The Hero Was A Big Man; The

The Most Refined Skills Of Color Printing, The Intricate Techniques Of Wide-angle Photography, Provide Us Pictures Of Trivia Bigger And More Real Than Life. We Forget That We See Trivia And Notice Only That The Reproduction Is So Good. Man Fulfils His Dream And By Photographic Magic Produces A Precise Image Of The Grand Canyon. The Result Is Not That He Adores Nature Or Beauty The More. Instead He Adores His Camera - And Himself.

Our Attitude Toward Our Own Culture Has Recently Been Characterized By Two Qualities, Braggadocio And Petulance. Braggadocio - Empty Boasting Of American Power, American Virtue, American Know-how - Has Dominated Our Foreign Relations Now For Some Decades. Here At Home - Within The Family, So To Speak - Our Attitude To Our Culture Expresses A Superficially Different Spirit, The Spirit Of Petulance. Never Before, Perhaps, Has A Culture Been So Fragmented Into Groups, Each Full Of Its Own Virtue, Each Annoyed And Irritated At The Others.

Celebrity-worship And Hero-worship Should Not Be Confused. Yet We Confuse Them Every Day, And By Doing So We Come Dangerously Close To Depriving Ourselves Of All Real Models. We Lose Sight Of The Men And Women Who Do Not Simply Seem Great Because They Are Famous But Are Famous Because They Are Great. We Come Closer And Closer To Degrading All Fame Into Notoriety.

The Hero Created Himself; The Celebrity Is Created By The Media.

Formerly, A Public Man Needed A Private Secretary For A Barrier Between Himself And The Public. Nowadays He Has A Press Secretary, To Keep Him Properly In The Public Eye.