The settlement of America had its origins in the unsettlement of Europe. America came into existence when the European was already so distant from the ancient ideas and ways of his birthplace that the whole span of the Atlantic did not widen the gulf. Today, the degradation of the inner life is symbolized by the fact that the only place sacred from interruption is the private toilet. Today, the notion of progress in a single line without goal or limit seems perhaps the most parochial notion of a very parochial century. By his very success in inventing labor-saving devices, modern man has manufactured an abyss of boredom that only the privileged classes in earlier civilizations have ever fathomed.
War is the supreme drama of a completely mechanized society.