No, slade –and worst of all, our mess-ups conformed perfectly to the anti-American “book” –rapacious, short-term, too-clever-by-half, Yankee Trader, etcetera. I’m not sure that there isn’t a dark side to democracy –one hidden until globalization. Two parties rotating every four or eight years, means that unless you have leaders above normal vision and good will, it is too easy to make a mess, knowing that a rival will follow you and harvest your bad seeds.

Look at Denver –all a-flutter over the kabuki drama onstage, where contending ruling clans are acting out highly complex stylized gambits in sign language being interpreted by the realm’s gathered audience of local priests. Who is the star but the man whose leavings are on fire this very minute, from the Balkans to the far east.