Any Contemporary Political Re-statement Of Liberal And

Freedom Is Not Merely The Opportunity To Do As One Pleases; Neither Is It Merely The Opportunity To Choose Between Set Alternatives. Freedom Is, First Of All, The Chance To Formulate The Available Choices, To Argue Over Them -- And Then, The Opportunity To Choose.

What I Am Asserting Is That In This Particular Epoch A Conjunction Of Historical Circumstances Has Led To The Rise Of An Elite Of Power; That The Men Of The Circles Composing This Elite, Severally And Collectively, Now Make Such Key Decisions As Are Made; And That, Given The Enlargement And The Centralization Of The Means Of Power Now Available, The Decisions That They Make And Fail To Make Carry More Consequences For More People Than Has Ever Been The Case In The World History Of Mankind

The Professional Celebrity, Male And Female, Is The Crowning Result Of The Star System Of A Society That Makes A Fetish Of Competition. In America, This System Is Carried To The Point Where A Man Who Can Knock A Small White Ball Into A Series Of Holes In The Ground With More Efficiency Than Anyone Else Thereby Gains Social Access To The President Of The United States.

Seldom Aware Of The Intricate Connection Between The Patterns Of Their Own Lives And The Course Of World History, Ordinary People Do Not Usually Know What This Connection Means For The Kind Of People They Are Becoming And For The Kind Of History-making In Which They Might Take Part.

Prestige Is The Shadow Of Money And Power. Where These Are, There It Is. Like The National Market For Soap Or Automobiles And The Enlarged Arena Of Federal Power, The National Cash-in Area For Prestige Has Grown, Slowly Being Consolidated Into A Truly National System.