.
curve of population, we find, and would expect to find, different The inside-dopester may be one who has concluded (with
national variants rooted in different national historical experi- good reason) that since he can do nothing to change politics, he
ence. For example, both England and America are countries that can only understand it. Or he may see all political issues in terms
have arrived at incipient decline of population as the result of of being able to get some insider on the telephone. That is, some
industrialization, urbanization, and the spread of contraceptive inside-dopesters actually crave to be on the inside, to join an inner
substitutes for a Malthusian morality. But both countries en- circle or invent one; others aim no higher than to know the in-
countered these historic crises, as they encountered civil war, at side, for whatever peer-group satisfactions this can bring them.
very different periods in their political development. Congreve, The inside-dopester of whatever stripe tends to know a great
living in a postwar reign of tolerance, might have been surprised deal about what other people are doing and thinking in the im-
at the recurrence of moralizing in the Victorian Age, when the portant or "great-issue" spheres of life; he is politically cosmopol-
combination of evangelical revival and the pace and politics of itan rather than parochial. If he cannot change the others who
industrialization upset the older political styles. Likewise, in view dominate his political attention, his characterological drive leads
of the indeterminacies of history, it would be rash to predict that him to manipulate himself in order not to change the others but
the moralizing style is doomed and that no revival in America is to resemble them. He will go to great lengths to keep from look-
possible. Indeed, if influential men become moralizers, the other- ing and feeling like the uninformed outsider. Not all other-di-
directed person, because he is other-directed, will try. to be a rected people are inside-dopesters, but perhaps, for the lack of a
moralizer, too. more mature model, many of them aspire to be.
The inside-dopester is competent in the way that the school
system and the mass media of communication have taught him to
///. The Inside-do pesters be competent. Ideology demands that, living in a politically satu-
rated milieu, he know the political score as he must know the
For all the Athenians and strangers which were there spent their score in other fields of entertainment, such as sports.
time in nothing else, but either to tell, or to hear some new thing. The majority of inside-dopesters take no active part in politics,
but there are those who do. Thus, we find many government
St. Paul
and party officials who handle the political news in the way en-
The spread of other-direction has brought to the political couraged by their jobs, in fragments of office gossip. There are
scene the attitude of the inside-dopester, originating not in the political newsmen and broadcasters who, after long training, have
sphere of work but of consumption. This attitude is not entirely succeeded in eliminating all emotional response to politics and
 THE L O N E L Y CR OWD POLITICAL STYLES

who pride themselves on achieving the inside-dopesters' goal: his time. It is not only that he withdraws emotional allegiance
never to be taken in by any person, cause, or event. On the other from a political scene which strikes him as too complex and too
hand, some feeders on inside dope, particularly those elements unmanageable—it strikes him so in part precisely because he has
influenced by Stalinism, in its various disguises, seem to fall withdrawn.5
among the political indignants. Frequently, they use their inside Furthermore, in order to keep up with the political branch of
knowledge simply as a means of getting themselves worked up the consumers' union, the inside-dopester must be prepared for
about American political abuses: they have a positive tropism to rapid changes of line. In this respect he is like the negotiator
evidences of race discrimination, police brutality, corporate skul- whom we discussed earlier, who is better able to bring home the
duggery, etc. This political stance becomes de rigueur among bacon of good will if he is hazy about and has not pressed his legal
some groups; in these circles conformity to the group leads not rights in the matter; the inside-dopester can change his opinions
to tolerance and political consumption but to indignation and po- more easily if he has lost the moralizer's ability to relate political
litical action. This seeming paradox can serve as a reminder that events to himself and his practical interests. That is perhaps why
I speak of other-direction in terms of patterns of conformity and the portrait of the inside-dopester as an official, in Anna Karenina
response to others, and not in terms of the ideological and behav- (the image of Stepan Arkadyevitch Oblonsky as quoted in Chap-
ioral content of that response. Usually, there will be compati- ter I), of Bilibin in War and Peace, and of Ivan Ilyitch in Tol-
bility between the mechanism of conformity and the values and stoy's short story "The Death of Ivan Ilyitch"—why these nine-
realities to which one tries to conform, but this is only a tend- teenth-century Russians, attuned to the class media of the court,
ency and there are many cases, such as this one, where successful seem under their strange names so very contemporary.
other-direction leads to behavior which simulates inner-direction 5. On the face of it this outlook might be thought to resemble that
(we shall encounter other examples in Chapter XV). of nineteenth-century political observers who insisted that man was
limited and to some extent rendered impotent to effect far-reaching
social changes, by his own nature and by the organic nature of society
THE BALANCE SHEET OF INSIDE DOPE that followed its own laws of development. Edmund Burke and other
conservative critics of the French Revolution at the beginning of the
In the days of his power, the inner-directed moralizer had great
century, and the Social Darwinists at its end, represent two strands
confidence in the continuance of the social structure—the con- in this general line of thought. However, these feelings of limitation
cept of the invisible hand symbolizes this—even when and per- were not necessarily accompanied by subjective feelings of power-
haps especially when he did not understand how it worked. The lessness; and, at least in the case of the Social Darwinists and perhaps
inside-dopester, on the contrary, knows too much about politics also in the case of Burke, a positively optimistic view was taken as to
to be so easily comforted, while still knowing too little to appre- the course of society's organic development. If the world took care of
ciate the opportunities for change available to him. For his under- itself—if reformers would only let it alone—one would not need to
standing is cramped by his preoccupation with the highly selec- feel frustrated and helpless: one merely had to acknowledge this
tive classification of events handed out as the inside story, or limitation and devote oneself to less than apocalyptic changes.
made still more alluring by being stamped as classified or confi- Contemporary forms of social determinism, on the other hand, tend
dential information. Concerned with being "right," fearing to be to assume that our civilization is running down, a view we find in the
nineteenth century only in a few observers, like Brooks Adams, who
taken in, or to be thought guilty of wishful thinking (which he
could hardly believe their own prophecies—even the pessimists of the
equates with any introduction of his humaneness into his judg- last century could not envisage how terrible politics might become in
ments), the inside-dopester deprives himself of one of the best the twentieth century. But today men feel politically impotent, and
yardsticks he could use actively to control his experience, namely their philosophizing reinforces the mood that befits their character
his own reactions as a sensitive participant in the political life of and situation.
184 THE LONELY CROWD POLITICAL STYLES 185

There is evidence that in America rapid fluctuation of opinion everybody listens may be thought of as symbolizing this.
is to be found primarily in the better educated groups, the groups Though ordinarily these people can muster quite a bit of indig-
in which we also expect to find the inside-dopesters. Thus, the nation over the local issues, this is not always the case; and we
very interesting study made at the Harvard Department of Social find occasional small-town and rural people who, bringing to
Relations of attitudes toward Russia provides evidence that mid- politics the cosmopolitan style of the other-directed types, give
dle-class opinion vis-a-vis Russia has swung much more widely a good imitation of urban inside-dopesters.6
than lower-class opinion, which was always hostile and suspicious. Actually, the distinction between the inside-dopester and the
For the middle class, Russia became a wartime ally and, for a indifferent is often hard to draw. This may serve as another illus-
time, a postwar friend; this has been succeeded by violent hos- tration of the point made earlier, that there are striking similarities
tility. Other studies show the same thing with respect to isolation- between the tradition-directed and the other-directed. Both
ism and war. On all these matters the middle classes, being caught groups feel helpless vis-a-vis politics, and both have resorted to
up in politics and, on the whole, susceptible to the way the mass varieties of fatalism which the inner-directed moralizer would
media present events, are capable of attending to a much more sternly reject. However, there are important differences. The in-
rapid change of signals than the lower classes. side-dopester, unlike the indifferent, is subordinate to a peer-
Politics, indeed, serves the inside-dopester chiefly as a means group in which politics is an important consumable and in which
for group conformity. He must have acceptable opinions, and the correct—that is, the unemotional—attitude toward one's con-
where he engages in politics he must do so in acceptable ways. In sumption is equally important. The new-style indifferent can take
the upper class, as among radical groups, the influence of the mor- politics or leave it alone, while the inside-dopester is tied to it by
alizing style is still strong, and many people who set the cultural motivations hardly less compelling than those of the moralizer.
patterns carry on with an ideology of political responsibility; The inside-dopester does bring to politics a certain kind of
they act as if politics were a meaningful sphere for them. The col- realism that the moralizer often lacked. The notion of transcend-
lege student or young professional or businessman of the upper ing the inevitable never arises for the inside-dopester. As specta-
middle class may take up politics as he takes up golf or any other tor, as well as operator, he has a very good idea of what the limits
acceptable hobby: it is a fulfillment of social role and in addi- are; he does not set his sights very high. The other-directed man
tion it is good fun, good business, and a way to meet interesting has carried what are essentially political skills into many areas
people. It happens, of course, that people who enter politics, on outside of formal political science as defined by the moralizer—
one or another level, with inside-dopester motivations, may find for example, into the field of city planning and labor-manage-
themselves becoming emotionally involved, and stay for quite ment relations. Moreover, as against the oversimplifications of
other reasons. More common, probably, are those inside-dope- many moralizers, the inside-dopesters include a corps of special-
sters who use their political experience to justify their emotional ists who know much more than the often narrowly partisan indig-
anemia, drawing on their acquaintance with the inside story to nants and enthusiasts even in the days of their power, let alone in
look down on those who get excited. the days of their wane. Many people, not only specialists, have
become accustomed to thinking in world-political terms, and
These inside-dopesters of the upper middle class should be con- cross-cultural terms, such as were hardly to be found amid the
trasted with those found in small towns and rural areas who are ethnocentrisms—or world-brotherhood idealisms—of even a
in easy contact with their local and even state officials. In the
6. Compare the valuable discussion in Robert K. Merton, "Patterns
small towns social distance between the politically influential and
of Influence: a Study of Interpersonal Influence and of Communi-
the non-influential is small, and very little in the machinery of cations Behavior in a Local Community," Communications Research
government is opaque—the telephone party line on which 1948-1949, ed. Lazarsfeld and Stanton, pp. 180-219.
186 THE LONELY CROWD POLITICAL STYLES 187
generation ago. In the nineteenth century, most journalistic treat- don't want the other nations to feel that we are trying to take over
ments of international politics drew on such parochial slogans as their countries. They know that Russia wants that and I think that's
"national honor"—in the case of Mason and Slidell, for instance, why there is so much argument. But if they feel we are trying to
or the Maine. Today, however, the mass media, although with grab, they won't trust us either and then we won't be able to steer
many exceptions, appear to discuss world politics in terms made this whole program which is what I think we should do. So when
familiar by psychological warfare, and events are interpreted for we don't get what we want and the headlines say we have been
their bearing on the propaganda of one side or the other. The beaten on something, I think that's really good because it makes
public is often asked to support a policy because such support, in the other countries feel that we're just like them and that we are
a kind of self-manipulative balancing act, will influence public having troubles too. That would make them more sympathetic to us
opinion; such arguments can only be made because of the and more friendly.7
heightened understanding, in an era increasingly dependent on
Psychological understanding such as this represents a real ad-
other-direction, of psychological forces in politics.
Some may find current talk about our "way of life" reminis-
vance. The moralizer would not ordinarily have been capable of
cent of discussions of national honor. But the change is not
such subtleties, or interested in them.
merely one of phrasing. "National honor" could be a hypocriti-
cal phrase to cover such clear-cut class interests as led to our in- Many important questions remain. Why do so many peer-
vasion of Haiti, or it could be grouped with the various internal
groups in which the other-directed move continue to put politics
xenophobias of the nineteenth century. Yet however vague the on their bill of fare, and why is it that fashion does not, as it has
content of the phrase, what it demanded of the national enemy with many intellectuals, substitute something else, for instance,
was quite specific. "Our way of life," on the other hand, has religion? What should surprise us in America is not the number of
many more psychological connotations; it is fairly specific in do- the indifferents but why their number is not greater still and why
mestic content but highly unspecific as to what the consequences people hang on as moralizers and seek to inform themselves as
in foreign policy are, or should be, of this slogan. "National inside-dopesters. I suggest as a partial explanation that the mass
honor" sometimes strait-jacketed our foreign policy by estab- media of communication play a complex part in the training and
lishing a moral beachhead we were neither willing nor prepared sustaining of people (of appropriate character) in both these lat-
to defend. As against this, "our way of life" gives almost no moral ter styles. The media are at the same time continuous bringers of
guidance to foreign policy, which seems, therefore, to be left to information and tutors in tolerance for would-be inside-dopesters,
Realpolitik. Only seems to be, however. For just as the phrase and tutors and provocateurs in indignation for would-be moral-
"national honor" calls to mind a Victorian form of hypocrisy, so izers.
the phrase "our way of life" reminds us that the other-directed 7. Taken from the pamphlet, Four Americans Discuss Aid to
man conceals from himself as well as from others such morality Europe, Study No. 18 (Ann Arbor, Michigan, University of Michigan
as he possesses by taking refuge in seemingly expediential consid- Survey Research Center, 1947), p. 13.
erations. A young veteran interviewed in 1947 by the University
of Michigan Survey Research Center, when asked whether he
thought the United States had given in or had its own way too
much in the United Nations, replied:
This will sound funny, but I think we are getting our own way
too much. (Why do you say that? he was questioned.) Because we
 IX POLITICAL PERSUASIONS 189

things is quite as important as what is done. This corresponds

with the other-directed man's tendency to put more emphasis on
Political persuasions: indignation and tolerance means than the inner-directed man did, and less emphasis on ends.
The mass media of communication are perhaps the most impor-
tant channels between the other-directed actors on the stage of
politics and their audience. The media criticize the actors and the
show generally, and both directly and indirectly train the audi-
The super market that "offers the shopper the subtle, psychological
ence in techniques of political consumership. The direct train-
values" will have a better chance to build a profitable customer
ing media are those which are openly political, such as the mod-
following than one which depends solely on low price and good
quality merchandise, G. L. Clements, vice-president and general ern descendants of the Springfield Republican or the New York
Tribune and a very small number of old-time newspapers, with
manager of the Jewel Food Stores of Chicago, asserted here to-
their inner-directed moralizing editorializers. Much larger and
day . . .
In determining how to provide "psychological values" attractive more influential are the media of indirect training: they include
to the customer, Mr. Clements said he thought a business should the whole range of contemporary popular culture from comic
seek to develop "the same traits that we like in our friends." He books to television. They dominate the use of leisure in all Amer-
ican classes except at the very top and perhaps also the very bot-
outlined these traits as being cleanliness, up-to-date appearance,
generosity, courtesy, honesty, patience, sincerity, sympathy, and tom; and their influence is very great in creating the styles of re-
good-naturedness. Each store operator, he said, should ask him- sponse compatible with other-direction.
Although the pattern of this influence is complex it may be
self whether his store has these traits. . . .
Mr. Clements asserted that in seeking to understand the psycho- summed up in three tentative generalizations.
logical forces motivating customers "we might start out by asking First, since popular culture is in essence a tutor in consumption,
the question: 'Do people really know what they want?'" The an- it teaches the other-directed man to consume politics and to re-
swer to the question indicates that people do not know what they gard politics and political information and attitudes as consumer
"want," Mr. Clements said. But they do know what they "like or goods. They are products, games, entertainments, recreations;
do not like," he asserted. . . . and he is their purchaser, player, spectator, or leisure-time ob-
server.
From the report of the twelfth annual convention of the Super Second, the media, by their very sensitivity to pressure, have a
Market Institute, New York Herald Tribune, May 10, 1949
stake in tolerance. But even where they are moralizers in inten-
tion, the mood of the audience of peer-groupers will cause the
indignant message to be received in an unindignant way. This
attitude of the audience, moreover, leads to an emphasis not on
what the media say in terms of content but on the "sincerity" of
The inner-directed moralizer brings to politics an attitude de- the presentation. This focus on sincerity, both in popular culture
rived from the sphere of production. The other-directed in- and in politics, leads the audience tolerantly to overlook the in-
side-dopester brings to politics an attitude derived from the competence of performance.
sphere of consumption. Politics is to be appraised in terms of con- Third, while there is a significant residue of inner-directed
sumer preferences. Politicians are people—and the more glamor- moralizing in American political news coverage and editorializ-
ous, the better. Moreover, in imitation of the marketplace, poli- ing, it slows down but does not halt the persuasions exercised by
tics becomes a sphere in which the manner and mood of doing popular culture in favor of other-directed tolerance and passivity.
188
 THE LONELY CROWD POLITICAL PERSUASIONS 191

mass media act as a kind of barker for the political show. These
have discovered one sovereign remedy, glamor, to combat the
/. Politics as an Object of Consumption danger of indifference and apathy. Just as glamor in sex substi-
tutes for both love and the relatively impersonal family ties of the
The other-directed man's inability to know what he wants, while tradition-directed person, and just as glamor in packaging and ad-
being preoccupied with what he likes—as observed by the re- vertising of products substitutes for price competition, so glamor
tailer quoted at the head of the chapter—applies to politics as in politics, whether as charisma—packaging—of the leader or as
well as to other spheres of life. In contrast to this, the inner-di- the hopped-up treatment of events by the mass media, substitutes
rected man, in those spheres of life, such as politics, that he iden- for the types of self-interest that governed the inner-directed. In
tified with work, knew what he wanted but did not really allow general: wherever we see glamor in the object of attention, we
himself to know what he liked. must suspect a basic apathy in the spectator.
A striking illustration of this is to be found in a group of inter- The result of the search for glamor in politics is the effort, not
views conducted in the newly built suburb of Park Forest near dissimilar to that of the retailer quoted above, "to provide 'psy-
Chicago. Park Forest is a development of a federally-aided pri- chological values' attractive to the customer." And, as Mr. Clem-
vate concern called American Community Builders; the homes ents told the Super Market Institute, the values are "the same
are rented to occupants, and the ACB retains the financial func- traits that we like in our friends," namely "cleanliness, up-to-date
tions of government, in cooperation with a sort of town council appearance, generosity, courtesy, honesty, patience, sincerity,
of residents. Residents were asked in the interviews how they felt sympathy, and good-naturedness." Many of the maneuverings of
about ACB, and what part, if any, they took in local politics, in- politics can be interpreted in these terms. In 1948, Truman was
cluding griping and gossip. Many had complaints about their liv- felt to lack the up-to-date appearance; Dewey, the sincerity,
ing quarters and community arrangements generally. What was sympathy, and good-naturedness. Eisenhower seemed irresistibly
noteworthy was that these complaints were frequently put in attractive on all these scores—he had "everything." People
terms of the allegedly—and, as it appeared, actually—"bad pub- wanted a candidate with both appeals, and the spontaneous ele-
lic relations" of ACB. That is, direct criticism, based on the resi- ments in the Eisenhower movement were to a large degree a
dents' wants and feelings, was muted; rather, "they" were crit- tribute to people's desperate search for glamor. The Eisenhower
icized because their public relations were so mishandled as to supporters in the 1948 campaign were saying, in effect, that a
leave people—presumably, people other than the speaker—crit- candidate who "has everything"—whom one could wholeheart-
ical. In effect, people were complaining not about their direct edly like—would surely know what one needed.
grievances but because they had not been so manipulated as to Where likable qualities are less evident than with Eisenhower,
"make them like it." Their wants (in concrete living arrange- people try hard to find a candidate with charm. To be sure, this
ments) took second place to their likes (as to the proper degree was true in earlier eras, but I think it likely that this style of polit-
of skill deemed suitable for a large organization).1 ical appeal has been growing steadily in the United States in the
Under these conditions of passive consumership we would ex- radio age. For even the hardheaded political bosses in America
pect people to drop out of the league of inside-dopesters into the have learned, enduring their experience of Franklin Roosevelt, to
great mass of the new-style indifferents. Left to themselves, per- take these appeals into account; the wider the electorate, of
haps many would do so. But they are not left to themselves. The course, the more glamor tends to displace issues or old-fashioned
1. The Park Forest study is the work of Herbert J. Gans ("Political considerations of patronage. But this is as yet only a tendency; I do
Participation and Apathy," unpublished Divisional Master's Paper, not mean to suggest that people now ignore their wants in voting
University of Chicago. 1950). their likes, or that an understanding of the other-directed char-
192 THE LONELY CROWD POLITICAL PERSUASIONS 193

acter will help us predict elections better than an understanding the medium, the more it tends to be produced and consumed in a
of economic currents, ethnic traditions, and political organiza- mood of other-directed tolerance and the less it makes an appeal
tion. to the indignants. Indeed, since the chief strategy of the media
as tutors of consumption is to introduce and rationalize changes,
enrichments, or discontinuities in conventional tastes and styles,
II. The Media as Tutors in Tolerance the media have a stake in tolerance of taste. They cannot afford to
have people overcommitted to a taste that they may want to
There are several reasons why the mass media of communication change tomorrow. But it is hardly likely that they are aware of
develop an attitude of tolerance that becomes the mode of expe- this perhaps most fundamental aspect of their commitment to
riencing and viewing everything, including politics. tolerance.
The most powerful factor making for this slant is the sheer On the other hand, the very intolerance of some of the older
size of the audience. The press, though less terrorized than the captains of the press and radio, ambitious men with a message,
movies, is subject to a variety of pressures brought by groups allows them, and the editorializing commissars they encourage,
seeking protection from attack; and these pressures are internal- to take a "tough" approach, to find and hold an audience among
ized in the very structure of management and distribution of all those indifferent and maladjusted people who seek not politi-
the media. cal news but excitement and diversion from their apathy. Hearst,
Again, the larger the scope of the medium, the more likely it is McCormick, Gannett, Shepherd of the Yankee network — such
to be edited and produced in a large metropolitan center where men want power through the press and radio, rather than money
the pressures toward other-directed tolerance are greatest. While or approval. Yet their audiences are made up not primarily of polit-
freer from pressure of advertisers and local cranks than small- ical indignants but of political new-style indifferents — would-be
town editors and broadcasters, and, in general, often considerably inside-dopesters who are attracted by the impiety of Hearst, the
more daring, big-city media with a city-wide audience cannot Chicago Tribune, and especially the New York Daily News, be-
help being aware of those attitudes that may offend their complex cause this sort of news-handling seems to promise them the un-
constituencies. Whereas the early nineteenth-century editor faked inside story. Having been trained to associate piety with
could gamble on a crusade that might bring him both a libel suit the official culture of sermon, school, and print, they take what-
and a circulation, the twentieth-century publisher often cannot ever appears by contrast to be sophisticated, brutal, illegal, or
afford to let his editor gamble even on an increased circulation. mysterious as true almost by definition and think the editor sin-
Like the modern corporation generally, he wants a relatively in- cere for letting them in on it.
flexible demand curve for his product; he cannot risk sharp losses
of circulation and often not sharp increases either, since his man-
TOLERANCE AND THE CULT OF SINCERITY
agers have guaranteed his circulation to the advertisers, planned
his paper supply, and committed him to Newspaper Guild con- The exploration of what is meant by sincerity will take us far
tracts and distributive relationships long in advance. toward understanding the ways in which popular culture trains
Obviously, moreover, as the one-paper towns and cities grow its audience in tolerance. We must remind ourselves that sincerity
in number, the owner-monopolist has little to gain by attacking a is one of the qualities by which a retail store may hold a loyal
powerful group. He will prefer the comforts of fair trade, as en- clientele, according to Mr. Clements' remarks quoted above.2
shrined in the American Newspaper Publishers' Association or
2. At the University of Chicago a graduate student studying the
the Broadcasters' Code, to the risks of free trade in punches and movement away from craft preoccupations to selling and customer-
ideas. Hence, all other things being equal, the larger the scope of relation preoccupations among retail furriers, found the word "sin-
 POLITICAL PERSUASIONS 195
194 THE LONELY CROWD
By ignoring what the audience believes itself to lack (ability
In a study of attitudes toward popular music we find again and
to perform) and emphasizing the qualities that it believes itself
again such statements as, "I like Dinah Shore because she's so
sincere," or, "that's a very sincere record," or, "You can just feel secretly to possess (capacity for sincerity), the audience is en-
abled, to a degree, to patronize the artist just as it patronizes the
he [Frank Sinatra] is sincere." While it is clear that people want
to personalize their relationships to their heroes of consumption bumbling participants in a give-away show. It may well be, too,
that the audience that emphasizes an emotional quality of a per-
and that their yearning for sincerity is a grim reminder of how
former, such as sincerity, escapes from the need for emotional
little they can trust themselves or others in daily life, it is less clear
response to the performance itself. Though the listener likes a
just what it is that they find "sincere" in a singer or other per-
star who, as the teen-ager says, can "send me," he does not want
former.3 One element may be the apparent freedom of the en-
to go very far; he has his membership card in the consumers'
tertainer to express emotions that others cannot or dare not ex-
press. Again, sincerity means performance in a style which is not union to consider. By making sincerity appear as an objective
quality, or at least one capable of discussion in the peer-group, he
aggressive or cynical, which may even be defenseless, as the
question-answering or press-conference technique of some poli- gets some emotional release while preserving safety in numbers.
He can "give the little girl a hand" without committing himself
ticians appears to be. The performer puts himself at the mercy
of both his audience and his emotions. Thus sincerity on the side to a judgment on her virtuosity. In this sense the sincere artist
is like the artist who tries hard.
of the performer evokes the audience's tolerance for him: it
would not be fair to be too critical of the person who has left Viewing the political scene as a market for comparable emo-
tions, it seems that the appeal of many of our political candidates
himself wide open and extended the glad hand of friendliness.
But the popular emphasis on sincerity means more than this. It tends to be of this sort. Forced to choose between skill and sin-
means that the source of criteria for judgment has shifted from cerity, many in the audience prefer the latter. They are tolerant
the content of the performance and its goodness or badness, aes- of bumbles and obvious ineptness if the leader tries hard.4
thetically speaking, to the personality of the performer. He is
judged for his attitude toward the audience, an attitude which is
Sincerity and cynicism. The other-directed inside-dopester is
either sincere or insincere, rather than by his relation to his craft, far from being simply a cynic. Cynicism is a trait compatible with
both inner-direction and other-direction, but it has a different
that is, his honesty and skill.
bearing in the two constellations. The inner-directed cynic is or
cerity" being used in a similar way, as in the case of one man who can be an opportunist, ruthless in pursuing his goals. Or he may
observed, explaining how he defended himself against competition: be a disgruntled idealist, still in practice committed to rectitude.
"You got to be able to talk to the customers . . . when a customer In pursuit of his aims, good or bad, he may be quite ready to ex-
comes in you can turn her one way or the other . . . the customers
ploit others, just as the inner-directed moralizer may be quite
can tell if you're sincere." Success for this man was defined not in
terms of money alone but in terms of "a personal following" and "a
ready to force others to be moral, too. However, the other-di-
better class of people." See Louis Kriesberg, "The Relationship of rected person, cynical as he often seems, is generally too depend-
Business Practices and Business Values among Chicago's Retail Fur- ent on others to be completely cynical about them: he may keep
riers" (Master's thesis, Department of Sociology, University of looking for sincerity—that is, for personalities who, if they ex-
Chicago, 1949). ploit his emotions, will also involve their own. The desire for a
3. I am much indebted to Howard C. Becker for analysis of these sincere presidential candidate, such as Eisenhower, is then in
interviews. I have profited greatly from the penetrating discussion part a desire to escape from cynicism and apathy into commit-
of sincerity as applied to reactions of the audience to a Kate Smith
4. All this, of course, was written before the 1952 election, which
War Bond Drive in Robert K. Merton, Mass Persuasion (New York,
offers some good examples of these attitudes.
Harper, 1946).
196 THE LONELY CROWD POLITICAL PERSUASIONS 197

ment and enthusiasm—an excuse for the return of repressed qual- be more important. The man who thinks he is sincere, moreover,
ities. What appears here as cynicism is frequently the readiness of may deceive himself and others; the man who knows he is not,
the other-directed person tolerantly to accept the norms of what- may watch himself and be watched.5
ever adult peer-group he is in. But this limp acceptance is rather
a source for his cynicism about himself than for his cynicism
about others to whom he clings in search of goals. In fact, the ///. Do the Media Escape from Politics?
other-directed man's cynicism about himself is one of the princi-
pal reasons that, while he is willing to say what he likes, he cannot Hollywood's discovery of the Negro problem had given the studios
believe in himself enough to know what he wants. a new cycle, and distributors a tough problem: How would the
The inner-directed man, when he looks at politics, is likely to South take to films denouncing racial prejudice? . . . Having al-
be exceedingly cynical about people but not cynical about insti- ready played nine profitable weeks in Manhattan, Home of the
tutions, constitutions, and, as we saw earlier, the value of politics Brave opened in Dallas and Houston . . . In Dallas, the Negro
itself. By contrast, the other-directed man, somewhat sentimental elevator operator tried to sum up overheard opinion: "Well, I'll
about people, is likely to be quite cynical about legal and political tell you, 99 per cent of the people say it's educational, the other
institutions, just as he is about the great game of politics itself. 1 per cent say it's good."
Coupled with this outlook, his concern for sincerity in politi- Time, July 18,
cal personalities becomes a vice. While the concern for sincerity
may imply a refusal to be taken in by any abstract notions of Critics of the mass media seem generally to suppose that the
good and bad, along with an insistence that the personal emo- media foster political apathy, that they permit and encourage the
tional tone of the leader is of decisive importance, there are many audience to escape from the political and other realities of life,
situations where this orientation leads one astray. that, by a kind of Gresham's Law, they drive out the hard money
In the first place, the leader's warmth or sincerity is not always of politics with the soft money of mass entertainment. How can
important; that depends on the situation. The structure of politics Washington, it is sometimes asked, compete with Hollywood and
and of the electorate may be sufficiently firm to make it unlikely Broadway?
that an insincere candidate could bring about great evils even if Actually, however, the much criticized media — especially the
he wished to. The other-directed person, focused on people as he press — seem to have maintained a surprisingly inner-directed
is, may overlook such institutional hardness of the material. Thus, attitude toward the political. Indeed, they pay more attention to
just as the moralizer romanticizes a government of laws and not politics than their audience seems to demand. Even tabloids print
of men, the inside-dopester romanticizes a government of men headlines and, often, news pictures on the front page, not comics.
and not of laws. True, this is often "news" of sex, crime, and politically irrelevant
In the second place, it is obviously most difficult to judge sin- or distracting expose, but a few major political topics figure on
cerity. While the audience which uses the term sincerity thinks occasion. Old Indignant Hearst liked to print "the Chief's" edi-
that it is escaping, in its tolerant mood, from the difficulty of torials rather than cheesecake on page one. Local radio stations
judging skills, it is actually moving into a domain of consider- with disk jockeys build their self-esteem (and please the FCC)
ably greater complexity. Just because such a premium is put on 5. An excellent example of an inner-directed attitude toward the
sincerity, a premium is put on faking it. evaluation of sincerity and skill is to be seen in Lincoln's relationships
Plainly, it is the other-directed person's psychological need, to his wartime generals. As in the case of Grant's drinking, he wanted
not his political one, that dictates his emphasis on warmth and to know whether these men could do a job, not whether they were
sincerity. For leadership, the ability to be disagreeable may often nice, or nice to him.
198 THE LONELY CROWD POLITICAL PERSUASIONS 199

