ABSTRACT
Following a none-too-praiseworthy custom, I shall begin by stating what this essay is not. First and foremost, it is not an historical study, and to the extent that I make use of historical facts, I do so quite outside my field of competence and with no pretensions to scholarship. Moreover, such facts are not intended to prove my points but merely to illustrate them, to make them more comprehensible to readers unfamiliar with the conditions under which we live.
