There are growing similarities between our government and the rulers of the Middle Ages. Politicians from both political parties have decided to join forces with the news media to set up an old-fashioned oligarchy. The persistent calls for moderation and bipartisanship to stifle all political challenges are directly related to the growing argument by politicians that the machinations of government have become too complex to be understood by the foolhardy, ignorant voter.
Before the invention of the printing press, people were hampered in verifying any claim made by their minders as to the veracity of their prognostications. Today, we have essentially the same scenario, in which Wall Street financiers have become the new soothsayers, using complex investment instruments of their own making to foretell doom and gloom coming from any economic insurrection by conservative Tea Party members.
It seems that no matter how educated humankind becomes, there are those who will use the vicissitudes of events and the ambiguity of language to create a cloud of confusion impenetrable by most levels of education. Ivy League graduates, who populate government and Wall Street, delight in their ability to refute any argument against their authority with senseless gobbledygook that rivals the sadistic sophistry uttered by the intelligentsia of the Middle Ages.
MATTHEW R. POWENSKI
Buffalo, N.Y.
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By Douglas Holtz-Eakin
The young drop coverage to avoid higher premiums