by broadcasting news every hour, which, like the commercials, broadcasters want to raise themselves above "the lowest common
people do not bother to switch off. Likewise, newsreels usually denominator" without fully exploring the potential financial
begin with shots of some political personage or event, postponing profitability of the latter. The movie king who speaks for mere
Lew Lehr or the fashion show to the end of the reel. Thus many entertainment feels on the defensive with the bold producer of
of the agencies of mass communications give political news a Home of the Brave and similar problem-films.
larger play than might be dictated by strict considerations of For in fact, those who work in the mass communications in-
market research. In this way they help maintain the prestige of dustries are, despite the moralizing style with which they ap-
politics as a presumed interest on the part of their audience— proach politics, typically other-directed. The hypersensitive
even though, at the same time, they seldom counter the popular radar that is their meal ticket is tuned in spare moments not to the
stereotype concerning the disreputability of politicians. audience to whom they sell but to the intellectual strata around
This position of prestige given to politics is especially impor- and above them. These strata are frequently contemptuous of
tant for the other-directed person, since he looks to the mass popular culture.
media for guidance in his design for living and hierarchy of val- Doubtless, a hierarchy among the different kinds of entertain-
ues. He is led to assume that other people must rate politics as the ment has always existed. But whereas the hierarchy in earlier
mass media themselves do—that they are politically alert moral- days was based, at least to some extent, on criteria of artistry, the
izers even though he is not. He is also encouraged in this assump- hierarchy today seems to be based somewhat more on topic than
tion by the polls which the press prints. Save for an "inquiring on mode of treatment. As the audience itself is asked to move on
photographer" here and there, these polls ask many questions a constantly uptilting gradient of topic and taste, from the comics
and report many answers about public issues and rather few about of childhood to the commentators of adulthood, so the makers of
daily living or sports. The media, far from being a conspiracy to the media, in their own combination of social mobility and ethical
dull the political sense of the people, could be viewed as a con- uplift, are always impatient to get to the point where in addition
spiracy to disguise the extent of political indifference. to entertaining they are, in terms of topic, educating and improv-
Indeed people in most walks of life are apologetic if they are ing. As the slicks are more high class than the pulps, so politics
not up on politics, men especially so. People do not often make is more high class than sex. The sports writer wants to become a
the discovery that others are quite as bored or apathetic about political columnist; the night-club broadcaster moves over first
politics (or about other things on which the media confer re- into political chitchat, then into political fire; many a newspaper
spectability) as they know themselves to be. In the city, where publisher who begins as a "no-nonsense" businessman ends up
people do not know each other, the "unbelievers" could only as a bit of a political moralizer. Just as the new rich are "educated"
be aware of how numerous they are through the mass media, to philanthropy by their associates, so the new entrants into the
but these are the very channels that give politics priority.6 mass media are educated away from the "low" commercial mo-
One reason for this is the desire of those who work for the mass tives to ones of more prestige. To take an example, the older pic-
media to do what is right or considered to be right by those to torial magazines, such as Life and Look and even some of the less
whom they look for leadership. Just as publishers want to pub- well-known ones, have moved steadily away from pictures, away
lish prestige books even though they may lose money on them, from cheescake toward art, away from the sensationalism of Sun-
under various rationalizations of good will, so newspapermen and day supplement journalism toward "serious" reading matter and
6. Cf. Paul Lazarsfeld and Robert K. Merton, "Mass Communi- political exhorting; pictures are only the come-on for social issues.
cation, Popular Taste and Organized Social Action," The Communi- It seems, therefore, that the mass media, among their highly
cation of Ideas, ed. Lyman Bryson, p. 95, on the "status-conferral" complex and ambiguous effects, do help prop up the prestige of
function of the media. the political sphere in the United States, and that within this
zoo THE LONELY CROWD POLITICAL PERSUASIONS 2OI

sphere they have the effect of favoring the older, moralizing po- ago of the new Scientific American. The old Scientific American
litical styles. This is more true of the press than of the movies and used to be read by inner-directed hobbyists of science; now it
radio, just as within the press it is more true of certain magazines has become a slick-paper periodical, catering with brilliance and
and newspapers than of others. Nevertheless, despite these good sophistication to the consumers of science, including social sci-
intentions the total impact of the mass media on the political at- ence and philosophy; one old subscriber complained that it was
titudes of Americans does more to encourage other-directed no longer edited to be read by men with greasy hands at work-
tolerance than to preserve inner-directed indignation. The sheer benches—virtually the only hobby column remaining is the as-
emphasis on consumer skills in the mass media, an emphasis that tronomy section. Likewise, we might note that Street and Smith,
both encourages and caters to the other-directed, has cumulative publishers of such moralizing tales as Alger and Nick Carter, in
effects. One of the most basic of these is that the inner-directed 1948 killed all but one of their remaining pulps, including De
types and their interests are driven out of the media in every tective Story, Western Story, etc., to concentrate on their three
sphere except that of politics itself. booming slicks: Mademoiselle, Charm, and Mademoiselle's Liv-
ing. What is the barnacled moralizer to do with them?
This gnawing deficit of acceptable mass media would perhaps
IV. The Reservoir of Indignation be less troublesome to the moralizer if the world in which he
lived still appeared to be inner-directed, to be governed, that is,
Outside of politics, indeed, the mass media offer the indignants by an invisible hand. But his own experience of life is often dis-
a rather scanty fare. The moral issues dealt with in the media are appointing; he is deprived of a feeling of competence and place.
posed in increasingly subtle form, and, as we saw in Chapter Neither his character nor his work is rewarded. In that situation
VII, they reflect problems mainly of personal relationships. he tends to turn on both—for he is vulnerable to lack of worldly
Moreover, the pace of the media is too fast, too sophisticated, for comprehension even more perhaps than to lack of worldly suc-
many of the readers who remain inner-directed. What are they cess—and on the world. In a last desperate effort to turn the coun-
to make, for instance, of a Billy Rose column about Broadway try back on its inner-directed course in order to make it habitable
morals and mores? How are they to translate the specialized lin- for him, he is ready to join a political movement whose basic driv-
goes of many comic strips? How can they possibly make sense ing force is indignation. A world that refuses him a place—a
of the elusiveness and allusiveness of the "A"-grade problem- world that bombards him with messages that make him feel in-
film? The indignants are apt to find that even horse operas have adequate—may not appear to him worth saving, though his de-
become pastoral settings for sadism, sex, and social problems, no strucriveness may be rationalized by various ideologies.
longer like the old westerns whose chief characters were horses The mass media cater to this attitude in politics, even if they
and whose moral problems involved hardly more complicated no longer cater to it in other fields. We have seen one reason for
beings. Soap operas probably seem to casual upper middle-class this: the fact that many leaders of the media, for prestige and
listeners to be bathed in lachrymose moralizing. But typically other reasons of their own, espouse a moralizing attitude toward
their characters are preoccupied with straightening out a com- politics rather than an inside-dopesterish one. And we have seen
plex web of tenuous emotions, often needing the specialized serv- another reason: the fact that the media attract and provide an
ices of the professional or semi-professional helper. The typical audience for indignant men with a simple message. While most
curdled indignant, perhaps especially if male, is simply not in- of their readers are new-style indifferents who are titillated by
terested in such things. political excitement, some are indignants who find their responses
We may note the change in popular-culture fare in another welcomed on the editorial page and in the commentator's columns
medium altogether, by remarking the transformation a few years if nowhere else.
202 THE LONELY CROWD POLITICAL PERSUASIONS 203
Moreover, the indignation of the lords of press, comment, and principle, not a character trait. The most fervent defenders of
column is not as ineffective with the other-directed readers in civil liberties in America draw political strength from their
their audience as one might suppose at first glance. Many of these principles and firm convictions, not from their knowledge of
have adopted the moralizer's style as their own—many more of who's who in politics. In contrast, the tolerant inside-dopester
course are only marginally other-directed. But even the tolerant may become "objective" about intolerance: he knows enough
other-directed person is often fascinated by the indignant's ire, about people to doubt the efficacy of reason or to be sure of his
not because it is compatible with his character structure but be- own resistance. His vulnerabilities, as well as his abilities, spring
cause it is not. In commercial sports, for instance, he enjoys a from the fact that he has his eye on the others and not on his
rivalry and display of bad temper—even if he knows in a way own principles or wants.
that it is cooked up for his benefit—that is vanishing or banished In fact, the other-directed try to defend themselves against the
from other spheres of his life. As a result, displays of aggression political onslaughts of the indignants by inside operations rather
and indignation in the arena of politics are popular with all types than by countermoralizing. Disinclined to personal militancy, to
—indignants, inside-dopesters, and indifferents. "Pour it on, getting out on a limb, they put on pressure through groups
Harry!" the crowds shouted to President Truman. As Americans, and associations that speak in their name. As capable handlers of
whatever their class or character, can enjoy boxing or a rodeo, inside tactics and of the process of communication—they are, of
so they still look upon a political brawl as very much a part of course, at home among the mass media, not all of which are con-
their American heritage, despite the trend toward tolerance. trolled by moralizers—they can often put the brakes on what the
This leads us to the important consideration that the nature indignants would like to do. As a clever district attorney can
of the electioneering process encourages the entry of the indig- mitigate the fury of a grand jury to whom he has to present an
nant on his own terms. In campaigning, a tradition of moralizing indictment by making a deal with the defendant's lawyer to ac-
survives, in competition with the newer search for glamor. The cept a plea to a lesser offense, so the inside-dopester has often,
machines, though sensitive to glamor, are also aware, from past in national and local politics, been able to hold the indignants off
defeats, of the political power of the indignants—those who did with a concession. He can make concessions, since he does not
go fight city hall. Even other-directed men may vote for moral- ask of politics that it straighten out the world for him. Indeed, if
izing inner-directed politicians because the latter present a more the indignant asks too much of politics, the tolerant inside-
familiar, more dramatized, more seemingly appropriate attitude dopester asks too little.
toward politics. The moralizers and the inside-dopesters taken together are
For the indignants have hold of one of the great traditions of probably a majority among the better-educated, but surely a mi-
American politics, that of asking the government to govern more nority of the whole population. However, the inside-dopester
than it knows how to govern—as with prohibition—a latter-day has little to offer to the indifferents in the way of psychic divi-
survival of the time when a state like Connecticut, to Tocque- dends: his very knowledge leads him to be aware of how little
ville's astonishment, could not justify putting less than the can be accomplished in politics and how fantastic it is to hope to
Hebraic law on its statute books but could not justify enforc- "get rid of politics." But in rousing the indifferents, indignation
ing its harsh penal provisions either. In line with this tradition, the has great possibilities. Not only does it make for a better show
indignants of today can strive in politics to "get the law" on those but it also plays on such grievances as the indifferents have. Some-
movements in culture—in literature, the movies, the universities, times these grievances can be brought into the political sphere by
the libraries—that symbolize urban sophistication and tolerance. an antipolitical summons. The hate-filled promises of the indig-
They are resisted in this effort less by tolerant other-directed nant may appeal to many of those whose political indifference
types than by inner-directed men for whom tolerance is a moral rests not on the security of tradition-direction but on incompe-
204 THE LONELY CROWD POLITICAL PERSUASIONS 205
tence and affectlessness. From similar sources were rallied many emotional currents in American life, it strenuously seeks to pre-
of the early Nazis, a large wing of the de Gaullists, and many sent to the Commons of the media—radio, TV, movies, and pulps
other groups in various countries who place themselves "above -a hand-me-down agenda of political debate. Since politics is
politics," "above parties," and "above opinions." Such groups actually less real than the press lords pretend to themselves and
attack the more traditionally partisan and politically articulate their audience that it is, the consumption of political vituperation
elements of society and demand freedom from politics—from may easily become more than ever an escape in the usual invidi-
platforms, principles, and parliaments. Such an attitude toward ous sense, rationalized by its high, media-based prestige. Thus,
the American party system and pattern of political discourse is the sources in popular art and culture from which eventual po-
not infrequent. Therefore, if at any time the indignants can make litical creation may flow are partially dammed up by false con-
a junction with the indifferents, the former can become very siderations of prestige and by the displaced guilts and ethical
powerful. Internally, indignation can draw on great lower-class urges shared by those who control the media and those who, in
reserves of nationalism and xenophobia. Externally, indignation turn, look to them for a bill of cultural fare.
may meet counterindignation, and the congruence of indignants The probabilities are that the media, in their direct, message-
and temporarily aroused indifferents may present the tolerant bearing impact, are likely to do less either to help or hurt the
with a seeming fait accompli. And the tolerant inside-dopesters, audience than the controllers of the media and their critics like to
as compared with those who are tolerant from inner-directed think. Awareness of this fact may permit both the controllers and
principle, are men trained to recognize a fait accompli, not re- the critics of the media to reorient their attention. They are free,
sist it. much freer than they realize, to attend to the medium itself, rather
Long before the tolerant are able to organize politics after their than to the message it purveys or is believed to purvey. The
style and their mood, a stampede of the indignant may have movie producer or critic who is concerned mainly with messages,
brought on an explosion and may have pushed the tolerant cause for instance of ethnic tolerance, may actually despise the movies
and the tolerant character into abeyance. as an art form. The editorializer or social scientist who is con-
cerned only with arousing the electorate may hate the English
language because it has become for him a mere tool. The broad-
V. "In Dreams Begin Responsibilities" caster who wants to atone for his big salary and sponsors by slip-
I would like, in conclusion, to hazard the suggestion that if the ping in a crack against business may have little respect for the
media encouraged, and if its audience could permit itself, more aesthetic resources of his medium.
genuine escape, "away from it all," Americans would become In these and other ways, the men who work in radio, film, and
stronger psychically and more ready to undertake an awakening fiction tend to give politics, as the press and its uplifters see it, a
of political imagination and commitment. By prolonging our prestige denied to art, and especially the popular art of the media
present pattern for criticizing the mass media, we make it pos- themselves. There is pathos in this for their personal lives, since
sible for the media to continue to uphold the prestige of the po- it leads them to unwarranted contempt for their own craft. There
litical even when, as for much of our life at present, the political is irony in this for American politics, since it seems to me that a
is devoid of substantial content—for one thing, because this very country which produced artistically first-class movies, papers,
lack of content could only be glimpsed from a less realistic, more and broadcasts—no matter what the topic and, indeed, subordi-
fantasy-oriented outlook. The direct impact of the media on po- nating the whole question of topic—would be, politically as
litical decision may easily become as thin as the impact of the well as culturally, a livelier and happier land. Good mass-media
House of Lords on popular opinion in Britain. The serious press artists are quite as important, and perhaps even scarcer, than re-
refuses to face this situation, and, far from seeking to explore new sponsible, anti-escapist commentators.
 X I M A G E S OF P O W E R 207

politics, ordinarily left it to their "betters," but they retained a

Images of power veto on what was done and occasionally, as with Jackson, moved
into a more positive command. After the Civil War, however,
farmers and artisans lost their capacity to check what was done,
and the captains of industry emerged as a ruling class. During
their hegemony the images and the actualities of power in Amer-
In the United States the more opulent citizens take great care not ica coincided more closely than I think they do today. 1
to stand aloof from the people; on the contrary, they constantly
keep on easy terms with the lower classes; they listen to them, CAPTAINS OF INDUSTRY AND CAPTAINS OF CONSUMPTION
they speak to them every day. They know that the rich in democra-
cies always stand in need of the poor, and that in democratic times According to this view of the matter, the election of 1896 appears
you attach a poor man to you more by your manner than by bene- as an historical watershed: the high point of oligarchic rule. In
fits conferred. terms of political style, there were moralizers for Bryan and mor-
Tocqueville, Democracy in America alizers for McKinley. And there were groups that, whether or
not they saw their interests in moral terms, had a clear picture of
themselves and of their interests; they, too, responded to the elec-
tion in an inner-directed way. Only a few people like Brooks
Adams, who supported Bryan out of his hatred for the "gold-
There has been in the last fifty years a change in the configu- bugs," were aware of some of the ambiguities in the positions of
ration of power in America, in which a single hierarchy with a both candidates.
ruling class at its head has been replaced by a number of "veto Certainly, the victorious leaders—McKinley, Hanna, and Mor-
groups" among which power is dispersed. This change has many gan in their several bailiwicks—were not aware of ambiguity.
complex roots and complex consequences, including the change The success of their electoral bid is less important to us than the
in political mood from moralizing to tolerance. A clear-cut power mood of their undertaking, which was one of conscious leader-
structure helped to create the clarity of goals of the inner- ship, directed by conscious class considerations. This self-con-
directed; an amorphous power structure helps to create the con- scious leadership took support from the close connection, to
sumer orientation of the other-directed. which I have already called attention, between politics and work.
The world of work was the great world; politics was an exten-
sion that could either facilitate work or sabotage it. While bankers
I. The Leaders and the Led and Grangers had different notions as to what work politics should
do and what leave undone, they agreed as to the primacy of the
There have been two periods in American history in which a production side of life.
sharply defined ruling class emerged. In the late eighteenth and Of course, the political sphere was not devoid of entertainment
early nineteenth centuries the Federalist leadership—landed- for the inner-directed man: with its opportunity for cracker-
gentry and mercantilist-money leadership—certainly thought of barrel argument, beer drinking, and shirt-sleeved good-fellow-
itself as, and was, a ruling group. Long before its leadership was ship by torchlight, it had its occasional uses as a "downward"
actually dislodged, its power was disputed and, in decisive in- escape from the dignities of work and the propertied existence.
\ stances, overruled in the northern and middle states by yeoman But the great difference from today is that the leaders went into
farmers and artisans. These latter, having little time or gift for politics to do a job—primarily to assure the conquest of American
206
208 THE LONELY CROWD I M A G E S OF POWER 209

resources—rather than to seek a responsive audience. As Rocke- there are survivals. In the booming Southwest, Texas still pro-
feller sold his oil more by force or cheapness than by brand, so duces men like Glenn McCarthy, and California produced an
the late nineteenth-century political leader sold his wares (votes old-style lion of the jungle in A. P. Giannini (who was, signifi-
or decisions) to the highest bidder. Either cash or morality might cantly enough, from a family which lacked the opportunity to
bid—but not "good will" as such. educate him for the newer business motivations). Yet even these
This situation and these inner-directed motivations gave a types are touched by traits that were not nearly so evident in the
clarity to the political and social scene in 1896 that it does not earlier captains of industry who fascinated Veblen as Lucifer
appear to have had in Tocqueville's day and has not had since. fascinated Milton. Like Henry Kaiser, they depend much more
The bullet that killed McKinley marked the end of the days of than did the older magnificoes on public opinion and, as a corol-
explicit class leadership. Muckraking and savage political car- lary to public opinion, on the attitude of government. To this
tooning—arts that depend on clarity of line—continued for a end they tend to exploit their personalities, or allow them to be
time and of course have not quite vanished yet. But as the old- exploited, in a way that makes the elder Rockefeller's Ivy Lee
time religion depended on a clear image of heaven and hell and stunt of dime-giving seem as remote as the Fuggers.
clear judgments of good and evil, so the old-time politics Much more than their pre-World War I predecessors, then,
depended on a clear class structure and the clear and easily moral- these surviving captains stay within the limits as well as the pos-
ized judgments of good and bad that flow from it. It depended, sibilities of the economy of the glad hand. If they enter politics
too, and I cannot emphasize the point too much, on an agreement they do so because it is a sport or obligation for the rich; or sim-
between leaders and led that the work sphere of life was domi- ply because they are tied in with government at every step in
nant. And because the goals were clear, the obvious job of the their ramifying enterprises. These latter-day captains neither see
leader was to lead; of the led, to follow. Their political cooper- themselves nor are recognized as political leaders who, by their
ation, like their cooperation in industry and agriculture, was based presence and by what they stand for, clarify and thereby mor-
on mutual interests, whether directly moralized or not, rather alize politics. The elder Morgan and his friends thought it was
than on mutual preferences and likings. up to them to stop Bryan and to stop the depression of 1907. No
one has taken their place.
What I have said must be taken as an "ideal-typical" political In the focus of public attention the old captains of industry
portrait of the age, useful by way of contrast to our own times. have been replaced by an entirely new type: the Captains of Non-
Actually, the changes are, as always, changes in emphasis and industry, of Consumption and Leisure. Surveys of content in the
degree, and the portrait would be seriously overdrawn if the mass media show a shift in the kinds of information about busi-
reader should conclude that no emotional moods, no cravings for ness and political leaders that audiences ask for.1 In an earlier
charisma and glamor, eddied about the relations between leaders day the audience was given a story of the hero's work-minded
and led. These relations were not built entirely out of sober mor- rise to success. Today, the ladder climbing is taken for granted
alizing and well-understood economic interests, but occasionally, or is seen in terms of "the breaks," and the hero's tastes in dress,
as Veblen described matters, the Captain of Industry served food, women, and recreation are emphasized—these are, as we
to provide the underlying population with personages to admire have seen, the frontiers on which the reader can himself compete,
"to the greater spiritual comfort of all parties concerned." 1. See the excellent article by Leo Lowenthal, "Biographies in
Ruling-class theories, applied to contemporary America, seem Popular Magazines," Radio Research, 1942-43, ed. Lazarsfeld and
to be spectral survivals of this earlier time. The captain of indus- Stanton (New York, Duell, Sloan & Pearce, 1944), p. 507. Dr.
try no longer runs business, no longer runs politics, and no longer Lowenthal links the shift from "heroes of production" to "heroes of
provides legitimate "spiritual comfort." Here and there, it is true, consumption" to major social changes in American life.
2IO THE LONELY CROWD I M A G E S OF POWER 211

while he cannot imagine himself in the work role of the president with deep concern at all times. Churchill exploited his indigna-
of the United States or the head of a big company. tion, Roosevelt his charm.
What is more, there is a shift in such biographies from an The obviously real differences in the military situation of
accent on business leaders to an accent on leaders in con- Britain and the United States during this period are not sufficient
sumption. Proportionately, actors, artists, entertainers, get more to explain these differences in the mood and method of leader-
space than they used to, and the heroes of the office, hustings, ship. Much more important than the wartime differences between
and factory get less. These consumers of the surplus product the two countries are the differing shifts in political pattern dur-
may, in Veblen's terms, provide "spiritual comfort" by their very ing the last half century. America in the 9o's could be led politi-
skill in consumption. The glamor of such heroes of consumption cally and morally. Since then we have entered a social and politi-
may reside in their incompetence in the skills of businesslike per- cal phase in which power is dispersed among veto groups. These
formance and, as we have seen, in some cases their wholly per- groups are too many and diverse to be led by moralizing; what
sonal sincerity may do duty in place of more objective artistic they want is too various to be moralized and too intangible to be
criteria. bought off for cash alone; and what is called political leadership
But, of course, these captains of consumption are not leaders. consists, as we could see in Roosevelt's case, in the tolerant ability
They are still only personalities, employed to adorn movements, to manipulate coalitions.
not to lead them. Yet the actual leaders have much in common I This means that the men who, at an earlier historical period,
with them. were political leaders are now busy with the other-directed oc-
For an illustration we can turn to a recent American leader— cupation of studying the feedback from all the others—their
undoubtedly a leader—who shared many characteristics of the constituencies, their correspondents, and friends and enemies
artist a n d entertainer: Franklin D. Roosevelt. We are accus- within influential pressure groups. The revolution in communi-
tomed to thinking of him as a man of great power. Yet his role cations makes this attention possible in ways that were not avail-
in leading the country into war was very different from that of able to the equally assiduous client-cultivator of an earlier day,
McKinley or even of Wilson. Think of McKinley pacing the who could buy a few editors if he wanted favorable things said.
floor of his study, deciding whether or not to ask for a declara- And those who were once the followers have learned the arts of
tion of war on Spain—when he already knew that Spain would lobbying and publicity. The roll call of nineteenth- and early
capitulate. McKinley felt it was up to him; so did Wilson. Roose- twentieth-century leaders contains many men who refused to
velt felt he could only maneuver within very narrow limits, follow their flock: Gladstone and Cleveland, Robert Peel and
limits which came close to leaving the decision to the enemy. John Stuart Mill (as M.P.), Woodrow Wilson and Winston
Again, if we compare his activities during the war years with Churchill. Even today the need to impose unpopular courses
those of Churchill, we can see important differences. Churchill brings to the fore inner-directed types: Cripps, for instance, in
led the British in something like the old-time sense of an explicit England; Stimson and Robert Patterson in this country. Of course,
relation between the leader and the followers. That he led, more- political figures in all ages have been dependent on their follow-
over, as a moralizing leader and not, despite his great personal ing, and opportunism and manipulation are not a twentieth-cen-
charm, as a personality, appeared in the readiness of the elec- tury discovery. The inner-directed leader, however, was quite
torate to follow him in war and to dispense with him in peace: conscious of discrepancies between his views and those of others;
they were work-minded rather than consumption-minded about if he shifted his course, it was still his course. Moreover, since he
him. Roosevelt on the other hand remained throughout the war, was ambitious, he might well prefer later fame to momentary
as before, a powerful though tolerant persuader, even conniver warmth of response; in any event he did not need to have every-
and stimulator, of changes in public opinion that he followed body love him, but only those who mattered for his fortunes.
212 THE LONELY CROWD I M A G E S OF POWER 213
In his autobiography, John Stuart Mill tells the following ordinating agency. The message, the appointment, the agency—
story: none of them could get very far in the Alice in Wonderland cro-
In the pamphlet, "Thoughts on Parliamentary Reform," I had said, quet game of the veto groups.
rather bluntly, that the working classes, though differing from
those of some other countries, in being ashamed of lying, are yet
generally liars. This passage some opponent got printed in a placard II. Who Has the Power?
which was handed to me at a meeting, chiefly composed of the
working classes, and I was asked whether I had written and pub- The Veto Groups. The shifting nature of the lobby provides us
lished it. I at once answered "I did." Scarcely were these two words with an important clue as to the difference between the present
out of my mouth, when vehement applause resounded through the American political scene and that of the age of McKinley. The
whole meeting. ruling class of businessmen could relatively easily (though per-
haps mistakenly) decide where their interests lay and what edi-
tors, lawyers, and legislators might be paid to advance them.
It is interesting to compare this incident with the practices of The lobby ministered to the clear leadership, privilege, and im-
certain American public figures who not only would not think perative of the business ruling class.
of saying anything that might offend an audience but who fre- Today we have substituted for that leadership a series of groups,
quently depart from a prepared text, carefully designed to please each of which has struggled for and finally attained a power to
a wide audience, in order to mollify the smaller face-to-face stop things conceivably inimical to its interests and, within far
group before whom the speech happens to be delivered. narrower limits, to start things. The various business groups, large
and small, the movie-censoring groups, the farm groups and the
The old-time captain of industry was also a captain of consump- labor and professional groups, the major ethnic groups and major
tion: what standards were set, were set by him. He was also a cap- regional groups, have in many instances succeeded in maneuver-
tain of politics. The new captain of consumption who has usurped ing themselves into a position in which they are able to neutralize
his place in the public eye is limited severely to the sphere of con- those who might attack them. The very increase in the number
sumption—which itself has of course greatly expanded. Today, of these groups, and in the kinds of interests, practical and fic-
the personalities from the leisure world, no matter how much tional, they are protecting, marks, therefore, a decisive change
loved, lack the strength and the situation for leadership. If a from the lobbies of an earlier day. There is a change in method,
movie star of today tries to put across a political message, in or too, in the way the groups are organized, the way they handle
out of films, he finds himself vulnerable to all sorts of pressures. each other, and the way they handle the public, that is, the un-
The movie producer is no more powerful. The Catholics, the organized.
Methodists, the organized morticians, the state department, the These veto groups are neither leader-groups nor led-groups.
southerners, the Jews, the doctors, all put their pressure on the The only leaders of national scope left in the United States today
vehicle that is being prepared for mass distribution. Piety or are those who can placate the veto groups. The only followers
decency protects some minority groups that have no lobbies. The left in the United States today are those unorganized and some-
movie maker acts as a broker among these veto groups in a situ- times disorganized unfortunates who have not yet invented their
ation much too intricate to encourage his taking a firm, moraliz- group.
ing stance. At best, he or someone in his organization may sneak Within the veto groups, there is, of course, the same struggle
a moral and political message into the film as Roosevelt or some- for top places that goes on in other bureaucratic setups. Among
one in his organization sneaked over an appointment or a new co- the veto groups competition is monopolistic; rules of fairness and
214 THE LONELY CROWD I M A G E S OF P O W E R 215
fellowship dictate how far one can go. Despite the rules there are, laymen, though they should "participate," should not really be
of course, occasional "price wars," like the jurisdictional disputes too inquisitive or aroused.
of labor unions or Jewish defense groups; these are ended by By their very nature the veto groups exist as defense groups,
negotiation, the division of territory, and the formation of a not as leadership groups. If it is true that they do "have the
roof organization for the previously split constituency. These power," they have it by virtue of a necessary mutual tolerance.
big monopolies, taken as a single group, are in devastating com- More and more they mirror each other in their style of political
petition with the not yet grouped, much as the fair-trade econ- action, including their interest in public relations and their em-
omy competes against the free-trade economy. These latter phasis on internal harmony of feelings. There is a tendency for
scattered followers find what protection they can in the interstices organizations as differently oriented as, say, the Young Social-
around the group-minded.2 ists and the 4-H Club, to adopt similar psychological methods of
Each of the veto groups in this pattern is capable of an aggres- salesmanship to obtain and solidify their recruits.
sive move, but the move is sharply limited in its range by the This does not mean, however, that the veto groups are formed
way in which the various groups have already cut up the sphere along the lines of character structure. As in a business corpo-
of politics and arrayed certain massive expectations behind each ration there is room for extreme inner-directed and other-
cut. Both within the groups and in the situation created by their directed types, and all mixtures between, so in a veto group there
presence, the political mood tends to become one of other-di- can exist complex symbiotic relationships among people of
rected tolerance. The vetoes so bind action that it is hard for the different political styles. Thus a team of lobbyists may include
moralizers to conceive of a program that might in any large way both moralizers and inside-dopesters, sometimes working in har-
alter the relations between political and personal life or between ness, sometimes in conflict; and the constituency of the team
political and economic life. In the amorphous power structure may be composed mainly of new-style political indifferents who
created by the veto groups it is hard to distinguish rulers from have enough literacy and organizational experience to throw
the ruled, those to be aided from those to be opposed, those on weight around when called upon. Despite these complications I
your side from those on the other side. This very pattern encour- think it fair to say that the veto groups, even when they are set
ages the inside-dopester who can unravel the personal linkages, up to protect a clear-cut moralizing interest, are generally forced
and discourages the enthusiast or indignant who wants to install to adopt the political manners of the other-directed.
the good or fend off the bad. Probably, most of all it encourages In saying this I am talking about the national scene. The smaller
the new-style indifferent who feels and is often told that his and the constituency, of course, the smaller the number of veto
everyone else's affairs are in the hands of the experts and that groups involved and the greater the chance that some one of
them will be dominant. Thus, in local politics there is more in-
2. It should be clear that monopolistic competition, both in business dignation and less tolerance, just as even the Chicago Tribune is a
and politics, is competition. People are very much aware of their tolerant paper in comparison with the community throwaways in
rivals, within and without the organization. They know who they
many Chicago neighborhoods.
are, but by the very nature of monopolistic competition they are
seldom able to eliminate them entirely. While we have been talking
of fair trade and tolerance, this should not obscure the fact that for The same problem may be considered from another perspec-
the participants the feeling of being in a rivalrous setup is very strong. tive. Various groups have discovered that they can go quite far
Indeed, they face the problem of so many other-directed people: how in the amorphous power situation in America without being
to combine the appearance of friendly, personalized, sincere behavior stopped. Our society is behaviorally open enough to permit a
with the ruthless, sometimes almost paranoid, envies of their occupa- considerable community of gangsters a comfortable living under
tional life. a variety of partisan political regimes. In their lack of concern for
2l6 THE LONELY CROWD I M A G E S OF POWER 217

