"I am immensely sorry for all of us." Warranted though it would be, this is not a quote from the president of the United States. (I can dream, can't I?)  It's a quote rather from the president of Brazil, written on Twitter, in the aftermath of that nation's brutal and apparently existential loss to Germany of -- what? -- a soccer game.  (See quote from the Sydney Morning Herald here.) An article in today's British Daily Mail Online  is instructive about those who put their misplaced and obsessive faith in ultimately unavailing and empty constructs. Like linking personal and national identity with a chimera. But more about that below. A third article, in the New York Times, describes a "Nation in Despair". Brazil's national team having badly lost the game, its legions of soccer fans are, according to the articles, apparently despondent, "devastated," fighting in the streets, rampaging, and even suicidal....(Read Full Article)