ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses three most fundamental features of the social situation in the United States which "underly" the danger that "subversive" groups and organizations will grow up and become a serious factor in the situation. The first is the fact that the population of the United States is composed of a great diversity of different ethnic elements, with different national origins and standing in varying degrees of assimilation to the dominant American patterns of life. The second is system of social stratification, which creates certain important strains and tensions capable of exploitation in this direction. The third is the existence, with different forms and degrees of intensity in different parts of the society, of very widespread social disorganization of the sort which is expressed in emotional insecurity. The relation to "social disorganization" and the resulting widespread disorientation in their integration with a social pattern of large numbers of individuals, is demonstrated by a very large body of well-authenticated material.
