"One day a small ship appeared on the Sea of Knowledge. It carried a young prince seeking the future. In the name of goodness and truth he laid claim to all the country and set out to explore his new domain [, but] the demons, monsters, and giants were furious at his presumption and banded together to drive him out." — The Phantom Tollbooth
Despite the popular image of America as anti-intellectual—which don't get me wrong, the majority of Americans certainly are (of course, so is the majority anywhere)—our country has actually been a great stage upon which the most profound philosophical ideas of the last 500 years have played out. Although these ideas began in Europe, the comparatively tabula rasa nature of the American mind is uniquely susceptible to their influence. This, most certainly, is a consequence of America being the first (if not the only) country founded by Philosophers, but also of our unshakable optimism in the future and the resulting joy we get from novelty.
