My present sense of surroundings is thus akin to that of my childhood in wartime. Crime on the streets, hijacking in the air, hostage-taking and bombing in once well-policed countries – this state of siege, coupled with the daily warnings of danger from food and drink, medication and machinery, clothing, toys, and sex, viruses and killer diseases seconded by polluted air and water, has reconstituted the situation of permanent qui vive. Even when no thought of nuclear war is present to the mind, the atmosphere forbids delectation, let alone complacency.
(Jacques Barzun, “Toward a Fateful Serenity”)
