Democracy Is A Difficult Art Of Government,

Further Strengthenings Of The Self-centered Instinct For Survival Recruit Even Greater Numbers Of People Into Some Sort Of Ring Of Fellowship (church Or Gender, Red State Or Blue) By Populating The Terra Incognita Outside The Ring With Enough Barbarians To Verify The Existence Of A Civilization Within--to Define The Preferred Stock By What, As All Good People Agree, It Decidedly Is Not.

The More Prosperous And Settled A Nation, The More Readily It Tends To Think Of War As A Regrettable Accident; To Nations Less Fortunate The Chance Of War Presents Itself As A Possible Bountiful Friend.

Since The Eighteenth Century The Immense Expansion Of The Worlds Wealth Has Come About As A Result Of A Correspondingly Immense Expansion Of Credit, Which In Turn Has Demanded Increasingly Stupendous Suspensions Of Disbelief.

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.

In The Garden Of Tabloid Delight, There Is Always A Clean Towel And Another Song.