Once there was a body politic that, through happy geographic accident, had avoided any number of devastating wars, and was thus left the most powerful government in the world. On the basis of that evidence, it thought itself the most enlightened body politic that the world had ever seen. It kept its citizens under surveillance, arresting or ejecting those who did not agree, and as a result enjoyed unanimous approbation. One day, two men, sons of a vast clothing empire, who had recently been elected to the body, presented a sheaf of invisible bills. “See how stylishly we’ve cut, trimmed, and
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