public relations these men are belated businessmen. So are some because it combines a certain amount of centralized command—
labor leaders who have discovered their power to hold up the and a public picture of a still greater amount—with a highly
economy, though in most situations what is surprising is the mod- decentralized priesthood (each priest is in a sense his own trade
eration of labor demands—a moderation based more on psycho- association secretary) and a membership organization of wide-
logical restraints than on any power that could effectively be ranging ethnic, social, and political loyalties; this structure per-
interposed. Likewise, it is sometimes possible for an aggressive mits great flexibility in bargaining.
group, while not belonging to the entrenched veto-power teams, These qualifications, however, do not change the fact that the
to push a bill through a legislature. Thus, the original Social veto groups, taken together, constitute a new buffer region be-
Security Act went through Congress, so far as I can discover, tween the old, altered, and thinning extremes of those who were
because it was pushed by a devoted but tiny cohort; the large once leaders and led. It is both the attenuation of leaders and
veto groups including organized labor were neither very much led, and the other-oriented doings of these buffers, that help to
for it nor very much against it. give many moralizers a sense of vacuum in American political
For similar reasons those veto groups are in many political life.
situations strongest whose own memberships are composed of The veto groups, by the conditions their presence creates and
veto groups, especially veto groups of one. The best example of by the requirements they set for leadership in politics, foster the
this is the individual farmer who, after one of the farm lobbies tolerant mood of other-direction and hasten the retreat of the
has made a deal for him, can still hold out for more. The farm inner-directed indignants.
lobby's concern for the reaction of other veto groups, such as
labor unions, cuts little ice with the individual farmer. This fact
may strengthen the lobby in a negotiation: it can use its internal IS THERE A RULING CLASS LEFT?

public relations problems as a counter in bargaining, very much Nevertheless, people go on acting as if there still were a decisive
as does a diplomat who tells a foreign minister that he must con- ruling class in contemporary America. In the postwar years, busi-
sider how Senator so-and-so will react. For, no matter what the nessmen thought labor leaders and politicians ran the country,
other-directedness of the lobby's leaders, they cannot bind their while labor and the left thought that "Wall Street" ran it, or the
membership to carry out a public relations approach. Many labor "sixty families." Wall Street, confused perhaps by its dethrone-
unions have a similar power because they cannot control their ment as a telling barometer of capital-formation weather, may
memberships who, if not satisfied with a deal made by the union, have thought that the midwestern industrial barons, cushioned
can walk off or otherwise sabotage a job. on plant expansion money in the form of heavy depreciation re-
In contrast, those veto groups are often weaker whose other- serves and undivided profits, ran the country. They might have
directed orientation can dominate their memberships. Large had some evidence for this in the fact that the New Deal was
corporations are vulnerable to a call from the White House be- much tougher with finance capital—e.g., the SEC and the Hold-
cause, save for a residual indignant like Sewell Avery, their offi- ing Company Act—than with industrial capital and that when,
cials are themselves other-directed and because, once the word in the undistributed profits tax, it tried to subject the latter to a
from the chief goes out, the factory superintendents, no matter stockholder and money-market control, the tax was quickly re-
how boiling mad, have to fall into line with the new policy by pealed.
the very nature of the centralized organization for which they But these barons of Pittsburgh, Weirton, Akron, and Detroit,
work: they can sabotage top management on minor matters but though certainly a tougher crowd than the Wall Streeters, are,
not, say, on wage rates or tax accounting. As against this, the as we saw earlier, coming more and more to think of themselves
American Catholic Church possesses immense veto-group power as trustees for their beneficiaries. And whereas, from the point of
2l8 THE LONELY CROWD I M A G E S OF P O W E R 219

view of labor and the left, these men ran the War Production lished in the same year, there is much evidence of management
Board in the interest of their respective companies, one could eagerness to build a big, happy family.
argue just as easily that the WPB experience was one of the con- Power, indeed, is founded, in a large measure, on interpersonal
geries of factors that have tamed the barons. It put them in a situ- expectations and attitudes. If businessmen feel weak and depend-
ation where they had to view their company from the point of ent, they do in actuality become weaker and more dependent, no
view of "the others." matter what material resources may be ascribed to them. My im-
Despite the absence of intensive studies of business power and pression, based mainly on experiences of my own in business and
of what happens in a business negotiation, one can readily get an law practice, is that businessmen from large manufacturing
impressionistic sense of the change in business behavior in the last companies, though they often talk big, are easily frightened by
generation. In the pages of Fortune, that excellent chronicler of the threat of others' hostility; they may pound the table, but they
business, one can see that there are few survivals of the kinds look to others for leadership and do not care to get out of line
of dealings—with other businessmen, with labor, with the govern- with their peer-groupers. Possibly, attitudes toward such an iras-
ment—that were standard operating practice for the pre-World cible businessman as Sewell Avery might mark a good dividing
War I tycoons. Moreover, in its twenty-year history, Fortune line between the older and the newer attitudes. Those business-
itself has shown, and perhaps it may be considered not too un- men who admire Avery, though they might not dare to imitate
representative of its audience, a steady decline of interest in busi- him, are becoming increasingly an elderly minority, while the
ness as such and a growing interest in once peripheral matters, younger men generally are shocked by Avery's highhandedness,
such as international relations, social science, and other accoutre- his rebuff of the glad hand.
ments of the modern executive. The desire of businessmen to be well thought of has led to the
But it is of course more difficult to know whether character irony that each time a professor writes a book attacking business,
has changed as well as behavior—whether, as some contend, busi- even if almost nobody reads it, he creates various jobs for his
nessmen simply rule today in a more subtle, more managerial students in public relations, trade association work, and market
way. In "Manager Meets Union" Joseph M. Goldsen and Lillian research! While the Black Horse Cavalry of an earlier era held
Low have depicted the psychological dependence of a contem- up businessmen by threatening to let pass crippling legislation
porary sales manager on the approval of the men under him, his desired by anti-business moralizers, today many honest intellec-
willingness to go to great lengths, in terms of concessions, to main- tuals who would not think of taking a bribe hold business or trade
tain interpersonal warmth in his relations with them, and his association jobs because their clients have been scared, perhaps
fierce resentment of the union as a barrier to this emotional ex- by these very men, into taking cognizance of some actual or im-
change.3 As against this, one must set the attitude of some of the aginary veto group. Since a large structure is built up to woo
auto-supply companies whose leadership still seems much more the group, no test of power is made to see whether the group has
craft-oriented than people-oriented and therefore unwilling to real existence or real strength. Understandably, ideologies about
make concessions and none too concerned with the emotional who has power in America are relied upon to support these ami-
atmosphere of negotiations. Likewise, the General Motors-UAW able fictions which serve, as we shall see in Chapter XIII, to pro-
negotiations of 1946, as reported in print, sound more like a cock- vide the modern businessman with an endless shopping list, an
fight than a Platonic symposium, although in Peter Drucker's endless task of glad-handing. This is a far cry, I suggest, from the
Concept of the Corporation, a study of General Motors pub- opportunistic glad-handing of the wealthy on which Tocqueville
3. "Manager Meets Union: a Case Study of Personal Immaturity," comments at the chapter head; very likely, what was mere prac-
Human Factors in Management, ed. S. D. Hoslett (Parkville, Missouri, tice in his day has become embedded in character in ours.
Park College Press, 1946), p. 77. Businessmen, moreover, are not the only people who fail to
22O THE LONELY CROWD IMAGES OF POWER 221

exploit the power position they are supposed, in the eyes of them (and surely, too, evade my collaborators and me). One
many observers, to have. Army officers are also astonishingly example is the immense power, both political and economic, pos-
timid about exercising their leadership. During the war one would sessed by Artie Samish, allegedly the veto-group boss of Califor-
have thought that the army would be relatively impervious to nia. Samish is a new-type lobbyist, who represents not one but
criticism. But frequently the generals went to great lengths to scores of interests, often competing ones, from truckers to chi-
refrain from doing something about which a congressman might ropractors, and who plays one veto group off against others to
make an unfriendly speech. They did so even at times when they shake them down and strengthen his own power: he has learned
might have brushed the congressman off like an angry fly. When how the other-orientation of the established veto groups will lead
dealing with businessmen or labor leaders, army officers were, them to call still other groups into being through his auspices.
it seemed to me, astonishingly deferential; and this was as true of Since the old-line parties have little power in California, there is
the West Pointers as of the reservists. Of course, there were ex- no way of reaching a clear-cut decision for or against a particular
ceptions, but in many of the situations where the armed services veto group through the party system; instead, the state officials
made concessions to propitiate some veto group, they rational- have become dependent on Samish for electoral support, or at
ized the concessions in terms of morale or of postwar public re- least nonopposition, through his herded groups of voters and
lations or, frequently, simply were not aware of their power. their cash contributions; moreover, he knows how to go directly
To be sure, some came to the same result by the route of a to the people through the democratic plebiscite machinery.4
democratic tradition of civilian dominance. Very likely, it was a Carey McWilliams has observed that Samish's power rests both
good thing for the country that the services were so self- on the peculiar election machinery of the state and on the fact
restrained. I do not here deal with the matter on the merits but that no one industry or allied group of industries, no one union,
use it as an illustration of changing character and changing social one ethnic group or region, is dominant. The situation is very
structure. different in a state like Montana, where copper is pivotal, and one
All this may lead to the question: well, who really runs things? must be either for the union or for Anaconda. It is different again
What people fail to see is that, while it may take leadership to start in Virginia where, as V. O. Key shows in Southern Politics, the
things running, or to stop them, very little leadership is needed setup of the state constitution favors control by the old court-
once things are under way—that, indeed, things can get terribly house crowd. In view of these divergences, rooted in local legal
snarled up and still go on running. If one studies a factory, an niceties as well as in major social and economic factors, it is ap-
army group, or other large organization, one wonders how things parent that any discussion of class and power on the national
get done at all, with the lack of leadership and with all the feather-
bedding. Perhaps they get done because we are still trading on 4. Ironically enough, but typically enough, Samish craves the one
our reserves of inner-direction, especially in the lower ranks. At power he does not have: social power in the society-page sense. A
poor boy in origin, he can make or break businessmen and politicians
any rate, the fact they do get done is no proof that there is some-
but cannot get into the more exclusive clubs. And while consciously
one in charge. he is said to despise these social leaders whom he can so easily frighten
There are, of course, still some veto groups that have more and manipulate, he cannot purge himself of the childhood hurts and
power than others and some individuals who have more power childhood images of power that make him vulnerable to their exclusion
than others. But the determination of who these are has to be of him. In this, of course, he resembles other and better-known dic-
made all over again for our time: we cannot be satisfied with the tators.
answers given by Marx, Mosca, Michels, Pareto, Weber, Veblen, I have drawn on Carey McWilliams, "Guy Who Gets Things
or Burnham, though we can learn from all of them. Done," Nation, CLXIX (1949), 31-33; and Lester Velie, "Secret Boss
There are also phenomena in this vast country that evade all of of California," Collier's, CXXIV (August 13, 20, 1949), 11-13, 12-13-
222 THE LONELY CROWD I M A G E S OF P O W E R 223

scene can at best be only an approximation. Yet I would venture powers who control much of our agenda of attention; and so on.
to say that the United States is on the whole more like California The reader can complete the list. Power in America seems to me
in its variety—but without its veto boss—than like Montana and situational and mercurial; it resists attempts to locate it the way a
Virginia in their particularity. The vaster number of veto groups, molecule, under the Heisenberg principle, resists attempts simul-
and their greater power, mean that no one man or small group of taneously to locate it and time its velocity.
men can amass the power nationally that Artie Samish and, in But people are afraid of this indeterminacy and amorphousness
earlier days, Huey Long, have held locally. in the cosmology of power. Even those intellectuals, for instance,
Rather, power on the national scene must be viewed in terms who feel themselves very much out of power and who are fright-
of issues. It is possible that, where an issue involves only two or ened of those who they think have the power, prefer to be scared
three veto groups, themselves tiny minorities, the official or un- by the power structures they conjure up than to face the pos-
official broker among the groups can be quite powerful—but sibility that the power structure they believe exists has largely
only on that issue. However, where the issue involves the coun- evaporated. Most people prefer to suffer with interpretations that
try as a whole, no individual or group leadership is likely to be give their world meaning than to relax in the cave without an
very effective, because the entrenched veto groups cannot be Ariadne's thread.
budged: unlike a party that may be defeated at the polls, or a
class that may be replaced by another class, the veto groups are Let me now summarize the argument in the preceding chap-
always "in." ters. The inner-directed person, if he is political at all, is related
One might ask whether one would not find, over a long period to the political scene either by his morality, his well-defined in-
of time, that decisions in America favored one group or class— terests, or both. His relationship to his opinions is close, not pe-
thereby, by definition, the ruling group or class—over others. ripheral. The opinions are means of defending certain principles
Does not wealth exert its pull in the long run? In the past this has of politics. They may be highly charged and personal, as in the
been so; for the future I doubt it. The future seems to be in the political discussion in the first pages of Joyce's Portrait of the
hands of the small business and professional men who control Artist as a Young Man, or they may be highly charged and im-
Congress, such as realtors, lawyers, car salesmen, undertakers, personal—a means of defending one's proper Bostonianship or
and so on; of the military men who control defense and, in part, other class position. In either case one's own opinions are felt
foreign policy; of the big business managers and their lawyers, to matter and to have some direct relationship to the objective
finance-committee men, and other counselors who decide on world in which one lives.
plant investment and influence the rate of technological change; As against this, the other-directed person, if he is political, is
of the labor leaders who control worker productivity and worker related to the political scene as a member of a veto group. He
votes; of the black belt whites who have the greatest stake in leaves it to the group to defend his interests, cooperating when
southern politics; of the Poles, Italians, Jews, and Irishmen who called on to vote, to apply pressure, and so on. These pressure
have stakes in foreign policy, city jobs, and ethnic religious and tactics seem to make his opinions manifest on the political level,
cultural organizations; of the editorializers and storytellers who but they actually help make it possible for him to be detached
help socialize the young, tease and train the adult, and amuse and from his opinions. No longer operating as an "independent voter"
annoy the aged; of the farmers—themselves a warring congeries —mostly an amiable fiction even in the era dependent on inner-
of cattlemen, corn men, dairymen, cotton men, and so on—who direction—his political opinions, as such, are not felt to be related
control key departments and committees and who, as the living to his political function. Thus, they can serve him as a social
representatives of our inner-directed past, control many of our counter in his role as a peer-group consumer of the political news-
memories; of the Russians and, to a lesser degree, other foreign of-the-day. He can be tolerant of other opinions not only because
224 THE LONELY CROWD
XI
of his characterological tolerance but also because they are
"mere" opinions, interesting or amusing perhaps, but lacking the
weight of even a partial, let alone a total, commitment to one's Americans and Kwakiutls
political role or action. They are "mere" opinions, moreover,
because so intractable is the political world of the veto groups
that opinion as such is felt to be almost irrelevant.
The inner-directed political moralizer has a firm grip—often
much too firm—on the gamut of judgments that he is willing to Moralists are constantly complaining that the ruling vice of the
apply anywhere and everywhere. The other-directed inside- present time is pride. This is true in one sense, for indeed every-
dopester is unable to fortify any particular judgment with con- body thinks that he is better than his neighbor or refuses to obey
viction springing from a summarized and organized emotional his superior; but it is extremely false in another, for the same man
tone. It could be argued that the suppressed affect or emotional who cannot endure subordination or equality has so contemptible
tone is still there, remaining hidden. Freudian doctrine would an opinion of himself that he thinks he is born only to indulge in
predict the return of the repressed. But it seems more likely, so- vulgar pleasures. He willingly takes up with low desires without
cial habit being as powerful as it is, that the repeated suppression daring to embark on lofty enterpises, of which he scarcely dreams.
of such enthusiasm or moral indignation as the inner-directed Thus, far from thinking that humility ought to be preached to
man would consider natural permanently decreases the capacity our contemporaries, I would have endeavors made to give them
of the other-directed man for those forms of response. The other- a more enlarged idea of themselves and of their kind. Humility is
directed man may even begin as an inner-directed man who plays unwholesome to them; what they most want is, in my opinion, pride.
at being other-directed. He ends up being what he plays, and his Tocqueville, Democracy in America
mask becomes the perhaps inescapable reality of his style of life.

The image of power in contemporary America presented in the

preceding chapters departs from current discussions of power
which are usually based on a search for a ruling class (for instance,
Burnham's discovery of the managers, Mills's of the labor leaders
and others). And Americans themselves, rather than being the
mild and cooperative people I have portrayed, are, to many ob-
servers and to themselves, power-obsessed or money-mad or con-
cerned with conspicuous display. Or, as in the parable I shall use
to illustrate my argument, Americans are felt, and feel themselves
to be, more like rivalrous Kwakiutl Indian chiefs and their fol-
lowers, than like peaceable, cooperative Pueblo agriculturists.
Perhaps by further pursuing these images of power and per-
sonality the discrepancies (as they seem to me) between political
fact and political ideology may be somewhat better understood.
Ruth Benedict's book, Patterns of Culture, describes in vivid
225
226 THE LONELY CROWD AMERICANS AND KWAKIUTLS 227

detail three primitive societies: the Pueblo (Zuni) Indians of the and the drive for power. They see Americans as individualists,
southwest, the people of the Island of Dobu in the Pacific, and primarily interested in the display of wealth and station.
the Kwakiutl Indians of the northwest coast of America.1 A minority of students, usually the more politically radical,
The Pueblo Indians are pictured as a peaceable, cooperative say that America is more like Dobu. They emphasize the sharp
society, in which no one wishes to be thought a great man and practice of American business life, point to great jealousy and
everyone wishes to be thought a good fellow. Sexual relations bitterness in family relations, and see American politics, domestic
evoke little jealousy or other violent response; infidelity is not and international, as hardly less aggressive than Hobbes's state
severely punished. Death, too, is taken in stride, with little violent of nature.
emotion; in general, emotion is subdued. While there are con- No students I have talked with have argued that there are
siderable variations in economic status, there is little display of significant resemblances between the culture of the Hopi and
economic power and even less of political power; there is a spirit Zuni Pueblos and American culture—many wish that there were.
of cooperation with family and community. Yet when we turn then to examine the culture patterns of these
The Dobu, by contrast, are portrayed as virtually a society of very students, we see little evidence either of Dobu or Kwakiutl
paranoids in which each man's hand is against his neighbor's in ways. The wealthy students go to great lengths not to be con-
sorcery, theft, and abuse; in which husband and wife alternate spicuous—things are very different from the coon-coated days
as captives of the spouse's kin; and in which infidelity is deeply of the 2o's. The proper uniform is one of purposeful shabbiness.
resented. Dobuan economic life is built on sharp practice in inter- In fact, none among the students except a very rare Lucullus dares
island trading, on an intense feeling for property rights, and on a to be thought uppity. Just as no modern Vanderbilt says "the
hope of getting something for nothing through theft, magic, and public be damned," so no modern parent would say: "Where
fraud. Vanderbilt sits, there is the head of the table. I teach my son to
The third society, the Kwakiutl, is also intensely rivalrous. But be rich." 2
the rivalry consists primarily in conspicuous consumption, typi- It is, moreover, not only in the virtual disappearance of con-
fied by feasts called "potlatches," at which chiefs outdo each spicuous consumption that the students have abandoned Kwa-
other in providing food and in burning up the blankets and sheets kiutl-like modes of life. Other displays of gifts, native or ac-
of copper which are the main counters of wealth in the society; quired, have also become more subdued. A leading college swim-
sometimes even a house or a canoe is sent up in flames in a final ming star told me: "I get sore at the guys I'm competing against.
bid for glory. Indeed, the society is a caricature of Veblen's con- Something's wrong with me. I wish I could be like X who really
spicuous consumption; certainly, the potlatches of the Kwakiutl cooperates with the other fellows. He doesn't care so much about
chiefs serve "as the legitimate channel by which the community's winning."
surplus product has been drained off and consumed, to the There seems to be a discrepancy between the America that
greater spiritual comfort of all parties concerned." Veblen was, students make for themselves as students and the America they
in fact, familiar with these northwest-coast "coming-out parties." think they will move into when they leave the campus. Their
I have asked students who have read Ruth Benedict's book image of the latter is based to a large extent on legends about
which of these three cultures in their opinion most closely re- America that are preserved in our literature. For example, many
sembles the more highly differentiated culture of the United of our novelists and critics still believe that America, as compared
States. The great majority see Americans as Kwakiutls. They with other cultures, is a materialistic nation of would-be Kwakiutl
emphasize American business rivalry, jealousy over sex and status, 2. The remark is quoted by Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., in
"The Soldier's Faith," 1895, reprinted in Speeches (Boston, Little,
1. Patterns of Culture (Boston, Houghton Mifflin, 1934; reprinted
New York, Pelican Books, 1946). Brown, 1934), p. 56.
228 THE LONELY CROWD AMERICANS AND KWAKIUTLS 229

chiefs. There may have been some truth in this picture in the allow them to feel superior. In fact, I think that a study of Amer-
Gilded Age, though Henry James saw how ambiguous the issue ican advertising during the last quarter century would show that
of materialism was between America and Europe even then. the advertising men themselves at least implicitly realize the con-
The materialism of these older cultures has been hidden by sumer's loss of emotional enthusiasm. Where once car and re-
their status systems and by the fact that they had inherited many frigerator advertisements showed the housewife or husband exult-
values from the era dependent on tradition-direction. The Eu- ing in the new possessions, today it is often only children in the
ropean masses simply have not had the money and leisure, until ads who exult over the new Nash their father has just bought. In
recent years, to duplicate American patterns of consumption; many contemporary ads the possession itself recedes into the
when they do, they are, if anything, sometimes more vulgar, background or is handled abstractly, surrealistically; it no longer
more materialistic. throws off sparks or exclamation points; copy itself has become
The Europeans, nevertheless, have been only too glad to tell subtler or more matter of fact.
Americans that they were materialistic; and the Americans, feel- Of course many old-fashioned enthusiasts of consumption re-
ing themselves nouveaux riches during the last century, paid to main in America who have not yet been affected by the spread
be told. They still pay: it is not only my students who fail to see of other-directed consumer sophistication and repression of emo-
that it is the turn of the rest of the world to be nouveaux riches, tional response. A wonderful example is the small-town Irish
to be excited over the gadgets of an industrial age, while millions mother in the movie, A Letter to Three Wives, whose greatest
of Americans have turned away in boredom from attaching much pride and joy in her dingy railroad-side home is the big, shiny,
emotional significance to the consumer-goods frontier.3 new, not-yet-paid-for refrigerator. And it may be argued that
When, however, I try to point these things out to students even middle-class Americans have only covered over their ma-
who compare Americans with Kwakiutls, they answer that the terialism with a veneer of good taste, without altering their
advertisements show how much emotion is attached to the con- fundamental drives. Nevertheless, the other-directed person,
sumption of goods. But, when I ask them if they believe the ads oriented as he is toward people, is simply unable to be as material-
themselves, they say scornfully that they do not. And when I ask istic as many inner-directed people were. For genuine inner-
if they know people who do, they find it hard to give examples, at directed materialism—real acquisitive attachment to things—one
least in the middle class. (If the advertisements powerfully af- must go to the Dutch bourgeois or French peasant or others for
fected people in the impoverished lower class who had small hope whom older ways endure.
of mobility, there would surely be a revolution!) Yet the adver- It is the other-directedness of Americans that has prevented
tisements must be reaching somebody, the students insist. Why, their realizing this; between the advertisers on the one hand and
I ask, why isn't it possible that advertising as a whole is a fantastic the novelists and intellectuals on the other, they have assumed
fraud, presenting an image of America taken seriously by no one, that other Americans were materialistic, while not giving suffi-
least of all by the advertising men who create it? Just as the mass cient credence to their own feelings. Indeed, the paradoxical
media persuade people that other people think politics is impor- situation in a stratum which is other-oriented is that people
tant, so they persuade people that everyone else cannot wait for constantly make grave misjudgments as to what others, at least
his new refrigerator or car or suit of clothes. In neither case can those with whom they are not in peer-group contact, but often
people believe that the others are as apathetic as they feel them- also those with whom they spend much time, feel and think.
selves to be. And, while their indifference to politics may make To be sure, the businessmen themselves often try to act as if it
people feel on the defensive, their indifference to advertising may were still possible to be a Kwakiutl chief in the United States.
3. Mary McCarthy's fine article, "America the Beautiful," Com- When they write articles or make speeches, they like to talk about
mentary, IV (1947), 201, takes much the same attitude as the text. free enterprise, about tough competition, about risk-taking.
230 THE LONELY CROWD AMERICANS AND KWAKIUTLS 231

