Citation

Mead M. Am. J. Sociol. 1942; 47(6): 971-980.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1942, University of Chicago Press)

DOI

10.1086/219050

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

The last decade has been characterized by a lowered level of expectation, a devaluation of the present and the future. Equally striking has been the increasing shift to federal initiative from a previous pattern in which the initiative was taken by competing local groups. This shift is incompatible with American political character and various efforts have been made to reshift the initiative to the people. There has been a development of increasing political homogeneity and an exacerbation of group antagonisms, blurred and to some extent compensated for by the development of multiple pressure groups, formation of horizontal recombination among the locals of national organizations, etc. The atomization of knowledge, as symbolized by the quiz programs, has progressed at an accelerated pace with accompanying peril to the verbal arts. Finally, the central problem is seen to be whether or not the United States will be able to regain a sense of international initiative.