I Sometimes Think That The American Story

The Rich, Like Well Brought Up Children, Are Meant To Be Seen, Not Heard.

It Is No Accident That Banks Resemble Temples, Preferably Greek, And That The Supplicants Who Come To Perform The Rites Of Deposit And Withdrawal Instinctively Lower Their Voices Into The Registers Of Awe. Even The Most Junior Tellers Acquire Within Weeks Of Their Employment The Officiousness Of Hierophants Tending An Eternal Flame.

Unlike Any Other Business In The United States, Sports Must Preserve An Illusion Of Perfect Innocence. The Mounting Of This Illusion Defines The Purpose And Accounts For The Immense Wealth Of American Sports. It Is The Ceremony Of Innocence That The Fans Pay To See - Not The Game Or The Match Or The Bout, But The Ritual Portrayal Of A World In Which Time Stops And All Hope Remains Plausible, In Which Everybody Present Can Recover The Blameless Expectations Of A Child, Where The Forces Of Light Always Triumph Over The Powers Of Darkness.

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.

A Society That Presumes A Norm Of Violence And Celebrates Aggression, Whether In The Subway, On The Football Field, Or In The Conduct Of Its Business, Cannot Help Making Celebrities Of The People Who Would Destroy It.