[MD] Steele meets Pirsig on common ground

[Case]

 [Khaled]
To ad a little fuel to the fire, here is Fareed Zakaria from Newsweek
with a littl editorial http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/13123358/site/newsweek/

[Case]
Here is a chilling quote from the article above:

"Intel's Andy Grove is more blunt. "America ... [is going] down the tubes,"
he says, "and the worst part is nobody knows it. They're all in denial,
patting themselves on the back, as the Titanic heads for the iceberg full
speed ahead. Much of the concern centers on the erosion of science and
technology in the U.S., particularly in education."

How self righteous can you feel when your society"

Promotes two bread winner families
Where the children are nurtured by inanimate objects
Where people whine about taxation and neglect education, libraries, health
and social services. 

But we're #1! 
Rah! Rah! Rah! 
Blah...blah...blah! 
We spend our children's college funds blasting "evildoers" to hell, and take
consolation knowing they will beat us there.

But not all our sins are sins of commission. From Khaled's article:

"There are some who see the decline of science and technology as part of a
larger cultural decay. A country that once adhered to a Puritan ethic of
delayed gratification has become one that revels in instant pleasures. We're
losing interest in the basics-math, manufacturing, hard work, savings-and
becoming a postindustrial society that specializes in consumption and
leisure."