ABSTRACT
The 1981 conclusion of "no change" in the decade of the 1970's is obviously consistent with the conclusions about the stability of outlooks during that period. The combined proportions postmaterialist over all nations studied were 12% in 1970, 10% in 1973, 12% in 1976, and 13% in 1979. A sticky semantic problem arises in connection with this pair of terms, stability and change. For many advanced intellectuals, change is automatically counted as a good thing and stability as a bad thing. The change versus status quo formula amounts to a mislabelling, the suggestion being that the latter option actually exists, that it is a de facto condition. The nineteenth century saw the growth of mass public education, which, clearly, created jobs for the teachers who form the core of the intellectual class. The growth of the intellectual class implies, of course, an even larger growth of the audience for their communications.
