I think
Though not a celebrity we are also responisble for
Nixon

embrace.

Culture?

Americans are insatiable consumers: We need constant bells, whistles, and bright shiny things.

If that changed, our entire economy would be ruined.

I used to think slavery was our original sin, the one we could never escape. But now I would put it further back: the profit motive founded the colonies.* And out of that profit motive grew the peculiar institution of slavery. The legacy of both has plagued us ever since. In modern times, we added celebrity as a measure of "worth." All of these values are combining to destroy the grand experiment.


*except the one we celebrate--Plymouth, which was all about victims of religious persecution looking for a place to religiously persecute others.