Dear George,
The first rule of leadership is to neutralize your opposition. In days of yore, this was done with the stake, the rack and the disemboweler’s blade. Now we have discovered that the best prisons are the ones people build for themselves.
The liberalism born of the sixties long ago deteriorated into an egocentric self-absorption that found expression first in drugs, then disco, then greed, and finally in a self-referential consumerism that eschews community in favor of the “self.” Biking, running and home gyms promise an eternal youth of glowering health. Spiritual journeys are begun in search of harmony, peace and serenity, forgetting that the purpose of the spiritual journey is to give us the strength to endure those moments that are neither serene nor harmonious nor peaceful. They slather anti wrinkle cream on their egos and mistake the ability to choose one lifestyle over as other for freedom.
Liberals now worry more about exposure to second-hand smoke than children going to bed hungry. Consumerism has reduced them to a gaggle of Marie Antionettes gamboling through pastoral meadows in peasant garb as they seek the authentic in the world of make believe.
Nothing is more exploitable than a nation of egos, for it is not a nation but a cloud of dust motes ready to be vacuumed up and dumped in the nearest trash bin. Keep their focus on the waistline and the belly button, and you are free to take the ship of state wherever you want.
Your admirer,
Belacqua Jones
8:55:16 PM 
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