These businessmen, of course, are like World War I Legion- ingly widespread. The abler ones want something "higher" and
naires, talking about the glorious days of yore. Students and look down their noses at the boys at Wharton or even at the Har-
many others believe what the businessmen say on these occasions, vard Business School. Business is thought to be dull and disagree-
but then have little opportunity to watch what they do. Perhaps able as well as morally suspect, and the genuine moral problem
the businessmen themselves are as much the victims of their own involved in career choice—namely, how best to develop one's
chants and rituals as the Kwakiutls. potentialities for a full existence—is obfuscated by the false, over-
dramatized choice of making money (and losing one's soul) in
Those few students who urge that America resembles Dobu business versus penury (and saving one's soul) in government
can find little in student life to sustain their view, except perhaps service or teaching. The notion that business today, especially
a bit of cheating in love or on examinations. It is rather that big business, presents challenging intellectual problems and op-
they see the "capitalistic system" as a jungle of sharp practice, as portunities and is no more noticeably engaged in Dobuan sharp
if nothing had changed since the days of Mark Twain, Jack Lon- practice and Kwakiutl rivalry than any other career, seems not
don, and Frank Norris. America is to them a land of lynchings, to exist even in the minds of students whose fathers are (perhaps
gangsterism, and deception by little foxes and big foxes. Yet, to- woefully inarticulate) businessmen.
day, only small businessmen (car dealers or furnace repairmen, It is likely, then, that the students' image of business, and of
for instance) have many opportunities for the "wabu-wabu" American life generally, will have some self-confirming effects.
trading, that is, the sharply manipulative property-pyramiding Business will be forced to recruit from the less gifted and sensi-
of the Dobuan canoeists. tive, who will not be able to take advantage of the opportunities
If, however, these students turn to social science for their for personal development business could offer and who, there-
images of power in America, they will very frequently find their fore, will not become models for younger men. Moreover, peo-
own view supported. The scattered remarks on the United States ple who expect to meet hostility and calculation in others will
in Patterns of Culture are themselves an illustration. My students justify an anticipatory hostility and calculation in themselves.
also read Robert Lynd's chapter on "The Pattern of American To be sure, there are plenty of unlovely, vicious, and mean
Culture" in Knowledge for What?4 While noting contradictory Americans, in and out of business life; plenty of frightening
exhortations to amity and brotherhood, Lynd emphasizes busi- southern mobs, northern hoodlums, dead-end kids with and with-
ness as highly individualistic and politically ruthless; elsewhere out tuxedoes. There are many cultural islands in the United States
he stresses the masterful ambition and conspicuous consumption where Dobu ways abound, just as there are survivals of late nine-
typified by the older generation of the "X family" of Middle- teenth-century Kwakiutl patterns. But these islands and survivals
town. Ironically, the outlook of these and other sociological do not make a system of power, nor are they linked by any con-
critics of business is confirmed and reflected by those neoclassical spiracy, fascist or otherwise.
economists who construct models for the rational conduct of
the firm—wittingly or unwittingly presenting businessmen as Now, of course, to show that Americans are neither like Kwa-
dismally "economic men." Itiutls nor Dobuans does not prove they are like Zuni and Hopi
Partly as a result of this image of the businessman, many stu- Indians. Obviously, in any case, the comparisons must be very
dents at privately endowed universities have become reluctant rough; from the standpoint of my character types all three tribes,
to consider business careers, and, as more and more young peo- as long as they are in the phase of high population growth poten-
ple are drawn into the colleges, these attitudes become increas- tial, would be more or less dependent on tradition-direction. My
4. Robert S. Lynd, Knowledge for What? (Princeton University purpose is to present a parable, not a description. There is evi-
Press, 1939), pp. 54-113. dence, though it is perhaps somewhat understressed by Ruth
232 THE LONELY CROWD AMERICANS AND KWAKIUTLS 233
Benedict, that the Pueblo Indians are actually not so bland and emotion still alive, volcano-like, within him—often ready to erupt
amiable as they seem, that they are, to a degree, antagonistic co- in political indignation—whereas the other-directed man allows
operators, with a good deal of repressed hostility and envy that or compels his emotions to heal, though not without leaving scars,
crops up in dreams and malicious gossip. But this only strengthens in an atmosphere of enforced good fellowship and tolerance.
the analogy with the middle-class Americans, whose other- Many young people today also set themselves an ideal in their
directed cooperativeness is also not completely mild but contains sex lives not too different from the Zuni norm. They feel they
repressed antagonistic elements. ought to take sex with little interpersonal emotion and certainly
Indeed the whole emotional tone of life in the Pueblos reminds without jealousy. The word of the wise to the young—"Don't
me strongly of the American peer-group, with its insulting "You get involved"—has changed its meaning in a generation. Once it
think you're big." While the Kwakiutls pride themselves on their meant: don't get, or get someone, pregnant; don't run afoul of
passions that lead them to commit murder, arson, and suicide, the the law; don't get in the newspapers. Today the injunction seeks
Pueblos frown on any violent emotion. to control the personal experiencing of emotion that might dis-
Ruth Benedict writes: rupt the camaraderie of the peer-group.
The chief worry of the Pueblo Indians is directed not to each
A good man has . . . "a pleasing address, a yielding disposition,
other's behavior but to the weather, and their religious cere-
and a generous heart." . . . He should "talk lots, as they say—
monies are primarily directed toward rain-making. To quiet their
that is, he should always set people at their ease—and he should
anxiety the Indians go through rituals that must be letter perfect.
without fail co-operate easily with others either in the field or in
American young people have no such single ritual to assure
ritual, never betraying a suspicion of arrogance or a strong emo-
tion." personal or tribal success. However, one can see a similarity in
the tendency to create rituals of a sort in all spheres of life. Peo-
The quotation brings to mind one of the most striking patterns ple make a ritual out of going to school, out of work, out of hav-
from our interviews with young people. When we ask them their ing fun, out of political participation as inside-dopesters or as in-
best trait they are hard pressed for an answer, though they some- dignants, as well as out of countless private compulsions. But the
times mention an ability to "get along well with everybody." rituals, whether private or public, have usually to be rationalized
When we ask them, "What is your worst trait?" the most frequent as necessary; and since this is not self-evident and since the sign
single answer is "temper." And when we go on to ask, "Is your of success is not so explicit as a downpour of rain, the American
temper, then, so bad?" it usually turns out that the interviewee young people can hardly get as much comfort from their rituals
has not got much of a temper. If we ask whether his temper has as the Pueblo Indians do from theirs.
gotten him into much trouble, he can cite little evidence that it
has. What may these answers—of course no proper sample— The young people who express the views I have described
mean? My impression is that temper is considered the worst trait have begun to pass out of the adolescent peer-groups; they have
in the society of the glad hand. It is felt as an internal menace to not yet taken their places in the adult patterning of American
one's cooperative attitudes. Moreover, the peer-group regards life. What will be the effect of the discrepancy between their pic-
rage and temper as faintly ridiculous: one must be able to take ture of the United States as a place led by Kwakiutl chiefs, lead-
it with a smile or be charged with something even worse than ing Kwakiutl-style followers, and the reality of their progress
temper, something no one will accuse himself of even in an inter- along the "Hopi Way"? Will they seek to bring about changes,
view—lack of a sense of humor. The inner-directed man may through social and political action, that will make America more
also worry about temper, for instance, if he is religious, but his comfortable for the tolerant, other-directed types? Or will
conscience-stricken inhibitions and reaction-formations leave the they seek to adopt more ruthless, Kwakiutl-like behavior as sup-
234 THE LONELY CROWD AMERICANS AND KWAKIUTLS 235

posedly more compatible with real life? Or, perchance, will group begins earlier, it becomes more a matter of conforming
they admit that they, too, are Americans, after all not so unique, character and less a matter of conforming behavior. The popular
which might require a revision of their images of power, their song, "I don't want to set the world on fire," expresses a typical
images of what Americans in general are like? theme. The Kwakiutl wanted to do just that, literally to set the
Doubtless, all these things can occur, and many more. But world on fire. The other-directed person prefers love to glory.
there is perhaps one additional factor which will shape both As Tocqueville saw, or foresaw: "He willingly takes up with
changing ideology and changing character. The students, aware low desires without daring to embark on lofty enterprises, of
of their own repressed competitiveness and envy, think that others which he scarcely dreams."
may try to do to them what they themselves would not dare to
do to others. The society feels to them like Kwakiutl or even There is a connection between the feeling these students and
Dobu, not only because that is the ideology about America they other young people have about their own fates and the contem-
have learned but also because their own cooperativeness is porary notions of who runs the country. We have seen that the
tinged with an antagonism they have not yet completely silenced. students feel themselves to be powerless, safe only when perform-
And perhaps this gives us an answer to a puzzle about other- ing a ritual in approving company. Though they may seek to
directed tolerance: why, if the other-directed person is tolerant, preserve emotional independence by not getting involved, this
is he himself so afraid of getting out of line? Can he not depend requirement is itself a peer-group mandate. How, then, as they
on the tolerance of others? It may be that he feels his own toler- look about them in America, do they explain their powerlessness?
ance precarious, his dreadful temper ready to let fly when given Somebody must have what they have not got: their powerlessness
permission; if he feels so irritable himself, no matter how mild must be matched by power somewhere else. They see America
his behavior, he must fear the others, no matter how amiable as composed of Kwakiutls, not only because of their own residual
they, too, may appear. and repressed Kwakiutl tendencies but even more because of
These students would prefer to live in the Pueblo culture, if their coerced cooperativeness. Some big chiefs must be doing
they had to choose among the three described by Ruth Benedict. this to them, they feel. They do not see that, to a great extent, it
And, while this choice is in itself not to be quarreled with, the is they themselves who are doing it, through their own character.
important fact is that they do not know that they already are liv- The chiefs have lost the power, but the followers have not
ing in such a culture. They want social security, not great achieve- gained it. The savage believes that he will secure more power
ments. They want approval, not fame. They are not eager to de- by drinking the blood or shrinking the head of his enemy. But
velop talents that might bring them into conflict; whereas the the other-directed person, far from gaining, only becomes
inner-directed young person tended to push himself to the limit weaker from the weakness of his fellows.
of his talents and beyond. Few of them suffer, like youth in the
earlier age, because they are "twenty, and so little accomplished."
Whereas the inner-directed middle-class boy often had to learn
after twenty to adjust, to surrender his adolescent dreams and
accept a burgher's modest lot, the other-directed boy never had
such dreams. Learning to conform to the group almost as soon
as he learns anything, he does not face, at adolescence, the need
to choose between his family's world and that of his own gen-
eration or between his dreams and a world he never made.
Since, moreover, his adjustment to reality as defined by the
P A R T III: A U T O N O M Y
 XII

Adjustment or autonomy?

Among the works of man, which human life is rightly employed

in perfecting and beautifying, the first in importance surely is man
himself. Supposing it were possible to get houses built, corn grown,
battles fought, causes tried, and even churches erected and prayer
said, by machinery—by automatons in human form—it would be
a considerable loss to exchange for these automatons even the men
and women who at present inhabit the more civilized parts of the
world, and who assuredly are but starved specimens of what nature
can and will produce. Human nature is not a machine to be built
after a model, and set to do exactly the work prescribed for it, but
a tree, which requires to grow and develop itself on all sides, ac-
cording to the tendency of the inward forces which make it a living
thing.
John Stuart Mill, On Liberty

If the leaders have lost the power, why have the led not gained
it? What is there about the character and the situation of the
other-directed man which prevents the transfer? In terms of
situation, it seems that the pattern of monopolistic competition of
the veto groups resists individual attempts at aggrandizement.
In terms of character, the other-directed man simply does not
seek power; perhaps, rather, he avoids and evades it. If he hap-
pens to be an inside-dopester, he creates a formula that tells him
where the power exists, and he seeks to make all the facts there-
after conform to this formula. In a sense, this means that he would
rather be right than be president. His need to be in the know, his
need for approval, his need in the upper strata for marginal dif-
ferentiation, may lead to actions that look like a drive to get or
hold power. But the fact is that the further away the inside-
dopester is from inner-direction, the less is he ambitious, exploita-
239
240 THE LONELY CROWD A D J U S T M E N T OR A U T O N O M Y ? 241

tive, and imperialistic. He expects some "others"—some Kwakiutl feel spring from their shared interpretations of what is necessary
or Dobuan types—to be doing the exploiting. He fits himself as a to get along. As soon as one or two in a group emancipate them-
minor manipulator, and self-manipulator, into the image he has selves from these interpretations, without their work or their
of them. world coming to an end, others, too, may find the courage to do
If the other-directed person does not seek power, then what so. In that case, character will change in consonance with the al-
does he seek? At the very least, he seeks adjustment. That is, he tered interpretations of conditions.
seeks to have the character he is supposed to have, and the inner In asking where the one or two innovators may come from, we
experiences as well as outer appurtenances that are supposed to must remember that social character is not all of character. The
go with it. If he fails to attain adjustment, he becomes anomlc— individual is capable of more than his society usually asks of him,
a term I shall define in a moment. At most, the other-directed though it is not at all easy to determine this, since potentialities
man occasionally seeks to be autonomous. may be hidden not only from others but from the individual
His opportunity to become autonomous lies precisely in the himself.
disparity that exists between the actual, objective pressures for Of course, social structures differ very much in the degree to
conformity that are inescapable and the ritualistic pressures that which they evoke a social character that in the process of social-
spring not from the Kwakiutl-like institutions of America but ization fills up, crushes, or buries individuality. We may take, as
from the increasingly other-directed character of its people. In extreme cases, the primitive societies of Dobu or Alor. People
other words, I do not believe that the social character evoked there seem to be so crushed from infancy on by institutionalized
by today's social structure, namely, the other-directed character, practices that, while they manage to do what their culture asks
is a perfect replica of that social structure, called into being by of them in the emotional tone which the culture fosters, they can-
its demands. not do much more. The Rorschach tests taken of the Alorese, for
instance, indicate that there is a good deal of characterological
uniformity among individuals and that few reserves of depth or
/. The Adjusted, the Anomic, the Autonomous breadth exist beyond the cultural norm or what Kardiner calls
the basic personality type. Such a society might die out as a re-
How, one may well ask, is it possible that a large group of influ- sult of its apathy and misery, especially when further disorgan-
ential people in a society should develop a character-structure ized by white contact, but it is hard to conceive of an internal
more constricted than the society's institutions require? One an- rejuvenation led by the more autonomous members of the group.
swer is to look at history and to see that earlier institutional inevi- Caught between social character and rigid social institutions, the
tabilities tend to perpetuate themselves in ideology and character, individual and his potentialities have little scope. Nevertheless,
operating through all the subtle mechanisms of character forma- even in such a society there will be deviants; as Ruth Benedict
tion discussed in the earlier chapters of Part I. By the same token, has pointed out, we know of no cultures without them. How-
disparities between social character and adult social role can be ever, before turning to see whether the extent of deviation may
among the important leverages of social change. It is too simple be related to population phase, it is necessary to understand more
to say that character structure lags behind social structure: as precisely what is meant by deviation.
any element in society changes, all other elements must also The "adjusted" are those whom for the most part we have been
change in form or function or both. But in a large society such as describing. They are the typical tradition-directed, inner-di-
the American there is room for disparities, and hence for individ- rected, or other-directed people—those who respond in their
uals to choose different modes of reconciliation. In the upper-in- character structure to the demands of their society or social class
come strata in America, many of the pressures which individuals at its particular stage on the curve of population. Such people fit
242 THE LONELY CROWD ADJUSTMENT OR A U T O N O M Y ? 243
the culture as though they were made for it, as in fact they are. here defined as autonomous may or may not conform outwardly,
There is, characterologically speaking, an effortless quality about but whatever his choice, he pays less of a price, and he has a
their adjustment, although as we have seen the mode of adjust- choice: he can meet both the culture's definitions of adequacy
ment may itself impose heavy strains on the so-called normal and those which (to a still culturally determined degree) slightly
people. That is, the adjusted are those who reflect their society, transcend the norm for the adjusted.
or their class within the society, with the least distortion. These three universal types (the adjusted, the anomic, the
In each society those who do not conform to the character- autonomous), like our three historical types (tradition-directed,
ological pattern of the adjusted may be either anomic or autono- inner-directed, and other-directed) are, in Max Weber's sense,
mous. Anomic is English coinage from Durkheim's anomique "ideal types," that is, constructions necessary for analytical work.
(adjective of anomie) meaning ruleless, ungoverned. My use of Every human being will be one of these types to some degree;
anomic, however, covers a wider range than Durkheim's meta- but no one could be completely characterized by any one of these
phor: it is virtually synonymous with maladjusted, a term I re- terms. To put it in the extreme, even an insane person is not
frain from using because of its negative connotations; for there anomic in every sphere of life; nor could an autonomous person
are some cultures where I would place a higher value on the mal- be completely autonomous, that is, not irrationally tied in some
adjusted or anomic than on the adjusted. The "autonomous" are part of his character to the cultural requirements of his existence.
those who on the whole are capable of conforming to the behav- Nevertheless, we can characterize an individual by the way in
ioral norms of their society—a capacity the anomics usually lack which one mode of adaptation predominates, and, when we study
—but are free to choose whether to conform or not. individuals, analysis by such a method provides certain helpful
In determining adjustment, the test is not whether an individ- dimensions for descriptive and comparative purposes. We can
ual's overt behavior obeys social norms but whether his character also characterize a society by examining the relative frequency
structure does. A person who has the appropriate character for with which the three modes of adaptation occur in it, and the
his time and place is "adjusted" even when he makes mistakes and relative importance of the three types in the social structure.
does things which deviate sharply from what is expected of him About the anomics who arise as by-products, so to speak, of the
—to be sure, the consequences of such mistakes may eventually attempt to create inner-direction and other-direction, a good deal
produce maladjustment in character. (Much in the same way, a has been suggested in the foregoing pages. Even a society depend-
culture may be a going concern even if it behaves "irrationally" ing on tradition-direction will have a certain number of anomics,
vis-a-vis its neighbors or material environment.) Conversely, those constitutionally and psychologically unable to conform or
just as nonconformity in behavior does not necessarily mean non- feel comfortable in the roles such a society assigns to its regularly
conformity in character structure, so utter conformity in recurring deviants. Some of these people can exploit the kinship
behavior may be purchased by the individual at so high a price system to keep going, but in a society of any size there will be
as to lead to a character neurosis and anomie: the anomic person some who are pushed out of that tight web. To these somewhat
tends to sabotage either himself or his society, probably both.1 idiosyncratic and accidental outcrops of anomic character, more
Thus, "adjustment," as the term is used here, means socio-psy- complex societies undergoing more rapid change add the people
chological fit, not adequacy in any evaluative sense; to deter- who, once capable of adjustment, are thrust aside by the emer-
mine adequacy either of behavior or character we must study not gence of a new dominant type. Types brought up under a famil-
only the individual but the gear box which, with various slips and ial regime of tradition-direction may later find themselves misfits
reversals, ties behavior in with institutional forms. The person in a society by then dependent on inner-direction; likewise, the
1. See Robert K. Merton, "Social Structure and Anomie," in Social rise of other-direction may drive inner-directed as well as tradi-
Theory and Social Structure (Glencoe, Illinois, Free Press, 1949). tion-directed types into anomie. Reference has already been
244 THE LONELY CROWD A D J U S T M E N T OR A U T O N O M Y ? 245
made to some of the possible political consequences of such compliance and too little insight, though of course their symp-
anomic character types in America, how their political indiffer- toms are not so sudden and severe. Their lack of emotion and
ence can be mobilized by a crusade appealing to their inability emptiness of expression are as characteristic of many contem-
to cope with the social demands of modern urban culture. porary anomics as hysteria or outlawry was characteristic of
The anomics include not only those who, in their character, anomics in the societies depending on earlier forms of direction.
were trained to attend to signals that either are no longer given Taken all together, the anomics—ranging from overt outlaws
or no longer spell meaning or success. They also may be, as has to catatonic types who lack even the spark for living, let
just been said, those who are overadjusted, who listen too assidu- alone for rebellion—constitute a sizable number in America.
ously to the signals from within or without. Thus we have seen Quite a little is known about them in terms of personality type,
that in a society dependent on inner-direction there may be over- social class, "preference" in illness, and so on. In fact, social
steered children and oversteered adults, people of too tight super- science and psychiatry have until recently been preoccupied with
ego controls to permit themselves even the normal satisfactions understanding the anomic and suggesting therapies, just as medi-
and escapes of their fellows. Likewise, among those dependent on cine has been concerned with fighting the external agents that
other-direction, some may be unable to shut off their radar even make people sick rather than with understanding the internal
for a moment; their overconformity makes them a caricature of mysteries that keep them well. Indeed, it is usually not too diffi-
the adjusted pattern—a pattern that escapes them because they cult to explain why someone is anomic, since the tragedies and
try too hard for it. warpings of life, like germs, are omnipresent, and any personal
We have seen, for example, the effort of the other-directed disaster can be traced back to its "cause."
person to achieve a political and personal style of tolerance, We obviously know much less about those whom I call autono-
drained of emotion, temper, and moodiness. But, obviously, this mous. Many will even deny that there are such people, people
can go so far that deadness of feeling comes to resemble a clini- capable of transcending their culture at any time or in any re-
cal symptom. The psychoanalyst Ralph Greenson, observing spect. Those who become autonomous in our own society, for
soldiers hospitalized for apathy in World War II, writes of them: instance, seem to arise in a family background and class or re-
The most striking characteristic of the apathetic patient is his gional setting that have had quite different consequences for
visible lack of emotion and drive. At first glance he may seem to others. In fact, autonomous, adjusted, and anomic types can be
be depressed; closer scrutiny, however, reveals lack of affect. He brothers and sisters within the same family, associates on the
appears slowed up in the psychic and motor responses; he shows same job, residents in the same housing project or suburb. When
an emptiness of expression and a masklike fades . . . They be- someone fails to become autonomous, we can very often see
have very well in the ward, complying with all the rules and regu- what blockages have stood in his way, but when someone succeeds
lations. They rarely complain and make no demands . . . these in the same overt setting in which others have failed, I myself
patients had no urge to communicate their sufferings and no insight have no ready explanation of this, and am sometimes tempted to
into their condition.2 fall back on constitutional or genetic factors—what people of
an earlier era called the divine spark. Certainly, if one observes
My own belief is that the ambulatory patients in the ward of week-old infants in a hospital creche, one is struck with the
modern culture show many analogous symptoms of too much varieties in responsiveness and aliveness before there has been
2. "The Psychology of Apathy," Psychoanalytic Quarterly, X much chance for culture to take hold. But, since this is a book
(1949), 290; see also Nathan Leites, "Trends in Affectlessness," about culture and character. I must leave such speculations to
American Imago, Vol. IV (April, 1947). others.
246 THE L O N E L Y C R O W D A D J U S T M E N T OR A U T O N O M Y ? 247

It seems reasonable to assume that a decisive step in the road adapting themselves not only within the narrow confines of the
toward autonomy is connected with the social shifts I have linked animal kingdom but within the wide range of alternative possi-
to the curve of population. To put this in the negative, it is diffi- bilities illustrated—but no more than illustrated—by human expe-
cult, almost impossible, in a society of high population growth rience to date. Perhaps this is the most important meaning of the
potential, for a person to become aware of the possibility that he ever renewed discovery of the oneness of mankind as a species:
might change, that there are many roles open to him, roles other that all human experience becomes relevant.
people have taken in history or in his milieu. As the philosopher The Arab who can see himself as a peasant, even though he
G. H. Mead saw, this taking the role of the other leads to be- would be, for reasons of temperament or other factors, unable to
coming aware of actual differences and potential similarities be- make so radical a shift, has already gained a new perspective on
tween the other and the self. That is why culture contact alone the relation: Arab-peasant. He may conceive of structuring it in
does not lead people to change when their interpretations of the some other way, by manipulation rather than by force, for in-
contact spring out of a tradition-directed mode of life. High stance. But if he did that, he would change, and so would the
population growth potential, tradition-direction, and the inabil- peasant: their relations could never again have the old animal-
ity of the individual to change roles—to think of himself as an like simplicity.
individual capable of such change—these, as we saw, go together. The more advanced the technology, on the whole, the more
For centuries the peasant fanners of Lebanon suffered from possible it is for a considerable number of human beings to
invasions by Arab horsemen. After each invasion the peasants imagine being somebody else. In the first place, the technology
began all over again to cultivate the soil, though they might do spurs the division of labor, which, in turn, creates the possibility
so only to pay tribute to the next marauder. The process went on for a greater variety of experience and of social character. In the
until eventually the fertile valleys became virtual deserts, in second place, the improvement in technology permits sufficient
which neither peasants nor nomads could hope for much. The leisure to contemplate change—a kind of capital reserve in men's
peasants obviously never dreamed they could become horsemen; self-adaptation to nature—not on the part of a ruling few but on
the marauders obviously never dreamed that they too might be- the part of many. In the third place, the combination of technol-
come cultivators of the soil. This epic has the quality not of hu- ogy and leisure helps to acquaint people with other historical
man history but of animal life. The herbivores are unable to stop solutions—to provide them, that is, not only with more goods
eating grass though they eat only to be devoured by the carni- and more experiences but also with an increased variety of per-
vores. And the carnivores cannot eat grass when they have sonal and social models.
thinned out the herbivores. In these societies dependent on tradi- How powerful such an influence can be the Renaissance indi-
tion-direction there is scarcely a notion that one might change cates. Then, a richer picture of the past made it possible to live
character or role. toward a more open future. Italians, newly rich and self-con-
If Arabs could imagine becoming cultivators, and vice versa, it scious, tried to imitate Greeks; and northern peoples, such as the
would not necessarily follow that the symbiotic ecology of the Elizabethan English, tried to imitate Italians. The inner-directed
two main groups would change. These tradition-directed types character type emerged as the dominant type from the new
might still go on doing what they realized they need not do. possibilities created at this period; he built both those possibilities
Nevertheless, once people become aware, with the rise of inner- and the limits he put on them into his character. From the masses
direction, that they as individuals with a private destiny are not of the tradition-directed there arose many mobile ones who de-
tied to any given ecological pattern, something radically new cided that they could be "horsemen" and no longer had to be
happens in personal and social history. Then people can envisage "cultivators"; and the new technology and new lands beyond
248 THE LONELY CROWD A D J U S T M E N T OR A U T O N O M Y ? 249

the sea gave them the necessary physical and intellectual store for formed for leisure and during leisure—and both leisure and
the shift, while at the same time making it possible for the cultiva- means of consumption are widely distributed. Thus, adjusted,
tors to support more noncultivators. Ever since, in the countries autonomous, and anomic outcomes are often the result of very
of transitional population growth, men have robbed the earth of impalpable variations in the way people are treated by and react
its fruits and the farmer of his progeny in order to build the indus- to their education, their consumer training, and, generally, their
trial civilization (and the lowered birth rate) of today. In this encounters with people—all within the broad status band of the
process the farmer's progeny had to learn how to become some- middle class.
thing other than cultivators. To be sure, there may be correlations, as yet unnoticed, be-
tween autonomy and occupation. Work is far from having lost
Today again, in the countries of incipient population decline, its relevance for character even today. And occupational status
men stand on the threshold of new possibilities of being and be- affects leisure status. Those who are potentially autonomous may
coming—though history provides a less ready, perhaps only a select some occupations in preference to others; beyond that, the
misleading, guide. They no longer need limit their choices by day-by-day work experiences of members of different occupa-
gyroscopic adaptation but can respond to a far wider range of tional groups will shape character. On the whole, however, it
signals than any that could possibly be internalized in childhood. seems likely that the differences that will divide societies in the
However, with the still further advance of technology and the phase of incipient population decline will no longer be those be-
change of frontiers from production to consumption, the new tween back-breaking work on the one hand and rentier status on
possibilities do not present themselves in the same dramatic form the other, between misery and luxury, between long life and short
of passing from one class to another, of joining one or another side life—those differences that dominated the thinking of men as
—the exploiting or the exploited—in the factory and at the bar- varied as Charles Kingsley, Bellamy, Marx, and Veblen during
ricades. In fact, those, namely the Communists, who try to struc- the era of transitional population growth. Most people in Amer-
ture matters according to these older images of power, have ica today—the "overprivileged" two thirds, let us say, as against
become perhaps the most reactionary and most menacing force the underprivileged third—can afford to attend to, and allow
in world politics. their characters to be shaped by, situational differences of a sub-
In a society of abundance that has reached the population phase tler nature than those arising from bare economic necessity and
of incipient decline, the class struggle alters as the middle class their relations to the means of production.
expands until it may number more than half of the whole popula-
tion in occupational terms, with an even larger proportion meas-
ured in terms of income, leisure, and values. The new possibilities //. The Autonomous among the Inner-directed
opening up for the individual are possibilities not so much for
entering a new class but rather for changing one's style of life The autonomous person, living like everyone else in a given cul-
and character within the middle class. tural setting, employs the reserves of his character and station to
Under these conditions autonomy will not be related to class. move away from the adjusted mean of the same setting. Thus,
In the era dependent on inner-direction, when character was we cannot properly speak of an "autonomous other-directed
largely formed for work and at work, it made a great deal of man" (nor of an "anomic other-directed man") but only of an
difference whether one owned means of production or not. To- autonomous man emerging from an era or group depending on
day, however, the psychological advantages of ownership are other-direction (or of an anomic man who has become anomic
very much reduced in importance; character is increasingly through his conflict with other-directed or inner-directed pat-
250 THE LONELY CROWD A D J U S T M E N T OR A U T O N O M Y ? 251

terns or some combination of them). For autonomy, like anomie, tive controls were not as tight as in Soviet Russia today; periods
is a deviation from the adjusted patterns, though a deviation con- also when economic life for many was raised above mere subsist-
trolled in its range and meaning by the existence of those patterns. ence, thus providing opportunities for autonomy. And there
were loopholes for autonomy even in the earlier despotic periods,
The autonomous person in a society depending on inner-di- since the despots were inefficient, corrupt, and limited in their
rection, like the adjusted person of the same society, possessed aims. Modern totalitarianism is also more inefficient and corrupt
clear-cut, internalized goals and was disciplined for stern en- than it is often given credit for being, but its aims are unlimited
counters with a changing world. But whereas the adjusted person and for this reason it must wage total war on autonomy—with
was driven toward his goals by a gyroscope over whose speed and what ultimate effectiveness we do not yet know. For the autono-
direction he had hardly a modicum of control and of the exist- mous person's acceptance of social and political authority is al-
ence of which he was sometimes unaware, his autonomous ways conditional: he can cooperate with others in action while
contemporary was capable of choosing his goals and modulating maintaining the right of private judgment. There can be no rec-
his pace. The goals, and the drive toward them, were rational, ognition whatever of such a right under totalitarianism—one
nonauthoritarian and noncompulsive for the autonomous; for the reason why in the Soviet Union artistic works and scientific the-
adjusted, they were merely given. ories are so relentlessly scrutinized for "deviationism," lest they
Obviously, however, as long as tight despotic or theocratic conceal the seeds even of unconscious privacy and independence
controls of conduct existed, it was difficult to "choose oneself" of perception.
either in work or play. For, while it is possible to be autonomous Fortunately for us, the enemies of autonomy in the modern
no matter how tight the supervision of behavior as long as democracies are less total and relentless. However, as Erich
thought is free—and thought as such is not invaded effectively Fromm has insisted in Escape from Freedom, the diffuse and
until modern totalitarianism—in practice most men need the op- anonymous authority of the modern democracies is less favor-
portunity for some freedom of behavior if they are to develop able to autonomy than one might assume. One reason, perhaps
and confirm their autonomy of character. Sartre, I believe, is the chief reason, is that the other-directed person is trained to
mistaken in his notion that men—other than a few heroic individ- respond not so much to overt authority as to subtle but nonethe-
uals—can "choose themselves" under conditions of extreme des- less constricting interpersonal expectations. Indeed, autonomy
potism. in an era depending on inner-direction looks easier to achieve
The autonomous are not to be equated with the heroes. Hero- than autonomy today. Autonomy in an inner-directed mode is,
ism may or may not bespeak autonomy; the definition of the however, no longer feasible for most people. To understand why
autonomous refers to those who are in their character capable of this is so requires a glance at the powerful bulwarks or defenses
freedom, whether or not they are able to, or care to, take the for autonomy that an era dependent on inner-direction provided
risks of overt deviation. The case of Galileo illustrates both and that are no longer so powerful today. These include, in the
points. In order to accomplish his work, Galileo needed some Protestant lands, certain attitudes toward conscience, and every-
freedom, such as the freedom to exchange astronomical texts and where, the bulwarks of work, property, class, and occupation as
instruments, to write down results, and so on. Yet he chose a well as the comforting possibilities of escape to the frontier.
nonheroic course. In the Soviet Union and its satellites today he In the first place, a Protestant or secular-Protestant society of
could not make this choice, since the choice between martyrdom adjusted inner-directed types expects people to conform, not
or secrecy is not available under the grisly regime of the NKVD. by looking to others but by obedience to their internal gyro-
The four centuries since the Renaissance have seen the rise and scopes or consciences. This affords privacy, for while society
fall of many periods when theocratic, royal, or other authorita- may punish people more or less for what they do, it lacks the
252 THE LONELY CROWD A D J U S T M E N T OR AUTONOMY? 253

