Steven C. Hunt

Yup, it's entropy, really. Progress requires intelligence, consensus, effort. American conservatism knows only destruction. It takes a team to build a house, any knucklehead can burn one down.

Oh, cool, and the story contains a "it's good to be distracted by shiny things" component. It all worked out for Atalanta, and we can guess how angry Aphrodite would have been if her golden apples had been ignored.