B919 <=> B921 (BTG XLII Beelzebub in America, p. 920)

“Among them there at the present time, these surrounding conditions of ordinary collective existence have already become such, that if, for some reason or other, the specialist professionals of all the kinds necessary for their ordinary collective existence should cease to come to them from the other continents to ‘earn money,’ then it is safe to say that within a month the whole established order of their ordinary existence would completely break down, since there would be none among them who could even so much as bake bread.

“The chief cause of the gradual resulting of such an abnormality there among them is, on the one side, the law established by them themselves in respect of the rights of parents over their children and on the other hand the institution in schools for children of what is called a ‘dollar savings bank’ together with the principle of implanting in children a love of such dollars.

“Thanks to this, and to still various other peculiar external conditions of ordinary existence also established by them, themselves, just this love of ‘dollar business’ and of dollars themselves, has become, in the common presence of each of the native inhabitants of this continent who reaches responsible age, the predominant urge during his responsible what is called ‘feverish existence.’

“That is why each one of them is always doing ‘dollar business,’ and, moreover, always several of them at once.

“Although the aforesaid ‘Mister’ to whom I had a letter of introduction was also very busy with these ‘dollar businesses,’ he nevertheless received me very cordially. When he read the letter of introduction I presented to him, a strange process immediately began in him which has already been noticed even by certain of your favorites – it having also become inherent in your contemporary favorites in general – and which they call ‘unconscious preening.’