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• Wednesday, July 23, 2008 04:23 PM

  if you swim with piranhas,

  should you be surprised to be nibbled to death?

  if you give great power to a body of people, should you be surprised if they use it for their own advantage? if you allow them the power to work in secret, should you be surprised if they do things you would not wish to happen?

  the notion that a small guild of people can be trusted to run the state for the benefit of all has no logical foundation. why then be surprised to see these people acting as humans always do?

  there is no surprise here. the bush regime is not unique, and might not be even the worst, merely the most coarse and unconcerned with superficial appearances. consequently, a change in personnel will have no significant result in american political culture. america will continue to be a nation ruled by an elite. the elite will be driven by the usual lust for greater power, greater wealth and, when some orc like cheney gets a seat in the cockpit, the lust will be for deeper personal goals, better described by psychiatrists.

  people who are unhappy with the way things things are going in the 'land of the free' had better lift their attention away from the celebrities in the beltway, long enough to ask: "why don't we have democracy?"

  indeed, they should ask, "why am i sitting here wringing my hands and crying 'woe, woe! when i should be working actively to bring citizen initiative into control of the nation."

  —al loomis Read al loomis's other letters
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