Continuing from the previous post, calls for prosecution and consequences for criminal activities in the halls of power are mounting. In view of widespread, systemic rot that enables those in power to lie, cheat, and steal their way through life — largely at taxpayer expense (with forfeiture of souls of evildoers) — it could be that removing all those people to dull, gray, jail cells somewhere could cause catastrophic government failure (i.e., a failed state). If it’s a choice between full discovery and expulsion of criminals from government, destroying civil operations in the process of returning to the rule of law (was rule of law ever really true?) vs. letting supposedly important, indispensable people skate on their villainy because, like banks, they are deemed too big to fail, then I opt for rule of law across the board and say let chips fall where they may. Besides, the U.S. is already a failed state projecting a fading empire inside collapsing industrial civilization.
In the past couple decades, several instances of rampant, out-of-control behaviors among the power elite have emerged with all the expected negative downstream effects on American culture and polity. Two that come to mind immediately are the #MeToo movement (gawd I hate hashtags) and the casino economy that led to the 2008 financial crisis. In the case of the former, lots of bad actors (pun intended) were exposed and a few individuals were drawn in as collateral damage, but only a couple truly egregious offenders were sacrificed. One surmises, given decades during which the open secret of the casting couch was an easy mechanism of procurement, that other malefactors must certainly exist. Similarly, with banks and hedge funds waaaay over-leveraged in financial instruments that were designed for short-term profit leaving someone else holding the bag, only one high-profile fraud/cheater went to jail. The rest were infamously bailed out by U.S. taxpayers.
In nature, numerous organisms are known to sacrifice limbs (autotomy) during a predatory attack or self-amputate as a result of injury, which can grow back later (i.e., regenerate). This adaptive capacity is perhaps best know among reptiles but is also found with octopi, crabs, sea stars, and some insects. Not all can fully regenerate a lost limb.
So what do I expect to happen in the wake of the latest scandals? To save the spoils system, the power elite will designate a sacrificial lamb (or perhaps a few) and feed him or her (or them) to the wolves to sate the blood lust of the people. They are the limbs that can be sacrificed so that the larger organism can live to fight another day. Some argue that FDR saved capitalism in just this manner. Basically, the established pattern is a primary reason that bizarre segment of society is understood to be composed of lizard people.
The Spiral Staircase 