As long as he never went out, there was no crashing self-consciousness, no awareness of the outside world.

NEWYORKER: The Proxy Marriage

Twitter followed suit: Its private accounts are rare, meaning Twitter's fire-hose of updates is becoming an invaluable stream of the world's consciousness (incidentally, this month saw that stream licensed to both Microsoft and Google to bolster their search efforts).

CNN: Privacy is dead, and social media hold smoking gun

While disagreements among political leaders on the direction of an economic unification are common in any part of the world, disagreements among EU-leaders confirm that Europeans have yet to nurture a common consciousness, overcome their national pride, and develop a European identity.

FORBES: EU: A Collection of Capricious Brides