interest and psychological capacity to find out what they are. judging facts by such different ideas, ever to agree; and as it is im-
People are like the yachts in a Bermuda race, attentive not to possible to satisfy everybody, a man of science should attend only
each other but to the goal in view and the favoring winds. to the opinion of men of science who understand him, and should
In the second place, there was always available a line of de- derive rules of conduct only from his own conscience*
fense in the existence of frontiers of settlement and the right of
asylum. The power to move around the globe in the days before Such a man as Claude Bernard looked to his scientific col-
passports placed limits on the tyrants' reach and gave reality to leagues, not for approval of himself as a person but for the valida-
the concept of inalienable rights.3 Roger Williams lighting out tion of his objective work. He had less need for people, for warm
for himself; Voltaire shuttling back and forth over Europe; Karl interpersonal response, than the autonomous man who arises
Marx finding refuge in the British Museum; Carl Schurz fleeing among the groups dependent on other-direction.
to America—these are scenes from an almost vanished past. In the fourth place, property and class were substantial de-
In the third place, the autonomous in the era dependent on fenses for those who strove for autonomy. They protected not
inner-direction had available to them the defenses provided by only the crazy millionaire's conspicuous consumption but the
work itself, in a period when the adjusted people also were irreverence of the secluded Bentham and the integrated double
mainly work-oriented. Though it was hard to admit that one life of that fine horseman and industrialist of Manchester, Frie-
found joy in one's work in the puritan countries, it was permis- drich Engels. People were protected, too, not only by their
sible to regard it as an end in itself, as well as a means to other work and their property but by their position, be it elevated or
ends. The "hardness of the material" attracted the autonomous, humble. If people could manage to fulfill their occupational role,
indeed—again, like their less autonomous fellows—often hard- what they did in their off hours was more or less up to them.
ened them to all other considerations. The following passage Charles Lamb as a petty official could write in his spare time. Haw-
from Claude Bernard's Experimental Medicine, first published in thorne, and many other nineteenth-century American writers,
1865, expresses this outlook: held posts that did not require them to give much of themselves
—certainly not the self-exploitation on and off the job asked of
After all this, should we let ourselves be moved by the sensitive far better paid writers who hold hack jobs today. The hierarchi-
cries of people of fashion or by the objections of men unfamiliar cal chain of occupations, once one achieved a position in it, held
with scientific ideas? All feelings deserve respect, and I shall be people in place with some degree of security, while permitting
very careful never to offend anyone's. I easily explain them to my- 4. Claude Bernard, An Introduction to the Study of Experimental
self, and that is why they cannot stop me. . . . A physiologist is Medicine, trans. Henry C. Greene (New York, Macmillan, 1927), pp.
not a man of fashion, he is a man of science, absorbed by the scien- 102-103. Freud, whose attitude was remarkably similar, gives us as one
tific idea which he pursues; he no longer hears the cry of animals, of his favorite quotations, a similar passage from Ferdinand Lassalle:
he no longer sees the blood that flows, he sees only his idea and "A man like myself who, as I explained to you, had devoted his whole
perceives only organisms concealing problems which he intends to life to the motto 'Die Wissenschaft und die Arbeiter' (Science and
solve. Similarly, no surgeon is stopped by the most moving cries the Workingman), would receive the same impression from a con-
and sobs, because he seeks only his idea and the purpose of his demnation which in the course of events confronts him as would the
operation. . . . After what has gone before we shall deem all chemist, absorbed in his scientific experiments, from the cracking of
a retort. With a slight knitting of his brow at the resistance of the
discussion of vivisection futile or absurd. It is impossible for men,
material, he would, as soon as the disturbance was quieted, calmly
3. For fuller discussion of this now dormant freedom, see my continue his labor and investigations." See Freud, Wit and Its Re-
article, "Legislative Restrictions on Foreign Enlistment and Travel," lations to the Unconscious, trans. Brill (New York, Moffat, Yard,
Columbia Law Review, XL (1940), 793-835. 1916), p. 115.
 A D J U S T M E N T OR A U T O N O M Y ?
254 THE L O N E L Y CROWD 255

sufficient tether for the autonomous. Within certain given limits its poignancy in the development of John Stuart Mill, who got
of property and place, one could move without arousing shocked out from under his father only when well along in life, or of
antagonism, traumatic either in terms of one's feelings or one's Franz Kafka, who never did.
worldly fate. Once out in the world, the person struggling for autonomy
Many of these same defenses, however, operated far more fre- faced directly the barriers of property—if he was without it; of
quently as barriers to autonomy than as defenses for it. A soci- hierarchy—if he sought to climb or oppose it; of religion—if
ety organized in terms of class, private property, and occupation he contravened its controls on expression. In strongly Protestant
resisted autonomy with all the weapons of family, wealth, reli- communities in particular, one's discreet overt behavior could not
gion, and political power: the complaints and protests of political assure to oneself the freedom Erasmus or Galileo had made use
and religious reformers, artists, and artisans against this type of of. The result was that between the oversteered and the under-
largely bourgeois social organization, now vanishing, were true steered there was little room for autonomy. The struggle to turn
and just enough. But we must never forget that these barriers these obstacles into defenses was often too tough, and the individ-
could frequently be organized as defenses of the individual; ual was scarred for life, as were Marx, Balzac, Nietzsche, Mel-
once their flanks were turned by energy and talent, they pro- ville, E. A. Robinson, and many other great men of the era de-
vided the freedom in which autonomy as well as rentier com- pendent on inner-direction. Still others, however—John Dewey,
placency could flourish. wiry Vermonter, was a magnificent example and so, in a very
In biographies and memoirs of the last several hundred years, different way, is Bertrand Russell—more favored by fortune,
we can reconstruct, as it were, the way in which individuals be- could live lives of personal and intellectual collision and adventure
gin their struggle for autonomy within the despotic walls of the with little inner conflict.
patriarchal family. The family operated, much more than the
state, as the "executive committee" of the inner-directed bour-
geois class, training the social character both of future members ///. The Autonomous among the Other-directed
of that class and of future servants to it. Print, however, as we
have seen, might succor a child in his lonely battle with parents, Lawyers and lawmakers have a technique called "incorporation
teachers, and other adult authorities—though a book might also by reference"; by means of it they can refer in one statute or
disorient him and increase the pressure on him. But with good document to another without full quotation. In the same way I
luck a book, like a sympathetic teacher or relative, might break would like to incorporate by reference here the writings of Mill
the solid front of authority in the home. which deal with individuality: the Autobiography, the essays
Not until adolescence were other children likely to be of much On Liberty and On Social Freedom, and The Subjection of
help, though then, especially when adolescent youth groups later Women. These writings represent an extraordinary foreshadow-
took institutional form, they might assist the break from home. ing of the problems of the autonomous individual when, with
Adolescence, in fact, was usually the period of crisis for the boy the decline of the older barriers to freedom, the newer and far
or girl who sought autonomy. While even the adjusted had to more subtle barriers of public opinion in a democracy arise. In-
make the passage from home, they moved thence into a social deed, in reading modern writers, such as Sartre, Simone de Beau-
system that still held them fast, finding such authoritative parent voir, Erich Fromm, Jose Ortega y Gasset, and Bertrand Russell,
surrogates as were necessary to calibrate their already internal- who deal with similar themes, one is struck by the degree to
ized parental signals. However, the would-be autonomous youth, which, underneath differences in idiom, their philosophic out-
in breaking with parents, were breaking with authority as such, look resembles Mill's in many important respects.
internalized as well as external. One can trace this process in all Mill wrote: "In this age the mere example of nonconformity,
256 THE LONELY CROWD A D J U S T M E N T OR A U T O N O M Y ? 257
the mere refusal to bend the knee to custom, is itself a service." thetic tolerance, but veiled lack of interest, and his inability to
But his interest was more in the individual than in the service. understand savage emotions? Are they enemies, those friends who
He observed two tendencies that have grown much more power- stand by, not to block but to be amused, to understand and par-
ful since he wrote. He saw, as many others did, that people no don everything? An autonomous person of today must work
longer took their cues "from dignitaries in Church or State, constantly to detach himself from shadowy entanglements with
from ostensible leaders, or from books" but rather from each this top level of other-direction—so difficult to break with be-
other—from the peer-group and its mass-media organs, as we cause its demands appear so reasonable, even trivial.
would say. He saw, as few others did, that this occurred not only One reason for this is that the autonomous person of today is
in public matters but also in private ones, in the pursuit of pleas- the beneficiary of the greater sensitivity brought into our soci-
ure and in the development of a whole style of life. All that has ety, at great personal cost, by his autonomous predecessors of the
changed, perhaps, since he and Tocqueville wrote, is that the era of inner-direction. The latter, in rejecting the Philistine
actions they saw as based on the fear of what people might say— norm, were frequently very much preoccupied with taste, with
on conscious opportunism, that is—are today the more automatic what they liked; in their sensuous openness to experience, their
outcome of a character structure governed, not only from the awareness of personal nuance, many of the Romantic poets and
first but throughout life, by signals from outside. In consequence, other artists of the nineteenth century were strikingly modern.
a major difference between the problems of Mill's day and ours is What they put into their poems and other works, in refinement
that someone who today refuses "to bend the knee to custom" is and subjectivity, is part of their legacy to the emotional vocabu-
tempted to ask himself: "Is this what I really want? Perhaps I laries of our own day. These precursors, moreover, had no doubt
only want it because . . ." as to who their enemies were: they were the adjusted middle-
This comparison may overstate historical changes; the autono- class people who aggressively knew what they wanted, and de-
mous at all times have been questioners. The autonomous among manded conformity to it—people for whom life was not some-
the inner-directed, however, were partially shaped by a milieu thing to be tasted but something to be hacked away at. Such
in which people took many psychological events for granted, people of course still exist in great numbers but, in the better
while the autonomous among the other-directed live in a milieu educated strata of the larger cities, they are on the defensive; and
in which people systematically question themselves in anticipa- opposition to them is no longer enough to make a person stand
tion of the questions of others. More important, in the upper out as autonomous.
socioeconomic levels in the western democracies today—these Autonomy, I think, must always to some degree be relative to
being the levels, except for the very highest, most strongly per- the prevailing modes of conformity in a given society; it is never
meated by other-direction—the coercions upon those seeking an all-or-nothing affair, but the result of a sometimes dramatic,
autonomy are not the visible and palpable barriers of family and sometimes imperceptible struggle with those modes. Modern
authority that typically restricted people in the past. industrial society has driven great numbers of people into ano-
This is one reason why it is difficult, as an empirical matter, to mie, and produced a wan conformity in others, but the very
decide who is autonomous when we are looking at the seemingly developments which have done this have also opened up hitherto
easy and permissive life of a social class in which there are no undreamed-of possibilities for autonomy. As we come to under-
"problems" left, except for persons striving for autonomy. These stand our society better, and the alternatives it holds available to
latter, in turn, are incapable of defining the enemy with the us, I think we shall be able to create many more alternatives,
relative ease of the autonomous person facing an inner-directed hence still more room for autonomy.
environment. Is the inside-dopester an enemy, with his sympa- It is easier to believe this than to prove or even illustrate it. Let
258 THE LONELY C ROWD A D J U S T M E N T OR A U T O N O M Y ? 259

me instead point to a number of areas in which people today try appear to have turned back, in a futile effort to recapture the
to achieve autonomy—and to the enormous difficulties they meet. older and seemingly more secure patterns.

Bohemia. As has just been indicated, among the groups de- Tolerance. Tolerance is no problem when there is a wide gap
pendent on inner-direction the deviant individual can escape, between the tolerant and the tolerated. The mere expression of
geographically or spiritually, to Bohemia; and still remain an good will, and perhaps a contribution now and then, is all that is
individual. Today, whole groups are matter-of-factly Bohemian; demanded. But when the slaves become freed men, and the pro-
but the individuals who compose them are not necessarily free. letarians self-respecting workers, tolerance in this earlier sense
On the contrary, they are often zealously tuned in to the must be replaced by a more subtle and appropriate attitude.
signals of a group that finds the meaning of life, quite unprob- Again, the would-be autonomous individual is hard put to it to
lematically, in an illusion of attacking an allegedly dominant approximate this.
and punishing majority of Babbitts and Kwakiutl chiefs. That is, One frequently observes that, in emancipated circles, every-
under the aegis of the veto groups, young people today can find, thing is forgiven Negroes who have behaved badly, because they
in the wide variety of people and places of metropolitan life, a are Negroes and have been put upon. This sails dangerously close
peer-group, conformity to which costs little in the way of search to prejudice in reverse. Moral issues are befogged on both sides
for principle. of the race line, since neither whites nor Negroes are expected to
The nonconformist today may find himself in the position un- react as individuals striving for autonomy but only as members
anticipated by Mill, of an eccentric who must, like a movie star, of the tolerating or the tolerated race. Plainly, to sort out what is
accept the roles in which he is cast, lest he disappoint the de- valid today in the mood of tolerance from what is suspect re-
lighted expectations of his friends. The very fact that his efforts quires a high level of self-consciousness.
at autonomy are taken as cues by the "others" must make him
conscious of the possibility that the effort toward autonomy This heightened self-consciousness, above all else, constitutes
might degenerate into other-directed play-acting. the insignia of the autonomous in an era dependent on other-di-
rection. For, as the inner-directed man is more self-conscious
Sex. What is here the autonomous path? Resistance to the seem- than his tradition-directed predecessor and as the other-directed
ingly casual demand of the sophisticated peer group that one's man is more self-conscious still, the autonomous man growing up
achievements be taken casually, or acceptance of this "ad- under conditions that encourage self-consciousness can disentan-
vanced" attitude? What models is one to take? One's forefathers, gle himself from the adjusted others only by a further move to-
who were surrounded by chaste and modest women? Or the con- ward even greater self-consciousness. His autonomy depends not
temporary Kinsey athletes who boast of "freedom" and "experi- upon the ease with which he may deny or disguise his emotions
ence"? And, as women become more knowing consumers, the but, on the contrary, upon the success of his effort to recog-
question of whether or when to assume the initiative becomes a nize and respect his own feelings, his own potentialities, his own
matter for anxious speculation. Perhaps even more difficult roles limitations. This is not a quantitative matter, but in part an aware-
are forced upon women. Also pioneers of the sex frontier, they ness of the problem of self-consciousness itself, an achievement
must foster aggressiveness and simulate modesty. They have less of a higher order of abstraction.
chance to escape the frontier even temporarily through their As we know all too well, such an achievement is a difficult
work, for, if they have a profession, both men and women are apt thing; many of those who attain it cannot manage to mold it into
to think that their skill detracts from their sexual life or that their the structure of an autonomous life but succumb to anomie. Yet
sexual life detracts from their skill. Many middle-class women perhaps the anomie of such processes is preferable to the less self-
260 THE LONELY CROWD XIII
conscious, though socially supported, anxiety of the adjusted who
refuse to distort or reinterpret their culture and end by distorting
themselves.
False personalization: obstacles
The characterological struggle that holds the center of the to autonomy in work
stage today is that between other-direction and inner-direction,
as against a background in which tradition-direction gradually
disappears from the planet. Now we already discern on the hori-
zon a new polarization between those who cling to a compulsive
adjustment via other-direction and those who will strive to over- Only man can be an enemy for man; only he can rob him of the
come this milieu by autonomy. But it seems to me unlikely that meaning of his acts and his life because it also belongs only to him
the struggle between those striving for autonomy and those other- to confirm it in its existence, to recognize it in actual fact as a free-
directed persons not capable of becoming autonomous or not dom . . . my freedom, in order to fulfill itself, requires that it
desirous of allowing others so to become could be a ferocious one. emerge into an open future: it is other men who open the future
For other-direction gives men a sensitivity and rapidity of move- to me, it is they who, setting up the world of tomorrow, define my
ment which under prevailing American institutions provide a future; but if, instead of allowing me to participate in this construc-
large opportunity to explore the resources of character—larger, tive movement, they oblige me to consume my transcendence in
as I shall try to show in the following chapters, than is now gen- vain, if they keep me below the level which they have conquered
erally realized—and these suggest to me at least the possibility and on the basis of which new conquests will be achieved, then
of an organic development of autonomy out of other-direction. they are cutting me off from the future, they are changing me into
a thing. . . .
Simone de Beauvoir, The Ethics of Ambiguity

/. Cultural Definitions of Work

The emotional reserves of the other-directed are the possible

sources of increased autonomy. But it should be clear from the
discussion of the work, the play, and the politics of the other-di-
rected man that his reserves, while perhaps more flexible than
those of the inner-directed man, are constantly exhausted by his
social organization. These reserves are especially exhausted by
our current cultural definitions of work and play and the relations
between them—definitions which, as we saw, introduce much
strenuous "play" into the glad handers' work and much
group-adjustive "work" into their play. All of us are forced, to
a degree, to accept these cultural definitions of work and play,
just as we are forced to accept certain cultural definitions of class,
261
262 THE LONELY CROWD
FALSE PERSONALIZATION 263
sex, race, and occupational or social role. And the definitions are
forced on us by the ways of the culture and by the socialization that have prestige and to overlook economic opportunities in the
process we undergo, whether they happen to be timely or anach- parts closer to play. For example, in the days of the CCC camps,
ronistic, useful for or destructive of our resiliency and of our fun- it was widely assumed that CCC work on fire trails was more im-
damental humanity. portant than CCC work on recreational areas, just as the WPA
Work has the greater prestige; moreover, it is thought of as Federal Theater was considered as less important economically
alien to man—it is a sort of disciplined salvage operation, rescuing than the stalwart Georgian public buildings of the PWA.
a useful social product from chaos and the disorders of man's In our society, consumption is defined as a means rather than
innate laziness. The same era, that of transitional growth of pop- an end. This implies we consume in order to achieve full employ-
ulation, that saw the most astounding increase in man's mastery ment—and we look for full employment through more produc-
over nature, took it as axiomatic, echoing a series of writers from tion of production rather than through an increased production
Malthus to Sumner and Freud, that people had to be driven to of the enormous variety of recreational resources our leisure, our
work by economic necessity. Today, knowing more about the training in consumption, and our educational plant allow us to
nature of man and of work, we still nevertheless tend to accept develop. However, by thinking of expansion of consumption in
the psychological premise that work and productivity are disci- terms of the market for durable and semi-durable consumer goods
plines exerted against the grain of man's nature. We do not quite —with the skies eagerly scanned for such new gadgets as televi-
see, though we are close to seeing, that what looks like laziness sion to hurl into the Keynesian multiplier formula—we are left
may be a reaction against the kind of work people are forced to open to an antiquated set of economic habits and assumptions.
do and the way in which they are forced to define it. By clinging to them, one heavy-draft, politically feasible outlet
Because work is considered more important than play, it has remains for the overexpanded primary and secondary spheres: a
been traditional to take most seriously the work that looks least war economy.
like play, that is, the more obviously physical or physically Indeed, the struggle for autonomy, for a personally productive
productive work. This is one of the reasons why the prestige of orientation1 based on the human need for active participation in
the tertiary occupations, particularly the distributive trades, is a creative task, has become more exigent because we live in a pe-
generally low. riod when the solution of the technical problems of production
Our definitions of work also mean that the housewife, though is in sight. The institutions and character of the inner-directed
producing a social work-product, does not find her work explic- man combined to prevent him from choosing his work, and made
itly defined and totaled, either as an hour product or a dollar him accept it as a Malthusian necessity. Both the institutions and
product, in the national census or in people's minds. And since character of the other-directed man give him a potentially
her work is not defined as work, she is exhausted at the end of greater degree of flexibility in redefining and restructuring the
the day without feeling any right to be, insult thus being added field of work. Objectively, the new situation surrounding work
to injury. In contrast, the workers in the Detroit plant who finish permits a reduction of hours; subjectively, it permits a withdrawal
their day's production goal in three hours and take the rest of the of the concern work demanded in the earlier era and the invest-
day off in loafing around the factory, are defined as eight-hour- ment of this concern in non-work. Instead of attempting to un-
per-day workers by themselves, by their wives, by the census. dertake this revolution, however, other-directed man prefers to
These cultural definitions of work have curious implications
1. The term "productive orientation" is that used by Erich Fromm
for the health of the economy as a whole and, therefore, deriva-
in Man for Himself for the type of character that can relate itself to
tively for the chances of autonomy in living. We tend to empha-
people through love and to objects and the world generally through
size the importance of expanding those parts of the economy creative work. I have drawn freely on his discussion for my concept
of autonomy.
264 THE LONELY CROWD FALSE P E R S O N A L I Z A T I O N 265

throw into work all the resources of personalization, of glad work, not on each other, save as a benevolent but insensitive
handing, of which his character is capable, and just because he paternalism bridged the social gap. By contrast, the other-di-
puts so much energy and effort into work, he reaps the benefit rected manager, while he still patronizes his white-collar employ-
of being able to continue thinking it important. ees, is compelled to personalize his relations with the office force
whether he wants to or not because he is part of a system that
has sold the white-collar class as a whole on the superior values of
//. Glamorizers, Featherbedders, Indispensables personalization. The personalization is false, even where it is not
intentionally exploitative, because of its compulsory character:
We turn now to the first of a pair of twin concepts that will con- like the antagonistic cooperation of which it forms a part, it is a
cern us in this and the following chapter. The one, I shall call mandate for manipulation and self-manipulation among those in
"false personalization"; the other, "enforced privatization." We the white-collar ranks and above.
have met false personalization in this book before, in the form We can see the change in comparing the attitudes toward
of the spurious and effortful glad hand. I see false personalization women's office work signified by two Chicago dailies. One, the
as a principal barrier to autonomy in the sphere of work: it is Tribune, stands by the older values of job-mindedness; the other,
this, more than such technical problems of production as still re- the Sun-Times, speaks implicitly for the newer values of personal-
main, that exhausts the emotional energies of the other-directed ization. The Tribune conducts a regular daily column called
man. Enforced privatization is a principal barrier to autonomy "White Collar Girl," which preaches the virtues of efficiency and
but, as we shall see, by no means the only one in the sphere of loyalty. Its tone suggests that it is written for the office girl who
play. Privatization will be our generic term for the restrictions— wants a paternalistic response from a somewhat distant boss but
economic, ethnic, hierarchical, familial—that keep people from does not expect much more. It is beamed at readers who on the
adequate opportunities for leisure, including friendship. To some whole accept the classic inner-directed pattern of office manage-
degree those who suffer most from false personalization at work- ment—though just the same they would not mind if the boss per-
also suffer most from enforced privatization at play. sonalized a bit more, while staying definitely boss.
There is a dialectic of social and individual advance that makes The Sun-Times speaks to a presumably somewhat more liberal
it likely that, if these barriers to autonomy should be overcome, and progressive group in the same occupational stratum but un-
we would then be privileged to become aware of still others. der the general classification of the "career girl." The career girl
Man's freedom, since it must be won anew in each generation, is is appealed to not in a single column focused on the employee re-
only slightly a cumulative growth. Yet it makes sense to point lationship but in a variety of columns emphasizing careers, suc-
to some apparent major difficulties which block autonomy today cessful self-promotion by glamorous women, and articles on the
by draining energies that could be more productively used, even psychology of office relationships. These articles project the sense
while granting that we scarcely know what autonomy will look of a personnel-managed economy in which most executives are
like, or require, with these blockages removed. dutifully other-directed and, whether male or female executives,
interested in the girls as more than the "help," in fact, as
glamor-exuding personalities.
WHITE-COLLAR PERSONALIZATION: TOWARD GLAMOR
The Sun-Times makes a much closer connection between styles
The inner-directed manager never "saw" his secretary. The lat- of sociability at leisure and at the work place than the Tribune
ter, as a member of a different class and, often, a different ethnic- does. It conveys the idea that the boss is personalizing all the time,
group, also seldom "saw" the boss as an individual. Brought to- and as well as he knows how, and that the problem—virtually the
gether by the invisible hand, both were concentrated on the only problem—for the white-collar girl is to determine the style
266 THE LONELY CROWD FALSE PERSONALIZATION 267

in which to respond to the boss and to make him responsive.

The Tribune, far less interested in what we may call mood en-
THE CONVERSATION OF THE CLASSES: FACTORY MODEL
gineering, retains respect for the nonglamorous skills of short-
hand and typing. The white-collar worker imitates, even caricatures, the style of
Where there is apathy about politics, we expect to find an ap- the other-directed upper middle class. The factory worker, on
peal to glamor. So here, where there is apathy about work, the the other hand, is from Missouri: he has to be sold on the virtues
appeal is again to glamor, which depends less on the work itself of the glad hand. And to date, he has not been. On the whole, the
than on whom one does it for. Most unpopular of all is work in a manager has an uphill fight in getting factory workers in large
pool, which minimizes glamor, or work for a woman boss, which unionized plants to accept the proffered glad hand, and this very
inhibits it. It appears that the women actually wish to throw their resistance furnishes him with a virtually unlimited agenda for the
emotional reserves into the office situation, rather than to protect devouring of the energies that he can devote to work. As we saw
them for the play situation. And we must conclude from this earlier, he can go on endlessly adding people to the management
that neither their work nor their play is very meaningful in itself. group—training directors, counselors, and other morale builders
This puts the boss, in effect, in the position of having to satisfy —and he can also become involved in arranging research on mo-
an almost limitless demand for personalization that is partly based rale to test the efficacy of these men and measures.
on the unsatisfactory nature of the white-collar girls' life outside Just as the factory worker, when he was at school, regarded
the office. There enforced privatization often prevails: despite an the teachers as management and went on strike or slowdown
urban milieu, white-collar girls seldom have the resources—educa- against their well-intentioned or class-biased efforts, so in the fac-
tional, financial, simply spatial—to vary their circles of friend- tory he does not take the glad hand held out by the personnel
ship and their recreations. Grasping at glamor, these women are department. Indeed, while the manager believes that high pro-
driven to find it while at work, in the boss and in the super- duction attests high morale, the opposite may be the case: high
structure of emotions they weave into the office situation. That morale can coexist with low production via featherbedding. For
the other-directed manager helped start this chain of personaliza- if the workers feel united in solidarity and mutual understanding
tion because he, too, holds skill in disrepute is not much comfort —which they would define as high morale—the conditions exist
to him when he must personalize, not only as a banker selling for facilitating slowdowns and the systematic punishing of rate-
bonds, a statesman selling an idea, or an administrator selling a busters.
program, but also simply as a boss or customer surrounded by There are many managers, however, who do not content
white-collar girls. themselves with allowing top management and the personnel
This new sensitivity, moreover, to those of lower status makes department to tell workers that they have a stake in the output
it difficult for people to extricate themselves from chains of false and that their work is important and glamorous—whether it is or
personalization by wearing a completely alien work mask. Some not. Many sincerely seek to put plans into operation that give
inner-directed people can do this: they simply do not see the workers an actually greater share by rearrangement of owner-
others as people, or as highly differentiated and complicated peo- ship, production planning, and control. One aim of these propos-
ple. But the other-directed managers, professionals, and white- als is to introduce emotional vitality, or a gamelike spirit, into the
collar workers cannot so easily separate coercive friendliness on factory. Both results, along with higher productivity, are often
the job from a spontaneous expression of genuine friendliness off attained.
the job. But the harmony of feelings between manager and worker
268 THE LONELY CROWD FALSE PERSONALIZATION 269

