Abstract
Our American society is an implausible reality. E pluribus unum may be written on our money, but it takes more than a slogan to unify 235 million individuals: adolescents and adults, men and women, whites and blacks, city dwellers and farmers, radicals and conservatives, egocentrics and altruists. Why don't the chronic disagreements in Congress, in the press, in families, in schools, in the economy prevent even a precarious unity?