I am really enjoying this series. It shows how a corrupt government can also corrupt the psyche of its people. I would say it is more of "conditioning" rather than a "gene pool."

We need to take that lesson internally. How is the circus of today's western politics conditioning us? To assume that we are not affected is silly.

I've had a few naysayers try to point out that any system of governance will work well as long as the people's psyche is in the right place. Therefore we need only improve ourselves, which will then influence other people. When more people are influenced properly, then the elected or appointed decision makers will be influenced to make better and more just decisions. Hence, there is no need to build an alternative democracy.

The British have a useful expression. So I will call "bullocks" on the above process for transforming societies. The kind of government is very important for transforming the hearts and minds of the citizenry. Your articles on the Russian people are only confirming my theory (I won't use "hypothesis" here).

Those of us who understand this force need to start building a new democracy. If there is any hope that democracy can fix itself in this regard, that hope should be quashed with the knowledge that Mr. Trump was unelectable 15 years ago. Something changed, and not in a good way.

Anyways, I shall turn this rant into a separate Medium article.