Fantasies, The First Amendment, and Self-Awareness

In my previous posting I discussed Nicholson Baker's forthcoming novella in which one of the characters fantasizes about killing the president. It now occurs to me that Baker's book is an excellent opportunity to explore the importance of self-awareness.

• Does the character who is fantasizing about the assassination have enough self-awareness to stand back from his fantasy and see himself fantasizing?
• Is he aware that his anger at Bush is driving his fantasies?
• Is he aware that a fantasy does not require action.

I suspect that one reason things have gone so badly during the past few years is that many of the people currently in control of the government do not have much self-awareness. As Laura Bush is quoted as saying, "George is not an overly introspective person."

The framework explored by this book provides an excellent opportunity to explore how important self-awareness is. I hope Baker has taken advantage of it.