‘Exactly, exactly! To put it technically, I selected terms with high negative indices, for this situation and for this listener. Which is precisely what we do with this propaganda, except that the emotional indices are lesser quantitatively to avoid arousing suspicion and to evade the censors-slow poison, rather than a kick in the belly. The stuff we write is all about the Prophet, lauding him to the skies. . . so the irritation produced in the reader is transferred to him. The method cuts below the reader’s conscious thought and acts on the taboos and fetishes that infest his subconscious.’

Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose.

The IRS has to collect some absolute sum of money to pay the government’s bills. The only question is: do we want them to take it while we are still alive (and if Republican-big entrepreneurs able to invest it to make more money for our survivors and the gov) or wait until we are dead? The IRS would prefer when we are dead because when wont put as big a fight for our money — allowing them to impose an even higher tax rate.