Thought for the Week

This administration doesn't seem to realize that the world is much larger than the United States. I hear on conservative talk radio the constant assertion that America is the destined leader of the world, that America is blessed by God and the best place on earth, where everyone wants to live. Therefore anything we do is automatically good, and the only problem is the people who hate us because we're free. Now I'm very pro-American -- my entire family escaped poverty in Italy because they rightly believed in the American dream. My father and five of my uncles proudly served in World War II. But uncritical American boosterism -- automatic endorsement of every government action -- is myopic and self-defeating. I don't think too many people at the top of this administration -- or too many conservative radio hosts, for that matter -- have traveled much outside the U.S. or had contact with other languages. They've had minimal exposure to other worldviews or lifestyles. It's unsettling that politicians with such constricted vision will have been in charge of public policy for eight years of this presidency.

Camille Paglia, from the Salon Interview, 27 October 2006

Read the complete interview with Camille Paglia here.