The Leading Cause Of Death Is Birth.

The Mystical Nature Of American Consumption Accounts For Its Joylessness. We Spend A Great Deal Of Time In Stores, But If We Don't Seem To Take Much Pleasure In Our Buying, It's Because We're Engaged In The Acts Of Sacrifice And Self-definition. Abashed In The Presence Of Expensive Merchandise, We Recognize Ourselves . . . As Suppliants Admitted To A Shrine.

Let The Rabbit Of Free Enterprise Out Of Its Velveteen Bag And Too Many People Would Have To Be Fired, Too Much Idiocy Exposed To The Light Of Judgment Or Ridicule, Too Much Vanity Sacrificed To The Fires Of Efficiency. Such A Catastrophe Obviously Would Threaten The American Way Of Life, To Say Nothing Of The Belief In Free Markets.

Wars Might Come And Go, But The Seven O'clock News Lives Forever.

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.

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.