Essay: A NEW AMERICAN CREDO

In 1920, Satirists H.L. Mencken and George Jean Nathan published a book called The American Credo. It contained a chrestomathy of shibboleths, prejudices, common beliefs and unexamined truisms held sacred by millions—"That it snowed every Christmas down to fifteen years ago," for example, or "that oysters are a great aphrodisiac." The Credo badly needs updating. In 50 years, America has become a more divided land, and its favorite truisms are less firmly fixed. But a lot of cliché consensus can still be found. In the public interest, TIME herewith proposes a few articles...

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