ABSTRACT
Societies rarely learn from experience the way mature adults do. When something isn't working well most mature people make appropriate adjustments in their lives and outlook—moderate midcourse corrections as they learn from their mistakes. Societies react differently: more often than individuals, they seem to respond to stress by suddenly changing direction in an abrupt and extreme fashion and only then begin to learn from their excesses and mistakes. The women's movement in the United States illustrates the lurch and learn pattern. In the women's movement, the lurch occurred in the 1960s and 1970s. Quite abruptly, a society will lurch in the opposite direction from its present state and then over a period of years it will learn from the mistakes made by the sudden lurch and adjust accordingly. A very different example of lurch and learn is symbolized by Labor's victory in Britain.
