But The Existence Of A Cult Does

In America, Nostalgia For Things Is Apt To Set In Before They Go.

The Point Of A Library's Existence Is Not Persuasion Or Evangelism, But Knowledge. It Is Irrelevant To The Good Library Whether, As An Institution, It Shares Or Promotes Your Core Values Or Mine, Or The Attorney General's Or Saddam Hussein's. The Library Is Always An Instrument Of Choice, And The Choice Is Always Yours, Not Your Elected Or Designated Leaders.

When The War (wwi) Finally Ended It Was Necessary For Both Sides To Maintain, Indeed Even To Inflate, The Myth Of Sacrifice So That The Whole Affair Would Not Be Seen For What It Was: A Meaningless Waste Of Millions Of Lives. Logically, If The Flower Of Youth Had Been Cut Down In Flanders, The Survivors Were Not The Flower: The Dead Were Superior To The Traumatized Living. In This Way, The Virtual Destruction Of A Generation Further Increased The Distance Between The Old And The Young, Between The Official And The Unofficial.

One Gets Tired Of The Role Critics Are Supposed To Have In This Culture: It's Like Being The Piano Player In A Whorehouse; You Don't Have Any Control Over The Action Going On Upstairs.

It Is The Nature Of Carnivores To Get Power And Then, Having Disposed Of Their Enemies, To Deploy The Emollient Powers Of Great Art To Make Themselves Look Like Herbivores.