We are a nation of poets and saints, and ultimately, of sailors. We regularly embark on great discourses and are fond of making solemn declarations. If our journey becomes fraught with danger, turns impervious and difficult, we continue to proclaim loudly that everything is going swimmingly. But this is no way to proceed. "I dream of a country where no politician would ever say: when I hear the word 'culture' I reach for my gun, so that farmers, geneticists, biologists, astronomers, nuclear engineers, in other words, all those who didn't audition for Big Brother, can have the time and opportunity to experience everything that the future suggests is possible. I dream of a country that has the courage to say: it was a good idea but we were too arrogant when we proposed it or perhaps we have become too old to continue to champion it. A country like that will surely live to see the arrival of fresh minds, ready to take up the baton and to work to ensure it does not end up in the wrong hands or is not swallowed up again into the black void of the past."