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I was going to make this a comment on Steve's post 2 entries down, but it's worth putting on top. A reader brought this essay by Sam Harris to my attention, and this one passage struck me as perfect:

He writes: "Americans have an unhealthy desire to see average people promoted to positions of great authority. No one wants an average neurosurgeon or even an average carpenter, but when it comes time to vest a man or woman with more power and responsibility than any person has held in human history, Americans say they want a regular guy, someone just like themselves….This is one of the many points at which narcissism becomes indistinguishable from masochism."

Just so. I wish I had written that.

Posted on Thursday, September 4, 2008 at 2:54 PM | Comments (3) | Return

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