You said: «This notion that reality must conform itself to whatever Americans want seems to me a sort of national
infantile narcissism.
First there is the unconscious renunciation of the path of regression to
infantile narcissism, which no longer gives satisfactions to offset its disadvantages.
The underlying problem of
infantile narcissism is not resolved but instead is walled off in the experience of surrender.
The 1 - ism which Mark described seems to be derived from
infantile narcissism.