to a degree. but the haunted house isn’t really a novelty like the internet, but a society where politics, inherently large and inscrutable, lacks mediating institutions made of people with direct interpersonal connections. 1/

unions, local ethnic and party “machines”, fraternal organizations, churches, these are the exorcists of the house in question. 2/

only one really remains, churches, and love ‘em or hate ‘em, the intensively churched in America behave consistently rather than thermostatically. i think their trust is badly misplaced, but that is their prerogative. true powerlessness is when you’ve nothing and no one to trust. /fin