I just returned from a visit to Japan, the capital of civility and social harmony. I don't like to talk about trivial matters, and had to restrain myself from asking probing questions about Toyota. Yet after the increasing divisiveness that American culture and media have engendered, I found the Japanese delightful and wondered if their aversion to criticism and controversy wasn't a reasonable price to pay for lower blood pressure and lasting relationships. While it's a cliché that politics and religion shouldn't be discussed at the dinner table, that seems to be all we're doing in America at the moment, not to mention all the intimate questions about sex and money. Which kind of relations do you prefer and why?