While Americans remain individualistic citizens of a nation-state at the height of its power, Europeans are absorbed in an unprecedented enterprise of union-building.

ECONOMIST: Europe and America

Meanwhile, some excessively self-absorbed copyright holders have been lobbying on multiple fronts for expanded power to control everything from the Internet to the electronic devices people use to access music or movies.

FORBES: You Bought It; You Own It ... Or Do You? Supreme Court To Decide

We become absorbed with our abstract arguments, our ideological disputes, our contests for power.

WHITEHOUSE: President Obama Speaks at National Prayer Breakfast