The middles cleave to euphemisms not just because they're an aid in avoiding facts. They like them also because they assist their social yearnings towards pomposity. This is possible because most euphemisms permit the speaker to multiply syllables, and the middle class confuses sheer numerousness with weight and value.

The more violent the body contact of the sports you watch, the lower the class.

Chickenshit can be recognized instantly because it never has anything to do with winning the war.

Tourism requires that you see conventional things, and that you see them in a conventional way.

Understanding the past requires pretending that you don't know the present. It requires feeling its own pressure on your pulses without any ex post facto illumination.

Travel sharpens the senses. Abroad one feels, sees and hears things in an abnormal way.

If the guidebook used to be critical, today it seems largely a celebratory adjunct to the publicity operations of hotels, resorts, and even countries.