A couple of weeks ago I heard Pat Buchanan tell an interviewer (Terry Gross?) that America deserves to have the highest standard of living in the world. This is a relative measure. According to Buchanan's statement, as standards rise elsewhere, America's level of luxurious indulgence must also rise, in order to remain the highest in the world.
This is the philosophy of a dragon curled atop its pile of treasure. In our fiction, we glorify the tiny knight, attacking and slaying the dragon. In our real life, we act like the dragon. We're big and powerful. We incinerate our attackers. We demand our treasure and greedily guard what we have.
We call the knight a hero but express the dragon point of view.
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