I suppose it may still be possible to use the left/right metaphor meaningfully... if we introduce a notion of balance... Because what we are currently seeing is a consequence of gross imbalances.

Two images: -- a ship that's listing crazily to starboard; -- a bird with one wing.

But both of these images presuppose a certain natural balance between people with different views... about change... I'm not so sure of the seaworthiness or flight-worthiness of either metaphor...

On the other hand, I was very struck by words uttered by a friend from Japan, now deceased, when we were sitting together in Manhattan a quarter of a century ago:

"In this society, everything is on the surface, there is nothing behind it.

With such a grave imbalance, the only possible outcome is sickness."

At the time, I understood what he was saying and so did the other Europeans present.

The only American who understood had lived for many years in Europe, the others hadn't a clue what he was talking about.

Since then, grave crises have come and gone but all opportunities for a cure have been missed. Nothing of the underlying causes has been understood.

After 9/11, the then administration made a bad situation infinitely worse through the Second Gulf War. Instead of drastic but sharply focused action to defuse Al Qaida's huge chain reaction bomb, the fools rushed in and triggered explosions that are still taking place and will probably continue for a long time.

The occupation of Afghanistan took the process far further.

When in a hole, stop digging...

But that advice is sane.

America has taken every pitfall as an opportunity to start digging deeper. The fact that others have followed suit only makes matters far worse...

And now the disease threatens to bring war back home to America itself nearly 160 years after the end of the horrendous Civil War.

It isn't the first time I've mentioned this very different view in our forum. By now, the mass psychosis with which we're living has been blatantly obvious since 2016 -- if it was not before.

The hope for a more favorable outcome depends entirely on the fact that a large proportion of the population never succumbed to the mass delusions that engulfed fellow-Americans. And on firm remedial action by the DOJ and what remains of a sound independent judiciary.

In other words, public safety demands the prosecution of crimes against the Republic and against the American people.