POCKET PARADIGMS

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The fraud, the huckster, the salesman are not new phenomena in America;
what is new is that they now so strongly control every estate of our
society. Those of a character that would have once caused Americans to
close the door, hang up, or say "no thank you," now teach our children,
run our government, and tell us what to think. They are the Enron
generation, filled with postmodern versions of Willy Loman: "He don't
put a bolt to a nut, he don't tell you the law or give you medicine. He'
s a man way out there in the blue, riding on a smile and a shoeshine."
America once made things people wanted, said things that needed to be
said and fixed things, including itself, that needed fixing. Now it is
out there in the blue, riding on a smile and a shoeshine. The problem,
as Willy Loman discovered, comes "when they start not smiling back -
that's an earthquake. And then you get yourself a couple of spots on
your hat, and you're finished." - Sam Smith

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