often matters more to the manager than to the worker or the

work process, partly because, as we have seen, the other-directed THE CLUB OF INDISPENSABLES
manager cannot stand hostility and conflict; partly, as we have Responding to the personalizations of the secretary or trying to
also seen, because trying to eliminate hostility and conflict keeps give mood leadership to the factory floor—these occupations do
him busy; more important, perhaps, because contemporary not alone account for the manager's keeping himself busy. He is
American ideology cannot conceive of the possibility of hostility busy because he is more than busy: he is indispensable. He clings
or indifference between members of the work-team not adversely to the notion of scarcity that was so thoroughly elaborated in the
affecting production. The achievement of harmony sometimes official American culture of the school, the church, and politics.
becomes not a by-product of otherwise agreeable and meaningful He needs to combat the notion that he himself might not be so
work but an obligatory prerequisite. The consequence in some
scarce—that he might be dispensable. And surely, in the world as
cases may even be to slow down the work because people have it is now, this fear of being considered surplus is understandably
been led to expect harmony of mood, and need to be persuaded
frightening.
and repersuaded constantly that it exists. Yet the other-directed man buys his feeling of being scarce
This does not deny that much can and needs to be done to at the expense of failing to see how little work, and much less
reduce the monotony of the production line and the tactlessness teamwork, is needed in many productive sectors to keep the so-
of the supervisors. When the morale engineers have power to ciety rolling.2 It is of the very nature of false personalizing to
move people from job to job and to change team patterns, they conceal this fact. And of course the cultural definitions of work
accomplish a great deal. But, as I have said, it is often the psy- also play a part in building up the notion of indispensability—for
chological needs of the managers that determine the emphasis and instance, by making paid work an ideal expression of man's effort-
priority of factory reorganization.
fulness—and in providing the indispensables with secondary
Meanwhile, two groups stand out against the better integra- gains, such as sympathy from wives and children and exculpation
tion of the workers into the work-team; the isolates, who, while
from demands and possibilities of leisure.
doing their production job, refuse to involve themselves in the
harmony of feelings of the factory workers and, on the other
hand, the much larger group of featherbedders who involve
///. The Overpersoiialized Society
themselves all too well. Both these groups seek to retain their emo-
tional freedom against the efforts of the factory to force them to One of the possibilities for opening up channels for autonomy,
mix work and play. The isolate does not want to be involved in then, is to de-personalize work, to make it less strenuous emotion-
emotional planning and factory-group dynamics. The feather- ally, and to encourage people to decide for themselves whether
bedders simply resist what they consider the boss's exploitation.
Obviously, in the face of such resistance it will be a long time 2. Hanns Sachs, Freud, Master and Friend (Cambridge, Massachu-
before the factory worker follows the example of the white-col- setts, Harvard University Press, 1945), pp. 46-47, tells one of Freud's
lar worker and, in imitation of the boss, puts pressure on him to favorite stories, which seems as relevant to social as to individual
structure: "Many years ago an old professor of medicine died who had
personalize still more and better. But perhaps we see here one
ordered in his will that his body should be dissected. The autopsy was
source for the envy of the working class that many middle-class performed by a renowned pathological anatomist and I functioned
people feel: they envy not only its greater freedom in overt ag- as his assistant. 'Look here,' the anatomist said to me, 'these arteries!
gression but also the very refusal to get involved in the work sit- They are as hard and thick as ropes. Of course the man couldn't live
uation and the consequent ability to save reserves for play even with them.' I answered him: 'All right. But it is a fact that the man
where the work is monotonous, physically tiring, or sweated. did live till yesterday with these blood vessels.' "
 FALSE P E R S O N A L I Z A T I O N 271
270 THE LONELY CROWD
men, like some of the syndicalists and those who put their faith
and how much they want to personalize in what the culture ines- in the cooperatives, want to restore the personal relations at work
capably requires in the way of work. But of course there are psy- characteristic of a society dependent on tradition-direction as
chological obstacles in the way of any institutional changes. The well as of the earlier stages of inner-direction. They would like,
character of the other-directed man is elicited by contemporary in a fallacy of misplaced participation, to personalize, emotional-
institutions, and then, as an adult, he demands that the institutions ize, and moralize the factory and white-collar worlds at every
exploit the character he has come to assume as his. Consequently, point. At least in America they make the mistake of seeing our
if the institutions should no longer employ him in the way he civilization as an impersonal society and bemoaning it. For the
expects to be employed, will he not feel empty emotionally? long run, I think it makes more sense to work with rather than
Percival and Paul Goodman asked themselves this same ques- against the grain of impersonality in modern industry: to in-
tion in Communitas, a book which includes one of the most imag- crease automatization in work—but for the sake of pleasure and
inative discussions of work and play in any contemporary writ- consumption and not for the sake of work itself.
ing.3 They portray a Utopia in which people could earn their liv- For many white-collar workers, as we have seen, false person-
ing by a minimum of effort and would then be faced with the alization is the only personalizing that they meet. For many fac-
really shocking problem of how to get through the day: tory workers featherbedding is the only sociability they get.
Suddenly, the Americans would find themselves rescued from the Work, when it has these overtones for people, still remains real,
physical necessity and social pressure which alone, perhaps, had important, and magnetic. This was one lure that during the last
been driving them to their habitual satisfactions: they might sud- war drew many women of the middle and lower middle classes
denly find the commercial pleasures flat and unpalatable, but they into the factories and held them there despite poor working con-
would not therefore suddenly find any resources within themselves. ditions, inadequate transportation, and pressure from spouses.
Like that little girl in the progressive school, longing for the Escaping from domestic lives of extreme privatization, they were
security of the grownup's making her decisions for her, who asks: willing, even eager, to accept the most monotonous-seeming jobs.
"Teacher, today again do we have to do what we want to do?" Any effort, therefore, further to automatize work must take ac-
count not only of temporary technological unemployment but
There appear to be two major ways of reducing the demands of the situation of those overly privatized ones who still suffer
of work, one through automatization, which would release the from the residual barriers of family, poverty, and hierarchy we
attention of many of us from productive processes entirely, and have inherited from the era dependent on inner-direction. But
the other through making use of the potentialities for impersonal- surely we can think of better things for them than the factory
ity in our productive and distributive processes. Both these devel- as a refuge from home, just as we can think of better ways of
opments are strenuously resisted, and not only by men who find giving poverty-stricken people security and good medical care
work as a machine tender, boring as it sometimes is, less boring than shutting them up in prison or mental hospitals.
than the alternatives; in fact, I believe we would now be much fur-
ther on the road to the wholly automatic factory if management
did not harbor residual—and surely understandable—fears that THE AUTOMAT VERSUS THE GLAD HAND
without work we would be lost.
In the present state of our social and economic accounting, I find
This fallacy is characteristic of the proposals for introducing it impossible to say where necessary personalization ends and
joy and meaning into modern industrialism that come from the unnecessary personalization begins. Nor have I the indices to
schools of De Man, Mayo, and many other recent writers. These separate profitably productive effort from busy work. I cannot
3. Communitas: Means of Livelihood and Ways of Life (Chicago, tell, for example, how much the slow progress toward automatiza-
University of Chicago Press, 1947), p. 120.
 THE LONELY CROWD FALSE PERSONALIZATION 273
272

tion in the tertiary trades is due to low wages, engaging Negro tion, as safety engineers now remove hazards that endanger life
laundresses and pressers in a muscular race with existing mechan- and limb. For instance, such an engineer might seek a way of
ical power, how much to failure to invent the necessary ma- making gas pumps automatic like slot machines and of turning
chinery, how much to consumer demand to buy personalization service stations into as nearly automatic form as some of the most
along with a product, and how much to the needs of the work up-to-date roundhouses for engines now are. In factories and of-
force itself to personalize, for reasons already given, whether the fices, an effort could be made, by careful layout engineering, to
consumer asks for it or not. eliminate working conditions and locations that coerce the emo-
It is also hard to judge how much the consumer's demand for tions—making sure meanwhile that other jobs are available for
individual attention inevitably conflicts with the producer's right those displaced by automatization. Some imagination and inge-
to freedom from unnecessary personalization. Retail trade offers nuity will be required to construct indexes by which to measure
a particularly difficult problem in this connection. The growth the amount of false personalization required by a given job under
of the consumer and luxury market in the United States, coupled normal conditions and to set ceilings beyond which such person-
with the rise of other-direction, make the salesperson's work alization would not be allowed to go.
harder than it was in 1900. Then, for example, the salesgirl in the It would be interesting to review from this perspective the
Fifth Avenue store sold her limited stock to the carriage trade at present trend in America to get rid of private offices and have
a pace set for her by the relative slowness of the trade itself. To everybody work democratically in a single accessible and well-
be sure, shopping was a pastime even then. But the customer lighted room. For many, I would guess, the dual requirement that
was not in a hurry, nor, within the range of her class-based style, one be sociable and get the work done has the same consequences
was she too anxious about her choice. Moreover, the salesgirl, that it does in school and college, of leading to censure of those
serving only a few customers, could recall their requirements and who too obviously like their work, and of anxiety on the part
therefore be of some assistance where assistance was in order. To- of those who cannot simultaneously orient themselves to the task
day the salesgirl in the department store, a typical figure in the at hand and to the human network of observers. For others,
distributive chain of personalization, faces a mass clientele huge there must be a reduction in the anxiety of isolated work, and a
in size, nervous in motion, and unsure in taste. She is asked to re- net gain in friendliness.
spond in a hurry to a series of vaguely specified wants. In the distributive trades, where the salesperson is confronted
These observations suggest that much of the pathos of our cur- at every turn by customers, there can be no solution through pri-
rent stage of industrialism resides in the fact that we need rapidly vate offices, but only through further automatization. Bellamy
to expand the tertiary trades that cater to leisure, while these are saw some of the possibilities quite lucidly, and in Looking Back-
the very trades which may today combine the greatest difficulty ward he made consumer purchasing take the form of giving an
and tediousness of physical work—there is much of this, for in- order "untouched by human hands" to merchandising centers
stance, in the department store—along with the severest emo- much like the local depots in which one today can make out or-
tional demands. The problem of where to automatize is generally ders to Sears or Montgomery Ward. Clearly, if most vending
looked at by economists as a problem in investment and reinvest- could be made automatic, both consumers and salespeople would
ment, and also in labor mobility. Yet perhaps a national capital be saved from much motion and emotion. The supermarket, the
goods budget should include in its forecasts a guess as to the de- Automat, the mail order house, all dependent on colorful, accu-
gree of false personalization that it may evoke or eliminate. rate display and advertising, are the technical inventions that
What we very much need is a new type of engineer whose job widen the interstices of the distribution system where autonomy
it is to remove psychic hazards springing from false personaliza- can thrive.
 THE LONELY CROWD FALSE P E R S O N A L I Z A T I O N 275
274
Bellamy also suggests to us how we may reduce some of the did in the nineteenth century: to justify their work primarily by
guilt many of us feel at living a relatively easy life while others its pay check, especially if the work is short and the pay check
are engaged in the irreducible minimum of hard and unpleasant large. Instead as we have seen they try by false personalization,
jobs—a guilt which is certainly far more widespread in an era of by mood leadership, by notions of indispensability, and by count-
other-direction, and which may deepen rather than not with an less similar rituals and agendas, to fill up the vacuum created by
increase in autonomy. His plan, requiring all youth to serve a high productivity. Yet people's real work—the field into which,
three-year term in the "industrial army," was designed by him to on the basis of their character and their gifts, they would like to
facilitate national industrial organization and to guide the young throw their emotional and creative energies—cannot now con-
in their final vocational choices. When the CCC gave us some- ceivably coincide, perhaps in the majority of cases, with what
thing of the same sort, it was, like so many of the good things we they get paid for doing.
do, only for relief; the well-off were excluded. Something like
a combination of Bellamy's army and the CCC would perhaps
serve all of us as an initiatory alleviation of guilts about later "un-
productive" work, pending the arrival of our new definitions of
productiveness. Once people had done an arduous stint in the late
adolescent years of strong energies and, for some, of strong ideal-
isms, they might feel entitled to the life of Riley. Certainly,
many veterans, studying or loafing in an interesting way under
the GI Bill of Rights—the phrase is exceedingly important—
would feel guilty about pulling down a check from Uncle Sam
had they not suffered their share of deprivation.
These are suggestions for social solutions: but we need not wait
on them. Those seeking autonomy might simply refuse to take
the cultural definitions of what constitutes work for granted
—a kind of strike, not against work as such but against the re-
quirement that all recruitable emotional energies be harnessed to
work by an endless reciprocal chain.
Thoreau was a first-class surveyor; he chose this occupation—
a near-vanished craft-skill par excellence—as a well-paying one
that would give him a living if he worked one day a week. Dr.
William Carlos Williams is a popular general practitioner in
Rutherford, New Jersey. Charles Ives "worked" by heading
an agency that sold half a billion dollars' worth of insurance, and
he "played" by composing some of the more significant, though
least recognized, music that has been produced in this country.
Ives felt not in the least guilty about the money he made or about
the fact that he lived a "normal" American life, rather than a Bo-
hemian one. Yet many men are unwilling to do what these men
have done or what Charles Lamb or Hawthorne or many others
 XIV ENFORCED PRIVATIZATION 277
consumer; we have still to discover the player. Yet is it sensible
to suggest research into play when it is possible that it would lead
Enforced privatization: obstacles to increasing public and systematic interference with an area that
to autonomy in play ideally deserves privacy and lack of system? Perhaps a conspir-
acy of silence about leisure and play is their best protection?
Rather than speaking about how one should play, or what the
play of man seeking autonomy should be, which is in any case
beyond me, I turn to a consideration of restrictions on freedom
/ may remark . . . that though in that early time I seem to have in the field of play generally.
been constantly eager to exchange my lot for that of somebody else,
on the assumed certainty of gaining by the bargain, I fail to re-
member feeling jealous of such happier persons—in the measure I. The Denial of Sociability
open to children of spirit. I had rather a positive lack of the passion,
and thereby, I suppose, a lack of spirit; since if jealousy bears, as In the previous chapter we noted the excess of sociability, in the
1 think, on what one sees one's companions able to do—as against form of false personalization, which is forced on many people in
one's falling short—envy, as I knew it at least, was simply of what our economy. Nevertheless, I do not deny that for the other-di-
they were, or in other words of a certain sort of richer consciousness rected man a deficit of sociability is even more serious than an
supposed, doubtless often too freely supposed, in them. excess. The presence of the guiding and approving others is a
Henry James, A Small Boy and Others vital element in his whole system of conformity and self-justi-
fication. Depriving him of the sociability his character has come
to crave will not make him autonomous, but only anomic—re-
sembling in this the cruelty of depriving the addict of liquor or
drugs by a sudden incarceration. Moreover, if the other-directed
Because the distribution of leisure in America has been rapid as man is seeking autonomy, he cannot achieve it alone. He needs
well as widespread, leisure presents Americans with issues that friends.
are historically new. At the same time part of the promise of lei- The other-directed man is socialized in a peer-group of chil-
sure and play for the other-directed man is that it may be easier dren who resemble him in such visible indexes as age, color, and
in play than in work to break some of the institutional and char- class but who may not resemble him at all in his more private
acterological barriers to autonomy. Play, far from having to be temperament, interests, and fantasies. He has learned, if he is ad-
the residual sphere left over from work-time and work-feeling, justed, to look like those others with whom he has been brought
can increasingly become the sphere for the development of skill up, with whom he has learned cooperation, tolerance, and re-
and competence in the art of living. Play may prove to be the straint of temper. In this process he has learned to forget aspects
sphere in which there is still some room left for the would-be of his character that are not "social," not other-directed. As long
autonomous man to reclaim his individual character from the per- as he continues to remain in a peer-group of his happenstance
vasive demands of his social character. neighborhood, his occupational colleagues, his status equals or
Admittedly, we know very little about play, partly as the result would-be equals, the chances are that he may not notice, or notice
of the cultural definitions that give priority to work. Research only in boredom and other vague unrest, any discrepancies be-
has been concerned mainly with the social character of the tween his image of himself and his image of the "others." Con-
producer; only recently has the same attention been paid to the versely, if he should begin to find himself among people who wel-
276
278 THE LONELY CROWD
ENFORCED PRIVATIZATION 279
come and appreciate or at least do not punish expression and ex-
ploration of these buried parts of the self, he may be able to move thur's Court indicates a greater awareness of the irony; and
toward greater autonomy. Twain, with all his bitterness, expresses a sounder sentiment
To make this move, however, requires the ability, psycholog- about the road back.
ical and institutional, to find one's way to the new friends, the Despite such critical voices, however, American sociability, i.e.
new or overlapping peer-group. the friendship market, like the American goods market, is in
As matters stand, however, greater freedom of choice in many ways the freest and largest in the world. Parents can mon-
friendship is hardly the most fashionable remedy offered today itor their children's social relations only at the class and ethnic
for the problems modern urban people find in their sociability. fringe, and this they are still free to do assiduously. In adoles-
Many critics of contemporary life would move in the exactly op- cence, however, the automobile frees many Americans from pa-
posite direction, on the assumption that people have not too little rentally supervised sociability. By adulthood, ease of transport,
freedom but too much. Some of these critics speak from a reli- unity of language, and plenty of spending money release people
gious platform, others out of a preoccupation with urban ano- for vacations, parties, and trips in search of many and varied
mie. Greatly troubled by the fact that Americans move their friends.
households every few years, they do not seek to make this move- Nevertheless the friendship market is beset with many tariffs,
ment easier by developing, for example, trailers or Buckminster- economic, political, and cultural. First of all, there are the grosser
Fuller-type houses that possess a relative freedom from particular inequities in the distribution of income that limit individual ac-
sites. Rather, they would like to freeze people into communities cess to consumer goods, leisure, and play. Although floors are
in which friendship will be based largely on propinquity. They built under the consumption of some farmers and workers, many
are apt to share the outlook of the city planner who said that he of them fancy featherbedders, other farmers and workers remain
thought the ideal communities in America were to be found unprotected by subsidies or wage contracts and are therefore ex-
among the rural Negroes of the deep South and the French Cana- cluded from the "4-H Club Culture" or "UAW Culture" variants
dians of the Quebec villages. It was disclosed later in the conver- of taste, sociability, and play. These exclusions and privatizations
sation that his own friends were scattered over two continents. have complex results for the excluders and, in general, for the
Here we find the classes attempting to force "roots" upon the more privileged groups. In particular, the other-directed may
masses just as the Dobuans try by magical incantations to keep find their paths to autonomy twisted by guilt for the excluded,
their yam tubers in place! by the limitation of their own choices that exclusion entails, and
We might term those critics the neotraditionalists. They seem by the over-all reduction of the potentialities for play of the econ-
to want to deny to others the privileges of modern society which, omy that is the consequence of such reduction in any of its
however, they themselves take as a matter of course. Their own subsectors.
choice is for French food one day and Italian the next; they se- On the other hand, sociability is sometimes subtly and para-
lect their ideas from all ages and their friends from all places; they doxically limited by the very efforts undertaken, in the name of
enjoy primitive African and Renaissance Italian sculpture and tolerance, to cross the tariff walls and to establish associations
read books in four languages. These are felt as advantages, not that the general culture may still call guilty ones. The other-
liabilities; and it is ironic that many sophisticated other-directed directed man, moving with a tolerant peer-group, is not permit-
people, out of fear, impatience, fashion, and boredom, express ted to expand his friendships to wider social strata at his own
nostalgia for a time in the past in which they could not have had pace. He may be asked suddenly to drop not only one barrier at
such choices. Mark Twain's Connecticut Yankee in King Ar- a time—say, the caste barrier—but two—say, the class barrier as
well. For example he may be asked to meet Negroes of a class
280 THE LONELY CROWD ENFORCED PRIVATIZATION 28l

position lower than his own, while the moral issue is posed for Mead has observed, include the expectation that each partner
him simply in terms of color. This can happen to him at precisely grow and develop at approximately the same rate.1
the time when he has cut himself off from the customary sources To be sure, many divorces are the result of wildcatting on the
of his morality and, thereby, from the personal forcefulness he sex frontier that our leisure society has opened up for exploita-
needs in order to live up to his new equalitarian values. One pos- tion by others than aristocrats and bums, and by women as well
sibility here is that he will feel sudden panic at the forcible drop- as men. Yet clearly, any effort by the neo-traditionalists to close
ping of tariffs on the friendship market to which his psychic the sex frontier, while it might help restore the glamor sin had in
economy has grown accustomed, and react violently in favor of the earlier era, would be irrelevant to the problems created by the
his older standards. greater demands a leisure-oriented people put upon their choice
in companionship, sexual and otherwise. What is obviously de-
manded is the development of a new model of marriage that finds
//. Sociability and the Privatization of Women its opportunity precisely in the choices that a free-divorce, leisure
society opens up. Because women are less privatized than they
As with other "minorities," the education and partial emancipa- have traditionally been, marriage offers more for millions of peo-
tion of women puts the "majority" (in this case, the men) in an ple than ever before in its long history.
ambiguous position. They are no longer protected against women Nevertheless, we have quite a way to go before women can
by a rigid etiquette or other formal arrangements. Moreover, as associate with men at work and play on any footing of equality.
we saw earlier, women make sexual demands and offer sexual Today men who find it easy and natural to get along with women
potentialities that their mothers would never have dreamed of, or and prefer mixed company both at work and play have to fight
would only have dreamed of. By the same token, they make de- the residues of the older privatization. For one thing, they
mands for understanding and companionship. But men, already are hardly able to avoid many stag occasions, into which some
anxious among the antagonistic cooperators of their own sex, do men retreat from the liberations forced on them by the new in-
not always welcome the cooperation and companionship from tersex ethics. As the latency period in childhood gets shorter and
the opposite sex that the dropping of an older tariff permits and shorter, so that boys can be boys only from six to ten, adult males
in a way requires. While the inner-directed man, who could still try to create or retain artificial latency periods in which they will
patronize women, complained to his mistress that his wife did not not be under pressure from women—or, worse, from male judg-
understand him, the other-directed man in effect complains that ments as to how they are succeeding with women. Thus, both
his women understand him all too well. sexes experience the limits, pressures, and guilts of emancipation.
These uneasinesses caused by the newly liberated are one source Hence, we should not be surprised to see in the social strata
of the current attempts to re-privatize women by redefining where other-direction prevails that very considerable privatiza-
their role in some comfortably domestic and traditional way. tion even of the women of higher economic class still goes on,
Many people, both men and women, are troubled by the so-called and that these women, often compulsory players and consumers,
disintegration of the family and look longingly back to the family
1. Margaret Mead, Male and Female (New York, William Morrow,
structure of societies at an early point on the curve of population. 1949); see also the very perceptive observations in the article by
They usually fail to see that the current divorce rate is, in part, Talcott Parsons, "Age and Sex in the Social Structure of the United
an index of the new demands made upon marriage for sociability States," American Sociological Review, VII (1942), 604-616; reprinted
and leisure by sensitive middle-class couples; that these demands in Personality in Nature, Society, and Culture, ed. Kluckhohn and
not only begin high, in the choice of a mate, but, as Margaret Murray.
282 THE LONELY CROWD ENFORCED PRIVATIZATION 283

have not solved the problems of competence in play. The heroine tance to try out innovating programs that have not been tested
of "Let's Go Out Tonight," for example, is frozen into her subur- elsewhere or suggested by the national offices.
ban cottage, cut off from the whole friendship market of both Thus, although with important exceptions, everywhere women
men and women—except those she can meet socially with her turn to put their part-time energies to work, they face a veto
husband. Many suburbanites, not to speak of farm wives, are group and its insistence that, to participate, they must go
much worse off. The husband drives to work in the only car and through channels or become slaveys and money-raisers for those
leaves his wife a prisoner at home with the small children, the who control the channels. And money-raising itself is now in-
telephone, and the radio or television. Such women can easily be- creasingly professionalized, with only the money-giving left to
come so uninteresting that they will remain psychological pris- the "participants." Reacting to this situation, the women either
oners even when the physical and economic handicaps to their sink back into indifference or conclude, like their working-class
mobility are removed. And this privatization in turn limits the sisters, that only through a job, a culturally defined job, will they
friendship choices and increases the guilts of everyone else. be liberated. Instead of moving toward autonomy in play, an au-
As we saw earlier, the war helped deprivatize many women tonomy toward which they could also help their men, they often
who welcomed work in industry or other war work as a real in- simply add to their own domestic problems all the anxieties men
crease in their sociability. Even in those cases where earnings are endure at work.
not vital to the established living standards of a family, the work-
ing woman frequently does find her way to an independence
that would hardly be recognizable by the middle-class woman ///. Packaged Sociabilities
of the nineteenth century. This independence lays the ground-
work for some autonomy in play, even when the work remains, These culturally defined tariffs that crisscross the friendship mar-
as it does for most working women, routine. ket among the American peer-groups severely limit the choices
Of course, some middle- and upper middle-class women do any given individual has for finding those who can help him be-
have time to play. Such women can move into the peer-groups of come autonomous. Perhaps one other example should be men-
the bridge players, the garden clubbers, any of the other groups tioned, namely the tendency toward self-privatization on the part
of pastimers. The transition sounds easy. The difficulty is that of the various not quite assimilated ethnic groups. For we en-
women are being driven out of many of the areas in which they counter here a rather paradoxical development, which results
formerly occupied their leisure with amateur competence. For from a change in the meanings read into the otherwise admirable
example, they are no longer welcome as ladies bountiful; the so- doctrine of cultural pluralism.
cial workers have so professionalized the field of helping people What has happened is that the older pressures toward forcible
that any intrusion by benevolent amateurs is deeply resisted and Americanization which we associate with the settlement house
resented. Likewise, amateurs can no longer help such people, un- have receded. Only recent groups of poverty-stricken immigrants,
less they are willing, as nurse's aids, to help registered nurses be like the Mexicans and Puerto Ricans, are steadily subjected to
professionals by doing all the dirty work for them. They cannot such pressures. The lower-class Negro, Italian, Jew, or Slav is per-
help others enjoy themselves, because settlement work and recre- mitted to approach the American middle-class norm at more or
ational activities have also been professionalized. While local less his own pace. Under the practice of cultural pluralism this
chapters of the League of Women Voters and the Y.W.C.A. have means that the ethnic groups are no longer urged to accept the
a good deal of leeway in developing programs and have an oppor- whole package of work and play as "the Americans" define it. On
tunity to relate these to local needs, there is considerable reluc- the contrary, the ethnics are invited to add to the variety of the
284 THE LONELY CROWD ENFORCED PRIVATIZATION 28s

