Mr Jones Goes to Washington

We all know about Mr Smith who went to Washington. Don't worry, I won't tell you otherwise. But there was another guy, Mr Jones, who also went. You've never heard of him. He's almost virtual, keeps his head down.

He's a lobbyist, initially only in defense but he went everywhere from there. And I mean everywhere, even social issues once it was realized that certain people would pay you to put their ideas forward even if it didn't work.

And they would keep paying you once they realized it wasn't working, an income stream independent of results. No one knows why but it is thought it involves the deep human desire to torch something, as in "whole, burnt," some kind of sacrifice.

An offering, like sending money to Jerry Falwell. Ares Jones, the lobbyist, saw the synergies, the link between the social issues and the hard stuff, ideas and ICBM'S. This is in keeping with the shift to intellectual content as a basis for growth.

Ideas are everything, if you don't care about jobs. You can put manufacturing in a box and bid it out, which they did. China won. Now Ares in not partisan, not ideological, in the usual sense. The ideas aren't rooted in anything, just a means to an end.

But he is pretty partisan about money, because it gives you power. So I sent in the forensics guys to try to determine what was going on, accountants to do the early work, and some folks to examine the remains, if casualties were found.

Social scientists, because I don't believe that money goes up in smoke, hardly ever, though it may go towards something intangible, especially in the leisured class, since they have money to burn. So where did it go? Towards dismantling democracy.

The corpse turned out to be our country, which was always virtual anyway. An idea. An old, inefficient idea. You wouldn't think they would trash something so big, but it turns out they're internationalists, and super rich. It didn't seem like a big deal to them.

It did to working people. But money and power know no bounds. The Bain types are indifferent about liquidating a company. They can go either way, it doesn't matter. Only the money does. It's a small step from there to liquidating a country or anything else, if it is in the way.

The "whole, burnt" crowd is helping fund this for reasons as yet undetermined. The poorer folks who vote red, that is, who actually sent money to idiots like Falwell. Mr Smith is long retired. He made great headlines but didn't have much influence in the end.

Ideals don't motivate people the way that money does, I guess. Not normally. Money is much more primal, more addicting. Maybe everything comes down to that, ultimately, I'm not sure. But where is Mr Smith when you need him?