In Any Given Society

the middle men are the decision makers,
the people who engineer the dodgy deals
between society's extremes of wealth and poverty.

It is natural for them to be shy
about telling those they do down,
and those they flatter through lies,
how much their advantage matters.

That would be giving the naive
an even break to become liars
in their turn, and their offspring
to become future middle men. 

Forty Years Is Not Long

in the electoral cycle. If you don't believe me
then measure the distance from Ronald Reagan,
B movie actor, crony of McCarthy, a very minor wit,
and a good man to deliver speeches he could never write
to Donald Trump, heir to a building empire, reality TV star
and a man who openly lives in a world driven by social media
who is never short of fresh stunts to stunt peoples attention span.

But, like the people who's attention he is always reducing,
what he lacks is any real interest in the effects of his actions.

The Old School Tie

Education often refines and improves intelligence
but the education that adults use in networking
through career structures nearly always destroys
much more than it creates. Through sophistication
it narrows it's holder, even as it causes admiration.