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America in the Third Millennium

The following is the concluding chapter of my book, The Fate of America: An Inquiry into National Character. 1 After 11 years of research and writing, the book was scheduled for publication in early September, 2001. On the morning of September 11, as I was watching with millions of other Americans the televised attack on the World Trade Center, there was a knock at my door and the FedEx delivery man gave me a package from my publisher that contained my copy of the book, which I had not yet seen. It would be much later before I could truly fathom the significance of this synchronicity. Like many, I saw 9/11 as a wake-up call to America, yet what followed this ominous day—the war in Iraq and a public mindset increasingly diverted from real issues (“Go out and shop,” the president said)—only confirmed the basic message of the book: that America has digressed from its founding vision and that Americans no longer even recognize what this is. This chapter explores the future of that vision—a future that is seriously threatened. There is little in this chapter that I would change. It seems as relevant today as when I wrote it.