I have always been a friend to hero-worship; it is the only rational one, and has always been in use amongst civilized people--the... worship of spirits is synonymous with barbarism--it is mere fetish.... There is something philosophic in the worship of the heroes of the human race.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
The state of society is one in which the members have suffered amputation from the trunk, and strut about so many walking monsters...,--a good finger, a neck, a stomach, an elbow, but never a man.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
An ... important antidote to American democracy is American gerontocracy. The positions of eminence and authority in Congress are ...allotted in accordance with length of service, regardless of quality. Superficial observers have long criticized the United States for making a fetish of youth. This is unfair. Uniquely among modern organs of public and private administration, its national legislature rewards senility.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
We have got rid of the fetish of the divine right of kings, and that slavery is of divine origin and authority. But the divine rig...ht of property has taken its place. The tendency plainly is towards ... "a government of the rich, by the rich, and for the rich."LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
The professional celebrity, male and female, is the crowning result of the star system of a society that makes a fetish of competi...tion. In America, this system is carried to the point where a man who can knock a small white ball into a series of holes in the ground with more efficiency than anyone else thereby gains social access to the President of the United States.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Money is like sex. Some people believe that the more sexual experiences they have, with as many different people as possible, the ...more fulfilled they will be. But even great quantities of money and sex may not satisfy the craving. The problem lies not in having too much or too little, but in taking money literally, as a fetish rather than as a medium. If wealth is found by rejecting the experience of poverty, then it will never be complete. The soul is nurtured by want as much as by plenty.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
The fetish of the great university, of expensive colleges for young women, is too often simply a fetish. It is not based on a genu...ine desire for learning. Education today need not be sought at any great distance. It is largely compounded of two things, of a certain snobbishness on the part of parents, and of escape from home on the part of youth. And to those who must earn quickly it is often sheer waste of time. Very few colleges prepare their students for any special work.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »