“All the world’s a stage”. The first and most important step in real demagogue’s career is to transport his audience in the mentality of watching a stage show. Having imposed that mental adjustment on his audience, the conjurer can represent men with cardboard crowns as kings and actresses as mythical damozels. The media has been instrumental in turning things into a kind of morality play. Can we really tell the difference any more between news and the great play?

What was the Nobel Peace Prize about except to assert that fantasy and reality are one? Now we can look forward to a world run by windmills, without nuclear weapons, free everything and great gatherings where we can sing to Buy the World a Coke. It’s madness, but the show is still compelling, and the theater has to start burning before people pull their gaze away from the stage.