Disgusted by the happenings in Washington and on Wall Street? You should be. You just got fleeced by Wall Street and the U.S. Congress for about 700 billion dineros. And, you didn't even notice – like a pickpocket or a thief in the night. Some would prefer to call it a daring daylight robbery. Absolute power corrupts – absolutely. Still true.

A character in the 1991 film Slacker called the Old Anarchist had some parting words for a misguided would-be thief. The character was played by Louis Mackey (1926-2004), a Professor of Philosophy at the University of Texas. Maybe his words will offer some sort of antidote for your rage.

To those (few) humans in whom I have faith: I wish suffering, being forsaken, sickness, maltreatment, humiliation. I wish that they should not remain unfamiliar with profound self-contempt, the torture of self-mistrust and the misery of the vanquished. I have no pity for them because I wish them the only thing that can prove today whether one is worth anything or not – that one endures.