Power Failure

Dear George,

The fatal flaw that causes power to self destruct is the ineptitude of those who achieve it. Take the Big Dick, for example. As a major player in the Nixon administration, Watergate left him a shattered shell of a man. When the Supreme Court appointed him vice president, he entered office driven by a primal need to restore the imperial presidency.

Power succeeds by building momentum. As this momentum increases, power gains inertia, and out of this inertia comes the conviction that power's momentum will continue unabated.

Power’s paradox is that with inertia comes paranoia, the pervasive fear that the momentum will by sapped. The greater the momentum, the greater the paranoia and the greater the harshness with which those in power lash out at perceived threats.

This creates a growing pool of resentment among the victims of power that gives the victims the patience to wait until power falls flat on its face, which it always does because it believes itself invincible. This fall begins the moment power feels that it has peaked, and it is at this point that the victims hit the streets and start pushing back.

The sad truth is that those who achieve power are often too emotionally unstable to exercise it, which brings us back to the Big Dick.

Because the man had been crippled by a paranoid administration, he came into power more damaged than the novice who achieves it for the first time. He has left such a trail of resentment in his exercise of power that he is a carcass waiting for the maggots to show up.

It’s always messy when power runs out of steam. New power centers arise that circle the established power like wolves circling a wounded beast. Indictments often follow (unless the Democrats take power, in which case there will be no indictments because the Democrats believe investigations and trials are too divisive. An indictment has no place in their bipartisan utopia).

By rights, the orange jumpsuit should be the fashion statement of the next decade. If Obama wins, you have nothing to worry about. If McKinney and the Greens win, you’re toast!

Somehow, I think you’ll get your library.

Your admirer,
Belacqua Jones