. Woodrow Wilson was referring to the liberal
. idea of the economic market when he said that
. the free enterprise system is the most efficient
. economic system. Maximum freedom means
(5) maximum productiveness; our "openness" is to
. be the measure of our stability. Fascination with
. this ideal has made Americans defy the "Old
. World" categories of settled possessiveness versus
. unsettling deprivation, the cupidity of retention
(10) versus the cupidity of seizure, a "status quo" defended or attacked. The United States, it was believed, had no status quo ante. Our only "sta- tion" was the turning of a stationary wheel, spin- ning faster and faster. We did not base our (15) system on property but opportunity---which meant we based it not on stability but on mobil- ity. The more things changed, that is, the more rapidly the wheel turned, the steadier we would be. The conventional picture of class politics is (20) composed of the Haves, who want a stability to keep what they have, and the Have-Nots, who want a touch of instability and change in which to scramble for the things they have not. But Americans imagined a condition in which spec- (25) ulators, self-makers, runners are always using the new opportunities given by our land. These eco- nomic leaders (front-runners) would thus he mainly agents of change. The nonstarters were considered the ones who wanted stability, a (30) strong referee to give them some position in the race, a regulative hand to calm manic specula- tion; an authority that can call things to a halt, begin things again from compensatorily stag- gered "starting lines."
(35) "Reform" in America has been sterile because it can imagine no change except through the extension of this metaphor of a race, wider inclu- sion of competitors, "a piece of the action," as it were, for the disenfranchised. There is no (40) attempt to call off the race. Since our only sta- bility is change, America seems not to honor the