E Pluribus Unum

I see dead people...

I see lots of dead presidents going down the hole.

One of my first adventures in research was on the origin and history of the internal combustion automobile. The facts painted a truly ugly picture of corporate greed and corruption and an equal, enabling amount of official corruption and mendacity. Also, huge and tragically expensive lost opportunities to choose a better way (the electric car story seems a modern and model example).

We will never be able to calculate the costs of this mistake in blood and treasure. And they are, as yet, far from paid.

But, if we survive it, the consequences of allowing the so-called capitalist free market (i.e., corporations), as opposed to un-bought representatives of the public interest, make all of the important decisions about our transportation and development will prove conclusively that clean government is the only sane choice for the basis of future (more) advanced civilization. Of course that’s already been proven but, perhaps, looking at our cumulative suffering through the lens of history will help (more of) us become sane.