I should've suspected trouble when the coffee failed to arrive. - Frank Herbert

You don’t see much of any path unless you are Janus, looking simultaneously backward and forward.

Review, friends — troops long past review,” the Duke intoned. “All to fate a weight of pains and dollars. Their spirits wear our silver collars. Review, friends — troops long past review: Each a dot of time without pretense or guile. With them passes the lure of fortune. Review, friends — troops long past review. When our time ends on its rictus smile, we’ll pass the lure of fortune.

All governments suffer a recurring problem: Power attracts pathological personalities. It is not that power corrupts but that it is magnetic to the corrupt-able. Such people have a tendency to become drunk on violence, a condition to which they are quickly addicted.