Marathe and Steeply: the soup and the free choice (pp. 423–424)

Marathe slips spectation into the catalog of American ideals, and Steeply laughs it off as fair. Steeply has just recited the corny, time-tested American dreams — freedom, meaningful work, love, cheap energy, "a tall lemonade on a squeak-free porch swing" — and Marathe completes the list with two dry additions: "The loyalty of a domestic pet," then "High-quality entertainment. High value for the dollar of leisure and spectation." The needle lands because Steeply agrees, laughing, exhaling smoke. Spectation has become so thoroughly one of the things Americans want — sits so naturally among freedom and love and good digestion — that naming it as a national ideal draws not objection but a companionable chuckle. The theme's quiet claim: the drive to watch isn't a vice the culture struggles against but a value it holds, right there with liberty.