Ian Fleming on What Ails America

“I sensed that America is temporarily in poor health and she is very conscious of the fact.” – Ian Fleming

In 1959, Ian Fleming, the creator of James Bond, visited 14 cities around world, including five American cities: Honolulu, LA, Las Vegas, Chicago, and New York. He wrote an essay about each city, compiling his adventures in the book Thrilling Cities. Of all the nations he visited, he had the harshest words for America, which he found disappointing on a number of levels.

A lot has changed in America since 1959, but the “basic troubles” Fleming describes are eerily familiar. To quote Fleming in full:

What is the matter [with America]? I suppose, and many intelligent American writers support my suspicion, that she has four basic troubles—first, the collapse of the family unit which today hardly exists in American towns; secondly, Momism and the vast economic power (via alimony, inheritance, and other factors) held by women in America; thirdly, self-hypnotism about the “American way of life,” a concept which needs drastic reexamination by those who invented the slogan; and fourthly, escapism and flight from reality, whether this takes the shape of the television myth and the enchanted world of the ad-man which seek to show people as better than they know perfectly well they are, or of such escapist drugs as the tranquillizer pill, the fat blue sleeping pill, and the psychoanalyst’s couch.

Sixty-six years later, these same complaints are mentioned regularly by social commentators (albeit with updated terminology). It’s almost as if the text above is a rant by Joe Rogan in 2025, rather than a British author writing pre-sexual revolution, pre-hippy movement, pre-internet.

This fact makes me wonder whether these “troubles” are somehow endemic to America. It also makes me wonder whether they’re really troubles at all, or rather if they’re a kind of secret-sauce in our culture that makes us keep thriving even though we’re constantly sure we’re on the brink of collapse.

The Collapse of the Family

The collapse of the family is, indeed, not a hopeful sign, as the benefits of intact families are well-documented. But the word “collapse” is overdramatic. The idea that “the family unity hardly exists today” is simply not accurate. It’s true the proportion of children living with two parents has declined from 87.7% in 1960 to 71.1% in 2023, but this decline stabilized around 2000 and has even slightly increased over the past few years.

At this moment, the idea of the family is even having a moment with the rise of the trad movement. It’s suddenly (for the first time in my life) cool to want to get married and have lots of kids. Who knows if this vibeshift will last, but it’s some indication that America won’t fully abandon the family anytime in the near future.

Momism

As for the destructive force of “Momism” in America? I mean—meh. There certainly are reasons to gripe about alimony laws. There is a real issue with parents being overly protective of their children these days. And journalist

Meghan Daum

has argued that women are responsible for creating and perpetuating cancel culture. So…sure, we can blame momism for some things.

But lumping momism in as one of the top four reasons for what ails America seems weird. This might speak mostly to Fleming’s (rather overt) misogynistic tendencies. I may even go out on a limb and say that feminine virtues remain largely underappreciated and undervalued.

At the very least, it’s obvious that the empowerment of women in the West has been a net positive. If America does have a secret sauce, women’s liberation absolutely serves as a major factor. (As a side note, the term “momism” has a pretty interesting history. According to an article in the NYT, in the 1940s, “Momism became seen as a threat to the moral fiber of America on a par with communism.” Oh, how times have changed! Or not?)

The American Way of Life

When Fleming observes that the American way of life is in need of “drastic reexamination,” my initial reaction is that he’s absolutely correct. The American way of life—at least what I’ve understood it to be in my lifetime—is dumb as hell. We’re the wealthiest nation on earth with much of the best land on the planet, and yet we’re too often anxious, depressed, overweight, cultureless, hyper-religious, and openly hostile to education and cosmopolitanism.

The American way of life means car culture and suburban sprawl, fast-food, guns, football, and Jesus (read: hollowed-out cities, unhealthy citizens, glorification of violence, self-inflicted brain damage, and, again, self-inflicted brain damage). It means each of us personally knowing more than a few people quietly suffering from alcohol abuse and drug addiction. It means every kid in high school wanting to be rich and famous when 20% of them are barely literate. Etc.

America is an amazing county. But our stereotypical “way of life” is absolutely in need of drastic reexamination. Just as it was in 1960. And just as it will be, no doubt, in 2060. Fortunately, we’re never been a nation that fully settles into stagnation. If we ever give up the fight against our worst impulses and tendencies, then we’ll be in real trouble. Until that time, we’ll keep pushing forward despite ourselves.

Escapism and Flight from Reality

Fleming’s final criticism of America is that we escape reality through distractions like television, drugs, and psychoanalysis. If only he had lived to see the distracting powers of the internet and social media!

Obviously we are guilty of escapism. More so than ever. And the harms done to society are not insignificant. But on balance, despite the harms, our collective tendency toward escapism might be our greatest strength. Take a look at our technological breakthroughs: almost every time, you’ll find that they originated in pure fantasy. Jack Parsons, who created rocket fuel, was inspired by science fiction and sustained by satanic sex rituals. Elon Musk, who championed a new era of space flight, is to this day inspired by a sci-fi vision of the future while zonked on ketamine.

Or consider the development of artificial intelligence. This technology would never be where it is today without GPUs. And GPUs were created for gamers. If hordes of American boys hadn’t dedicated their lives to leveling up on the latest video game, there would have been no market demand for GPUs, and AI would have never developed on its current trajectory.

If it feels like America is in poor health, perhaps it’s true. But, at the same time, perhaps that feeling, which we’re primed to fight against, is what ultimately guarantees that we’ll continue to thrive as a culture and as a nation.