At present America feels rudderless. The hand on the tiller doesn't know which direction to take. The crew of sycophants, gold diggers, lap dogs, men with little learning and even less knowledge are interested in gold and sinecures. Politics has been turned into an intellectual wilderness where its proponents have virtually no knowledge of science, the arts, philosophy, or even history. Washington is not the Florence of Cosimo deMedici of the 15th century and the country barely resembles the world of our Founding Fathers. Now the rich flaunt their wealth and their new brides and are happy to bow the knee to their political enablers. Advertising has taken over culture and even our sports. Science serves as an instrument of power rather than improving civilization. The past is no longer important. The leader appears more interested in gilding statues, acquiring ever more wealth, and putting his name on buildings. Truth is no longer objective but in the eye of the beholder. Criticize the regime and you are out. Even killing your own citizens doesn't seem too bad. As T.S. Eliot in The Hollow Men wrote in 1922, "This is the way the world ends / Not with a bang, but a whimper."