Much of what is euphemistically known as the middle class, merely because it dresses up to go to work, is now reduced to proletarian conditions of existence. Many white-collar jobs require no more skill and pay even less than blue-collar jobs, conferring little status or security.

It is no longer an unwritten law of American capitalism that industry will attempt to maintain wages at a level that allows a single wage to support a family.

Personal disintegration remains always an imminent danger.

The left has lost touch with popular opinion, thereby making it possible for the right to present itself as the party of common sense.

Adherents of the new religious right reject the separation of politics and religion, but they bring no spiritual insights to politics.

Today Americans are overcome not by the sense of endless possibility but by the banality of the social order they have erected against it.

The best defense against the terror of existence are the homely comforts of love, work, and family life, which connect us to a world that is independent of our wishes yet responsive to our needs.