Stuffed Men & Wear ‘n’ Wash WomennDaniel Yankelovich: New Rules:nSearching for Self-Fulfillment in anWorld Turned Upside Down; RandomnHouse; New York.nDaniel Offer, Eric Ostrov, Kenneth I.nHoward: The Adolescent: A PsychologicalnSelf-Portrait; Basic Books, NewnYork.nby Thomas J. RemingnX hese are times that try men’snbodies, if not their souls. In every state ofnour republic we hear tales of men andnwomen renouncing families and occupationsnto pursue their dreams of “fulfillment.n” The dreams take on the concretenform of sexual experimentation, “alternatenlifestyles,” or the more innocent infatuationnwith what used to be callednhobbies. Consider a few examples:nThe college professor whose dreams ofnprestige and security have gonenunrealized and his no less discontentednwife who has begun tondream of liberation—for both, California,nwith its free way of life, hasnbecome a code word for escape fromnfrustration. Unable to make thenswitch to a West Coast Think Tank,nhe becomes morose, while she embracesnfeminism and a feminist withnwhom she runs away to lead a newnlife.nA young married couple in which thenwife outearns the husband—theynhave postponed children in the interestsnof the wife’s career, and becausenof the insecurity of their marriagenboth indulge in extramarital affairs.nA woman who divorces her husband,nopens a restaurant with the settle-nMr. Fleming is editor o/The SouthernnPartisan.n16 inChronicles of Culturenment, and fulfills a lifelong dream.nThese are some of the people in NewnRules, by Daniel Yankelovich, of thenpolling firm of Yankelovich, Skelly &nWhite, Inc. Yankelovich offers a gallerynof such characters in a book that combinesnthe statistical survey with thenmethod of individual profile madenpopular by Studs Terkel. His theme isnthe “search for self-fulfillment,” whichn—we are assured—permeates all “Westernnhistory and literature.” In our timenthe search takes the form of:nA poignant and inchoate yearning tonelevate . . . the ‘sacred’ expressivenaspects of their lives, and simultaneously,nto downgrade the impersonal,nmanipulative.nBy this, he apparently means that jogging,nerotic experiments and careernchanges are more than hobbies andnwhims: they are the religious rituals of anpeople that has given up its faith in morenconventional objects of piety.nSome of Yankelovich’s profiles arentelling, but his actual strength lies innsurvey evaluation. He works statisticalnmagic to discover a significant minority,nthe 17 % of working Americans who putn”their personal self-fulfillment highnabove all other concerns.” They are anfamiliar group: younger than average,nmore likely to be professionals and lessnlikely to be married or own their ownnhomes; a majority describe themselves asnliberal. They enjoy thinking aboutnthemselves, trying out ethnic and naturalnfoods and reading books “to help mennnunderstand myself better.” They appearnto be more susceprible to the attractionsnof introspection, TM and psychotherapy,nand they are obsessed with the conditionnof their bodies. They are, in other words,nthe supporting cast of a Woody Allennmovie. This 17 % elite is setting the trendnfor a shift in American attitudes on anbroad set of social and moral questions—whatnpop psychologists calln”values.” The majority of Americansnnow seem to believe that it is acceptablenfor financially secure married women tonwork(74% as opposed to 25% in 1938),nthat the ideal number of children in anfamily is two (rather than 4), thatnpremarital sex and interracial marriagesnare not “morally wrong.”nYankelovich regards our change, ofncourse, as a case of shifting norms, withoutndistinguishing among the wide spectmmnof norms—from the ballet of forksnand spoons, the rimal of calling cards andninvitations that constitute a code of formalnmanners—all the way to the basicnrules for the survival of our species:nmaternal care, territorial defense, malendominance. In between the idiosyncrasiesnof formal manners and whatnSophocles’ Antigone called “the unwrittennand unfailing laws of the gods” lie allnthose traditions and habits that make anculture what it is: everything from thendistribution of sexual roles to thenrhythms of music. Yankelovich fails tonsee the dangers inherent in the alterationnof our cultural pattetns. He possesses thenthoroughly modern faith (shared by hisn17% elite) that it is possible to tinkernwith one part of life without affecting thenwhole—a comfortable doctrine for adul-n