Around the turn of the twentieth century, Dr. Freud reinforced Darwin and brought us back full circle to Euripides by burying the controlling forces of human motivation deep within the mind/soul (psyche), far beyond the good intentions of rational will. Now the suggestion is that the controlling power of humanity is not within us but around us—not in our natural environment but in our culture. Human nature is not coded into DNA: it is structured by the way people use language to explain their lives to themselves.

Sometimes not only truth is sacrificed but the general supporting culture as well. This willingness to write off one's extended human environment for the benefit of the self-aggrandizing in-group is most obvious in the mighty. In contemporary America, the Johnson administration made this point clear in a backhanded way with its occasional lapses into realism about the grave political and moral ramifications that escalating the Vietnam war would have on the country. These moments of temporary lucidity served to underline the sad fact that the Johnson clique was quite willing to sacrifice national and party interests for the sake of Presidential image. The exceptional moments of brilliant insight contrasted starkly with the prevailing mood of gloomy fantasy and served to demonstrate only that every silver lining has a cloud.

This catchy image expresses little more than that two contrasting trends have coexisted throughout history. One is the tendency of people to accept their fate; the other is the tendency to rebel against it, and the history of Italy in this century provides examples of both trends. On Sicily, the Mafia (certainly one of the most successful organizations ever) flourishes among people pretty much resigned to accept it as a fact of life and death. On the mainland, the glory of a mad egocentric was doomed by his magnificent stupidity. Mussolini personified a fool rebelling against the limitations of his world. For example, his population policy—Brats for Glory—made the Catholic Church look like the Institute for Planned Parenthood. No leader could survive such reckless disregard for the realities of resources, no matter how charismatic he might be.

Whatever its superficial appeal, the missionary complex is often darkened by a deliberate effort to create fate. Those determined to remake the world in their own image cannot accept the stupidity of the world as it is: they feel compelled to add to it. In 1961, the Kennedy administration suffered a crusading compulsion to guide the Vietnamese away from their own objectives and toward those of American policy. This mission was

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