October 25. l957

SCARLET AND BLACK

Page Nine

 

Whyi'e Protests Subjuga’rion
Oi individual To Organiza+ions

By Kenyon A. Knopi
Economics and Business

"\Vllcn an individual is commanded by an organization

to rev

al his innermost feelings. he h;

a duty to himself to

give an wars that serve his selfsinterest rather than that of

Alien. In a word, he should cheat." in his book,
“The Organization Man,” William H. Whyte, J12, not only
advocates it, he tells how to ellca

But Mr. Whyto is a moral
man He ~not in favor ot cheat
iiig iii gtiieral, nor docs he take
the position that a little bit oi
cheating is all right. He urges
cheating only on personality
tests when they a to he used
by an
employ

The use oi personality tests
by organizations to predict
success in positions at inipon
taiice is scored hy Mr. Wliyte.
Contrary- to the claims of test-
ers, such tests cannot he scien-
tiiic. They are biased by the
value judgments oi the test-
ers. Further, according to Mn
Wliyte, they do not work, as
demonstrated by the testing
of a dozen oi the most wells
known corporation presidents.
“Not one corporation president
had a profile that tell conic
pletcly within the usual nos
coptahlc range, and two tailed
to meet the minimum proiila
for rorenicii."

While Mr. White considers
such aeuse ot science typical of
our pi nt society, he does

iployei- oi- prospccctivc -

more than question its sciontiiic
soundness. The problem is es.
scnti-alli an ethical one . . . “is
the individuals innermost scli
an business oi the Organizar
tio sl He has some rights too.
How much more must a
testiiy against hiinseltv"
This brings us to Whyte’s main
prohlem~the tyranny oi group
pressure toward conformity,
“The Organization Man" is a
long and disheartening down
nientation ot picssuics on the
indiwdual to adjust to the group
the “lite adjustment” ans
proach to piiniaiy and second-
my education, the piactical'
college curriculum, “dormitory
life" in the suburban coui,t
studies by "teams" oi scientists
and social scientists, the com-
pany training ot “the well-
roundod man," “peace of mind"
religion Read the table oi cons
tents.
Mr. Wliyte is not opposed to
cooperation. He docs not are
gue tor a turn to some simple

Wliytc
Cont. p. 10, col. 2

in :i n

Miller Reconsiders Dilemma Of American Socie’ry
Leads To Riesman Conclusion

By John H. Burma
Sociology

“Angry God" Myth;
Sees Benevalence

By Charles H. Foster
English

A iew days ago Mr. Cleaver
and I were nominating memr
hcrs ior our private Hall-ot—
Fame train in the ﬁeld ot
Amcrcan studies We agreed
iinnicdiatoly that Perry Millcr,
oi course, would have to he
captain oi the team.

I and confident that most
critics and scholars in Ameri»
can civilization would make
the same nomination. Through
his many hooks and articles
the now seems to have set
tied down to a two-hool- -
year pat-c), Mr. Miller has
wrought a fundamental change
in our attiLiido toward the
American past and present.

That fundamental change eens
tors in Miller's iresli perception
oi the qualities of New England
Puritanlsin. When Miller began
his work 30 years ago. Puritan-
isni, so far as scholars were
concerned, was an exhausted
subject, So tar as the populace
was concerned (H. L. Mencknn
personiﬁes the most narrow and
violent prejudices on the subs
ject),Pui-itaiiisin was the enemy.
The Puritan—so said the slogans
and the cartoons—opposed to-
bacon and alcohol and divided

wes’r‘por’rsbymﬁm

you can't tell
the mothers From
the daughters in

mother-daughter

classics

Because everybody looks young

and has'fun in these easy~living

casuals. And this year they have

a sophisticated new slenderness

that mothers and daughters

both look smart in! Why not try

them on together?

Advertised in

Although David Riesman
law professor, his interest in
area for that of sociology.

started as a lawyer and as a
people led him to forsake this
In this field his scholarship

made all immediate impact, which soon radiated to the gen-

elill public thlough- his book “The Lonel y Clowt’

and the

subsequent publicity it received in Life magazine.

