I’m drawing my own conclusions from the book, partly because I’ve still got to rationalize away a big-ass TV. Vowell’s examples were buying witch-themed souvenirs from Salem and playing Pop-a-Shot, and for all I know she’d be horrified to see me reading the book and coming to the conclusion “Sarah Vowell gives thumbs-up to American consumerism!”

The idea I was trying (and failing) to get across is that there’s a workable line between living like Paris Hilton and hearing the death screams of innocents every time you eat a McDonald’s french fry. I believe that we’ve been hit for so long with the perception that American “culture” is shallow, and that Americans are nothing more than simple-minded excessive consumers, that we, at least those of us on “the Left” have bought into it past the point of being practical or useful.

For those outside the US (like the Canadians who made “The Corporation”), it’s the germ of a valid message corrupted by the chance to point fingers at others for their excesses. And for liberal Americans, It’s just turned into a modern version of the White Man’s Burden. It’s just guilt, not graciousness — we’ve lost the idea that everybody can have it as good as we do, but instead feel that nobody should have it as good as we do.