- depends on our taking up the cross of denial of truth and transforming it into an all-embracing circle of love.

A BIT OF A STINK

Back at the ranch, I wonder if "born again", reformed alcoholic George has any idea that he is hostile to civilization at base, especially since he gave up drinking, and that he is looking for every opportunity to destroy whatever goodness is left in the US, and the world, and in himself some other way than through drink - maybe.

Here is a quotation that just came to hand and can be turned around neatly to draw attention to the psychological complexity involved:

"Behind the ostensible government sits enthroned an invisible government owing no allegiance and acknowledging no responsibility to the people. To destroy this invisible government, to befoul the unholy alliance between corrupt business and corrupt politics is the first task of the statesmanship of the day." - Theodore Roosevelt. (PS1)

Let's reword that: "Within the smiling de facto president Bush sits enthroned a boy George, who has a playmate Kenny Boy, and these two needy, greedy boys owe no allegiance and acknowledge no responsibility to the people they swore to serve - - -". So far so good, but now I am stuck. Do we really want to "destroy" the unpatriotic at base George Bush and Kenneth Lay, the culprit-in-chief at once mighty, now bankrupt Enron?

Certainly one wants to bring the wicked alliance between corrupt Enron and the increasingly despotic Bush administration to an end. But surely not by destroying the boys who set it up and by "befouling" their alliance in the way Roosevelt recommends, by shitting all over it in statesmanlike style; for that is what the use of the word befoul implies.�

The Theodore Roosevelt quotation has immediate appeal, but when one thinks about it, well, it stinks.

THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION IS ENRON IN OFFICE

Most of us know by now that the US body politic is rotten to the core. This is brought home well in this excerpt from a posting at the World Socialist Web Site:

"It is pointless at the moment to speculate whether or not Enron will prove the present government's undoing. The more critical issue is grasping the extent to which Enron as a criminal and parasitic enterprise expresses the social essence of the Bush administration and the American ruling elite as a whole. To speak of "connections" or "intimate ties" between Enron and the Bush regime nearly misses the point. To a large extent, the present administration is an extension of the Enron board of directors. This government, one might say, is Enron in office, not simply because numerous Bush cabinet members and other appointees (and other leading Republicans) have been employed in one capacity or another by Enron, but more profoundly in the sense that the social types found in Enron's boardroom and in leading government posts in Washington are interchangeable." (PS2)

THE KIRCH-GRUPPE, GERMANY'S ENRON

The political and corporate self-deception and self-aggrandisement leading to self-undoing is global.

From the BBC World Service on Friday, I learnt that the German Kirch-Gruppe, owned by media king Leo Kirch, now 75, is in debt to the tune of $7 billion. The reporter of this story had a nice turn of phrase. He said, "Kirch opened the gateway to the hearts and minds of the people of Germany, and is now going down under a load of debt." For what did Kirch open the gateway to the hearts and minds of his fellow-countrymen? Sports spectacles mainly. Vast sums of money have gone into paying for football TV rights; and $1.4 billion was spent for a stake in Formula One motor racing, now said to be worth less than half that.

Political clout, it is said, made it possible for Leo Kirch to raise credit to way over what his companies were good for. Another Enron.

Here in Sweden, it has been made known that the earnings of the directors and senior managers of Sweden's listed companies have increased by over 600 percent since 1990, and those of workers by 54 percent.

THE $-PYRAMID SCAM BOYS BORROW YEN, AND THE SAVVY JAPANESE BUY GOLD