The sickly cultural pathos which the whole of France indulges in, that fetishism of the cultural heritage. Jean Baudrillard (b. 1929), It is silly to call fat people "gravitationally challenged"-a self-righteous fetishism of language which is no more than a symptom of political frustration. Terry Eagleton (b. 1943), The professional celebrity, male and female, is the crowning result of the star system of a society that makes a fetish of competition. In America, this system is carried to the point where a man who can knock a small white ball into a series of holes in the ground with more efficiency than anyone else thereby gains social access to the President of the United States. C. Wright Mills (1916-62), I have always been a friend to hero-worship; it is the only rational one, and has always been in use amongst civilized people-the worship of spirits is synonymous with barbarism-it is mere fetish. . . . There is something philosophic in the worship of the heroes of the human race. George Borrow (1803-81), An . . . important antidote to American democracy is American gerontocracy. The positions of eminence and authority in Congress are allotted in accordance with length of service, regardless of quality. Superficial observers have long criticized the United States for making a fetish of youth. This is unfair. Uniquely among modern organs of public and private administration, its national legislature rewards senility. John Kenneth Galbraith (b. 1908),