This article presents information on the social and political complexities or the spiritual perplexities which have been introduced into life by the phenomenal expansion of technics in modern civilization. The specific ills of American culture, in so far as they can be distinguished from the general sickness of the Western world, must be ascribed to the wider scope of technics here, their greater obvious success, and the correspondingly more dangerous illusions and confusions created by man's increasing mastery over nature. Every thoughtful foreign observer notes a curious combination of pride and insecurity in the U.S. national character.