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American "Civilisation"

The recently deceased John Dewey was applauded by the American press as

the most representative figure of American civilisation. This is quite r ight.

His theories are entirely representative of the vision of man and life which is

the premise of Americanism and its 'democracy'.

The essence of such theories is this: that everyone can become what he

wants to, within the limits of the technological means at his disposal.

Equally, a person is not what he is from his true nature and there is no real

difference between people, only differences in qualifications. According to

this theory anyone can be anyone he wants to be if he knows how to train

himself.

This is obviously the case with the 'self-made man'; in a society which has

lost all sense of tradition the notion of personal aggrandisement will extend

into every aspect of human existence, reinforcing the egalitarian doctrine of

pure democracy. If the basis of su ch ideas is accepted, then all natural

diversity has to be abandoned. Each person can presume to possess the

potential of everyone else and the terms 'superior' and 'inferior' lose their

meaning; every notion of distance and respect loses meaning; all life-styles

are open to all. To all organic conceptions of life Americans oppose a

mechanistic conception. In a society which has 'started from scratch',

everything has the characteristic of being fabricated. In American society

appearances are masks not faces. At the same time, proponents of the

American way of life are hostile to personality.