In the 1980s sci-fi flick Scanners, the villain is a telepath who is so powerful that he can make a victim’s head explode using just his mind. If anyone in real life had such a power, it would be the American political class; and they would accomplish it using the cognitive tension from all the conflicting ideas, goals, and justifications they try to have people hold in their heads at once. Unfortunately, it would only work really well on libertarians and other government skeptics, because they seem to be the only ones perturbed in the slightest by such contradictions. In fact, … Continue reading Putting Us All in the Cannibals’ Pot