Very insightful and important work of journalism and political analysis! I think # 15, and especially #10, are crucial to why the plutocrats are able to control us so much. It is a description of what the greatest thinker said about our desire to lessen our opinion of the the world outside of us in order to elevate ourselves. That this makes us weaker and ashamed, and that there is something deeper and better in all of us, is the most hopeful thing in the world. All it takes is for people to see how the first thing does weaken us, and that there is something we want more, would be more than enough to keep throwing off the chains and self-imposed chains we keep put on our ability to see what is true.