Nobody asked but …
There is a wonderful (but terrifying) image drawn by Robert Penn Warren, in my favorite novel, All the King’s Men — “a bubble on the tide of imperialism.” We are all bubbles on the tide of history. It depends on what part of the tide in which you are. Most of us Americans are bubbles, or in a bubble, caught on the tide of British and European imperialism. Small miracle that we are statist imperialists in the main. We came here to get away from imperialism, but we founded a government to help us with that. Now, we have both government and imperialism. Smaller miracle that there are still some of us seeking to escape.
— Kilgore Forelle
