The Organization Man

CHAPTER 20 Society As Hero

248 THE ORGANIZATION MAN into his grading; the politician who blames his mistakes on others; both of these are examples of fraudulency.... Greenwald, Maryk's lawyer, confused Queeg and twisted his words so that Queeg was made to look stupid. Men have always been subjected to the whims of those in command ; and so it will be in the future. This plan must exist or anarchy will be the result. The student who dissented was not rebellious; like the others, he pointed out the necessity for codes and rules and regulations if society is to have any collective purpose. Unlike them, however, he put these points before, rather than after, the "but." "Is a man justified," he asks, "in doing what he truly thinks is right under any circumstances?" After pointing out the dangers of individual conscience , he comes to his conclusion: "A man must realize that a wrong decision, however sincere, will leave him open to criticism and to probable punishment. Nevertheless, and after weighing all the facts, it is his moral duty to act as he thinks best." It is his moral duty to act as he thinks best. Has this become an anachronistic concept? Fifteen students against, to one for, constitute , let me concede, very few straws in the wind. Nor do they mark any sudden shift in values. Had the question about Queeg been asked in, say, 1939, my guess is that a higher proportion of students would have voted for Maryk than would today; but even then it is probable that a majority would have voted against him. It is a long-term shift of emphasis that has been taking place. So far we have been talking of only one book and one decade, and, while this gives some sort of fix, it does not illuminate what our popular morality has changed from. To this end I would now like to take a look at popular fiction in general-as it used to be, and where it seems to be going. cHAPTER 20 Society As Hero I HAVE BEEN TALKING OF ONE BOOK AND ONE DECADE. NOW I WOULD like to broaden the angle of view, for the The Caine Mutiny is only one more step in a development that has been going on for a long Society As Hero 249 time. Let me at once concede that much of what seems contemporary in popular fiction is fairly timeless. Black has always been black and white has always been white, with few shades of gray in between ; coincidence outrageous and the endings happy, or at least symbolic of a better world ahead. The very fact that fiction does tell people what they want to hear, however, does make it a fairly serviceable barometer. Whether fiction leads people or merely reflects them, it is an index of changes in popular belief that might be imperceptible at closer range. If we pick up popular fiction around the 187os, we find the Protestant Ethic in full flower. It was plain that the hero's victories over his competitors and his accumulation of money were synonymous with godliness. The hero was shown in struggle with the environment , and though good fortune was an indispensable assist, it was less an accident than a reward directed his way by a just providence. This didn't always go without saying, but it could. As late as the turn of the century the ethic remained so unquestioned that the moralizing could be left out entirely. Heroes were openly, exultantly materialistic , and if they married the boss's daughter or pushed anyone around on the way up, this was as it should be. For a farewell look at this hero we have "Ottenhausen's Coup" by John Walker Harrington in McClure's magazine, March 18g8 (several years before McClure's muckraking phase). Young Carl Ottenhausen is sent by his company to take charge of an iron furnace, where, it so happens, the boss's blue-eyed daughter is giving a house party at near-by Eagle's Nest, the boss's palatial summer house. After a brief brush with the daughter, Ottenhausen hears there is a crisis down at the furnace at the bottom of the hill. Some anarchist has gotten the men to revolt. Ottenhausen rushes down to the furnace, pulls out two guns, and advances on the workers. The surly devils cower before him. "The men of Laird's Furnace had met their match." As Ottenhausen stands triumphant before the workers, the...