peer pressure and audacity

Bill Maher has an interview in Time (June 5, 2006) in which he laments people's reluctance to be provocative:

"I wouldn't say there's censorship in this country. But there's a lot of peer pressure. Because when anybody says anything that's the least bit feather ruffling, everybody just goes nuts. If anybody in this country is forced to undergo a single moment of discomfort, the person who caused it just must go away."

sigh

Later in the issue, Joe Klein encourages Obama to run now while he's still fresh, before he is "wizened by the accepted limits of the possible."