American life is a powerful solvent. It seems to neutralize every intellectual element, however tough and alien it may be, and to fuse it in the native good will, complacency, thoughtlessness, and optimism.

American culture, in this view, absorbs and softens even the sternest foreign ideas, dissolving their sharp edges into a milder blend of friendliness, ease, and unreflective hopefulness, rather than letting difficult thinking stay difficult and unsettled.

Context reviewed 23 September 2026