I recall hearing Arnold's story about post WW2 Austria before. The collective psychology must have been hard to be around.

Growing up, we had a neighboring family who immigrated from Germany circa 1960. Eberhart was German radio operator in France after D-Day and told us a few stories of the retreat.

Eberhardt and Gertrude were two of the nicest people one could meet. And yet they were Hitler youth in the late 30s. One evening, after a few drinks, my parents asked them how they could fall for that Nazi crap. They just shook their head: they could not understand themselves in those times: "We just got caught up in the movement."

The quote from George Washington is very appropriate. The turmoil we see is because we have organized ourselves as political parties. In 1986, I joined a political party in Canada AND became an active volunteer. There I experienced the internal dysfunction with ALL parties. I left in 1992, realizing I could not save the world in this environment. I realized the nature of the institution of the political party was the source of our frustration.

Somehow, I invented another system of governance without political parties. I kept my idea to myself for five years. But when I realized the experts called "political scientists" cannot properly diagnose the disease, let alone find a remedy, I've been promoting my TDG ever since.