nation by retaining the colorful flavors of their "racial heritages." the newly liberated whites but from the pressures of the race
As we saw in discussing food, these are precisely the heritages leaders, who may for instance interpret friendliness as Uncle
that are combed over by the dominant groups in search of gas- Tomism.
tronomical differentiations.2 So far, so good. But at the same Other leisure pursuits may similarly become tainted by race
time the middle- and upper-class Negro, Italian, Jew, or Slav is considerations. In some circles middle-class Negroes are forbidden
not quite assimilated; he remains identifiably, or in his own feel- to like jazz because there are whites who patronize Negroes as
ing, an ethnic. He is kept from complete social participation in the the creators of jazz; other Negroes may be compelled to take
dominant groups by subtle and not so subtle barriers. Meanwhile pride in jazz or in Jackie Robinson, as Jews may be required to
veto-group leaders in his own ethnic group come along to urge take pride in Israel or Einstein. Still other middle-class Negroes
him to welcome the autarchy thus partially forced on him from cannot enjoy watermelon or other foods that are part of the tradi-
outside, to confine his sociability "voluntarily" to his "own" tional Negro diet and certainly are not allowed to enjoy popular-
group, and to obey the group's norms in the uses of leisure. This, culture portrayals such as those of Rochester or Amos and Andy.
too, is called cultural pluralism, though for the individual it oper- Similarly, while the lower-class Jew is not much bothered by
ates to restrict him to a single culture. metaphysical definitions of Jewishness, the almost but not wholly
Thus, for example, while lower-class Negroes in the big north- assimilated Jew is subservient to the Jewish cultural compart-
ern cities are immobilized by poverty and segregation, the upper mentalizes who tell him what his leisure should be like and who
middle-class Negroes are subject to their race leaders' definitions his friends should be. Sociability in these groups is thus limited
of what it means to be a Negro, especially in those fields, like by a combination of external pressure from the majority, and cul-
leisure, which, more than the field of work, are under race con- tural dictation from within the minority. Play and sociability are
trol. Sociability with whites runs risks not only from the side of then consumed in guilty or anxious efforts to act in accordance
2. Food, of course, is only a symbol or instance of the way in with definitions of one's location on the American scene, a loca-
which styles of play in America are greatly dependent on the post- tion which, like a surviving superstition, the individual cannot
Protestant (Jew or Catholic) and pre-Protestant (Negro) immigra- fully accept or dare fully to reject.
tion. From the 188o's to the 1920`s, for example, the white Protestant
majority waged an increasingly unsuccessful war to maintain its domi-
nance not only in the sphere of work, where it was well skilled, but
also in the sphere of play, where it was constantly having to fight for
a precarious competence. Hence it resisted any new potentialities for
consumership offered by the work-disfranchised ethnics, ranging from
Italian food to the borsch-circuit comedy and the Negroid Charleston.
Prohibition was the last major battle in that war. Its bad effects were
blamed on the "Sicilian gangster." Now obviously the fact that Jews
and Negroes could climb, and even avoid the ethnic affronts, most
easily in the arts and entertainments, put them in a good position of
leadership when the larger society itself shifted to embrace the values
of consumption. Thus it is that the ethnics are the ones who liberate the
majority. Increasingly, play and leisure in America may suffer from
the lack of a customary though under-recognized stimulus and elan
when there are no more immigrants or people close to immigrant
culture.
 THE PROBLEM OF COMPETENCE
XV
days, and other ceremonial escapes. Even those ceremonies that
survive, or have been newly invented, such as the Fourth of July
The problem of competence: obstacles or Halloween, have had to meet, if not the critique of puritan as-
ceticism, then the critique of puritan rationalism, from which
to autonomy in play (continued) young children have been precariously exempted. For many
adults our holidays make work out of fun-making or gift-giving
which we have neither the wit to welcome nor the courage to
refuse; we know holidays are calculated steps in the distributive
economy and that new holidays, e.g., Mother's Day, are foisted
For as soon as labor is distributed each man has a particular and
on us—there are more commercially sponsored "Weeks" than
exclusive sphere from which he cannot escape. He is a hunter, fish-
there are weeks in the year. Here puritanism has proved an Indian
erman, a shepherd, or a critical critic, and must remain so if he
giver: it not only gives priority to work and distribution but,
does not want to lose his means of livelihood; while in a communist
what is more, takes back the niggardly holidays it gives us. The
society, where nobody has one exclusive sphere of activity, but each
scars that puritanism has left on the American, and not only on
can become accomplished in any branch he wishes, society regulates
the Philadelphian, Sunday are well known.
the general production and thus makes it possible for one to do
It may take a long time before the damage done to play during
one thing today and another tomorrow—to hunt in the morning, to
the era depending on inner-direction can be repaired. In the mean-
fish in the evening, to criticize after dinner just as I have in mind,
time other-direction has added new hazards. The other-directed
without ever becoming hunter, fisherman, shepherd, or critic.
man approaches play, as he approaches so many other areas of
Karl Marx, on the amateur life, without the inhibitions but also without the protections of
his inner-directed predecessor. Beset as he is with the responsi-
I can play the lute and the pipe, the harp, the organistrum, the bility for the mood of the play-group, he might like to fall back
bagpipe and the tabor. I can throw knives and catch them without on fixed and objective ceremonials, and to some extent he does so
cutting myself. I can tell a tale against any man and make love —it is a common mistake to assume that American city-dwellers
verses for the ladies. I can move tables and juggle with chairs. are wholly without rituals. Our various drinks, our various card
I can turn somersaults and stand on my head. and parlor games, our various sports, and our public entertain-
ments—all can be arranged in a series from the less to the more
Medieval entertainer, on the professional intimate, the less to the more fluctuating, innovational, and sub-
jective. Even so, the responsibility of all to all, that each join in
the fun and involve himself at a similar level of subjectivity, inter-
I. The Play's the Thing feres with spontaneous sociability in the very effort to invoke it.
Above all, perhaps, this groupiness shuts off the privacy which
Privatization as an obstacle to play can be thought of as primarily the other-directed man, engaged in personalizing in his work,
a relic of previous eras of status-dominated leisure; indeed, the requires (without often knowing it) in his play. Just because he
immobilization of women, children, and the lower classes harks feels guilty if he is not contributing to the fun of the group, he
back to the earlier days of the industrial revolution. Wealth, trans- needs to learn to distinguish between the loneliness he under-
port, and education are the great liberators here. But we have also standably fears and the privacy he might occasionally choose.
inherited obstacles to leisure from the puritan wing of inner- We have seen that children learn early in their lives that they
direction, which succeeded in destroying or subverting a whole must have no secrets from companionable peers and adults; and
historic spectrum of gregarious fun-making: sport, drama, feast
286
 288 THE LONELY CROWD
THE PROBLEM OF COMPETENCE 289
this includes their use of leisure. This is perhaps to be expected
from the other-directed, who care more for the mood and man- unconsciously feel some uneasiness in play—because by cultural
definition the right to play belongs to those who work.
ner of doing things than for what is done, who feel worse about
an exclusion from others' consciousness than about any violation
of property or pride, and who will tolerate almost any misdeed The same industrial advance which has given us a sometimes
intolerable freedom from work has also operated to introduce un-
so long as it is not concealed from them. Presumably, parents who
want their children to become autonomous may help them very precedented specialization into the area of play, with similar
ambiguous consequences for many technologically unemployed
much by letting them learn they have the right to make their
players. The varied capacities of the medieval entertainer whose
choices (by lying if necessary) between those situations in which
boast is quoted at the chapter head include some amiable virtuosi-
they wish to be intimate with others and those in which intimacy
ties. But they would hardly get him a billing on the RKO cir-
is merely the demand of an authority, parental or groupish. Ob-
viously an individual who needs, for the autonomous use of lei- cuit or television today, and he would certainly not be good
sure, both play which is private, reverie-filled, and fantasy-rich, enough for Ringling Brothers. The amateur player has to com-
and play which is sociable, even ceremonial, has a hard time com- pete with professionals who are far more professional than ever
bating all at once the privatizations we have inherited and the before—can he tell Laurence Olivier how to play Hamlet, as
personalizations we have newly elaborated. Hamlet himself could get away with telling the professional
players how not to do it? We saw in Part I that, while the inner-
These are very general considerations, and they must be sup- directed man held on tenaciously to his competence as a player
plemented by reminding ourselves of the continuing conse- at least in his downward escapes, the other-directed man is faced
quences, both for work and play, of the Great Depression. The with and oppressed by virtuosity from the omnipresent media
depression did not lead to a redefinition of work but on the con- wherever he turns.
trary made work seem not only precious but problematic—pre- Thus it looks as if the task of restoring competence to play is
cious because problematic. It is significant that we have now taken almost, if not quite, as difficult as that of restoring it to work.
full employment, rather than full nonemployment, or leisure, as While a change in income relations, or even in the organization
the economic goal to which we cling in desperation. This is not of industry, might make for fairer distribution of leisure and a
surprising when we realize how stunted were the play oppor- lessening of guilts, it could not of itself teach men how to play
tunities for the man unemployed in the depression. We could see who have historically forgotten how and who have turned the
then, in the clearest form, how often leisure is defined as a per- business over to professionals. Are we right, then, in supposing
missive residue left over from the demands of work-time. Even that play offers any easier channels to autonomy than work; are
financially adequate relief could not remove this moral blockage not both equally "alienated"?
of play, any more than retirement pay can remove it for the for- I think it is not unreasonable to believe that various types of
cibly retired oldsters. For the prestige of work operates as a badge competence, as yet hardly recognized, are being built up in the
entitling the holder to draw on the society's resources. Even play of the other-directed, in the face of all the obstacles we have
the adolescent who is engaged in "producing himself" suffers listed. Some of these skills, such as craftsmanship, have old foun-
emotional discomfort if he cannot demonstrate that he is at work dations; others, such as consumership, have new aspects. Even
or training assiduously for narrowly defined work aims. In sum, taste-exchanging, that intangible product of the play-work of the
taking together the young, the unemployed, the postemployment other-directed peer-groups, can be seen as a training ground for
old, the housewife, and the guilty featherbedders, not to speak of leisure. Perhaps there is more competence at play than meets the
the "idle rich," we may have a great number who more or less eye—less passivity, less manipulation, less shoddiness than is usu-
ally charged.
 290 THE LONELY CROWD
THE PROBLEM OF COMPETENCE 291

competence only in situations where society permits a high de-

II. The Forms of Competence
gree of individualism; and he is allowed to create his breath-taking
personal style only because of his astonishing dexterity. On one
CONSUMERSHIP: POSTGRADUATE COURSE
level the message of the Belvedere movies is quite different
The mass media serve as tutors in how to consume, and if we are from that of the Douglas movies, where a heightened expres-
looking for straws in the wind, we can begin there. To my mind, siveness is suggested as an attractive extra in life to the ordinary
it is symptomatic that a number of recent movies can be inter- upper-middle-class man and not to the nonconformist. But on
preted as encouraging new. styles in leisure and in domesticity another level the two types of pictures are very much alike. Both
among men—with the implication that freedom from their peers seem to be saying, among all the other amusing things they have
will help them to increase their own competence as consumers to say, that the power of the peers can be overcome. Both char-
and encourage their development toward autonomy. In Letter to acterizations give the individual the right to explore and elaborate
Three Wives and Everybody Does It the hero (Paul Douglas) is his own personality and sensitivity with a work-leisure compe-
represented as a power seeker with hair on his chest who is mak- tence that goes beyond the requirements of the peers.
ing the "one-class jump"—the jump from lower-middle class Surely the great mass-media artists, including the directors,
to upper-middle class which still propels much of our economic writers, and others behind the scenes who "create" and promote
and social life. The one-class jumper, caught as he is between a the artists, make an important contribution to autonomy. The
peer-group he has left and another he has not quite achieved, is entertainers, in their media, out of their media, and in the never-
usually too insecure, too driven, to be a good candidate for au- never land between, exert a constant pressure on the accepted
tonomy. Douglas begins with a stereotyped, inner-directed tone peer-groups and suggest new modes of escape from them. The
of toughness and insensitivity but ends up by discovering new sharpest critics of American movies are likely to forget this too
angles in his own complex emotions when he learns (in Every- easily. In their concentration on the indubitable failures of quality
body Does It) that the singing talent being sought by his socialite in Hollywood movies, they sometimes miss the point that the
would-be canary wife is actually his own. This discovery may movies have multiplied the choices in styles of life and leisure
constitute a commentary on the fact that men need no longer available to millions. Even the fan who imitates the casual manner
delegate artistic sensibilities to wives seeking culture as status of Humphrey Bogart or the fearless energetic pride of Katharine
or as career, but can if they wish enjoy them as part of their own Hepburn may in the process be emancipating himself or herself
competence—a new twist (and one that James M. Cain and the from a narrow-minded peer-group. Or, to take another instance,
scenarists must have been perfectly aware of) in the old comedy- it seems likely that the wild, fantastic suspiciousness of W. C.
dilemma of the man who meets and surpasses the gentlemanly Fields may have served many in his audience as a support to their
norms of his new, upper-class peer-group. own doubts concerning the unquestioned value of smooth ami-
Still other comedies of manners of recent years tackle a similar ability and friendliness. I believe that the movies, in many un-
theme of peer-free competence from a different perspective. expected ways, are liberating agents, and that they need defense
They portray with sympathy the style of a man who allows him- against indiscriminate highbrow criticism as well as against the
self the luxury of being a generalist at life, self-educated, ec- ever-ready veto groups who want the movies to tutor their
centric, near-autonomous. In the Mr. Belvedere series, for in- audiences in all the pious virtues the home and school have
stance, Clifton Webb is a thinly disguised intellectual and social failed to inculcate.
deviant who is an expert at anything he cares to turn his hand and One of these virtues is activity as such, and much current
brain to. Yet, like Beatrice Lillie, he attains his range of skill and rejection of the movies symbolizes a blanket rejection of our al-
legedly passive popular-culture. By contrast, the critics are likely
 292 THE LONELY CROWD THE PROBLEM OF COMPETENCE 293
to place their bets on activities that are individualistic and in- any means a forgotten folkway. But the craft-skill is valued more
volve personal participation. For instance, craftsmanship. than ever before for its own sake, as in the case of the Sunday
painter.
THE POSSIBILITIES OF CRAFTSMANSHIP The dramatic turn toward craftsmanlike hobbies in an ad-
vanced economy, in which it pays to cater to the desires of those
The "Belvedere" movies happen to be flashing satire on com- reacting against mass production, has its own peculiar problems.
petence and craftsmanship, in much the way that The Admirable The conservatism of the craftsman—in this aspect, part of the
Crichton is a satire on competence and class. Today the craftsman conservatism of play itself—finds its ideals of competence con-
often seems eccentric because of his fanatical devotion to his craft stantly threatened by a series of power tools and hobby products
or hobby; Mr. Belvedere uses his various craft-skills to flaunt and that make it possible for the dub to appear like a professional. The
enjoy his eccentricity, to rub it in. In this sense, his style of life home craftsman of high technical aspirations is better off with a
is a new commentary on the question whether competence in power tool than without one. But how many can retain the spon-
hobbies and crafts is on the decline in America. Certainly many taneous enthusiasm for craftsmanship in the face of the temptation
people have the leisure and encouragement to pursue crafts who to have the machine do it better?
never did before. We are told that the employees at the Haw- Some of the ambiguities of contemporary craft hobbyism
thorne plant of the Western Electric Company include thousands dependent on a power tool are illustrated by a study of automo-
of active, eager gardeners; that they run an annual hobby show tive hobbyists—especially the hot rodders.1 In this field, a wide
of considerable size and style; that the factory helps bring to- range of standards of technique and design gives room to both
gether amateur photographers, woodcarvers, model builders— the green amateurs and the semi-professional car racers, while all
the whole countless range of modern hobbyism—in addition, of the hobbyists have the comfort of working within an old Ameri-
course, to the usual sports, music, and dramatic groups. But there can tradition of high-level tinkering. Competence and imagi-
are no statistics to show whether hobbies that were once pri- nation are on the scene in force among the youths who race their
vately pursued are now simply taken over as part of the program quasi-Fords and quasi-Chevrolets on the Dry Lakes of the Far
of the active, indeed world-famous, industrial relations depart- West, in a continuous competition with the mass-produced stand-
ment. Beyond a few careful exploratory works such as the Lund- ards of Detroit. Among these groups there exists an active and
berg, Komarovsky, and Mclnerny book, Leisure: a Suburban critical attitude toward the Detroit car as it is now built, or as it
Study, we do not even begin to know whether craftsmanlike was built until recently. Here, astonishingly enough, the top com-
leisure has developed new meanings in modern America. mercial product of the country, the Detroit car, far from driving
It seems plausible to assume that the craftsmanlike use of leisure out amateur performance, has only stimulated, perhaps even pro-
has certain compatibilities with the whole way of life of men de- voked it. Moreover, the individual who remakes cars according to
pendent on inner-direction: their attention to the hardness of the standards of his own devising is obviously not exploiting any
material, their relative unconcern and lack of training for the questionable social dividend in his pursuit of leisure but is "doing
more complex forms of peer-group taste-exchanging. Moreover, for himself" with what parts and help he can muster on a small
the inner-directed man who carries into his hobby some of his bank-roll. The very economy of his means helps give the pro-
surplus work impulses might find the maintenance of his techni- cedure its atmosphere of high competence and high enjoyment.
cal skill playing directly back into his value on the job, making But this field too is becoming professionalized and standard-
him, for instance, a better and more inventive gadgeteer. Even ized. The Hot Rod, a magazine founded to cater to the growing
today, among many skilled workmen, such interchange between 1. See "The Hot-Rod Culture," by Eugene Balsley, in the American
the home hobby shop and the plant suggestion box is not by Quarterly, II (1950), 353.
 294 THE LONELY CROWD THE PROBLEM OF COMPETENCE 295
number of auto hobbyists (at the same time standardizing their strong among those who try to deal with the challenge of modern
self-image), reports that the business of supplying the amateurs leisure by filling it with styles of play drawn from the past in
with parts and tools is becoming a big business—some $8,000,000 Europe or America. Indeed, there is a widespread trend today
in 1948. In the meantime Detroit has found its way to many of to warn Americans against relaxing in the featherbed of plenty,
the hot-rodder power-plant notions, if not stripped-down body in the pulpy recreations of popular culture, in the delights of bar
notions.
and coke bar, and so on. In these warnings any leisure that looks
We see looming upon the horizon of the hot rodder much the easy is suspect, and craftsmanship does not look easy.
same fate that has overtaken other forms of amateur competence, The other-directed man in the upper social strata often finds a
not only in the area of crafts and hobbies but, as we shall see certain appeal in taking the side of craftsmanship against con-
below in the instance of jazz, in the area of taste-exchange and sumption. Yet in general it is a blind alley for the other-directed
criticism. Those who seek autonomy through the pursuit of a man to try to adapt his styles in leisure to those which grew out of
craft must keep an eye on the peer-groups (other than their own an earlier character and an earlier social situation; in the process
immediate one) and on the market, if only to keep out of their he is almost certain to become a caricature. This revivalist tend-
way. But this in turn may involve them in a steady search for ency is particularly clear in the type of energetic craft hobbyist
difficulties in execution and privacies in vocabulary (in some we might term the folk dancer. The folk dancer is often an
ways, like the "mysteries" of medieval craftsmen) in order to other-directed urbanite or suburbanite who, in search of an
outdistance the threatening invasion of the crowd. Then what inner-directed stance, becomes artsy and craftsy in his recre-
began more or less spontaneously may end up as merely effortful ations and consumer tastes. He goes native, with or without re-
marginal differentiation, with the roots of fantasy torn up by a gional variations. He shuts out the mass media as best he can. He
concern for sheer technique. The paradox of craftsmanship, and never wearies of attacking from the pulpit of his English bicycle
of much other play, is that in order to attain any importance as an the plush and chrome of the new-model cars. He is proud of not
enlivener of fantasy it must be "real." But whenever the crafts- listening to the radio, and television is his bugbear.
man has nourished a real competence he also tends to call into The vogue of the folk dancer is real testimony to people's
being an industry and an organization to circumvent the compe- search for meaningful, creative leisure, as is, too, the revival of
tence or at least to standardize it. craftsmanship. The folk dancer wants something better but does
The man whose daily work is glad handing can often redis- not know where to look for it. He abandons the Utopian pos-
cover both his childhood and his inner-directed residues by serious sibilities of the future because, in his hatred of the American pres-
craftsmanship. An advertising man, involved all day in personaliz- ent, as he interprets it, he is driven to fall back on the vain effort
ing, may spend his week ends in the craftsmanlike silences of a to resuscitate the European or American past as a model for play.
boatyard or in sailboat racing—that most inner-directed pursuit Like many other people who carry the "ancestor within" of an in-
where the individual racers independently move toward the goal ner-directed character and ideology, he fears the dangerous ava-
as if guided by an invisible hand! And yet it is clear that these lanche of leisure that is coming down on the Americans.
players may locate themselves in the spectrum of possible craft In this fear the folk dancer is near-cousin to a number of other
activities for reasons that have nothing to do with the search either contemporary critics who, though genuinely concerned with
for competence or for the more distant goal of autonomy. autonomy, have no hope of finding it in play—not even, for the
most part, in the hard play of crafts or sports. These critics go the
It is important to see the limitations of the answer of crafts- folk dancer one better; they look to experiences of enforced hard-
manship, because otherwise we may be tempted to place more ship in work, or even to social and individual catastrophe, as the
stock in it than is warranted. This temptation is particularly only practicable source of group cohesion and individual strength
 296 THE LONELY CROWD THE PROBLEM OF COMPETENCE 297

of character. They see men as able to summon and develop their mounted, became less interesting to live in, its cooperative store,
resources only in an extreme or frontier situation, and they would built by so much energetic and ingenious effort, folded up.
regard my program for the life of Riley in an economy of leisure When one reflects on such instances, one realizes that emergen-
as inviting psychological disintegration and social danger. Hating cies in a modern society help recreate social forms into which
the "softness of the personnel"—not seeing how much of this people can with justification pour their energies. People need
represents a characterological advance—they want to restore justification and, as inner-direction wanes, look for it in the social
artificially (in extreme cases, even by resort to war2) the "hard- situation rather than within themselves. European and Asian visi-
ness of the material."
tors tell Americans that we must learn to enjoy idleness; they
That catastrophes do sometimes evoke unsuspected potentiali- criticize alternately our puritan idealism and the so-called ma-
ties in people—potentialities which can then be used for further terialism which is a by-product of it. This is not too helpful: for
growth toward autonomy—is undeniable. A serious illness may if we are to become autonomous, we must proceed in harmony
give a man pause, a time for reverie and resolution. He may re- with our history and character, and these assign us a certain se-
cover, as the hero, Laskell, does in Lionel Trilling's novel, The quence of developmental tasks and pleasures. What we need, then,
Middle of the Journey. He may die, as does the Russian official is a reinterpretation which will allow us to focus on individual
in Tolstoy's short story, "The Death of Ivan Ilyitch," who near
character development the puritan demands no longer needed
death, confronts himself and his wasted life honestly for the first
to spur industrial and political organization. We need to realize
time. And the swath of the last war does offer repeated evidence that each life is an emergency, which only happens once, and the
that not only individuals but whole groups and communities can
"saving" of which, in terms of character, justifies care and effort.
benefit from hardship, where not too overwhelming. An ex-
Then, perhaps, we will not need to run to a war or a fire because
ample is reported by Robert K. Merton, Patricia Salter West, and
the daily grist of life itself is not felt as sufficiently challenging, or
Marie Jahoda in their (unpublished) study of a warworkers' hous-
because external threats and demands can narcotize for us our
ing community in New Jersey. The warworkers found them-
anxiety about the quality and meaning of individual existence.
selves living in a jerry-built morass, without communal facilities,
without drainage, without a store. Challenged by their circum-
stances, they responded by energetic improvisation and managed, THE NEWER CRITICISM IN THE REALM OF TASTE
against all kinds of obstacles, to make a decent, livable, even a
Craftsmanship, whatever part it may play in the leisure of an
lively community for themselves. The dispiriting sequel is famil-
individual or a group, is obviously not a complete solution to the
iar: the community, its major problems of sheer existence sur-
problems of leisure among the would-be autonomous. While the
2. The war experience seemed to establish that there was little inner-directed man could solace himself in these pursuits, the
practical need for such hardship therapies in the interests of pro- other-directed man in search of autonomy has no choice but to
duction or warmaking. It turned out that characterological other- pass into and through—to transcend—taste-exchanging—that
direction and political indifference did not imply an inability to stand
characteristic process by which the other-directed person relates
physical hardships. Efforts were made to treat the soldier as if he
were in America, with cokes, radio programs, and entertainments himself to the peer-groups. Once he has traversed this stage suc-
from home. Apparently such "softness" did not impede fighting cessfully he may be able to value and develop his own standards
power. The tractability of Americans made it possible to build an of taste, even to criticize the taste-making operations in the so-
army less on hierarchy than on group-mindedness. The tractability, ciety as a whole.
the familiarity with machines, the widespread social skills, and the We have already discussed the negative side of this process:
high educational level made it possible to train men quickly for the the fact, for example, that the other-directed man feels a mistake
fantastically varied services and missions of modern warfare. in taste as a reflection on his self, or at least on what he conceives
298 THE LONELY CROWD THE PROBLEM OF COMPETENCE 299

to be the most vital part of his self, his radar, and that taste- effort of the popular-music industry itself to ticket its products:
exchanging is consequently often harried and desperate. But now in the very form of their choices—preference for combos over
we must look at the positive side of taste-exchanging: the fact star soloists, preference for improvisation, distrust of smooth
that it is also a tremendous experiment, perhaps the most strategic arrangers—they set up their own standards in opposition to stand-
one, in American adult education. The taste of the most advanced ardization. Much like the hot rodders, they developed their own
sections of the population is ever more rapidly diffused—perhaps language and culture to go with their new skill.
Life is the most striking agent in this process—to strata formerly Here again, as with the hot rodders, the verbal craftsmanship
excluded from all but the most primitive exercise of taste, and of jazz lovers' taste-exchange could not long continue to develop
who are now taught to appreciate, and discriminate between among isolated peer-groups. Jazz has long since been parceled out
varieties of, modern architecture, modern furniture, and modern by a cult or a series of cults using increasingly exacting aesthetic
art—not to speak of the artistic achievements of other times.3 criteria which have often become ends in themselves.
Of course, all the other-directed processes we have described Unwilling to see that taste-exchanging in popular audiences
play a central role in this development, but I am convinced that often is the basis for increasing competence in criticism, writers
real and satisfying competence in taste also increases at the same on popular culture generally view jazz, soap opera, the movies,
time. It is interesting to note how old-fashioned American and television with the same horror with which the inner-directed
movies of only twenty years ago appear to a contemporary audi- man was urged to view the brothel and burlesque. Essentially
ence. In part, again, this is caused only by changes in film con- this critique of mass culture is the same as the critique of mass
ventions; but in far greater measure, it is the product of an amaz- production. But what the critics often fail to observe is that,
ingly rapid growth of sophistication as to human motivation and while in its earlier stages mass production did drive out fine
behavior among movie-makers and their audience. handicrafts and debase taste, we have now a situation better
The speed with which the gradient of taste is being climbed termed class-mass production where our industrial machine has be-
has escaped many critics of the popular arts who fail to observe come flexible enough to turn out objects of even greater variety
not only how good American movies, popular novels, and mag- and quality than in the handicraft era. Likewise, the critics of the
azines frequently are but also how energetic and understanding mass media may fail to observe that, while their first consequences
are some of the comments of the amateur taste-exchangers who were often destructive of older values, we have today a situation
seem at first glance to be part of a very passive, uncreative audi- in which it is economically possible for the first time in history
ence. One of the most interesting examples of this is jazz criticism. to distribute first-class novels and nonfiction, paintings, music,
I speak here not of such critics as Wilder Hobson and Panassie but and movies to audiences that can fit them into patterns of great
of the large number of young people who, all over the country, individuality.
greeted jazz affectionately and criticized it fondly, on a level of It is these developments which suggest to me that the process
discourse far removed from the facile vocabulary of "sincerity" of taste-exchanging holds the promise of transcending itself and
or "swell." These people found in jazz, as others have found in becoming something quite different, and hence contributing to
the movies or the comic strips, an art form not previously classi- the development of autonomy in other-directed man.
fied by the connoisseurs, the school system, or the official culture.
They resisted, often violently, and occasionally with success, the
///. The Avocational Counselors
3. Charles Livermore, formerly a CIO official, recently called my
attention to the extremely rapid disavowal by Detroit auto workers of
overstuffed, Grand Rapids furniture. Many in the last several years
To bring the individual into unfrightening contact with the new
have gone in for modern design. range of opportunities in consumption often requires some guides
300 THE LONELY CROWD THE PROBLEM OF COMPETENCE 3OI

and signposts. In our urban, specialized society it may demand place was in the population phase of transitional growth. To be
avocational counselors. sure, with high wages millions of Americans spend their vacations
"Avocational counseling" may seem like a rather clinical term hunting animals rather than people; other millions putter about
with which to describe the activities undertaken by a number of that restorative residue of earlier eras—the house-and-garden.
relatively rapidly growing professions in the United States, in- But increasingly the vacation serves as a time and place for bring-
cluding travel agents, hotel men, resort directors, sports teachers ing those who have leisure and money to buy in contact with
and coaches, teachers of the arts, including dancing teachers, and those who have a skill to sell—riding, swimming, painting, danc-
so on. But there are also many counselors who supply advice on ing, and so on. But of course avocational counseling here, except
play and leisure as a kind of by-product of some other transac- perhaps for ship and shore recreational directors, is usually trying
tion. The interior decorator, for instance, seems at first glance to to sell a commodity or a service rather than to help the individual
belong in a different occupational group from the dude-ranch find what he wants and might want.
social director. To be sure, most clients of the interior decorator It is easy to foresee, in the next decades, a great expansion
may be looking for the correct design for conspicuous display. among the avocational counselors. The objection remains that to
But beyond these functions may lie a realm in which the interior turn the other-directed man over to an avocational counselor to
decorator is looked to for more basic domestic rearrangements teach him competence in play is merely to increase the very
that can facilitate a more comfortable leisure life, more colorful dependence which keeps him other-directed rather than auton-
literally and figuratively. The sale of the decorating service may omous. Will not any effort at planning of play rob him of such
conceal the sale of this significant intangible. spontaneity and privacy as he may still retain? This is certainly
This function is perhaps even more evident in the work of the one possible effect. We can counter it by doing our best to make
domestic architect for the upper middle-class client. True, like the avocational counselors as good and as available as possible. The
the decorator, he still counsels his clients in providing the correct avocational counselor might stimulate, even provoke, the other-
public facade. But a generation ago he would not have dreamed directed person to more imaginative play by helping him realize
of counseling his clients about the functional interior relationships how very important for his own development toward autonomy
in the dwelling in terms of anything more than "gracious living." play is.
Today, however, the architect, by interior and exterior planning,
can lead as well as follow his clients. Through him and his views
there filters a variety of tastes, inclinations, social schemes (as in IV. Freeing the Child Market
easily rearranged living rooms), leisure-time ecologies that
scarcely existed a generation ago. The architect—and, beyond Up to now we have talked of what might be done to increase the
him, the city planner—brings together opportunities of leisure competence at play of adults, and quite ignored the realities and
that might otherwise remain subdivided among a score of special- possibilities of play for children. Yet it is quite clear that it is
ists. childhood experience that will be most important in making pos-
Another set of avocational counselors is clustered around the sible true adult competence at play. Without any intention of
chronological center of American leisure habits, the vacation. exhausting the subject, I want to suggest a more or less fantastic
The vacation itself, frequently involving the meeting of others model to stimulate thinking about what might be done, here and
who are not members of one's own peer-group and who may be now, to alter some of those aspects of children's play which, as
located outside one's own experience with the social structure, we pointed out in Chapter III, now so often serve to inhibit au-
may be considered as dramatic a symbol of the encounters among tonomy. The proposal I want to make should interest producers
people in the population phase of incipient decline as the market and advertisers addressing themselves to a child market. I would
302 THE LONELY CROWD THE PROBLEM OF COMPETENCE 303

like to suggest that they set up a fund for the experimental cre- employed to find out not so much what people want but what
ation of model consumer economies among children. with liberated fantasy they might want.4 Without mock-ups
For example, scrip might be issued to groups of children, al- and pilot models people rarely enough make this leap in the imag-
lowing them to patronize some central store—a kind of every- ination.
day world's fair—where a variety of luxury goods ranging from
4. My emphasis throughout on the mass media and the commodities
rare foods to musical instruments would be available for their
turned out by mass production should not be taken as an implicit
purchase. At this "point of sale" there would stand market re- denial of the importance of the more traditional fine arts. My effort
searchers, able and willing to help children make their selections rather has been directed to closing the gap generally believed to exist
but having no particularly frightening charisma or overbearing between high culture and mass culture. The relation between high cul-
charm or any interest on the employers' side in pushing one thing ture and popular culture seems to me filled with hopeful possibilities in
rather than another. The point of these "experiment stations" spite of the fear, snobbery, and anti-intellectualism that now so often
would be to reveal something about what happens to childhood operate to inhibit easy movement between them.
taste when it is given a free track away from the taste gradients
and "reasons," as well as freedom from the financial hobbles of a
given peer-group. In precisely such situations children might find
the opportunity to criticize and reshape in their own minds the
values of objects. In the "free store" they would find private al-
coves where they might enjoy books and music, candy and
comics, in some privacy.3 It would be interesting to see whether
children who had had the luck to express themselves through free
consumer choice released from ethnic and class and peer-group
limitations, might develop into much more imaginative critics of
the leisure economy than most adults of today are.
One can conceive of other such model "economies of abun-
dance" in which every effort would be made, on an experimental
basis, to free children and other privatized people from group and
media pressure. Indeed, market research has for many years
seemed to me one of the most promising channels for democratic
control of our economy. Market researchers know as well as any-
one that their methods need not be used simply to manipulate peo-
ple into buying the goods and cultural definitions that already
exist or to dress them up in marginal differentiations, but can be
3. The closest existing analogy to this "commodity library" is
perhaps the neighborhood librarian, who can help children find their
way to books because she seems to be out of the direct line of school
and home authority, because her interest often actually is in helping
rather than in forcing children, and because being typically of an
inner-directed background, she does not insist on personalizing the
relationship with the child.
 XVI AUTONOMY AND UTOPIA 305

