When We Talk About The Foreign, The

I Sometimes Think That The American Story Is The One About The Reading Of The Will.

What Kind Of People Do We Wish To Become, And How Do We Know An American When We See One? Is It Possible To Pursue A Common Purpose Without A Common History Or A Standard Text?

Label Celebrity A Consumer Society's Most Precious Consumer Product, And Eventually It Becomes The Hero With A Thousand Faces, The Packaging Of The Society's Art And Politics, The Framework Of Its Commerce, And The Stuff Of Its Religion.

But The Line Of Thought That I'd Been Chasing For Several Days Was Implicit In The Ruins Of The Old Roman Empire, Which Gradually Destroyed Itself By Substituting The Faith In A Legion Of Miraculous Words For The Strength Of Armies And The Weight Of Walls.

The American Press Is, And Always Has Been, A Booster Press, Its Editorial Pages Characteristically Advancing The Same Arguments As The Paid Advertising Copy.