Locomotion

In this week's New Yorker [April 23, 2007, "Liar, Liar," by Jeffrey Goldberg], Clifford Irving gives new meaning to locomotive when he observes, “Everybody leads a fictional life. You make a commitment to an act that is self-destructive and you stick with it. It’s not only the Bush Administration. It was Vietnam, it’s a lot of things. You get on a train and you can’t get off because it’s going so fast. If you jump off, you hurt yourself and look stupid.” Then he concludes, "You can still say anything you want. There's a unanimity of gullibility out there." While feasible for some writers, this has always been true for politicians.