The one kind of society that the Church cannot adjust to is no society at all, i.e., a setup where community has become so fragmented that a communal… - Wilfrid Sheed

Not that there weren't real communists in the labor unions, and real spies in Washington, but these had nothing to do with the show that was being put on for us, which seemed entirely designed to Make Us Take This Thing Seriously. From abroad, where I was for much of the time, it looked as if the United States were trying to act like a superpower by holding its very own show trials.

What he feared most was the blind spot between us and the future, the space between identities where we could get lost forever.

Through the burgeoning university network, it was suddenly possible to think of oneself as a national poet, even if the nation turned out to consist entirely of English departments.