He thought of a way to state it: Ego is the point of consciousness, the latest term in a continuously expanding series along the line of memory durat… - Robert A. Heinlein

But there seems to have been an actual decline in rational thinking. The United States had become a place where entertainers and professional athletes were mistaken for people of importance. They were idolized and treated as leaders; their opinions were sought on everything and they took themselves just as seriously—after all, if an athlete is paid a million or more a year, he knows he is important…so his opinions of foreign affairs and domestic policies must be important, too, even though he proves himself to be both ignorant and subliterate every time he opens his mouth.

His was not a small mind bothered by logic and consistency.

The less respect an older person deserves the more certain he is to demand it from anyone younger.