Drive in, drive through, drive by; so very American. Quick-Mart, Quick-Wash, and Quickbooks software to keep track of the money part. The quick-greeting; “Harya?” or “Howzitgoin?” Leisure is at best a late night talk show.

America loves the instant; instant coffee, instant gratification; also youth, beauty, celebrity, health and guns. Health and guns? Strange bedfellows. Americans never die in their imaginations in spite of the fact that they always do in reality. Freedom, we proudly claim, and I need my guns to protect me from your freedoms, my quick mart for the six pack for that late night talk show.

The reason we’re so advanced, so powerful, is our inventiveness, our technology, our rationality, our quickness. Hell, we’re such a young nation we hardly have long-lived traditions, so of course we can move so quickly; we’re free of all that baggage.

I’m going to grab some potato chips, a six pack, and a box of 44 magnums. The weekend is coming up, gotta remember to get a workout at the club, these love handles are attracting too many comments from the chicks.

Shame, as I’m coming to understand it, is a species feeling which, in the long run, corrodes the capacity for hope and prevents us looking far ahead. We look down at our feet, thinking only of the next small step. John Berger

George's selection of 66 Phlogs is available in print from People's Press.

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