gradualness. One
is human impatience. The other is the rapidity with which masses of
people all over the planet are being informed of the good-life potential
implicit in present-day western affluence.

Impatience is emotional rather than rational. It is a compound of human
urges on one hand and on the other hand of the frustrations built up in
individuals and populations attracted by new wants and frustrated by
barriers of custom-habit; the carefully constructed apparatus of
direction, division and restriction (the State, the Church, the
communication media), and the potent class forces of the
counter-revolution.

In every modern community the media of mass communication are
broadcasting information regarding the widening consumer prospects
created by the current revolution in science and technology. In every
modern community there are eager, ambitious, hopeful individuals urging
their fellow workers and fellow citizens to get moving toward the
promised land of peace and plenty. In every community the bureaucracy,
representing the more comfortable and secure elements of the population,
is asking the less well placed class groups to "take it easy," take "one
step at a time," and remember that "Rome was not built in a day."

Conservatives, urging law and order under the status quo, have reason
on their side. The movement of a technologically oriented community from
monopoly capitalism into socialism-communism is without historical
precedent and therefore largely experimental. Plans are tentative; there
are shortages of materials and particularly of skills based on
experience. Costly mistakes are made leading to delay until they can be
corrected. The counter-revolution, abundantly financed by the forces of
reaction, operates constantly, in critical situations almost always
through the military, to preserve the "law and order" which are the
prime forces behind its wealth and its power. In an untrod, untested
area ignorance is a blank wall until it is pierced by ingenuity and
innovation. There are many ways to miss a defined objective and only a
few ways to reach it.

Cautious, experienced people, living comfortably, are inclined to let
well enough alone. Restless, hopeful idealists are eager to reject,
modify, improvise and replace.

Conservatives try to preserve both the structure and the traditional
activities of a community on the plea that a bird in the hand is worth
two in the bush. Liberals (moderates) would pre