Notes are often a difficult form for a reader – even, I suspect, a reader of The Public Interest. He naturally prefers a tidy exposition which makes its points in some linear fashion and which comes to a specific conclusion. In a sense, this is a peculiarly “American” demand. The presumption is usually made that every problem has a solution, and one can march towards it in a direct line. Indirection irritates. It suggests ambiguity or complexity which, in the American vernacular, becomes translated as evasiveness or hesitation.