The reader who recalls our beginnings with the large, blind
Autonomy and Utopia movements of population growth and economic and technologi-
cal change may ask whether we seriously expect Utopian thinking,
no matter how inspired, to counter whatever fate for man these
movements have in store. Indeed, I believe that only certain ideas
will be generated and catch on, under any given socioeconomic
Time, events, or the unaided individual action of the mind will conditions. And character, with all its intractabilities and self-
sometimes undermine or destroy an opinion, without any outward reproducing tendencies, will largely dictate the way ideas are re-
sign of the change. It has not been openly assailed, no conspiracy ceived. But despite the massed obstacles to change inherent in
has been formed to make war on it, but its followers one by one social structure and character structure, I believe that ideas can
noiselessly secede; day by day a few of them abandon it, until at make a decisive historical contribution. Marx, who himself denied
last it is only professed by a minority. In this state it will still con- that ideas are very important and dismissed the Utopian specu-
tinue to prevail. As its enemies remain mute or only interchange lations of his predecessor socialists, himself supplied an irrefutable
their thoughts by stealth, they are themselves unaware for a long example of the power of ideas in history. As we all know, he did
period that a great revolution has actually been effected; and in not leave the working class to be emancipated only by events. In
this state of uncertainty they take no steps; they observe one an- his alternate role as propagandist, he tried himself to shape the
other and are silent. The majority have ceased to believe what they ideological and institutional environment in which workers would
believed before, but they still affect to believe, and this empty live.
phantom of public opinion is strong enough to chill innovators and I think we need to insist today on bringing to consciousness the
to keep them silent and at a respectful distance. kind of environments that Marx dismissed as Utopian, in con-
trast to the mechanical and passive approach to the possibilities
Tocqueville, Democracy in America
of man's environment that he helped, in his most influential
works, to foster. However, since we live in a time of disenchant-
ment, such thinking, where it is rational in aim and method and
not simply escapism, is not easy. It is easier to concentrate on pro-
In these last chapters I have set forth some thoughts about the grams for choosing among lesser evils. We are well aware of the
middle-class world of work and play, in the hope of finding ways "damned wantlessness of the poor"; the rich as well, as I have tried
in which a more autonomous type of social character might de- to show in this book, have inhibited their claims for a decent
velop. I cannot be satisfied that I have moved very far along these world. Both rich and poor avoid any goals, personal or social, that
lines. It is difficult enough to consider how we may remove the seem out of step with peer-group aspirations. The politically
barriers of false personalization and enforced privatization. It is operative inside-dopester seldom commits himself to aims be-
enormously more difficult to descry, after these barriers are over- yond those that common sense proposes to him. Actually, how-
come, what in man may lead him to autonomy, or to invent and ever, in a dynamic political context, it is the modest, common-
create the means that will help him to autonomy. In the end, our sensical goals of the insiders and the "constructive" critics that are
few suggestions are paltry ones, and we can only conclude our unattainable. It often seems that the retention of a given status
discussion by saying that a vastly greater stream of creative, quo is a modest hope; many lawyers, political scientists, and econ-
Utopian thinking is needed before we can see more clearly the omists occupy themselves by suggesting the minimal changes
goal we dimly suggest by the word "autonomy." which are necessary to stand still; yet today this hope is almost
304
306 THE LONELY CROWD AUTONOMY AND UTOPIA 307

invariably disappointed; the status quo proves the most illusory elaboration and forced feeding of a set of official doctrines—
of goals. people may some day learn to buy not only packages of groceries
Is it conceivable that these economically privileged Americans or books but the larger package of a neighborhood, a society,
will some day wake up to the fact that they overconform? Wake and a way of life.
up to the discovery that a host of behavioral rituals are the result, If the other-directed people should discover how much need-
not of an inescapable social imperative but of an image of society less work they do, discover that their own thoughts and their
that, though false, provides certain secondary gains for the own lives are quite as interesting as other people's, that, indeed,
people who believe in it? Since character structure is, if anything, they no more assuage their loneliness in a crowd of peers than one
even more tenacious than social structure, such an awakening is can assuage one's thirst by drinking sea water, then we might ex-
exceedingly unlikely—and we know that many thinkers before pect them to become more attentive to their own feelings and
us have seen the false dawns of freedom while their compatriots aspirations.
stubbornly continued to close their eyes to the alternatives that
were, in principle, available. But to put the question may at least This possibility may sound remote, and perhaps it is. But un-
raise doubts in the minds of some. deniably many currents of change in America escape the notice
Occasionally city planners put such questions. They comprise of the reporters of this best-reported nation on earth. We have
perhaps the most important professional group to become reason- inadequate indexes for the things we would like to find out,
ably weary of the cultural definitions that are systematically especially about such intangibles as character, political styles,
trotted out to rationalize the inadequacies of city life today, for and the uses of leisure. America is not only big and rich, it is mys-
the well-to-do as well as for the poor. With their imagination terious; and its capacity for the humorous or ironical concealment
and bounteous approach they have become, to some extent, the of its interests marches that of the legendary inscrutable Chinese.
guardians of our liberal and progressive political tradition, as this By the same token, what my collaborators and I have to say may
is increasingly displaced from state and national politics. In their be very wide of the mark. Inevitably, our own character, our own
best work, we see expressed in physical form a view of life which geography, our own illusions, limit our view.
is not narrowly job-minded. It is a view of the city as a setting for But while I have said many things in this book of which I am
leisure and amenity as well as for work. But at present the power unsure, of one thing I am sure: the enormous potentialities for
of the local veto groups puts even the most imaginative of city diversity in nature's bounty and men's capacity to differentiate
planners under great pressure to show that they are practical, their experience can become valued by the individual himself, so
hardheaded fellows, barely to be distinguished from traffic en- that he will not be tempted and coerced into adjustment or, fail-
gineers. ing adjustment, into anomie. The idea that men are created free
However, just as there is in my opinion a greater variety of at- and equal is both true and misleading: men are created different;
titudes toward leisure in contemporary America than appears on they lose their social freedom and their individual autonomy in
the surface, so also the sources of Utopian political thinking may seeking to become like each other.
be hidden and constantly changing, constantly disguising them-
selves. While political curiosity and interest have been largely
driven out of the accepted sphere of the political in recent years
by the focus of the press and of the more responsible sectors of
public life on crisis, people may, in what is left of their private
lives, be nurturing newly critical and creative standards. If these
people are not strait-jacketed before they get started—by the
 INDEX

Adams, Brooks, 18311. Benedict, Ruth, 4, 225-26, 230, 231,

Adjustment, 71, 240; defined, 242-43; 232, 234, 241
of inner-directed, 250; and anomie Berelson, Bernard, 7811.
244, of other-directed, 259-60; Berle, A. A., Jr., 114
through work, 264-65 Bernard, Claude, 252-53
Advertising, 80, 97-99, 228-29, 273, Bible, 90, 96, 180
301-02 Blake, William, 80
Alger, Horatio, 92, 149 Blumer, Herbert, i5on.
Alorese culture, 241 Bohemianism, 257-58
American Magazine, 151 Breckenridge, M. E., 105
Anderson, Sherwood, 121 Burnham, James, 20, 225
Anomie type, 240, 243-46, 257, 274- Businessman: and craft skill, 129-31;
75 inner-directed and other-directed,
Antagonistic cooperation, 81-83, 101, 130-31, 134-35; and price leader-
137. '39- J 5 2 > 2i3-!4, 232, 234. 264 ship, 131-32; motives for entre-
Anxiety, of other-directed, 25, 27, preneurship, 132-33; peer-group
47-48, 51, 64, 136, 148, 150, 177, 258, and fair trade, 131; and profes-
260, 273, 280, 285 sional help, 133-34; and "fun" in
Apathy, 124-25, 244; and sex, 145; business, 135; attitudes toward
political, 27, 34, 165-71, 191, 193, power, 207-13, 216-17, 230; power
197-98, 265; of primitive societies, position of, 217-20; attitudes to-
240 ward, 231-32
Asch, Solomon E., i55n. Butler, Samuel, 49, 50
Athenian empire, 25-27
Audience: in tradition-directed so- California, 221-22
ciety, 86-87; in inner-directed so- Carnegie, Dale, 149-50
Catholic Church, 14, 212, 217
ciety, 89-91; in other-directed so-
CCC camps, 263, 274
ciety, 150, 188, 190, 193-95, 197,
Censorship, 89-91, 104
298
Character: social function of, 5-6;
Augustine, St., 124
Automatization, 269-74 and social change, 3, 28-29; and
Autonomy, 239, 241-42, 257-58; and curve of population growth, 8,
31-33; ideal types, 9; tradition-
curve of population, 246-48; and
choice of occupation, 248; in tra- directed, 11-13, 16; inner-directed,
13-17; other-directed, 17-24; the
dition-directed society, 240, 246-
three types compared, 24-26; au-
47; in inner-directed society, 248-
55; in other-directed society, 108, tonomous, 240-41, 243, 246, 249-
60; agents of formation, 37-38,
255-60; in work, 261-75; in play,
politics as, 180. See also Inner-
276-303
directed; Other-directed; Tradi-
A very, Sewell, 216, 219
tion-directed; Children; Dwelling;
Avocational counselors, 299-301
Family; Mass media; Myth; Par-
Bagehot, Walter, 7811. ents; Peer-group; Teachers
Beau\oir, Simone de, 255, 261 Characterological struggle, 31-35,
Becker, Howard C., 6in., i94n. 260
Bellamy, Edward, 120, 249, 273-74 Chesterfield, Lord, 66, 91
309
3io INDEX INDEX

Chicago Sun-Times, 265 Crampton, Gertrude, 105 Freud, Sigmund, 13, 3on., 44, 46, 88, 06; and other-directed charac-
Chicago Tribune, 193, 215, 265 Cultural pluralism, 283, 284 5on., 253n., 26gn. ter, 107-08, 137, 241. See also
Child market, 96-99, 301-303 Cynicism, 174, 195-96 Fromm, Erich, 4, 5, i9n., 22n., H4n., Autonomy
Children: character formation, 5, 251,255, 263n. Industrial Relations, 65, i n , 127-28,
21, 37-38; in tradition-directed so- Defoe, Daniel, 92-93, 102 Funt, Alien, 121 '33-34
ciety, 38-40, 42, 51, 85-86; in De Man, Henri, 270 Industrialization: and war, 14, 18,
Depression, 138, 288 Galileo, 250 35-36; and child labor, 17; in
inner-directed society, 40-45, 87- Gans, Herbert J., icon.
95; in other-directed society, 45, Deviants, n, 241-42, 244, 249-51. See phase of incipient decline, 17-20,
also Anomic type Gesell, Arnold, 61 45, 74-75, 85; and other-directed,
47~57> 60-65, 7°-72i 96-108, 288. Glamor, 191-92, 202, 208-10, 266-69,
See also Parents; Peer-group; Dewey, Thomas E., 191 18; and frontier economy, 26; and
Distribution system, 137, 143, 272- 301 literacy, 87-88; and literature, 92-
Play; Teachers Goals: choice of, 5-6, 40-44, 48; tra-
Churchill, Winston, 210, 211 74, 287. See also Consumption 93; and inner-directed, 112-14,
Divorce, 281 dition-directed, 12, 1 8; inner-di- 117-18; and government planning,
City planners, 185, 278, 306
Dobuan culture, 226-27, 230-31, 241, rected, 15-16, 1 8, 40, 73, 76, 79, 113; and the new revolution, 128;
Civil War (U.S.), 173, 179, 207
278 91, 93, 101, 115, 124-25, 175, 250; and changing character structure,
Clark, Colin, 9, 20
Dress, 157 changes in, 89-90, 91-93, 150; in 247-48
Class: upper middle class and other-
Drucker, Peter, 20, 218 literature, 93-95, 149-50; other- Inner-directed character, 8; defined,
direction, 14-16, 51; "old" and directed, 79, 128, 137-38, 155, 234,
"new" middle class, 16, 47-48; re- Durkheim, Emile, 125, 242 14-15; and tradition, 15-16; and
Dwellings, 39, 43, 48, 53, 296 288, 294; of other-directed busi- role of parent, 40-44, 45, 48; goals
lation to character structure, 37,
nessmen, 132-33; and modern un- of, 45, 115-16, 138-39; and other-
55; in tradition-directed society, Education: progressive, 60-65; Dal- certainty, 137-39, 305-06
38-40; and the peer-group, 47, 70; directed, 45, 159-60; and role of
ton plan, 63; in phase of transi- Goldsen, Joseph M., 218 teacher, 58-60; and peer-group,
effects upon literature, 91-92; and tional growth, 87; vogue of gen- Goodman, Percival and Paul, 270
consumption, 117-19, 141-42, 144- 66-70; and competition, 81-82; and
eral, 136. See also Teachers Grandmothers, 56-57, 70 literacy, 87-94; and work, 111-16;
45, 157; and popular culture, 153; Eisenhower, Dwight D., 191, 195 Granger Movement, 172, 207
and politics, 163, 177, 184, 206-08, relation to product, 112; and prop-
Enforced privatization, 264, 266-67, Green, Arnold, 19 erty, 114; in Russia and India, 114-
213; and work, 262-63; as defense 271, 276-85, 304 Greenson, Ralph, 244
of inner-directed, 254; and envy, 15; and self-approval, 123-24; and
Entertainers, 76-78, 97-98, 286, 289, Griswold, A. Whitney, 149 tradition-directed, 124-25; and
268. See also Ruling class; Status 291-92 Guilt, 24, 25, 274, 279-80, 288
Comics, 93, 98-105, 155. See also apathy, 124-25; in professions to-
Erikson, Erik H., 5, 33, 178 day, 130-31; interest in food, 142-
Mass media Ethnic groups, privatization of, 283- Hauser, Philip, i5on.
Communism, 182, 248 Havighurst, Robert J., 148 and n. 43; and sex, 145-46; leisure of,
84 156-58; in politics, 172-180; and
Competition: among inner-directed, Etiquette, u, 73-76, 91-92 Hearst, W. R., 192-93, 197
81, 113-15; among other-directed, Heroes, 73, 99-104, 120, 250 autonomy, 249-55, 260; in Renais-
46, 81-82, 139-40; in veto groups, Factory worker, 267-68, 270-71 Hobbies, 68-69, J 4 2 ' 292~90' sance, 247; hobbies of, 292-93, 294.
213-14. See also Antagonistic co- Fair trade, 131-32, 135 Holmes, Justice Oliver Wendell, Jr., See also Play; Politics; Population;
operation; Goals; Individuality Fairy tales, 100, 101, 107. See also Work
Conformity, and fear of noncon- Myth Hoslett, S. D., 218 n. Ives, Charles, 274
formity, 77, 139-40, 150, 181, 241- False personalization, 261-64, 2^9~ Hot rodders, 293-94, 299 Jahoda, Marie, 296
43, 257-58. See also Character- 75. 277. 3°4 Howe, Helen, 154 James, Henry, 121, 228, 276
ological struggle Family, 38-40, 45, 66, 86, 96, 254, Hughes, Everett, i3on., 139 James, William, ii4n.
Consumer trainee, 74-75, 96-98, 104, 281. See also Parents Huizinga, A., 16 Janowitz, Morris, 55n.
"49 Featherbedding, 268, 269, 271, 279 Huxley, Aldous, 29 Jazz, 78, 108, 285, 294, 299
Consumption, conspicuous, 117-18, Federalist Papers, 173 Jews, 156, 212, 214, 222, 283-85
226-27, 23° Fielding, Henry, 3 Immigrants, 32-34, 127, 166, 283-84 Joyce, James, 223
Consumption, patterns of, 19, 73; Fiske, Marjorie, 83n. Indians, American, 5, 33, 95, 225-28.
inner-directed, 116-23; other- Folk dancer, 295 See also Kwakiutl; Pueblo Key,V.O.,22i
directed, 150, 189-91, 227, 290. See Food, 142-45, 284 Indispensables, 269-70 Keynes, John Maynard, 119
also Food; Leisure; Peer-group Forster, E. M., 121 Individuality: in tradition-directed Kingsley, Charles, 249
Cookbooks, 142, 144—45, 147 Fortune, 47, 134, 218 societies, 11-12, 15-16, 17, 40; in Knupfer, Genevieve, i66n.
Craftsmanship, 129-31, 138, 290, 292- Fountainhead, The, 156 inner-directed, 16, 17, 79, 81-82; Kriesberg, Louis, i94n.
95, 297, 299. See also Hobbies; Franklin, Benjamin, 92 and progressive education, 60; and Kwakiutl Indians, 226-28, 231-35,
Work Freidson, Eliot, roon. consumption, 79-82; and the press, 240, 258
 INDEX INDEX 3 '3
Labor unions, 112, 173-74, 214, 216, tions, 84; in period of transitional Belvedere series, 290-92. See also 73-76, 77-87, 302; and standardi?a-
218-19 growth, 87-96; and other-directed, Mass media; Popular culture tion of performance, 76-77; as
Ladies' Home Journal, 76, 151, 153 06-104, 107-08, 158; freedom of Murphy, Gardner, i6n. object of consumption, 81-82; and
Lassalle, Ferdinand, 253n. peer-group from, 107-08; and con- Music, 76-78, 108, 120, 153-54, 194. language, 83-84; and mass media,
Lassv ell, Harold D., iifyn. sumer training (food), 142-43; See also Jazz 84, 107-08; effect on business, 134,
Lazarsfeld, Paul, 78n., 135, ip8n. and sex, 147; and popular culture, Myth, 62, 85-87, 92-93, 99-101 in professions, 135; and goals, 138;
Leisure, 18, 20, 46n., 54, 89, uo-ii, 150, 178; and politics, 174, 176, Negro Worker, The, 94 and sex, 147-48, 233; in politics,
116, 119-23, 136, 149-50, 155, 158, 181, 184, 187, 189, 190-91, 197- Negroes, 32, 34, 50, 68, 109, 140, 197, 170-71, 187; tolerance of, 196; and
160, 276, 279, 280, 282, 284-85, 200, 204-05; and tolerance, 189, 272; and learning, 88; and Booker temper, 72, 232-33; and J. S. Mill,
286-97, 290-301, 306-07. See also 192-93; pressures on, 192-03; crit- T. Washington, 94; and politics, 255-56; and autonomy, 270-80,
Play ics of, 197, 291; other-directed 166-67; white tolerance of, 259, 289, 297
Leites, Nathan, 144, i64n., 244^ attitudes toward, 198-99; hier- 279-80; privatization of, 278, 283- Personality, 3-4, 29, 46, i55n., 194.
Lewin, Kurt, 30 archy of, 199; power to change, See also Other-directed character
85
Life, 55n., 62, 81, 109, 298 205; as tutors in consumership, Neotraditionalists, 278, 280 Play: and enforced "realism," 62;
Literacy, 87-91, 95-96, 166, 168, 171 290; contributions to autonomy, New York Daily News, 193 of inner-directed child, 68; of
Literature: and the rise of capital- 291 New York Herald Tribune, 188 other-directed child, 73, 301-02;
ism, 92-93; and inner-directed Materialism, 228, 229, 297 New York Times, 91, 150 of tradition-directed adult, 116;
character formation, 91, 149; hero- Mayo, Elton, 270 New Yorker, The, 22 of inner-directed adult, no, 116-
ism in, 99-101; Tootle the Engine, McCarthy, Mary, 228n. Newsweek, 46 23, 207-08; of other-directed adult,
104-07; and other-directed char- McKinley, William, 207-08, 210 Notestein, Frank W., 8n., 14 141-48, 261, 276-301, 304. See also
acter formation, 106-07, 149-51, Me Will jams, Carey, 221 Avocational counselors; Consump-
155-56; "Rebellion of Willy Kep- Mead, G. H., 246 Orwell, George, 98 tion; Enforced privatization; Lei-
per," 151-52; "Let's Go Out To- Mead, Margaret, 4, 4in., 49n., 280- Other-directed character, 8; defined, sure; Popular culture
night," 152-53; We Happy Few, 81 19-22; compared with other types, Polanyi, Karl, ii3n.
154-55; The Fountainhead, 156 Means, Gardner C., 114 22-25; r°le °f parents, 45-55; and Politics: method of analysis, 163-455;
Livermore, Charles, 298n. Merton, Robert K., 78n., 18511., teacher, 57-64; and peer-group, in nineteenth century, 173-75; in-
Loeb, Martin B., i9n., 148 i94H., i98n., 242n., 296 70-73; socialization of taste, 62, comprehensibility of, 176-77; and
Loneliness, 60-70, 155, 158, 287, Meverson, Martin and Margy, 169 73-76; socialization of perform- character formation, 179-80, \eto
Middle Ages, 6, 7, 12-13, 16, 92-93, ance, 76-78; and opinion leader, groups and, 213-17
3°7 78; consumption preference of,
Low, Lillian, 218 165 indifferent, political style of: in
Lowenthal, Leo, 2O9n. Mill, John Stuart, 43, 211-12, 239, 79-82; and mass media, 06-108; tradition-directed society, 165-67,
Lundberg, George, 292 255-56, 258 and work, 126-40; and consump- 170-71; new-style, 167-70, 185,
Lynd, Helen Merrill, 70 Mills, C. Wright, 19, 78n., 225 tion, 141-58; and food, 142-45; and 190-91, 193-94, 214, 243-44
Lynd, Robert S., 70, 230 Monopolistic competition, 46, 97, sex, 146-48, 258-59, 280-87; com- moralizer, political style of: 172-
pared with inner-directed, 150-60; 80, 182, 187, 188, 197-204, 206-09,
Lynes, Russell, 145 '32-33, 2'3-'4. political style of, 163, 167-71, 180-
"Mood engineering," 266, 275 210-11, 214-15, 217; indignant,
MacMurray, Fred, 144 Morale, 65, 128, 136, 267-68 87, 223-24; tolerance and sincerity, 177-80, 182, 193, 195, 200-04, 217;
Malthus, Thomas, 10, 36 Alovies, 97, 200; and conspicuous 188-97, 2OO> 202—04; and power, enthusiast, 178-79
consumption, 117; realism of, 102- 206, 200-10, 214-17, 219, 222-23; inside-dopester, political style of:
Manipulation, 51-52, 53, 63, 129-31,
149-50, 240. See also False per- 03; and consumer orientation, and autonomy, 108, 248-49, 255-
180-87, 190-91. 195-96, 201-04,
150; heroes of, 100, 102-03, 155- 6off. See also Children; Mass me- 214-15, 224, 239-40, 305. See also
sonalization; Other-directed char-
56; and moralizing, 198-99; and dia; Peer-group; Play; Politics; Tolerance
acter
Mann, Thomas, 113 politics, 212-13; and play, 290-92; Work Popular culture, 79, 97, 149-51, 153,
Marginal differentiation, 46-47, 69, and taste, 297-99; House of Parents, 5-6, 37, 38-57, 71, 138. See 158, 188-89, '93-95, '99, 285, 209,
78,81, 102, 139, 142-43,239 Strangers, 41; Curse of the Cat also Character; Family 3O3n. See also Leisure; Literacy;
Market research, 97-99, 133-34, 198, People, 52; Torment, 58; Three Peabody, Rev. Endicott, 123 Literature; Mass media; Play
302 Musketeers, too; Citizen Kane, Peer-group: as agent of socializa- Population, phases of growth: de-
Marx, Karl, 112, 249, 255, 286, 305 117; Ghost Goes West, 117; Go- tion, 21, 37, 47-48; in Athens, 27; scribed, 7-9; and character struc-
Mass media: in period of incipient ing My Way, 123; Body and Soul, in inner-directed society, 55-56, ture, 8, 31-32, 241-42; in Athens,
decline, 20-22; and children, 50- 156; Home of the Brave, 197, 199; 66-70; in other-directed society, 25-26; and dwellings, 67-68; in
51, 55; and the peer-group, 21-22, A Letter to Three Wives, 229, 21, 30-31, 66-82; in progressive U.S., 109-10; and adult work and
80, 82; and modern communica- 290; Everybody Does It, 290; Mr. schools, 61-62; in consumption, play, 127-29; and politics, 178-80
 INDEX INDEX 315

high growth potential, 7, o-n, 13- Rebels, 58-59, 60, 86-87, 9 > 8 IZ2
» Thomas, W. I., 30, 66, 88 War, 14, 18, 35, 138, 167, 176, 179,
14, 38-40, 67, 109-10; of Indian 241-42 Thoreau, Henry David, 274 185, 263, 296
tribes, 231; and character types, Reformation, the, 6, 14-15, 43, 145 Time magazine, 46, 197 Warner, W. Lloyd, 145, 148
243, 246-47 Religion, evangelical revivalism, 120, Tocqueville, Alexis de, 19, 23, 112, Warshow, Robert, 155
transitional growth, 8-9, 13-17, 180. See also Catholic Church; 141, 163, 202, 206, 219, 225, 235, Washington, Booker T., 94
38-45, 54-55, 67, 87-88, 91-93, 126- Puritan ethic 304 Washington, George, 94
27; and sex, 145 Renaissance, 6, 13-15, 40, 145 Tolerance, 64, 73, 152, 163; in poli- We Happy Few, 154-55
incipient decline, 7-9, 17-19, 45- Riesman, Evelyn T., 850. tics, 189-90, 192-93, 193-95, 200, Weber, Max, 18, 45, 92, 124, 243
46; and other-directed character, Ritual, 233, 235, 287, 306 202-04, 206, 211; among veto West, Patricia Salter, 296
17-24, 54-55; and urbanization, Roosevelt, Franklin D., 191, 210, 212 groups, 214-15; and autonomy, White, Antonia, 58
10-20; and social mobility, 40-41, Ruesch, Jurgen, i9n. 259-60; of other-directed, 234, 280. White, William Alien, 130
67, 74-75; and standard of living, Ruling class, 163, 206-07, ZI7-'8, See also Sincerity White-collar worker, 20, 264-66,
73-74; and the mass media, 84; 225. See also Power; Status Tolstoy, Leo, 22, 183, 296 269, 271
and service trades, 127; change in Russia, 17, 114, 183, 187, 222, 250-51 Tootle the Engine, 105-07, 119 Williams, Dr. William Carlos, 274
goals, 128, 248; and leisure, 141, Tradition-directed character, 8; de- Wilson, Woodrow, 172, 210-11
Sachs, Hans, 269n. fined, 11-13, '6; r°le °f parent Wittfogel, Karl, 25n.
145; and abundance, 143; and
Samish, Artie, 221-22 and, 38-39, 42; communication Wolfe, Katherine M., 83n.
birth rate, 145; and politics, 179-
Santayana, George, 3 among, 85-86; and the peasant, Wolfenstein, Martha, 144
80
Sartre, Jean Paul, 250, 255 88; and standard of living, 89; Women, as opinion leaders, 80, 116;
Power, images of: and character,
Saturday Evening Post, ;^n. in America, 100-10; work and and food, 142-45; and sex, 148,
165; through press and radio, 192;
Schachtel, Ernest, 85n. play, 116; and orientation of indi- 258; in contemporary literature,
and veto groups, 206, 211, 222-24,
239; amorphousness of, 163, 206,
Scientific American, 201 vidual, 149; deviants, 241-42; and 152-53; dress of, 157; franchise,
Service Trades, 20, 127, 133-34, 271- autonomy, 246-47. See also Myth; 175; as workers, 262, 264-66, 271;
214-15, 217, 222-23; of industrial
72 Population
leaders, 208-09, 2 I 2 > and indiffer- Sex, 39, 5on., 68, 76n., 106; inner-
enforced privatization of, 265-66,
2
ents, 214; of ruling class in U.S., Trilling, Lionel, 49, 93n., 296 271, 280-83, ^6; as salesgirls,
217-23, 225; of army officers, 220; directed and, 145-46; other-di- Truman, Harry S., 191, 202 272
rected and, 146-48, 258, 280-81; Twain, Mark, 97n., 230, 278 Work: meaning of for inner-di-
state and national, 221-22; in fu-
as area of competition, 148; atti- rected, 111-15, 134, 207-08, 251-52,
ture U.S., 222-23; students' im- Urbanization, 19-20, 93, 179-80
tudes toward, 233; inequality be- 262-63; in other-directed society,
ages of, 234-35. See also Ruling tween sexes, 280-83
class; Veto groups Veblen, Thorstein, 47, 118, 153, 208- 129-31, 134-35, 141; and play in-
Simmel, Georg, 126, 136 09, 226, 249 terwoven, 149-51, 261-62; in mod-
Press. See Literature; Mass media
Sincerity, 189, 193-97 Velie, Lester, 22in. ern literature, 151-52; cultural
Privacy: of children, 43-44, 49, 51,
56, 76, 95-96, 108, 277, 287-88, Slocombe, Lorna, 151 Veto groups, 163, 192; in politics, definitions of, 261-64; personaliza-
Smiles, Samuel, 92, 149
302; of adults, 123, 171, 176, 251, 211-17, 2I9~23; as barriers to ac- tion of, 264-66; automatization of,
Social mobility, 30-40, 42-43, 45, 60, tion, 306; and enforced privatiza- 269-75; depression and, 288
288
Property, 114, 133-34, 141 122-23, I2 7' '38, '49, 229, 283-84 tion of women, 282-83; and ethnic
Pueblo Indians, 225-27, 231-33 Spaulding, Sheila, 26n. minorities, 284-85 Young, G. M., i48n.
Puritan (Protestant) ethic, 14-15,
Spectator, The, 22 Villains, 99-100, 103 Znaniecki, Florian. 88
Status, 13, 134, 145, 148, 190, 198- Vincent, E. L., iO5n.
17, 40-41, 43, 79, 92-93, 114, 120,
200, 228. See also Class Zufii. See Pueblo
124, 157, 28411., 287
Sullivan, Harry Stack, 3on.
Superego, 3on., 44, 244
Radio, 97, 103, 142. See also Mass Superman, 83, 98, 99, 103
media
Rand, Ayn, 156 Taste exchanging, 289, 298-99
Ranulf, Svend, 27, i79n. Taste socialization, 63, 71-72, 73-76,
Realism: in play, 62; in fiction, 92— 97-98
93, 153; in comics, 102; in chil- Tawney, R. H., 45,113
dren's stories, 104-06; in politics, Teachers, 37, 57-65
185 Television. See Mass media
"Rebellion of Willy Kepper," 151- Temper, 72, 151, 232, 234
5* Temple, Willard, 151