It is funny, but as a 75-year-old disillusioned, and disappointed American-born citizen, I now have many of the same emotions that I had as a young child when I realized that Santa Claus wasn’t real. To viscerally understand that this jolly man was just a story that I was told by my elders to ensure my good behavior EXACTLY parallels the mythos of democracy. It s a beautiful idea that has been manipulated, shat upon and exploited by a relatively privileged few for my entire life. It has taken three quarters of a century for me to arrive at that conclusion. I have been dragged kicking and screaming, digging my heels in all the while, towards the Machiavellian abyss of the present moment. Santa Claus isn’t real!