Sublime

This was an American gospel, based on hard work, pragmatism, innovation, self-reliance and openness to risk.83 The steadfast virtues of thrift, prudence, and persistence—so celebrated as the foundation of the American character—were appended to the imagined traits of frontiersmen, wildcatters, and fortune seekers.

Every facet of Amarillo a testament to a nation of bad-ass firsts: first in prison population, first in meat consumption, first in operational strategic warheads, first in per-capita carbon emissions, first in line for the Rapture. Whether American liberals liked it or not, Amarillo was how the rest of the world saw their country.