Who Authorized This? Andrew Sullivan, Forbes ASAP, 12.03.01 Why does the United States elicit such extreme hatred in some parts of the world? What America is based on is not the achievement of some goal, the capture of some trophy, or the triumph of success. It's about the process of seeking something. It's about incompletion, dissatisfaction, striving, imperfection. In the late 18th century, this was a statement in itself. In the Europe of the preceding centuries, armies had gone to war, human beings had been burned at stakes, monarchs had been dethroned, and countries torn apart because imperfection wasn't enough. From the Inquisition to the Reformation, religious fanatics had demanded that the state enforce holiness, truth, and virtue. Those who resisted were exterminated. Moreover, the power and status of rulers derived from their own perfection. Kings and queens commanded artists to portray them as demi-gods. Dissenters were not merely troublemakers; they were direct threats to the perfect order of the modern state. This was a political order in which everything had to be perfectly arranged, even down to the internal thoughts of individual consciences. http://www.forbes.com/asap/2001/1203/014.html