Anti-utopianism Continues To Suffuse Our Culture...today Few

The Playing Field Is More Sacred Than The Stock Exchange, More Blessed Than Capital Hill Or The Vaults Of Fort Knox. The Diamond And The Gridiron -- And, To A Lesser Degree, The Court, The Rink, The Track, And The Ring -- Embody The American Dream Of Eden.

A Certain Kind Of Rich Man Afflicted With The Symptoms Of Moral Dandyism Sooner Or Later Comes To The Conclusion That It Isn't Enough Merely To Make Money. He Feels Obliged To Hold Views, To Espouse Causes And Elect Presidents, To Explain To A Trembling World How And Why The World Went Wrong.

Democracy Is A Difficult Art Of Government, Demanding Of Its Citizens High Ratios Of Courage And Literacy, And At The Moment We Lack Both The Necessary Habits Of Mind And A Sphere Of Common Reference.

About The Presence Of Death And Dying I Don't Remember The Society In The 1950s Being So Skittish As It Has Since Become. People Still Died At Home, Among Relatives And Friends, Often In The Care Of A Family Physician. Death Was Still To Be Seen Sitting In The Parlor, Hanging In A Butcher Shop, Sometimes Lying In The Street.

Most Of The Ladies And Gentlemen Who Mourn The Passing Of The Nation's Leaders Wouldn't Know A Leader If They Saw One. If They Had The Bad Luck To Come Across A Leader, They Would Find Out That He Might Demand Something From Them, And This Impertinence Would Put An Abrupt And Indignant End To Their Wish For His Return.