Noetic Authority.

In a psychological as distinguished from a Marxian sense the state in the United States seems to be withering away. The basic reality is a shift in the psychological environment in which the state, like other institutions and organizations, must function. This transformation in the psychological environment is generating a conflict in perceptions and values. This paper suggests that the state is withering away in a psychological sense because of an increase in awareness in contemporary society and a growing questioning of all authority. It also suggests the state is withering in a technological sense because of a failure to use organized knowledge to satisfy expectations and values. While noetic men have always existed, noetic man a! a major social type distinguishable from religious man, economic man, and legal man is primarily a product of 20th century technologies of communication and production. The withering of the state in the psychological order has an objective correlative in the withering of the state in the technological order, the use of organized knowledge.