Dear reader, Sir Tony Emo is credited with sending us today’s piece. He referred to the American critic, author, satirist etc, H.L Mencken who had some pretty salient things to say about the democratic process. Indeed, he gets the, ‘Mental Monday’ door prize. Since the Trump apotheosis we’ve been working hard to think who could have nailed this transformaton in contemporary society. Names of illustrious thinkers, H.G. Wells, (‘Shape of Things to Come’), Huxley, (Brave New World) and Bradbury, (Farenheit 451) have come to mind.  But none better than this inidvidual from Baltimore. There’s a sharpness and acuity that speaks of the O. Henry and Sinclair Lewis school of self tutored analytical thought. The substance of which one our esteemed patrons, the late W.C Fields would have doubtlessly approved.

Mencken obviously had a sharp wit and nailed the hypocrisies we associate with society. Good on him. And here’s three, that put together all you need to know about politics, religion, and the fear we all share for the great unknown in the early twenty first century. Perhaps we need to initiate a Mencken Institute.  Think tanks, ( the Lowy, the I.P.A, among some) recieve tax breaks these days. It would put us on a level with James Packer, a Scientologist, and other cranks of the lunatic fringe. Not just the hapless “basketfull of deporables’ but the ranks from Family First, One Nation, the Greens, the Liberal and National coalition, and the Labor Party.  We live in hope.

Incidentally, we are offering another competition. We feel miffed that the famous Barry Mckenzie-ism, “hatful of arseholes” was not made use of in the Clinton Campaign. This is the problem with contemporary politics, it’s full of wowsers. This competition asks; What other basket-full should Hillary have referred to?

The ‘what If’s’ are palpable. If Hillary had gone for ‘Arseholes rather than ‘contemptibles’, we believe she would have got over the line, Or in horse racing terms, an arse length in front.

Such is the stuff of history.