What a strange interview--kind of like moving about in a darkened room, unable to ascertain the identity of things you keep bumping into, but keenly aware of there edges. A wine dark sea with no bioluminescence to be had.

While I'll agree with Halprin on some level that you can't keep spending forever, but the idea that printing money, or currency, really has anything to do with arithmetic is kind of silly, or at least very simplistic. There is no trust in arithmetic, it's cold hard numbers. Currency exists mainly due to trust and belief that what you hold in your hand is worth something, trust that those electrons being transferred one bank to another is worth something. So certainly a little more magical than boring old arithmetic.

Tom Wolfe said "the dark night of fascism is always descending in the United States and yet lands only in Europe."
Based on the political rhetoric of the 12 years, one might now say fascism in America is always descending on the right but lands on the left. Liberal New Yorkers, be careful what you wish for.

Mark Helprin apparently likes being identified as a "conservative" thinker. I find his understanding of the social contract superficial and, perhaps, self-serving.

As a Leonard Cohen fan I challenge the supposed haiku quote. Searching online I only find it appearing first from Mark Steyn (~2008), a writer whose politics seem to match Helprin's. Check out Cohen's lyrics on Cohen's 1992 album "The Future." It is a bleak prophecy that I remembered on 9/11 and especially with Bush's wars and patriot acts. Cohen sees fascism not a collapse of modern mixed economies. He had room for seeing that "democracy is coming to America." That would not be by restoration of old moralities and more powerful elites.

Bryce: I had a similar reaction to Helprin's comments: Dickens came immediately to mind. Except that I generally agreed with Helprin. Great artists make great art from anything. But the vast majority of would-be artists I have encountered who start with politics end up with junk.

From his dismissive comment about the divide between politics and art I guess Mark Helprin has little use for Charles Dickens, with his obvious political stance. Or perhaps he thinks it a blot on Dickens' art. For that matter I guess he thinks Aristophanes was only a minor writer of the moment. Weird that productions of him are still being done in this country a few thousand years later. Could it be a false dichotomy, this line between politics and art? Just asking.

The horrible people, the horrible people
It's as anatomic as the size of your steeple
Capitalism has made it this way,
Old-fashioned fascism will take it away
(Marilyn Manson - The Beautifull people)

“Oh and one more thing… you won’t like what comes after America”
(Leonard Cohen)