Unbelabored Points

Having suffered now, and not alone I am certain, through the better part of a year under a government administration headed by a self-trumpeting ignoramus, I have been searching to enlist some simple remedy to cure me of an acute case of befuddlement at the inability of the body politic to fully understand the immense danger in which it finds itself. Perhaps we can begin to take those actions necessary to rectify a very grave situation if we cast-off the blue-smoke and mirrors and see clearly what our feckless leaders in the Executive and Legislative branches of our government have been doing thus far.

Begin by reading The Handbook of Political Fallacies, by the Enlightenment philosopher, Jeremy Bentham, it is a lucid treatise on the Art of Our Governing; a guide that I am sure Donald Trump has had read to him, chapter and verse, as a child.

Following is a brief excerpt from the Handbook which describes the methodologies of our current ruling class and names those fallacies that are being employed to help unravel our national fabric, and put our nation at serious risk at the behest of pernicious leaders and their enablers. I cannot recommend strongly enough that this book be found, dusted-off, and read closely and widely.

"First, the fallacies of authority, including laudatory personalities, the subject-matter of which is authority in various shapes, and the object to repress, on the grounds of the weight of such authority, all exercise of the reasoning faculty.

"Secondly, the fallacies of danger, including vituperative personalities, the subject-matter of which is the suggestion of danger in various shapes, and the object to repress altogether, on the ground of such danger, the discussion of a proposed measure.

"Thirdly, the fallacies of delay, the subject-matter of which is the assigning of reasons for delay in various shapes, and the object, to postpone such discussion, with a view to eluding it altogether.

"Fourthly, the fallacies of confusion, the subject-matter of which consists chiefly of vague and indefinite generalities, while the object is to produce, when discussion can no longer be avoided, such confusion in the minds of the hearers as to incapacitate them for forming a correct judgment on the question at issue."