liberty was sacrificed. But the real issuenwas initiative, not liberty. The “emergency”nreplacement of the “schoolndistrict-county-state-federal” decisionmakingnpyramid by the widening cobwebnof federal agencies not only representedna real shift in power and authority,nbut it also came to mean that sourcesnoutside the immediate experience ofnthe citizen began their gradual strangleholdnon his life. America’s view ofnEurope at this time allowed her participationnin the Great War to benthought of in terms of a crusade to saventhe old world from its autocratic andncoercive institutions, institutions innwhich power and initiative flowed fromnthe top down—yet the transformationnwhich Wilson unwittingly achievednmeant the end of our own bottom-upnorganizational patterns and indeed thenend of our very sense of self as mastersnof our own fates.nThis kind of fundamental disintegrationnof the American social fabricnthat modernism embodies also foundnexpression in a variety of cultural forcesnunleashed during Wilson’s years asnPresident. Propaganda and appeals tonthe baser emotions were hardly inventednby Wilson, but still the present scopenof media manipulation of the massnmind dates from this era. Indeed, itnis from this period that “the benignnappraisal of human nature succumbednto a more cynical assessment, and thenidea of ‘the people,’ good and educable,ngave way to a concept of ‘the masses,’nbrutish and volatile.” And we havencome so far as to have lost this veryndistinction in our common speech.nThus we no longer separate mass nounsnfrom count (or individual) nouns:n”fewer people” has become “less people”nand “the number of votes,” “the amountnof votes.” (Compare for instance thenincorrect forms—“fewer sugar” andn”the number of sugar.”)nThe Wilsonian erosion of the floodgatesnof self-determination left the oldnAmerican regime of the mind in shambles.nThe collective, public-opinioned,nlib-culture lifestyle was just around thencorner. From the intrusion of intelligencen(IQ) testing to the introductionnof sex education—“In its own bluntnway, the Army contributed to the demythologizingnof erotic life by bringingnsexual matters into the arena of publicndiscourse”—the sense of living withinnone’s own boundaries vanished. Andnyet there was no cultural replacementnof any substance. Even the writers ofnthe war period, from Dos Possos’snscorn of the older culture’s literaryntastes to Cummings’s parody of thenverbal conceits of the age’s idealisticnexcesses, widened the gulf betweennart and audience, displacing mimesisnwith irony as the dominant form ofnunderstanding. In sum, Wilson’s modernismnhad rekindled the need for selfexpressionnwhile drying up those innernresources which had always made thengenius of American self-expressionnpossible.nIn negotiating America’s passage betweennindividualistic and collectiveneras, Wilson and the other leaders ofnour government left us with such confusionnand disenchantment becausenthey refused to stand up to special interests.nInstead, they allowed theseninterests to triumph over those of thenindividual and left a dangerous prece­nIn the Mailndent that has been all too readily followednby subsequent generations of politicians.nOut of this unresolved dilemnanof whom our institutions serve has comenthe appeasement of lib culture and thenend of voluntarism, for finally modernismnattacks our ethical structures bynpromising us salvation through the futurenof technique, not the future of thenperson. Kennedy touches this problemndirectly:nAmericans, prizing the weakness ofntheir ancient institutions, strove tonmaintain that holy debility in a timenof crisis by substituting aroused passionnfor political authority. The warnthus demonstrated the distastefulntruth that voluntarism has its perils.nReliance on sentirtient rather thannstrengthened sovereignty to mobilizena people for total war compoundednthe problem of requiring all peoplento do what but a few people wished.nThat kind of coercion, no less insidiousnfor its indirection—perhapsndoubly objectionable on that countn—had deep roots in liberal democraticnculture, and was to become a salientnfeature of twentieth-century Americannlife.nWere we ever to reclaim the “right”nof living within our means, a surprisingnreversal could occur: meaning withinnour lives. DnCompassion and Common Sense by Carl E. Ockert; MCP Books; Germantow^n,nMaryland. A slender paperback volume which offers some novel solutions to problems suchnas unemployment, inflation, crime and education. Highly recommended.nZoning: Its Costs and Relevance for the 1980’s by Michael Goldberg and Peter Horwood,nedited by Walter Block; The Fraser Institute; Vancouver, British Columbia,nCanada. An examination of zoning laws and practices, including a forthright challenge tonthe assumptions of zoning philosophy.nBetter Government at Half the Price by James T. Bennett and Manuel H. Johnson;nCaroline House Publishers; Ottawa, Illinois. A comparison of production costsnbetween the public and private sectors and an examination of the reasons for the difference.nMyths that Rule America by Herbert I. London and Albert L. Weeks; UniversitynPress of America; Washington, D.C. A polemical study of some of the myths—absolutenfreedom, happiness, success, equality, etc. —that are prevalent in today’s America,nand a comment on the “functional use of myth.”nnn•^^••^33nMay/June 1981n