"Whether or not you should come to America depends on a lot of things, but the atmosphere of this country is singularly unstimulating. Why live among lotus eaters and conformists, and such conformists. Never was there a place where freedom was so much an illusion. But if you do come, then I would have the pleasure of talking to you down here, I hope. For that reason I hope you will come. But for the rest you will find here no imagination, nothing but people counting, counting and counting, whether with giant machines, or on their stupid fingers. All they know how to do is count."
Thomas Merton
writing to Czeslaw Milosz
Striving Towards Being
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