Mr. Dickey throws the title question back at his host for a definition of the American spirit, and Mr. Buckley replies: "Well, it is easier to say what it isn't... It certainly isn't boredom. It isn't a sense of impotence. It isn't a sense of futility. It isn't a sense of misanthropy. And it isn't a sense of self-hate, either...." JD: "I was in Australia three years ago, and it seemed to me ... Australia is like America was when we had a great feeling of hope and promise and possibility. They still have their frontier down there. I think the thing that's eaten us up in America is excessive introspection and the questioning of every motive so that you can't do the simplest thing without being made aware that there's a certain amount of guilt that attaches to it." He tells about a commencement address he's writing, to be titled "How Can You Possibly?" subtitled "Reflections on Guilt, Joy, and the Quality of Life," "And the opening sentence of the address is, 'How can you possibly stand there eating that ice-cream cone when children are being firebombed in Vietnam?' " WFB: "What is an appropriate response?" JD: "I don't know. I haven't gotten to the second sentence yet." And on through Susan Sontag and Albert Camus and hats made of fox skins and much else.