Word: babbittism
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Dates: during 1920-1929
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...explanation of this change of face and Babbitt reasoning may charitably be sought in the Editor's preoccupation by Finals: Or perhaps he is stirred by an underlying desire for "humanizing the military profession": but has it ever occurred to him that there Jurks a monstrous danger in de-humanizing the vast majority who do not belong to the profession? C. L. Lundin...
TOPPER?Thorne Smith?McBride ($2). Cosmo Topper is a Better Babbitt of the East Orange, N. J., type, early thwarted into respectability by his dyspeptic wife and his commutation ticket. The fun starts when he buys the low-hum, nickel-plated car which carried sprightly George and Marion Kerby into the next world. Passing the tree where they came to grief, Topper is joined by spiritistic versions of the Kerbys, and during the adventures that follow he comes to love them as childish prankers. The belated release of Topper is rather pathetic, but mirth is the tale's mother element...
...after all, this is but one more deviation from that norm which some would like to maintain under the name of truth. The American Mercury will never cure Mr. Babbitt nor will Mr. Babbitt cure the American Mercury of incipient megalomania. Both are facets of the uncut diamond which is American life: both are, in their particular fashion, delightful or disgusting as the critic may believe at the time...
...American Mercury does not represent the finest side of American life any more than Mr. Babbitt represents the worst but both show that much improvement is necessary before this country can in any large numbers produce a thinking being with a sense of humor. Mr. Babbitt cannot laugh at himself. The Mercury is no better. And whereas one is content to exist on the profits from tires and real estate, the other lives in that brand of human fish which bites any bait with a pseudo-intellectual flavor...
There are a great many delightful Babbitts who are working toward that poorer success which eventuates in a finer sense of values in the next generation. If the Kiwanis and the Mystic Shrine have a certain cheapness, the Mercury has cheapness of another kind. The difference is one of kind not of quality or quantity. So he who smiles at the advertisement which uses Mr. Babbitt as its motif must remember that really that gentleman is not much nearer cultural damnation than the readers of the jade journal of the eccentric reputation...