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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 30 July 2009
The Car and the TV set are icons of the polytheistic secular religion of Americans. The proof is in our behavior patterns: To be deprived of our car or our television set constitutes a near crisis in our daily life, not only in the radical restructuring of our time and our movements, but also in the marked psychological effects of such restructuring—feelings of loss, helplessness, in some cases even depression. (For purposes of comparison, consider the emotional effects of a temporary deprivation of railroad trains, for example, or live theater.)
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