Page 129 - Šolsko polje, XXVIII, 2017, no. 3-4: Education and the American Dream, ed. Mitja Sardoč
P. 129
Manufacturing and Selling a Way of Life
A Historical Analysis of Modern Communication
and New Forms of Conformism
Igor Bijuklič
Introduction
In the following article I will try to analyse and interpret a not well
known and neglected change that occurred in the tradition of Ame-
rican liberalism, which had a profound impact in the formation of the
United States as a modern nation in the 20th century. Although liberalism
defined the Constitution and political order of the first modern republic,
it underwent through a fundamental change in the so-called Progressive
Era (1880-1920), when new ideas of scientism started to emerge in times
of threatening social turmoil and fragile political institutions. The beli-
ef that science, especially as scientific techniques and social engineering
could also take control of human affairs, conduct and thought and make
them predictable, dominated public debates on crucial political and soci-
al issues like labour unrest, poverty and immigration that were shattering
the land of promise. Moreover, the aforementioned idea became constitu-
tive for the emerging American social sciences and for a number of entire-
ly new disciplines like Scientific management (F.W. Taylor) or Behaviou-
rism (J.B. Watson), which were promoted and accepted as a new technical
answer for human affairs and prosperity. Their influence in the political
realm of the 20th century was and still is without any doubt significant.
These technocratic ideas were not entirely new considering the viv-
id tradition of the American technical utopia (E. Bellamy) in 19th centu-
ry, which echoed, unlike the later dystopian works, a celebration of the
coming technical society. »American technical utopia does not speak ei-
ther against the existing state of affairs nor does it warn against the fu-
127
A Historical Analysis of Modern Communication
and New Forms of Conformism
Igor Bijuklič
Introduction
In the following article I will try to analyse and interpret a not well
known and neglected change that occurred in the tradition of Ame-
rican liberalism, which had a profound impact in the formation of the
United States as a modern nation in the 20th century. Although liberalism
defined the Constitution and political order of the first modern republic,
it underwent through a fundamental change in the so-called Progressive
Era (1880-1920), when new ideas of scientism started to emerge in times
of threatening social turmoil and fragile political institutions. The beli-
ef that science, especially as scientific techniques and social engineering
could also take control of human affairs, conduct and thought and make
them predictable, dominated public debates on crucial political and soci-
al issues like labour unrest, poverty and immigration that were shattering
the land of promise. Moreover, the aforementioned idea became constitu-
tive for the emerging American social sciences and for a number of entire-
ly new disciplines like Scientific management (F.W. Taylor) or Behaviou-
rism (J.B. Watson), which were promoted and accepted as a new technical
answer for human affairs and prosperity. Their influence in the political
realm of the 20th century was and still is without any doubt significant.
These technocratic ideas were not entirely new considering the viv-
id tradition of the American technical utopia (E. Bellamy) in 19th centu-
ry, which echoed, unlike the later dystopian works, a celebration of the
coming technical society. »American technical utopia does not speak ei-
ther against the existing state of affairs nor does it warn against the fu-
127
