The Bad Trip

Can anyone still believe — really believe — that the government gangsters enjoy special wisdom unavailable to ordinary people? That they virtuously make use of whatever arcane knowledge they may have? That they act for our benefit? Those ideas underlay the civic culture back when I was growing up, along with a certain slogan that you don't hear much anymore: "Taxes are the price we pay for civilization."

If no one outside the State Developmental Center can believe any of it these days, why do so many people act as if they do? And not just on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November, either.

If you haven't yet gone cold turkey, please
do so now. It's been a bad trip.

From The Last Ditch.