Went out in mixed company tonight -- American and French -- to an Irish pub, to celebrate Samuel Beckett's birthday. The music was loud, so we ended up communicating by writing on the paper placemats.

For reasons I wasn't clear of, my friend who'd called the party ended up drawing this trinity on a mat:

The French guy across the table who I'd been trying to impress all evening was confused. "He's trying to explain the United States to you," I wrote, making nonsense out of nonsense. In response, he sketched,

"To Europeans, America is like this," he wrote. Then he sketched

For a minute he left it at that, then wrote, "Really, that's all." Then he picked up the pen again, and added:

We proceeded into a discussion in which it became clear that he took a more negative stance on religion than I do (and that's saying something).

I put this on the record this because not the faintest whiff of this negative concept of the United States is permitted to enter the airtight chambers of our popular opinion. We can't go on like this. We can't continue forever dreaming that we are the best country in the world while other countries -- including third world countries like the African nations whose leaders said they would hold up our last election to their students as an example that corruption happens even in first-world elections -- see us for all the flaws we ignore.