There's been a lot of talk about how bad the reporting was, particularly with the George W. Bush Administration after 9<br>11. The general assumption, which I think is a valid one, is that a lot of the major media were on their heels a little bit and prone to share the grief of the nation and to give Bush all the support it could.
The American cultural ideal of the self-made man, of everyone standing on his own feet, is as tragic a picture as the initiative destroying dependence on a benevolent despot. We all need each other. This type of interdependence is the greatest challenge to the maturity of individual and group functioning.