Life in Modern America [antikvár]

Introduction There is one thing about which almost all modern men agree: that technological progress is good—good not just for its own sake but for the sake of the greater comfort, security, leisure and variety of experience that it makes possible, not just for a privileged few but for the great mass of people. No society has yet eliminated poverty, slums and starvation, but material progress alone can provide the conditions for such an achievement. All the world looks to North America, and particularly to the United States, as that part of the world which has been most successful in producing widespread material wealth combined with political freedom. The lead of the United States in all this is so widely recognised that most people tend to describe it as 'America', and to judge its standards by reference to a uniquely high standard. There is not the same agreement about the values and social organisation on which this progress has been based. American achievements in material progress have led the world, but the world's admiration is mixed with envy, and with disapproval, more or less intense, of the competitive methods by which the progress has been gained. Some think that collective action is a morally better and more efficient method than a sum total of individual and self-regarding actions by great numbers of people competing with one another for pre-emineuce. Some see America as harsh, selfish and materialistic, and there are critics in America too. But most Americans have no doubt about their allegiance to the individualist idea. They have been ready to modify and mellow its practical effects here and there, just as collectivist societies are now leaving more room for the individual; but Americans see their achievements and their failures (such as the proliferating violence and crime), as the product of their long-accepted values. In economic life there is not equahty of possessions, but there is a good measure of equality of opportunity; in social life there is equality ofconsideradon; in pohtics the people have good means of choosing those who are to