this, we often say, is the age of the common man.
But we are nou quite sure what we mean for that.
In so far as we mean only the age of universal oppotunity, nothing but good could seem to come of it.
But many people do,sometimes without being entirely aware of it, mean something more.
when we make ourselves the champion of any particular group we almost inevitably idealize that group.
From defending the common man we pass on to exalting him, and we find ourselves beginning to imply, not merely that he is as good as anybldy else, but he is actually better.
Instead of demanding only that the common man be given an oppotunity to become as unmommon as possible, we make this commonness a virtue and,even in the case of candidates for high office, we sometimes praise them for being nearly indistinguishable from the average man in the street