The Election and America's Future
Mailer's 1,200-word contribution to a fourteen-author NYRB symposium: the first part on the spiritual condition of a 'guilty nation' and why 9/11 'was the jackpot' for Bush and Rove; the second, post-debate, more optimistic but closing on the Greek gods taking 'another run around the track.'
Mailer’s 1,200-word contribution to a New York Review of Books symposium of fourteen writers (including Russell Baker, Anthony Lewis, Thomas Powers, and Garry Wills). The first part treats the spiritual condition of the United States — a “guilty nation” — and why 9/11 “was the jackpot” for President Bush and Karl Rove, with advice for Kerry in the debates; the second, written after the debates, is more optimistic but ends: “Perhaps it is no longer Jesus or Allah who oversees our fate but the turn of the Greek gods to take another run around the track. When it comes to destiny, they were the first, after all, to conceive of the ironies.” Rpt: 13.1.