[Vast Buffalo Wing Conspiracy]

That's precisely the kind of thinking which always bothers me whenever I hear conservatives ranting and raving about the "evil Europeans". Yes, we have a more free market oriented culture. We are also more materialistic, more crass, and more culturally deprived. As many have remarked, America is the only country to go from barbarism to decadence without an intervening period of civilization. As I said earlier, there is more than one way of going down the toilet. Europe is taking its route there, and we are taking ours. This doesn't give us any reason to gloat.

[wideawake]

There's quite a bit of talk about how culturally deprived we Americans are.

I honestly don't see it.

When you look at French or German bestseller lists, self-help books and books on football and cuisine are perennial winners. Not much different from Americans.

Martin Amis is no greater a novelist than Updike. Amelie is no more impressive a cinematic achievement than Moonstruck. An empty room with one flickering track light is no more profound than the Photorealist school.

The Europeans are no longer great generators of cultural artifacts - they are connoisseurs of their own and others'.

Their plastic arts and literature have been as degraded by postmodernity as America's.