It Is The Fear Of Death -

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.

The National Distrust Of The Contemplative Temperament Arises Less From An Innate Philistinism Than From A Suspicion Of Anything That Cannot Be Counted, Stuffed, Framed Or Mounted Over The Fireplace In The Den.

The Practice Of Our Democracy Depends On A Sense Of, And Knowledge Of, History In The Same Way That Playing In The World Series Requires A Bat And A Ball.

Most American Cities Shop To Their Best Advantage When Seen From A Height Or From A Distance, At A Point Where The Ugliness Of The Buildings Dissolves Into The Beauty Of An Abstraction.

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.