"When I was in the Socialist Party with your father I said again and again that if American capitalism continued to exalt mercenary and dishonest men the economy would degenerate into the manufacture of drugs and ways of life that would make reflection - any sort of thoughtfulness or emotional depth - impossible. I was right." She poked her finger at me. "I see American Magazines in the cafe and the bulk of their text is advertising for tobacco, alcohol and absurd motor cars that promise - quite literally promise - to enable you to forget the squalor, spiritual poverty and monotony of selfishness. Never, in the history of civilization, has one seen a great nation singlemindedly bent on drugging itself."
-JOHN CHEEVER
