ABSTRACT
One of the strangest illnesses which besets the human race is a persistent fever which creates in the average human a burning desire to put his or her thoughts on paper. In an advanced stage, this illness leads to putting even the meagerest of thoughts down in print. The result is a rash of published works of little use to anyone. A modern cynic suggests that this disease of breaking into print is most acute among elected officials. For every passing thought in the halls of government it seems a dozen documents will appear. One of our leaders will express an opinion of some other leader’s opinion on some subject on which neither can claim to be an authority. And this biased expression of opinion will give impetus to as many as a dozen or more rebuttals and counterattacks. Each will become engraved upon public awareness through the appearance of a dully-printed product from the GPO or other such body. As if the mere production of these inconsequential documents were not enough, the feverish disease next appears in a more contagious form, as each author and counter-author distributes his or her published expressions of opinion with the intention of securing among his or her constituents an audience of some size and presumably attentiveness.