In “The Lonely Clovid’ Ries-
nioii presents an interesting and
provocative study at the chang-
ing oi American character ironi
“tradition-directed” to “lilnel‘~cli-
rooted" to “othcndircctec,”

He suggests that in the earls
in days oi our coiinti-yls lite,
most at its citizens were what
he calls ”traditionsxlirccted.“
That is, they lived in a society
in which conformity to the
earlier patterns was the chiei
means or personal adjustment,
and they coniormed to these
previous patterns

Later, as our nation became
more dynamic, tradition was no
longer considered a sure guide
for successtul personal adjust-
ment, and the majority or per-
5 o n s hccaiiie ”lnncl'rdirettbd ‘l
That is, they oarly iiitcrnalizcd
social attitudes, values, and
norms, and made these inaxhris
their guides. In essence, this
was a society in which there
was instilled into the child a

his tune equally between clos-
ing saloons and lemming the
books at Dreiser and Anderson
iioni public liliiaiics.

It is Mr. Miller's distinction
'that he has restored Puiitanisin
lto sonicthing approaching its ms
ltellectual complexity and its
moral dignity and that he has
demonstrated, particularly in his
studios of Jonathan Edwards.

that there was iar more to
‘Ful‘ltanlsl‘n than the vision at
‘zin angry God ready to dispatch
siniul man into hell. ML Miller
has made it clear that Puritan-
iism also proposed a,bcautliully
lhenevolcnt God whom the elect
linight ecstatically know in their
‘iown “disinterested benevolence."

In his Convocation
i'“SinnCl‘s in the Hands ot a
iBenevolcnt God," Mr Miller
has drawn his title from Jona—
than Edwards tainous scrmon
at 1741. ”Sinners in the Hands
ot an Angry God," but he will
concern hiinseli less with [heels
ogy than with Aincrican litera
ture as it has expressed the
changing vicws oi God and
man and particularly ot the lo-
cation ot bcncvolcnco since
Jonathan Edwards‘ day.

address,

In the course or his address
Mr. Miller will make a new
interpretation or the inner
niost spirit actually inspiring
the apparently subversive and
niliilistic modern American
writers, Hemingway, Dos Pas-
sos, Faulkner and others.

Grinnell college could not
have chosen a more profound
scholarscritlc than Perry Miller

[to comment on “Am ricart Culs

(Lire at Mid-Century.”

 

scric ot “ideals" and also the
drive to live up to those ideals
in the taco of tests and Opposlr
tion Riesman calls these ideals
and drives a “psychological gy—
roscope" liuilt during child-
hood and iii continual operation
throughout lite.

“Other-Directed”

For present day college stu—
dents, most at tlicii grandpars
ants and sonic ct their parents
weie iniicr- cted. l But, says
Ricsman, this tualion has been
and is changing. Many people
today are now what he calls
"other-directed"; an especially
high proportion of present cols
lege students are of this type.

Toward

in each oi tlicse types the
individual is strongly motivat-
ed to make good. The “tradi-
tion-directed” person makes
good by doing what used to he
done, by revering the old
ways. The “innersdirecbed"
makes good by sticking to his
ideals and coinportiiig hiinselt
in conformity with them, come
Hell on high water.

The "ether-directed” person,
however. make, good by con—
iorniity to social norms and to
the social expectations of them,
Success equals approval; it peo—
ple like and admire one, one is
a suece . This is by no means
as “wis 3s ashy" as it sounds.
The “othersdirccted” person is
aware of norms, and he strives
to approach the norms of the
group from which he desires
approval.

Goal:

in college he strives for good
grades, out not to be noticeably
"bookish." He wishes to be p0p~
ular and politically influential,
but not to the extent of being
a one-sided “character." He is
convinced that the real henciits
or college are the “contacts" one
makes, and the experience
gained in "getting along with
people." "Adjustment” is a major
goal.

“Adjustment”

As Riesman says, “other-y '
rooted" parents instill in their
children a “psychological ra-
dar set,” tuned to detect the
action at others, so that the
person may adjust hiinseit to
this action.

Despite the seemingly vague
and fleeting criteria tor popu—
lanty among middle class boys
and girls. nothing is more ini-
portant than acceptance. The
peer-group loecomes the measure
at all things; the individual has
few defenses the group cannot
batter down, This “other-dis
rccted" society Riesinan sees in
America in the 1950’s.

WELCOME TO CO‘N‘VOCATION

PARENTS DAY

HQ‘MECOMI‘NG

 

 

