Book #6: attenuate

From the colophon:

This book was editioned in August of 2011 in Portland, OR. In 1975 journalist Jimmy Breslin wrote about the effect of ‘smoke and mirrors’ within politics, essentially contextualizing the modern form of this phrase. I believe his analogies stretch much further; describing materialism, capitalism and American culture beautifully. Unfortunately, discussions about illusion and misdirection focus more on the process and the intention rather than the cost and the result.

“All political power is primarily an illusion… Mirrors and blue smoke, beautiful blue smoke rolling over the surface of highly polished mirrors… If somebody tells you how to look, there can be seen in the smoke great, magnificent shapes, castles and kingdoms, and maybe they can be yours.”

—Jimmy Breslin from How the Good Guys Finally Won: Notes from Impeachment Summer