Often when I tell people that I am an optimist they laugh as if I’m making a joke. And it is true that I believe the situation right now is ‘teh suxor’, but I am an optimist because the below letter to the editor of the Washington Post is very close to my own belief which is an optimistic view of the future.

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In one throwaway comment, Jeffrey H. Birnbaum crystallizes the attitude problem of insider media. After describing a few reform efforts in “Washington’s Once and Future Lobby” [Outlook, Sept. 10], Mr. Birnbaum adds, “Don’t imagine for a moment that anything will really change.”

Those words, worthy of George Orwell’s “1984,” could be carved in stone above every door where the powerful come and go. They perfectly sum up the self-delusion that sustains all ruling classes. And it is always a delusion. As the British Empire, the Jim Crow South and the Soviet Union each discovered in my lifetime, sooner or later every system of exploitation will “really change,” no matter how permanent and mighty it seems.

The shameless corporate abuse embodied by the K Street lobbies is no exception. The system will, sooner or later, overreach and be transformed.

LARRY YATES
Maurertown, Va.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/18/AR2006091801213.html