The statement from Plato’s Republic is “What is honored in a country is cultivated there.” And when the “dominant minority” embraces the thuggery and cunning that passes itself off as the prevailing art and culture, and attempts to impose it on the rest of us, ( i.e.,the folks who get up each day and do productive work, those who care for the living and the dead, as well as those of us who enjoy the privilege of living in the United States and see little need to denigrate or apologize fo that experience) it turns out that we are not always quite fooled by the pretentiousness and pomposity of our betters who always seem to know what’s best for the rest of us blokes The only thing incumbent upon one, then, is to keep oneself “in the clear” and safely out of the way of those ubiquitous cadaver-like faces beaming forth upon us from every type of media, those almost visibly corrupt and venal “better folk” who will eventually hoist themselves upon their own petard–or what is a political campaign for???

It is true, as Nabokov implies in his novel, “Invitation to a Beheading,” that just because one is issued an invitation, it does not mean one must accept. Declining to willingly participate in the degradation of the culture is always a conceivable and viable option–even for us blokes who ultimately do the heavy lifting.