For as long as our politicians believe that 'Yes Minister' is a documentary, you won't have any of the talk or write like Stephen D. King. Instead, they and their handmaid, the media, bombard us with slogans and one-liners which in the end cause us to shrug off the carnage of a bomb blast in Baghdad but make us break out in tearful eulogies, bring in professional grief counsellors, and fill the evening news for weeks when a terminally ill baby is taken off life support.
Meanwhile, a former Australian defence chief fears for the future of his grandchildren and predicts that in our lifetimes our economy will be devastated, our land seized, and our system of government upended, and that it may already be too late to avoid it. North Korea, the South China Sea, a disintegrating Europe - back in 1914 it was a single shot that sparked a global conflict; what will it be this time?
When you watch our so-called 'world leaders' and wonder who's tying their shoelaces for them, you know instinctively that we're doomed and only hanging in there because no alternative political-economic model has been invented yet.
And so, while the world's greatest minds - who, unfortunately, stay away from politics - move the doomsday clock another 30 seconds closer to midnight, we are preoccupied with Paris Hilton's ability to have sex and paint her toenails at the same time.
