short: a half-century, at most. By 1956, a//Americans employedrnin producing things, workers in agriculture and manufacture together,rnhad become a minority. Since that time, the great majorityrnare engaged in administration and in services. But thenrnthis is a worldwide (certainly a Europe-wide) phenomenon. Itrninvolves the image of wealth rather than the reality of wealth itselfrnIt corresponds to enormous changes in society, includingrnfirst of all the very lives of families. The decline of rural life andrnthe growth of real wages 100 years ago had made it possible, forrnthe first time in history, for the vast majority of women of the socalledrnworking classes to stay at home. About 40 years ago, mostrnwomen began to choose to work in offices and in other oddrnplaces. It is too early to say what will be the results of this socalledrn”emancipadon” of women. It is not too early to say thatrnthis has developed together not only with the decline of the traditionalrnfamily but also with the decline of the ideals of privac’.rnof religion, of respect for manners, morals, and law, and, yes,rnwith the decline of proper educafion and of the general intelligencernof a people.rnNear the year 2000, the emulation of America everywherernamounts to the emulation of a “culture” of entertainment thatrnis, essentially, puerile. Meanwhile, the very composition of thernAmerican people is changing radically. The 21st century willrnnot only have a different history—it will be the history of a differentrnpeople. Because of the still existing capacity of Americanrnmass culture to—at least superficially—absorb and assimilaternmasses of diverse immigrants, and because of the worldwide abhorrencernof great wars, it is still possible that the Americanizationrnof the globe may continue. Whether a very different Americanrnpeople will be able to withstand great natural or man-maderncatastrophes, we cannot tell.rn