re: #105 Killgore Trout

I think what he’s saying is that they lack democratic culture and attidudes which come from living in an open democratic society. These are cultural attitudes that come from experiencing democracy, they aren’t inherited racial traits.
I guess he can be faulted for not foreseeing that people might twist his words and make accusations but that doesn’t change the point he was trying to make.

I agree that this is a plausible reading, which is why “historical ingredients” is about 100x better language to use than “mental ingredients”. Brooks didn’t need “mental” to make his point.

Brooks needs to take the lesson from Mark Twain:

The difference between the almost right word & the right word is really a large matter—it’s the difference between the lightning bug and the lightning.