A Society That Presumes A Norm Of

Of What Does Politics Consist Except The Making Of Imperfect Decisions, Many Of Them Unjust And Quite A Few Of Them Deadly?

Whether Lawyer, Politician Or Executive, The American Who Knows What's Good For His Career Seeks An Institutional Rather Than An Individual Identity. He Becomes The Man From Nbc Or Ibm. The Institutional Imprint Furnishes Him With Pension, Meaning, Proofs Of Existence. A Man Without A Company Name Is A Man Without A Country.

The Mystical Nature Of American Consumption Accounts For Its Joylessness. We Spend A Great Deal Of Time In Stores, But If We Don't Seem To Take Much Pleasure In Our Buying, It's Because We're Engaged In The Acts Of Sacrifice And Self-definition. Abashed In The Presence Of Expensive Merchandise, We Recognize Ourselves . . . As Suppliants Admitted To A Shrine.

[for American Consumer Society], The Country's Reserves Of Ignorance Constitute A Natural Resource As Precious As The Mississippi River Or The Long-lost Herds Of Buffalo.

Never In The History Of The World Have So Many People Been So Rich; Never In The History Of The World Have So Many Of Those Same People Felt Themselves So Poor.