I wondered how it was that so many Americans—educated, intelligent Americans—seemed to genuinely believe this stuff. Where did it come from, this conviction that their country was somehow uniquely possessed of a divine spark of freedom, a national genius for personal liberty? The only thing that seemed to me to explain the conviction also fatally undermined it: the fact that from cradle to grave every American was subject to a relentless barrage of propaganda about the special freedom guaranteed them by their citizenship.
