George,

One of the more confusing behavioral patterns of many human beings is their willingness to remain under the dominance and influence of cruel and manipulative despots. The most recent examples involve those diehards willing to give their lives for an evil dictator named Muammar Gaddafi, to his very last day on this planet, his followers continued to suffer and die.

Why? What could possibly be the reward for their sacrifices? The forces aligned against their hopeless cause were overwhelming. Gaddafi cared not one whit for their loyalty.

In Egypt, the poorest, most suffering of the citizenry, often those who felt the harshness of the boot of Hosni Mubarak continued to resist, often violently, against their anti-government fellow citizens

To a lessor extent, it is happening in the United States. The police wade into the crowds protesting the criminal activity of the "money changers" of Wall Street and the nation. A tax code so favoring of the rich and powerful, billionaires paying a smaller percentage of their income than a truck driver or nurse. The Supreme Court rules that since corporations have the same status as individual human beings, they can now spend unlimited funds, in secret if they choose, to help elect those most favorable to their financial interests.

Many of our conservative citizens think of the Occupy Wall Street people as many of their kind felt about the "Indians" who threw the British Tea into Boston Harbor--as "treasonous rabble. "

Plutocrats like the billionaire Koch brothers and their allies, led by former minority leader, Dick Army, push "dark side" issues on the ignorant and gullible with all the money it requires to get their way, The Tea Party is more often than not protesting against issues like guns, abortion and gay marriage keeping the focus off the fleecing they are getting at the hands of the rich and powerful.

Try to cobble together a mortgage payment armed with ingrained hatred of same-sex unions. Try educating your children with a strong anti-Obama "birther" mentality.

Many want to "take back the country." More want their warm guns handy--this thinking does not put a teacher back in the classroom or a laid-off cop back on the beat, but it somehow must satisfy the reptilian brain of emotion and revenge.

It's an old game, Goebbels and the Nazis made it an "art form" and Hitler rolled over the average German citizen with ease, once he convinced them who their "real" enemies were!

Many years ago, a wise old college professor of mine said, "why does humanity so often crown their oppressors and crucify their saviors?."

I surely do not have an answer.

(Harry Tenney, Electronic mail, October 26, 2011).