Interesting - but too cryptic - point. The article mentions a scholar, Richard Poirier, who was at Rutgers when I was a lit student there. I vaguely remember lectures on "Emerson as the American Nietzsche", etc but that was a lifetime ago.
American nihilism is terrifying. Philip Dick has created indelible images of it. Minority Report and also a book which was recently made into a series for Netflix a "what if the Nazis won WWII" story.
I remember growing up and having a hugely idealistic idea of the 60s. I saw MLK, Bob Dylan, etc as these incorruptible, anti-commercial fonts of wisdom. And in my lifetime they are used to sell khakis and Chryslers.
This poem fits into that narrative. Everything is ultimately for sale - that is American nihilism?
Leonard Cohen gets at something in the poem/song "Democracy" describing America as the cradle of the best and of the worst. The same engine that powers innovation and imaginative leaps also fuels the intolerance and wackiness so visible in our political process.
The poem in question says in short - you can choose any path; just come up with the good story and an advert slogan to explain it later.
Sorry that was kind of cryptic and vague. I meant that the poem talks about two things that are more or less the same, and then championing the more-or-less equal path you chose to take as some great defining decision. To me American nihilism is the championing of non decisions. Taking pride in your political party, car brand, part of the country you live in, etc. Americans tend to see meaning in the meaningless, morality in being content, identity in pre-selected choices, and they do it with a smile.
