I have this half-baked theory that the United States is a uniquely decontextualized culture. By that I mean many aspects of life are out of context and therefore cause cognitive dissonance to those of us who live here. Part of this is a function of modern life and the many streams competing for our attention at any moment. But America - in the larger sense encompassing all parts of the Westernized world to varying extents but especially here at the source - is especially fractured. This is me. In the showroom of the Audi/Volkswagen service department last Saturday. The TV was playing with the sound on, which is typical, and as luck would have it I was forced to listen to a news program about a horrific family murder. (That's a funeral scene against a background of luxury sedans). Layered over that over the PA was some insipid dance pop music, the likes of which I wouldn't normally listen to except in some sort of hostage situation. The guy next to me seemed oblivious hunched over his phone, burrowing under his own layer of reality. I decided instead to leaf through a coffee table book on the history of Audi motors, looking longingly at vintage cars in primary colours posing in the German countryside, hoping for some sort of escape. The effects this kind of dissonance has on Americans is anyone's guess, but I don't think it's entirely coincidental that they are world leaders in acts that speak to a poor grasp on reality.