There is something funny about Americans and hair. People of importance, like actors and television presenters, or of power, like politicians and business leaders, tend to style their hair so as to make it appear as big and thick as possible. Like animals in an aggressive stance, they puff themselves up, often in improbable and laughable ways. Still, aggression as style makes evolutionary sense. Acting on it, however, is another matter, as Americans will hopefully learn for their own good. More often than not, animals puff themselves up so as to scare away the adversary and thus avoid conflict. A useful trick, this. A very useful trick.

Addendum (May 11, 2003)

Today I sent this piece to The Economist and asked the editor to forward it to Shoshana Zuboff, a professor from Harvard Business School, whose likeness in the current issue of the newspaper had triggered my ruminations. Undoubtedly the pride of her hair-stylist, the woman’s mane is prodigious. As I explained to the editor, with her piercing eyes and a smile that barely conceals a pair of mighty incisors, she looks like something that has just escaped from the Boston zoo. The lush foliage in the background only accentuates the impression. The horror.