I'm not sure whether I can speak about conversations on college campus -- I don't think BU is very representative, but if there is discussion going on, I seem to have missed it here. I would agree on the allure of expediency for the current generation, or at least myself personally. On an abstract and intellectual level, I understand the need for checks and balances and all that good stuff (particularly when it means checking and balancing the Bush administration), but I'm not sure how much I really appreciate it. I think the atittude is partly a reaction to cynicism and apathy — most people just don't seem to care, so somebody has to step up and do what needs to be done. That's at least how my experience leading the BU Habitat chapter seems to have been; our elections for new e-board positions are almost laughably undemocratic, but we don't really have much of a choice because so few people are interested in making the commitment. Since I'm the guy willing to step forward and do most of the work, I make most of the decisions just by default, which doesn't make for a very strong institutional legacy but which still makes sense to me since, of course, I think I've got pretty good ideas on how to run things. I think praktike's point about the contrast between the Truman administration "builders" and the Bush administration, which shows little interest in doing so, is an important one, but on a personal level I can relate to the executive impulse. So I think I'm going to have to be careful if I ever enter government. I'm going to have to pick up the Code Names book, huh.