understand the effects of the phonetic alphabet in creating 
many of his basic patterns of culture. To begin now to examine 
the question may, therefore, seem too late.

     Suppose that, instead of displaying the Stars and Stripes, 
we were to write the words “American flag” across a piece of 
cloth and to display that. While the symbols would convey the 
same meaning, the effect would be quite different. To translate 
the rich visual mosaic of the Stars and Stripes into written form 
would be to deprive it of most of its qualities of corporate 
image and of experience, yet the abstract literal bond would 
remain much the same. Perhaps this illustration will serve to 
suggest the change the tribal man experiences when he 
becomes literate. Nearly all the emotional and corporate family 
feeling is eliminated from his relationship with his social group. 
He is emotionally free to separate from the tribe and to become